Kendra woke up on the couch with a small headache. It had been a while since she’d drank, but she remembered why she didn’t. She hated the way she felt the next day. She laid there with her eyes closed, her head spinning until she peeked out. Kendra was trying to remember what had happened and it came back to her with clarity. Her thoughts went to the dark-eyed man that looked at her with lust, but also tenderness. She knew nothing had happened, he had been a gentleman in it all, but Kendra kind of wished that they had. He was gone of course, but everything around her looked different. All of the boxes that were stacked up were gone and most of her things were unpacked and put away. It felt like she was home finally and she caught herself smiling.
There was a note in front of her and it had her name scrawled in messy handwriting. It offered her a job and hoped that she would give Ashton a chance. There was an address and a phone number at the bottom, signed in equally messy cursive. She sat back and looked at the letter. He worked at a ranch, so she didn’t even know how he could get her a job being just an employee, but what would she do? She knew nothing about horses and livestock and what she was able to do did not sound like anything she would ever actually want to do.
Kendra would go though, just to see him again. She needed a job and well, any job was better than nothing, right?
She found her only pair of jeans and threw a T shirt on. Her nerves were frazzled, still thinking about everything, but the idea of seeing Joel again got her moving. Kendra got lost twice trying to find the place, but she finally pulled in and took a deep breath. She could do this.
There wasn’t an office, just a huge house and a few barns. The name on the front didn’t mean anything to her and she started to second guess herself. What if he couldn’t get her a job and they didn’t even know she was coming. Should she even be there?
“Hey Kendra. I’m glad you made it.”
“I didn’t know what time you wanted, the note didn’t say. Thanks for unpacking for me. That was really nice of you. Makes the apartment feel homier. I was actually thinking about leaving, but now I am all moved in.”
He smiled. It was exactly what he had wanted to happen, how he had wanted her to feel. “Good, I’m glad you have decided to stay for a while. Have you ever worked with animals before?”
Kendra shook her head. “I volunteered at an animal shelter when I was a teen, does that count?”
She didn’t look much older than that then and then he wondered how old she was. She had to at least be 21 to work at the bar.
“That will do. I was thinking more about answering phones and dealing with customer appointments. Stuff like that.”
She sighed and looked relieved. “Thank goodness. I didn’t like the idea of mucking out horse stalls and all of that.”
“Yeah that would be a sight. Maybe one day, but right now I need help with the phones and maybe filing some paperwork. I would rather muck out stalls than send in files for the accountant.”
Kendra liked the new arrangement and it was actually something that she could do. She wanted to hug him for helping her so much, but she didn’t want it to be taken the wrong way.
“Thanks you are a life saver. You will have to tell me a way that I can repay you.”
An idea shot in his head and fire leapt in his eyes, but he looked away, telling her it was no problem. “You fix my paperwork and that will be more than enough.”
He showed her to his office in the side of the house and it was a mess. There was no two ways about it and she sunk down into the chair. “Okay, you weren’t joking when you said that you didn’t like to do paperwork.”
He looked at her sheepishly. “Call me if you need anything.”
Joel left her to it and Kendra looked around at the stacks of invoices. She felt bad for his accountant and for herself for a few moments before she decided to that the only way to finish was to start on one side and work her way through the rest of it. Kendra would have been lying to herself if she didn’t admit that she had thought about just walking away a few times throughout the day, but by the time lunch rolled around, she could actually see the dark mahogany of the desk.
“Wow, I didn’t expect to see so much done. Did you just throw it away?”
She chuckled, “No, it’s all ready for the accountant. The rest is in the filing cabinets. It took me an hour to actually realize that is what they were. I thought they were stack of papers at first.”
“Yea, it’s gotten worse since I took over.”
“You own this place?”
He nodded. “My father left it to me. I’d always thought it would go to Shane since he was the oldest, but I got it instead.”
“Is this what you wanted to do?”
“Not hardly, but it is what I am doing now. I love the animals, been around them since I was a kid, but the rest of this, is beyond me. I wanted to just play in my rock band.”
“You play? I would love to hear you sometime.”
Joel turned away and it looked like he was actually blushing. It was the first moment of vulnerability that she had seen from him and she liked the look on him.
“I haven’t played in over a year now.”
“Sounds like you should get back to it then.”
She made it sound so simple, but it wasn’t that way to Joel. There was a reason he had stopped playing music and dating, he had stopped living in some respects.
“You’re probably right. Well I got customers coming in later so I need to get a horse ready. Of you want, I was wondering if you would like to stay for dinner.”
“Sure, that sounds good.”