Tackling Summer (6 page)

A movement in the field caught Maddox’s eye, and he slammed on the brakes sending Chanel onto the dash.

“Shit!” He killed the engine and stood to fish her off the control panel. “Are you okay?”

“What. Was. That?” She rubbed her head where it had hit the windshield and shot daggers at him with her eyes. “You could have killed me! Thank God we weren’t going any faster.”

“I don’t know! I didn’t want to hit it!” Maddox pointed out the side window where a doglike figure was galloping toward the edge of the field.

She started to laugh, and a couple tears leaked from her eyes. “It’s just a coyote. They’re a dime a dozen out here. Trust me. It wouldn’t stand still long enough for you to hit it. It’s our dogs you need to watch out for, especially when we mow hay later this summer. They’re hard to see when the alfalfa is tall.”

Maddox glared at her, his sympathy for launching her into the windshield, gone. “Why do you think everything I do is so funny?”

“Because you’re cocky. It’s time you got over yourself and learned to work. Sorry, but I agree with your coach.”

“I should’ve been drafted by now, but that sorry excuse of a team drops my stock.”

“So play somewhere else.”

“It’s not that simple,” Maddox shot back.

“You guys jump around all the time. Let me guess, no one else will take you? Maybe most coaches want someone who can be coached.”

Maddox slumped in his seat, arm draped across the steering wheel. “This is my last chance to stay on the team.”

“Then you better learn how to work for it. You can take a break around noon for lunch.” Chanel opened the door and jumped out and started walking toward headquarters.

CHAPTER FIVE

Stars were just beginning to pop out in the twilight sky. Fresh from the shower, Chanel padded in her bare feet onto the back deck overlooking the horse pasture. She exhaled a contented sigh and settled into an Adirondack chair, propping her feet up on the railing.
 

Mitch was holed up in his office doing paperwork. He spent almost as much time at his desk as he did in the saddle. A horse snorted in the growing darkness, and Chanel drew her hoodie a little closer around her. Nights remained chilly up here until well into June.
 

Looking down at the cordless phone in her hand, she thought about her day with Maddox. Chanel dialed the familiar number. Every summer she had to readjust to life without the instant gratification of texting.
 

“Hello?” The feminine voice on the other end sounded suspicious.

“Hey, Bert. Sorry to call so late,” Chanel said.

“It’s you!”

Chanel laughed. “Of course it’s me.” She pictured her best girlfriend and roommate from the last three years, Roberta Gregory, holed up in a studio apartment in New York City. With her short, black spiky hair and always-polished makeup and clothes, she was Chanel’s opposite. They even referred to themselves as the city and country mice. Bert was from Boise, which was far from being an urban metropolis, but even that was more city than Chanel could handle.
 

“I’m always afraid it’s going to be your dad from this number telling me you got pecked to death by a chicken or eaten by a bear. What took you so long to call?”
 

“Just busy. I hit the ground running. There’s always so much to do, and you know, the phone works both ways.”
 

“Touché. It’s so weird not to hear from you throughout the day.”
 

Chanel smiled at the night sky. She missed being able to contact Bert and Seth whenever she wanted, but at the same time, it was nice to spend a couple of months disconnected.

“Same here. So, are you all settled over there?”

“It’s so great! I really wish you’d come visit me this summer. I have a little apartment above a Chinese deli. I feel like I’m in
Sex and The City
! Oh, and the place I’m interning is so cool. I know it’s only been one day, but all the clothes, the people…although I did have to take someone’s purse dog on a walk today, but hey, it can’t be glamorous every second. We have a photo shoot coming up really soon. I’m so excited about that!”
 

Chanel could picture her friend’s bright green eyes dancing with excitement and smiled at her rambling. Of the two of them, Bert was the gusher. She’d dreamed of designing clothes in New York, and now it was happening, for the summer at least. One of her professors had helped her get an internship with a top design company.

“I wish you’d come see me out here.” Chanel said it every summer, but her city loving friend just couldn’t bring herself to get that far from civilization. Although, Chanel had to admit, she had some curiosity when it came to New York City. Her great-grandmother on her mother’s side had loved the place. She loved the Broadway plays, shopping, and people watching. She’d taken Margo as a high school graduation present, and her mother had adored the place. Margo purchased a small bottle of Chanel No. 5 perfume because she said it smelled like New York. Chanel sometimes wondered if her mother would have moved there if she hadn’t fallen in love with Mitch. She always thought it seemed somewhat wistful that she’d been named after the perfume.

Bert ignored Chanel’s comment. “They have horses here you, know. They’re all over the place in Central Park.”

“Maybe someday, but it’s not in the budget this year. And Dad needs all the help he can get during the summer.”

“What’s he going to do when you’re done with school and need to start your own life off the ranch?”

Chanel chewed her lip and fiddled with the drawstring on her hoodie. They hadn’t talked about it yet, but she knew they needed to. This could possibly be her last summer at home.

Bert cut into her thoughts. “Chanel, he’ll be fine. You know that, right? He can hire another guy.”

Mentioning hiring another guy brought Maddox back to her mind, and the reason she’d called her friend. Though she still wasn’t sure what to say about him, she was ready to change the subject. “Speaking of hiring someone, we have a new hand this summer.”

“Is he cute?” Bert was so predictable. Her mind was never far from sexy clothes and handsome men.

“Well, yeah. Not really my type, though,” Chanel said.
 

“You don’t have a type.”

Chanel giggled. Bert had done her best to find someone for Chanel since she’d dumped Jared Walker at the end of their freshman year at Doumit. “I know jocks aren’t my type.” Jared played on the Doumit soccer team. He’d been Chanel’s first long-term boyfriend, her first with everything. Then she walked in on him with an over-highlighted, bottle-tanned sports groupie. Thinking back, Chanel wondered how she’d been so naïve. At the time she’d been blinded by Jared’s good looks and perfect lines convincing her she was the only one, even when all of his buddies had cell phones bursting with willing female phone numbers. Getting laid was just a text away every night. It killed her still, two years later, that she’d just been a notch on his bedpost.

“He’s a jock? I thought only cowboys worked on that place.”

“Me too,” Chanel murmured.

“What’s going on?” There was concern in Bert’s voice.

Chanel sighed. “I know him. Well, I don’t know him, know him, but he’s from Doumit.”

“Uh huh.”

“It’s Maddox Warren,” Chanel said quickly before she changed her mind and hung up on her friend.

“What?” Bert shrieked into the phone causing Chanel to jerk it away from her ear.

“I know, right? You can’t be any more shocked than me.”

“What’s Maddox Warren, football hottie and stud man doing at your ranch?”

“Learning how to drive a tractor.”

“You’re going to have to send me proof. E-mail me a picture or something.”

“Bert, he doesn’t belong here. He got his Miata stuck in a washed out spot in the road. Who drives a Miata into the woods?”

Bert’s cackling laugh rolled through the phone. Chanel sat and waited for her friend to calm down. She knew she was wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, smearing her mascara if she hadn’t removed it yet for the night. Finally, Bert sniffed and said. “Sorry, hon, but when a Miata is all you have…”

“He doesn’t know how to do anything, and he doesn’t want to learn. He’s a conceited prick. Plus, Dad plans on me babysitting him all summer.”

“There are worse things in life than being out in the middle of nowhere with one of the hottest guys in the state. Chanel…”

Chanel braced herself for the words she knew were coming.

“You need to get laid this summer. You’re so uptight, you can’t even see what the universe just dumped in your lap. I say you take him for a ride in that tractor.”

Tingles made their way through Chanel’s body as she remembered tumbling into Maddox’s lap that morning—his smell, his arm muscles bulging below his t-shirt sleeve.

“Chanel? You there?”

“Um, yeah, sorry,” Chanel replied.

“You were thinking about it, weren’t you?”

Chanel gritted her teeth. Sometimes she hated that Bert knew her so well. “You have to work in the morning. I better let you go.”

“Look at you running from the idea. You’re attracted to him. Go with it. I plan to get some this summer too. It’s not a crime.”

Chanel smiled and rolled her eyes. “Good night, Bert.”

“Goodnight. And I’m serious about the picture. See if you can get one with his shirt off.” Chanel ended the call when Bert started cackling again.

***

Maddox heard Chanel’s voice drifting from around the back of the house as he walked up the driveway. He hated having to see her again after their argument that morning, but he needed to send an email to his parents. He was still kicking himself for getting distracted by Lila and forgetting to buy a phone card when Mitch took him to town. Against his better judgment, he skipped knocking on the front door and cut through the yard to the back deck. He found Chanel reclining in a wooden chair, her slippered feet propped up on the porch rail. She looked thoughtful as she gazed out over the horses grazing in the field. The only light on the deck was what streamed from inside the house.

“Hey,” Maddox said as he mounted the steps.

Chanel jumped to her feet dropping the phone she’d been holding.

“Sorry to scare you.”

“You’re pretty stealthy for a big guy,” she said placing a hand over her heart.

“So, um, I’m guessing you have Internet up here. I need to email my parents.” The request was blunt, not at all what he should have said. That was going to tick her off. Almost immediately, the softness left her face, and she stood straighter.

“Didn’t you get a phone card while you were in town?”

“Slipped my mind. So, can I use your computer, or not?” He was dying to turn around and return to the bunkhouse, but she’d already outmaneuvered him that morning. It wasn’t going to happen again.

The sliding glass door slid open and Mitch stepped onto the deck. “Hey, Maddox. I figured you’d be gettin’ some shuteye. We’ve got another early morning tomorrow.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. I’ll be on time, don’t worry. I was wondering if I could use your computer to email my parents.”

Mitch smiled and smacked him on the back. “Sure, come on in. Feel free to come by anytime you need to use it.”

Victory pulsed through Maddox’s veins as he followed Mitch into the house. He couldn’t resist a glance back at Chanel. Sure enough, she was seething on the deck. As long as he kept Mitch happy, he could keep her on her toes.

Mitch led him through the open living room and kitchen and down a hall lined with landscape photographs. Before Maddox could ask who had taken them, Mitch stepped into a cluttered office.

“Ignore the mess. Take your time,” Mitch said and headed back out again.

Large aerial maps covered two of the walls, a bookshelf and whiteboard dominated a third, and a huge window took up the fourth. Paperwork was scattered across the heavy wood desk along with what looked like cow catalogs. You could order cattle from catalogs? The idea amused Maddox, and a smile played on his lips as he sat down in the well-worn rolling leather chair. Impressed with the large flat screen monitor, Maddox never would have pinned Mitch for a tech savvy guy. He clicked the Internet icon and while it loaded, noticed a couple of dirty coffee mugs on the desk near an eight by ten picture frame. Maddox leaned closer and studied the woman and the girl in the photo. It was clear the girl was Chanel. She was probably around second or third grade. The woman looked more like Chanel now right down to the dimples. Both of their hair was streaked from the summer sun. Where was she now? A wise person would have run screaming from this place.

He entered his parents’ email addresses into the to line and keyed a couple of quick sentences saying he’d arrived safely, the people were very nice, and he’d begun work in the hayfields. It wasn’t worth going into detail with them. They were both caught up in their own lives and wouldn’t spare the time to do more than take a quick glance to make sure he was still alive. Though the hayfield part might give them pause, as they would envision him doing manual labor like the immigrants all around them in Southern California. But then they would reassure themselves that as long as he was healthy and still eligible to play, that was what really mattered. His football career made them look good. He’d be shocked if one of them responded. Yet, if he hadn’t reported in, they would have had a conniption.
 

Leaving the email window open, Maddox opened a second and brought up social media to see what the outside world was up to. His newsfeed was choked with pictures of his friends stretched out on the sand or engaged in beach volleyball games. Several of his favorite lady friends had private messaged him, asking why he hadn’t been answering their texts and wondered when they could hook up. He sighed and closed the website. It was too depressing to see what everybody else was doing, and there was no way he was going to tell those girls where he was. It was better to just play aloof right now and get back with them when school started. They’d forgive him; they always did.

Before he logged off, Maddox decided to send a note to his buddy Hollace. Maddox knew his friend would give him proper pity for being stuck in the sticks with a bunch of bumpkins. His eyes roamed to the picture of Chanel and her mother. She was not a bumpkin. Chanel was something else. A bitch, for sure, but something else niggled at him too. He could tell Hollace about the “farmer’s daughter,” which would spur some hilarious comebacks and provide a thread for them to banter on for the duration of summer, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. After nixing that topic, Maddox realized he had nothing to say after all. How could he admit to beaching his car and almost seriously injuring a girl when he dumped her on the dashboard of a tractor because a coyote startled him? Oh, and don’t forget the frying pan alarm clock. Aside from meeting Lila, the last three days had been one humiliation after another. Trashing the email, Maddox closed down the Internet and switched off the monitor.