As the rain poured heavily, making an agitated splattering sound against the roof, the water rose rapidly, swallowing everything in its path.
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With the commotion going on, I hurried out of the stable with a devastated look.
The horses had started to neigh aggressively, pawing the stall impatiently as they tried to free themselves from the halter.
The water had reached their barrel, moving up to their flank.
“Oh, sweet babies!” I groaned as the storm hit harder. I unlocked the stable doors so that the water could flow out to the field.
I squeezed my eyes a few times, gasping for air as I went to Blaire’s stall, untying her when I felt a presence behind me.
“Let me help with that,” Liam, the stable security said as I looked back at him. He had his dog right beside him, drenched under the heavy outpour.
“What?” I yelled over the loud splattering of the heavy downpour.
“Let me help you with that,” he walked over to me, taking the halter from my hands with his wet hands grazing mine.
“You could have freed the rest,” I said with no intention of letting my words reach his ears.
“What?” he looked back at me with his hair drenched on his forehead.
“I said, take her to the inner storage. The flood didn't hit there,” I yelled and he nodded.
I untied Maximus and Scout while he untied Blaire and Buck.
We all spent the night at the inner storage and I couldn’t help but admire his dog even though I have mostly scorned at her.
“What’s your dog’s name?” I asked him, trying to start a conversation since I have never stayed in such proximity with him.
“She’s Luna,” he replied and I looked over at her shivering body, laid over Liam’s thighs.
“She is gorgeous,” I said and Liam nodded with a smile.
The rest of the night went by cold and loud as a result of the rain but it was a night I got to know Liam is the most good looking young man I had ever seen in the countryside.
As the floodwaters receded, revealing the devastation left behind, I walked to the field, picking up the debris as I pushed the wheelbarrow.
The thought of last night graced my mind as I pushed the barrow and a pang of embarrassment filled me.
“Let me help with that,” I flinched at the suddenness of his voice.
“Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to startle you. I guess I do that more often than I want to,” he chuckled and I let out an awkward smile.
“Let me help with that,” he repeated and I nodded.
I picked up the debris, dumping it into the wheelbarrow and I walked by his side.
The silence that ensued between us was unnatural and I could feel my stomach clench out of anxiety or whatever feeling it was I was feeling within.
“There’s a lot to do here,” he commented, finally breaking the silence and I nodded.
“A whole lot! I should attend to the horses,” I said as I turned to leave.
“You should come with me. I have something to show you,” he smiled broadly as he pushed the barrow toward the stable, running.
“Hey, hold on,” I chuckled as I ran after him.
“You want to be fast about that,” he teased, and I laughed.
As we got to the stable, the look of things before my eyes got me too stunned to speak.
“How? What happened here?”
The whole place looked as though it had not just been flooded a day before. The hay was dry and the stalls were fixed. The horses looked relaxed and fed.
I turned around to look at Liam with my mouth wide open.
“What happened here?”
“A little bit of clean-up here and there,”
“A little bit?” I looked back at the whole stable and at the horses. “There’s nothing little about this,” I commended, waving my hands around the whole place.
“Well, it took a while to dry this whole place up and to fix the stalls, and getting the hay was a bit of a task but it wasn’t something beyond what hefty hands couldn't handle. Perhaps, Luna hear helped a lot!”
I looked down at Luna, ruffling her fur with a grateful smile before looking back up at Lima.
“I’m speechless. When did you do all of this?” I took a look around the whole place one more time.
“After the storm last night. I just couldn’t find some sleep,”
“You did all of this last night?”
“I just couldn’t help it,” he said casually, and I shrugged my shoulders.
“I’m speechless,”
“You don’t have to say a thing,”
“I mean, this could have taken hours of multiple labor or days of continuous hard work!”
“I enjoy working at the ranch,”
Without him spelling that out, I have realized that. He works as though he is the only worker I have at the ranch and that alone moves my heart.
“Thank you so much, Liam. This is so selfless of you,” I appreciated.
“Oh, come on. It’s not much of a big deal. I’m the security man around here, being a maintenance man wouldn't hurt,” he smiled, revealing his upper teeth.
“Regardless, thank you. I have no idea where I would have started with all of this without your help,”
“If you insist on the gratitude, I have no choice but to accept it,”
“I insist,”
“Gratitude accepted then,” the smile that followed his words looked as though it was one that was from the depth of his heart. It brightened his face, spreading across his facial structure. I returned the hopeful smile as a start of hope and camaraderie.
We walked out of the stable with his hand fixed on a wheelbarrow and Luna walking behind us.