Winners

Win•ner /ˈwinər/
Noun: A person or thing that wins something.

“Harper! I think Rose is lame again,” I heard, Laura, the stable owner’s voice call from her office.

“Do you want me to go check her out?” I offered, stepping into the cluttered room. I had just finished my first year of veterinary school at Guelph, where I eventually hoped to specialize in horses. While I was nowhere near finished my schooling, I had grown up with horses and knew a lot about them. So I frequently helped Laura out if a horse was injured or decide if she needed to call in a real vet.

“Would you?” Laura sounded relieved. “I know you have to be at work soon, but if you could just stop by her paddock, I’d be eternally grateful.”

“No problem,” I told her. Laura boarded my horse, Lucky, free of charge, as long as I helped out around the barn every now and then. While I could get away with doing next to nothing, I appreciated Laura and being a single mother and stable manager wasn’t easy, so I enjoyed lightening her load as much as I could. Especially since Sablewood’s business had boomed after mine and Lucky’s show circuit last year. We had won almost every competition we had entered, not exactly an easy feat.

After checking out Rose’s limp – it wasn’t anything serious – I hopped into my 2007 gray-brown Silverado and sped away. I now had only 45 minutes to get home, shower and head into town and my work, Dante’s. Not that I minded though, Laura had been pretty stressed lately, with show season coming up.

I’d been working at Dante’s, a bar slash club in downtown Ayr for over five years now. The owner, Dante, was a kind-hearted local who paid well and was very easy going. He had been very generous giving me only summer employment, since the rest of the year I was away at university. I had a hard time finding a job at first because people wouldn’t hire someone who was going to be gone for half of the year.

It was 8:15 exactly when I walked into the club. There were already a few customers bumming around, nothing too crazy yet, thankfully. This was kind of surprising, given that it was a Friday night.

“Hey Harper!” My friend and co-worker, Lily, yelled over the thumping bass music. Lily was beautiful, with long, straight golden hair, matching honey eyes along with a slim physique. It was a bit of a competition between us to see how many guys tried to hit on us a night.

Slipping behind the bar, I joined her in preparing it for the rush that was about to hit. “Hey,” I replied. “Do you want the floor tonight?”

“No,” she answered. “I had it last time.”

Whoever was wandering around usually got more tips than the person at the bar, so Lily and I tried to split floor-time equally between us. There were a couple other co-workers who weren’t so pleasant to work with, such as Savannah, who I noticed also seemed to be working the floor tonight.

Glancing at Lily, I caught her look of disgust as well. I was doubly glad that I didn’t have to work the bar, since whoever did had to deal with Savannah. She got even worse when hot boys were around. Which was always, so there was no relief from her ever.

“Sorry,” I said sympathetically, before patting Lily on the shoulder and leaving to start serving the straggle of people that was slowly becoming a crowd.

It was shortly after ten when he entered. Of course I recognized him immediately. His face has been plastered all over the news for the past few weeks. He had short, curly, brown hair and a smirk for a smile. He had be at least 6’1, but his width made him seem larger, his presence commanded attention. I, normally not one to stare, was captivated.

Kyle Clifford was at Dante’s. Living in Ayr, this hadn’t been the first time I’d seen him, nor was it the first time I’d felt drawn to him, like a moth to flame. Not that I’d ever admit that to anyone. It wasn’t my fault though, who wouldn’t feel attracted to a strong, muscular NHL player? It was practically my duty as a Canadian girl to appreciate his hockey skills.

I saw Savannah look over her shoulder and her greedy eyes landed on him. Shit. She was going to steal him – and my table – if I didn’t get there soon. Almost knocking a drink from a customer’s hand, I pushed my way through the crowd till I reached them. I was only millisecond before Savannah.

“Hi, my name is Harper, what can I get you tonight?” I asked Kyle and his small group of friends, one of whom I remembered as being his older brother Skylar, my sister had a huge crush on him in high school.

“And I’m Savannah,” the annoying redhead butted in. “If there’s anything Harper can’t get for you, then I’m here.” She added a wink directed straight at Kyle for emphasis.

Kyle just smirked, “Thanks babe.” Then he turned those gorgeous blue eyes directly on me, I almost swooned at the heat they packed. “I’ll have a Keith’s, please.”

Blushing, I scribbled down his order quickly before it left my mind. In the foggy state it was in right now, I’d be surprised if I got all of their drinks right. Look at his biceps, hot damn, they’re huge and his eyes, oh God, his eyes.

Luckily, I managed to get down everyone else’s wants without having to ask twice or stuttering. I’d never been such a bumbling idiot before, even inside my own head. It was kind of annoying. I didn’t know how Savannah managed to deal with it constantly.

Walking away from their table to get their drink, I could have sworn I felt a pair of blue eyes boring into my back.

----

I was exhausted by the time I was done ushering the last few drunken customers out the door at 4:30am. Why can’t people understand that it’s time to freakin’ go? Like, if you were going to get a girl to come home with you by now, you would have, so now you should just clear out and go back to your place, alone. That was bad enough and I still had to clean up.

Kyle and his crew had stayed for roughly three hours, which had given me a nice long time to stare at him. But that also meant that I, unfortunately, noticed when four beautiful girls showed up and seated themselves at his table. I couldn’t help the slight jealousy that pierced through my body.

Stop it Harper, it wouldn’t have happened anyway. I mean, in no way one am I of those people who always put themselves down, nor would I consider myself shy but I would not have walked up to that table, by myself and asked if I could sit down, either. Maybe if he had been alone at the bar…

Oh man, I needed to get home and get some sleep before I started fantasizing about every single possible scenario that could have ended up with me in Kyle Clifford’s strong, very muscled arms. Every time I’d gone to check on his table – I’ll be honest, it was more frequently than I normally did – I had felt the weight of his stare and that sent delicious, glorious tingles down my spine.

Not that it had meant anything. He was, after all, sitting with good-looking girls, who were, quite frankly, all over him. Skylar had looked a little put out over that. I felt kind of bad for him, but that might have been because I was also feeling kind of bad for myself.

“Hey, Harp, you almost done?” Lily’s tired voice called out. Most of our co-workers had ditched as soon as all the customers were gone – Savannah included – so we had gotten stuck with finishing up clean-up.

“Yeah,” I answered. “Just gotta finish with this last table.” I’d offered to drive Lily home, since she was on the way and it would be a waste of her change to get a taxi.

“Awesome.”

Shortly after, we were both buckled up in my truck and softly creeping away from Dante’s. I love driving at this time, when nobody’s awake. It’s just you, your breathing and the night’s darkness. Or when the sun begins to rise and you have the yellows, oranges and pinks shooting across the sky, everything dampened by morning mist.

“Savannah was pretty huffy tonight,” Lily commented sleepily.

I chuckled. “She was just pissed because I got to serve Kyle Clifford and even though she introduced herself to him, he didn’t rise to the bait and take her home.”

“Good. We’d never hear the end of that one. Or see him ever again. She would have scared him off with her greedy claws. ‘Oh Kyle, we’ve only had sex, but it was sooooo amazing and I think I love you. Let’s get married because actually the only thing I love is your money,’” Lily mocked.

“Lily, stop it, be nice,” I tried to reprimand her without grinning. She had nailed Savannah’s whiny, high-pitched voice.

“Shut up Harper, you know it’s true,” Lily argued. I could hear the smug smile in her voice. Lily took an odd pride in her abilities to imitate Savannah.

We both burst into hysterical, overtired giggles. I was almost doubled over the steering wheel, trying to suck in air. That only made Lily laugh harder, which in turn made me laugh harder. We both needed to sleep.

Not long after we finally calmed down, Lily fell asleep on me, so I was forced to fight to stay awake by myself. It was a difficult battle, especially since I didn’t want to turn the radio on and wake Lily up – she deserved her rest.

Finally, I pulled into the driveway of Lily’s apartment building. I don’t think I remembered half the drive. “Lil,” I whispered, shaking her gently. “We’re here.”

Blinking drowsiness from her honey-yellow eyes, Lily grabbed her gear, muttered a jumbled thanks and hopped out of my Silverado. I waited until she had gotten into the building – almost falling asleep in the process – before I pulled out and started home.

When I finally managed to get myself into my own bed, I collapsed into a pile, not even bothering to take my clothes off. The last thing I heard was my dog, Jasper, whine at being ignored before sleep finally overcame me.

----

Enthusiastic licks to my face woke me up the next morning. “Jasper!” I moaned, shoving my dog’s snout away from me. “You’re not supposed to be on the bed.” Of course my black-and-white German Shepherd-Collie mix didn’t listen though. He shoved his way through my hands to continue his assault on my exposed skin.

“Fine, fine! I’m getting up,” I told him, and then adding, “Get off.” Obediently Jasper hopped down, before turning to stare up at me with hopeful amber eyes. “Yes, I’ll come feed you, just wait a sec,” I muttered, rubbing my eyes in hopes they’d stop hurting.

Standing up and untwisting my T-shirt and jeans, I looked at the clock. I almost collapsed back into bed. No wonder my eyes were sore! It was only ten thirty, meaning I’d gotten around four hours of sleep.

Grumpily, I glared at my dog. “You couldn’t have waited for a few more hours?” I complained. He just gave me a lopsided grin before bounding out of my messy bedroom.

My housemate, Taylor Lucas, sat at the table, sipping a steaming coffee and reading the daily newspaper.

“Why couldn’t you feed my dog?” I demanded sullenly. Taylor glanced up at me, blue eyes sparkling.

“Just to piss you off,” he retorted, in his sexy British accent.

“Well thanks, now I have to do another night shift with four hours of sleep,” I informed him, trying to get him to feel guilty. It wasn’t that hard to put a cup of food into a bowl. He could have easily done it while he was waiting for his coffee to brew.

It didn’t work. Taylor just gave me one of his disarming smiles and returned to his paper. I don’t know why he reads those damn things so much. It’s always depressing. Especially with all those headlines about people eating people nowadays.

Jasper barked, reminding me that he still hadn’t had his breakfast yet. He stood by his dish, wagging his tail and staring at me expectantly.

“How could you ignore that?” I rhetorically inquired. “It’s practically animal cruelty.” Taylor ignored me. “See how easy this is?” I continued, giving my dog his food, finally. “That was all you had to do.”

Nope. No reaction.

“I hate you.”

“Love you too Harpy.”

“That is the worst nickname ever. Just so you know. Asshole.”

Again, Taylor disregarded me. I swear he’s had the same training as those guys who work at forts. The ones who stand completely still, stare at nothing all day and don’t talk to anyone. I have absolutely no clue how they do it, but Taylor would be a pro.

Sighing, I gave up and just went about fixing myself breakfast and getting ready for the day. I needed to go work with Lucky, show season was beginning soon and we weren’t as ready as we should be. That meant no lake today.