Winners

After storming out of the party, I’d taken a cab home, tore off my lovely dress and matching underwear and collapsed into bed with my dog. With all the alcohol in my system, I was out before my head even hit the pillow.

But now, waking up in the morning… Ugh. My head was aching, I was overheating, probably do to the huge fluff ball curled up next to me under the covers, and I was still royally pissed off. Throwing off my duvet, I pulled on a baggy T-shirt and boy boxers I’d bought from Wal-Mart.

“C’mon Jasper, let’s go make breakfast,” I grumbled as I slipped on my soft mouse slippers, trying to bring some comfort to my complaining body. That woke up the collie-shepherd mix and he swiftly jumped off my bed, barrelling past me in his excitement.

My go-to hangover cure was a big breakfast of blueberry pancakes, bacon and eggs and did I ever whip up some mean pancakes and bacon. Jasper loved it when I made bacon because it meant he got the extra grease sloshed all over his food. He anticipated what I was making today apparently, because he sat patiently slobbering by his dish when I arrived in the kitchen.

Grabbing all of my needed ingredients and supplies, I turned on the stove and carefully laid down the meaty strips before beginning to mix the pancake batter. Humming quietly to myself, I relaxed into the calm patterns of cooking.

Before long, I had my plate piled high with food and Jasper was happily gobbling down his greasy meal. Tucking in, I calmed my still slightly floppy stomach by munching on the crispy bacon I loved so much. Then I managed the fluffy pancakes and finally the scrambled eggs.

“God, that was good,” I complimented myself, rubbing my full stomach. Jasper obviously agreed from the way he kept on licking his bowl for any possible remains of pig fat.

After cleaning my dishes, showering and redressing in a clean T-shirt and some jeans, Jasper and I went for a long walk, where I hoped I’d be able to clear my head a little bit.

I couldn’t stop thinking about Kyle. The way his muscular chest had felt pushing into my back, or how his large hands had left hot prints on my hips and of course, his lips branding themselves into my neck. This, of course, reminded me about why I hadn’t ended up going further with him and I got angry with Taylor all over again.

Of course Taylor had to pull the white knight act when it came to me. No matter how fucking nonchalant he always acted, the stupid European actually cared for me and had grown a protective streak a mile high since we’d begun living together. Normally I found it cute because… well because I’d never really been interested in anyone. It had been nice to not have to fend off unwanted groupers myself. Now I regretted ever encouraging it.

Not to mention, one could hardly call Taylor a saint. I mean, literally all he did was drink booze, party and sleep with women. How he could dare place higher standards on me? Hell, I’m older than him. I should be the one protecting him from creepy women.

Damnit, this walk really wasn’t helping anything, at least not for me. Jasper was trotting along happily, tailing wagging, noise a-sniffing. As if he realized I was watching him, he glanced back at me and gave me a sloppy grin, tongue hanging out and all. ‘Isn’t this great?!” his sweet brown eyes seemed to say.

I couldn’t help but smiling back at my goofy pet and my heart immediately felt lighter. There was a reason I thought everyone should have a dog, or at least a pet. Whenever there was something wrong with work, school or with people, they are always the one thing you can count on to cheer you up.

The rest of our walk was peaceful, the sun poked out from behind the gloomy clouds and a small breeze ruffled my hair. The few other people who were awake and out and about waved cheerfully at me and shouted hearty ‘good morning’s.

Reaching my house I wasn’t as angry as I had been when I left. I mean, really, what was the big deal? It wasn’t like I would have let it go much further between Kyle and I, and Taylor had just been trying to help. Besides, if Kyle let Taylor drive him off… what kind of man was he?

“Thank goodness I’ve got you to help me see things straight,” I told Jasper as I kicked off my shoes.

“Now you’re resorting to talking to dogs?” Taylor laughed from the living room. I jumped in surprise – to be honest, I had thought he’d spent the night at some girl’s house.

“Yeah, because thankfully they can’t talk back,” I retorted while heading for the couch. Suddenly Taylor’s face caught my eye. “Wait. What the fuck happened to your jaw?!”

A large, dark purple bruise had splatted itself along his jawline since the last time I’d seen him the night before. “Are you okay?!” I demanded, practically throwing myself at him in an attempt to see it closer up. “Who did this?!”

“Jeez, Harper, stop shrieking, you’re gonna make my head explode,” Taylor winced. “I’m fine though. Just that fucking twat you were dancing with got a little too overexcited after you left.”

Despite Taylor’s complaints, I couldn’t help the shrill tone my voice was taking. “WHAT? You mean Kyle did this? Kyle Clifford?” I paused momentarily to try and gather my thoughts. “What the fuck. What the fuck. Why? How? What were you DOING picking a fight with KYLE CLIFFORD?”

Taylor sighed. “Look, Harp, the guy is an idiot. He probably needs therapy for his temper. I didn’t even do anything!” He looked mournfully up at me with his brown eyes – quite similar to Jasper’s, really. “Could you please get me an ice pack?”

Exasperated, I did what my friend asked, grumbling the entire time. Boys.

“Here you go douchebag,” I snapped at Taylor, tossing a bag of peas to him, slightly aggressively. My mind was having a difficult time processing that Kyle had punched Taylor because of me. “I think you both need therapy.” And with that, I left Taylor indignantly for the second time in less than twenty four hours.

----

Over the next two weeks, I had completely forgiven Taylor for his involvement in the unwanted scenario. Mostly because he kept complaining that he couldn’t eat anything chewy since his jaw hurt so much. I had momentarily been worried that it was broken, but the swelling went down within a few days and the bruises had since faded to a puke yellow.

On the other hand, I was not about to let Kyle off easy, the next time I saw him. But I guess he hadn’t been all that interested anyway because he hadn’t shown up at Dante’s since. Nor had I seen or heard about him anywhere around town. While I was disappointed, I refused to let it bring me down.

I had trained my very first client’s horse two days after the party and my time slots were quickly filling in. One woman, after watching me school her bay gelding, Thunder, had asked if I would coach her as well. I had occasionally done lessons for Laura, but this was something on a whole new level. This woman wasn’t plodding around a push button pony that didn’t even need to be told what to do. She wanted to compete on a horse with a mind of its own and she wanted me to help her achieve that. I was on Cloud 9. Everything in my horsey world seemed to be falling into place.

On Sunday, Lily and I were just finishing up at Dante’s when the front entrance bell rang. “Sorry! We’re closed!” I yelled from behind the bar, not bothering to turn around. The poor chap was probably too drunk to see the sign on the door. It happened all the time. The bar closed earlier on Sundays – at twelve instead of three thirty.

“I’m not here for a drink,” a husky voice replied, sounding completely and utterly sober.

I whipped around, half-expecting to see a gun or a knife pointed at me. Instead, there he was. Wearing a dark leather jacket over a snug fitted t-shirt and a pair of ripped jeans, a baseball cap perched backwards on his tousled brown locks.

“Well you don’t look too happy to see me,” Kyle laughed, a nice deep chuckle to match his low voice. “I’m sorry if I scared you.”

My back stiffened and I couldn’t keep the sneer out of my voice. “What are you doing here?”
Kyle’s baby blues widen in shock. “Whoa, I just came to see if you’d like to go out. No need to be hostile baby.”

Lily chose at that moment to return from wherever she had been. When she saw the hockey player in the entrance way she froze, blinking foolishly. “Am I hallucinating?” I heard her mutter to herself before rubbing her eyes harshly.

“No.” I answered Kyle simply before turning around to continue stacking the dishwasher.

From the awkward shuffling I heard behind me, that obviously wasn’t the answer the muscular man had been expecting. “Uh… Could you tell me why?” Kyle hesitantly asked.

Pivoting to face him, I gave him my best death glare. “Sorry, fighting on the ice might be hot, but punching my best friend isn’t. I’d like you to leave now.” Before I got lost in that sexy stare and my resolve melted.

Kyle looked understandably confused and slightly angry, mixed with a little something I couldn’t place my finger on… Hurt? Regret? “What the hell? You’re mad at me ‘cause I hit that dumbass? He was asking for it, it’s not my fault,” he argued.

“Calling him a dumbass doesn’t really help your case…” I retorted, crossing my arms. “Now, could you please get out of here? We are closed and I’d really like to finish up and get out of here.”

“Look, Harper, I was tipsy and he took something I wanted away. Of course I’m gonna hit him. Guy’s gotta learn to back off,” Kyle continued. “It wasn’t a big deal. C’mon.”

“What he took away ‘something you wanted’? Am I some sort of possession now?” I snarled. “We were dancing Kyle. That’s it. You need to get a better control of yourself if you’re going to punch people over that. For the third time… Please. Leave.”

Thankfully my exasperation was helping me ignore the way his clenched hands flexed his muscles, making the traces of them even more obvious. I could look away from the strong lines of his neck and jaw and forget about how it had felt to have him touching me. Stay strong Harper, I mentally encouraged myself. Don’t give in.

“Fine then. But you’ll regret that you missed your chance to have this,” he snapped back heatedly before storming out the door.

Once he was gone, my frustration slipped away, leaving me feeling cold, alone and utterly exhausted. “While I felt like I had to do that, it certainly did not feel good,” I told Lily sadly.

My best friend came over and wrapped me up in a hug. “Hun, you need to do you. Do whatever makes you happy. And if that boy getting all hot and bothered and punching Taylor does not make you happy, then fuck him. Forget him. He’ll be gone in a few month and you won’t have to see him again for a long time.”

I sighed, “You’re right Lil. Thank you.”

“No problem Harper. I just hope that you don’t regret it like he said.”

-----

I tried to put the infuriating NHL star out of my mind over the next few days, though I had little success. It didn’t matter that I was insanely busy, due to balancing the overload of owners and riders who wanted my help, the late nights at Dante’s and a small attempt of a social life. At every second of the day, there was a small nagging thought in the back of my mind that said, you shouldn’t have done that Harper. You should have taken the chance with that one… Broken your rigid rules for once.

Tonight, I was unfortunately not working with Lily. That meant no sneaky conversations, meaningful stares or playful bets. Work was always a hundred times worse when I didn’t have that crazy girl to keep me company. Especially when Savannah was working. Ugh.
Every single opportunity she had, she flaunted a saucy little redheaded bitch stare my way. For some reason, she appeared to think she was superior to me tonight – I mean, more so than usual. Smirking at me, making small comments about my incompetence, watching and laughing whenever I made a small mistake like dropping a napkin or overflowing a drink. My flayed nerves were starting to get pinched.

But when she quipped, “Harper, I think you should probably take over dish duty, I think you’re scaring away customers…” I snapped.

“What is WITH you tonight Savannah? Miraculously you are being more annoying than possible… and I didn’t think that was fucking possible,” I growled.

The irritating waitress just batted her long, mascaraed eyelashes at me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about Harper. I think you’re just angry at the world because you failed to bag the hottest catch in town…”

And that’s when I understood.

“… And I managed to not repeat your sloppy mistakes.” Savannah gave me one last detestable sneer before striding off.

Savannah had slept with Kyle. Jeez. There is absolutely no way I would touch that man with a ten foot pole. No way in hell. Right then and there, I decided to harden my heart and let go of Kyle Clifford because evidently he was not the kind of man I want or need if he’d stoop to doing that with her. It had only been a short fling, a mild attraction… So I squashed it into little figurative pieces and swept in under the rug.