* I'm aware my first chapter was a bit short, but this story has a lot of background leading up to the more hot part of this romance. Thank you for the positive feedback more will be along shortly.*
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The alarm in Cora's room went off at 6 the next morning. She rolled out of her bed and smiled as the brisk fresh air blew through her open window and refreshed her. The breeze blew the curtains which where white as the bright morning sunshine shone through them. This was a true country morning. She pulled on a beater, a crisp new flannel, some daisy dukes, and her work boots, and threw up her long blonde hair into a pony tail. She felt as though she looked ready for work brewed up some coffee and was off.
When she arrived at the farm her grandfather rattled off a list of jobs she could do for him if she wanted to. "That's not too bad for my first day," she said.
He smiled at her kindly and with a chuckle said, "Oh no darlin' that's just for this mornin'."
After she filled all the mangers with silage and hay she collected the eggs and fed and watered the chickens. Once she tended to the chickens she mixed calf formula up and fed the calves in the nursery. Once she fed the calves she replaced the sawdust and so on until she was finished.
When she finished she dragged herself down to the farmhouse. She walked in and plopped herself down in a kitchen chair. As she mentally prepared herself for the next set a chores Cora heard the familiar roar of a Chevy and country music jams. Evidently so did Pop because he came from the office to the kitchen and right out the front door. She got her butt up and went to the window. She saw Pop lean himself on the drivers side door and the tinted window rolled down. She couldn't make out a face, but her grandfather carried on a conversation with the driver for about five minutes. A tan hand reached out of the truck window and shook Pop's hand. Then the truck spun out and parked on the other end of the shed. Cora rolled her eyes and went back to the kitchen for some lunch.
She finished her meal quickly so she could get back to work. She fixed her hair into a tighter ponytail and splashed some cool tap water over her face. As soon as she finished up she hurried outside. The moment she jogged out the door she slammed into a wall. But this wasn't a wall because the wall brought its enormous hands up to steady her. She opened her eyes and realized she was looking down. She saw a pair of huge ratty old work boots, and some jeans that had seen too many days of work with there oil stains and small holes. Then her eyes traveled up and she saw an old Trimbridge football t-shirt with the sleeves torn off, some long, dark, muscular arms, and the face of a god. His face was as dark as his sun tanned skin and glowed as well, his hair was a smooth chocolate brown that fell in shiny waves from underneath his baseball cap, and his eyes contrasted his dark features with their icy blue brilliance.
" I'm um, sorry sir," she said still looking over his face, " but I was just going out to get some work done and I must have-" she was cut off by her grandfather who was walking back from the other side of the barn.
" Cora, I see you've met Ronnie." he shouted while he jogged towards them. " He came to help out around here. You two will probably be workin' together on most things so let me get you all started. There's a door that needs fixin' on the chicken house and I need the cows to be herded down to pasture, then I'd like you two to fill the feed bags and after that you can clear out that shed next to the old silo." he finished his list at a steady two foot tone once he reached them and smiled before walking between the two of them and into the farmhouse.
Cora nodded to Ronnie and walked out towards the tool shed. She grabbed a tin box full of tools and strolled out toward the chicken house. She looked ahead and saw Ronnie already climbing the ladder to the coop with a tool belt strapped around his hips.
She got there and looked up just as he unscrewed the hinges from the door. " So I'm guessing you don't need my help on this one?"
"Nope." he answered shortly with a few screws held in the side of his mouth as he effortlessly pulled the door out of its place and placed it next to him. No sooner did her utter the word then a chicken came running out of the hen house and leapt down the ladder and right into Cora's arms. Cora laughed as the hen's beady eyes checked around for any danger. She held the bird in her arm as she climbed back up the ladder and released her back into general population.
"I'll just stay here while you do your handy work and make sure we don't have a repeat of that." Cora said teasingly. But her smile was not returned as Ronnie still with the busy frown on his face continued his work without so much as a glance towards her.
"Done." he said and removed himself from her path. She came out to the small landing with him as he tested the door. It swung perfectly and latched easily. He turned his big body towards her, he was probably about 6`3 where she was only 5`5, and handed her his tool belt. "Can you go throw this in the back a my truck, ma'am?"
"Yeah." she turned towards the direction of where his truck, walked down, and placed it in the back. She wasn't even gone two minutes, but when she came back she saw that he had the gates up on each side and was opening the pole barn in order to let the cows down to pasture. She hopped the old fence and rushed up to the side of the gate.
