The next morning Chance dragged me back to his farm because he was giving Mary the day off and he thought me working on a farm would be good for me. It was bullshit but he claimed that since I grew up in the city I didn't know anything about real work. So today I was going to rough it.
First thing we started off doing was feeding the chickens. Chance told me to fill up this bin with their food and handed me a bucket. While I did that his stupid ass let all the chickens loose and they came flapping and bobbing their heads my way. I wanted to scream but they didn't pay me no mind as I took a few slow steps back as they got over to their food and started pecking away at it and fighting to get a turn.
"Your an asshole," I told Chance as he walked over my way.
"What did I do?"
He swore he wouldn't let them loose around me but I could see he was just testing me, he loved doing that shit.
"What else do you want me to do," I asked keeping an eye on the chickens and took a few steps to the left when I saw that one of them was getting to close.
"Come inside, I want to show you something."
He waited until I was by his side and we walked inside the barn and I followed him over to the back.
"Close your eyes."
"Hell no."
"I thought you were supposed to trust me."
"I don't trust you that much, not if your about to play with me."
"I'm not about to play with you so relax, close your eyes, hold out your hands and trust me."
"Chance-"
"Eli."
I huffed and close my eyes and cupped out my hands in front of me hoping he wasn't on no funny stuff. When I heard him step away I opened one of my eyes to peak but he caught me.
"No peaking, eyes closed."
"Fine."
I stood there with my hands out trying to fight the urge to peek and the next thing I know I feel something small and hurry in my hands moving around.
"Chance," I spoke through clenched my teeth because I was scared to make any noise, "I am not playing with you."
He laughed, "Open your eyes."
I peaked out of one eye first scared of what I was going to see but when I saw the tiny little yellow ball of fur in my hand. I did my best to keep my cool as I looked it over, I had to admit it was kind of cute.
"It's so little."
"Yes a baby chick, only a few days old. Not so scary huh?"
I looked away from the chick to mug him, "I wasn't scared."
"Sure you weren't."
He showed me how to feed all the baby chicks while he cleaned up their little area in the barn and after that showed me the roosters and we did the same thing. They weren't all that bad either but I had a problem with one following me and when I tried running away it flapped his wings and chased after me and that little shit was fast as hell. I yelled for Chance to help me as I dodged it and almost bust my ass twice before it left me alone. Chance had a good ass laugh at my expense and when I turned to him I saw him put his phone down.
"Were you recording me?"
"Yes," he laughed.
"Delete it, now."
"Watch out," he pointed behind me and I screamed and turned around thinking that crazy rooster was about to attack my ass again only for there to be nothing there.
"I'm done with you," I stomped towards the gate with him laughing and telling me to come back. I sat until he was done with those little crazy bastards and then we headed off to the horse stables. I wanted to beg him if I could go inside because for it to only be 8 in the morning it was hot as hell not to mention it stunk but the only good thing is that Chance had ditched his shirt and he glistening under the sun as he racked up hay to feed the horses. I still didn't know how I managed to pull that.
"Want to help me feed them?"
I couldn't be mad at him so I nodded and walked over deciding to give this a go. When I reached him he handed me a carrot.
"What am I supposed to do?"
"Walk over and hold it out, one of them will see and eat it."
"What if they bite me?"
He laughed, "They wont, trust me. I grew up around horses and not one have I gotten bit by one or seen anyone else get bit by one."
"That's great and I'm not about to be the exception," I went to turn around but he grabbed me.
"And your not," he handed me a carrot and guided me over to the pin and put the carrot in my hand and made me hold it out. I was holding out my arm for a good thirty seconds but they weren't paying me no attention.
"There obviously not hungry for carrots so," I tried to put my hand down but Chance wouldn't let me. He whistled to get their attention and then the all black one from the day before, looked our way and started making his way over. He was the biggest one of all three.
"Shit," I mumbled.
"Just relax. Don't let his size intimidate you, Phoenix is a big baby.
I held out my hand with Chance standing behind me preventing me from backing up like I wanted to. It came toward us and sniffed a little before it bent his head down towards the carrot and opened his mouth and nibbled off the end of the carrot at first and then went in again this time taking a bigger bite taking the whole carrot from my hand.
"That wasn't so bad was it?"
"It wasn't. Do you want some more help?"
Chance smiled and with my help he showed me the ropes. I kept an open mind and once we were done it was after ten and I was dripping in sweat. That's when he had the bright idea to go for a ride and when ride I mean horse ride. I was putting my trust in him and while he grabbed the gear and put it on his horse Phoenix I asked him a million and one questions.
He helped me on first and then got on himself and didn't have to tell me twice to hold on as he commanded the horse to walk. It wasn't so bad at first and after I told him that he had no problem picking up the pace. Once I got used to the pace I relaxed but still held on tight. I couldn't believe I was on a horse, the closet I ever came to riding a horse was driving a mustang. The wind blowing past my face and being outside, I felt free.
When we got back he got off and helped me off.
"It was fun, wasn't it?"
"It was better than I expected it to be."
"I knew you would like it. Riding a horse is just like driving, you guide the horse to where you want it to go just like you do a car."
"Except cars have seat belts but it was fun, today was fine besides for the heat and the bugs and that crazy ass rooster."
"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself, I wasn't too sure at first how you would react to this all."
"It was fun."
We took a shower, separately him first and them me and since I didn't bring in spare clothes I had to borrow some from his clothes he had here. After getting dressed I joined him in the living room where we relaxed and watched TV until I dozed off.
I woke up from my sleep after hearing a door slam, looking around I noticed it was dark outside and didn't see Chance anywhere.
"Chance?"
I waited for him to respond but he never did. I got up from the couch stretching and called out to him again and walked to the back thinking he was in the bathroom but he wasn't there and after checking the whole house I looked out the front door to make sure he didn't leave me here alone. His car was still here and the next thing I did was go for my phone. I called him and he answered almost right away.
"Hello?"
"Where are you?"
"The backyard."
"What are you doing back there?"
"Come and see."
"If you have any animals with you-"
He laughed before interrupting me, "It's just me."
"Better be."
I hung up with him and slipped on my shoes and walked out the backdoor responding to a few missed text messages. Apparently Chance didn't delete that video of me running and screaming away from the rooster after all because all the boys were going in on me about it. There was no telling who else the boys sent it to by now. I was going to give Chance a piece of my mind when I saw him. As I responded back to Geo who was talking the most shit I wasn't paying attention to where I was going.
I heard Chance clear his throat and that's when I noticed the setup. The blanket on the ground, the set up, the lights. I had plans to give him a piece of my mind but I was too shocked too speak.
"I know you hate romance but I thought it would be nice to eat outside under the stars," he walked over and took my hand in his before walking me over to this little set up and making me sit down on the blanket. I couldn't believe this was my life. Riding horses and picnics. Who knew so much could change over the past year?
The whole reason why I didn't want to fall in love because I was afraid of falling too hard in love. It didn't help at all that Chance was going above and beyond for me, I felt like I was in some sort of fairy tale and as much as I loved all he did sometimes I felt like I didn't deserve it based on all of the shit I've done in my past.
I was thinking too hard and I hated thinking like one of those insecure females that came in the shop. Our relationship was damn near perfect and I wasn't about to fuck it up by overthinking shit. Now my black ass had a damn headache. Chance had everything set up and everything we needed and he must have slipped out and grabbed food because he had takeout. Of course it wouldn't be Chance if he didn't have some sort of vegetables.
"Why are you so quiet? You don't like your food?"
"No everything is fine, it's just, I have a headache."
"You need me to run inside and grab you some aspirin," he started getting up without me even answering but I grabbed his shirt to stop him.
"No, I'm sure it's just a hunger headache since you worked me to death today," I joked.
"Today was nothing, we didn't even work on the garden or any of the crops."
"There's always tomorrow, if you have the patient to show me the ropes."
"You want to learn how to farm now?"
"Sure."
"I won't lie and say that I'm not shocked. I didn't think you want to spend the whole day here let alone tomorrow."
"I just-I'm happy. Really happy and I owe it all to you for testing me and pushing me to try new things and be a better person. Today wasn't so bad and maybe tomorrow we can go on another horse ride."
"Whatever you want to do."
"Great," I smiled, I took a bit out of my sandwich with him starting at me.
"What?"
"You have," he gestured towards his mouth before reaching over and swiping under my bottom lip. I paused and stared at him but I got the strongest rush of deja vu and it made me pause.
"Are you okay, is it your head?"
I didn't bother answering him because a whole bunch of different images were hitting me at once.
Chance wiping my mouth except like he did a few seconds ago but instead in front of Tiffany and all the boys. Us walking to the club, us getting into it about his ex and him asking me about the truth with my brother because Geo mentioned something to him. I was pissed, so pissed I actually hit threw a drink on him and slapped him all in the middle of my shift. Fighting with one of his groupies and Chance dragging me away only for me to tell him the truth about what happened with my brother and the way he looked at me almost broke my heart. His ex coming in and interrupting us and me walking out the back door and hearing Wiz talk with someone and me almost getting busted. I remember walking to my car only for Wiz to confront me and then the headlights from the car and my car going off the road.
Seeing all of that knocked the wind out of me and I had to take a mintue to calm down and catch my breath.
"Eli."
Chance grabbed me as I tried to get my breathing under control and make sense of what had just happened to me.
"Eli," Chance shook me still trying to get me to tell him what was wrong, "What's wrong?"
"I think I know who tried to kill me."
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This story is sadly almost over, I have one more official chapter left and then I have the Epilogue and that's it. I will drop both of them next Wednesday. I just want to say thanks to everyone who reads, votes and comments on this story and my others. It means alot.