Chapter 10

Raina woke up feeling physically better than she had in days. The sun was barely up as she got dressed and ready to head out to the stables. She no longer wanted to feel guilt about the guys helping her, even if they reminded her over and over that it was fine. Daddy had raised her to be responsible and a hard worker. There was no changing that. She sat for a second after pulling on her other muck boot. Daddy.... how she missed him so. Tears swelled up in her eyes, but she kept them for falling. Raina stood up and saw that the hoodie was now sitting on the chair in the room. Had Leon grabbed it from the house?? She walked over and picked it up. The hoodie had been washed and now smelled like him again. Raina swung the hoodie around her and then zipped it up. The once dry hoodie now had droplets on it.

Raina made her way to the stables to see that the light was on already. Was Luke or Leon already out here? She looked throughout them but hadn't found anyone. However, the chores were already done. Coming to the last one, she heard noise from inside. It was where Artemis and Apollo were kept. Hurrying inside, she found Leon cleaning the stalls out. She walked up to the stall and leaned on the wall.

"Guess I wasn't the first one out here today..." Raina said, kicking the hay in the stall. Leon turned towards her and then went back to what he was doing.

"No, I suppose you weren't..." he said as he leaned on the pole of the pitch fork. Leon looked her up and down, then went back to it. "It's nice to see you up and at it, though. You look good." Leon paused for a bit, "Artemis could use some tending to. I'm sure you noticed yesterday... old girl won't let anyone close enough to do anything. She's been lost without ya..."

Raina turned towards the old mare and could see it in her eyes. Grabbing the bucket of tools, Raina made her way towards Artemis. The horse moved a bit from Raina. "Shh, shh, it's alright. I'm here now." Artemis calmed down and allowed Raina to tend to her. Leon came up to them and leaned against the rails of the stall door. Artemis moved her head towards him. Leon patted her head.

"Nice to see you getting back to normal too, ol girl..." Leon said as he continued to pet her. Artemis shook her head in answer. Raina stared at the pair as she wiped her hands on her jeans.

"I was thinking... maybe we could do a camping trip. How we used to..." Raina said, looking to Leon for a response. "I could use a few nights under the stars. We could hire a hand for the weekend. I'm sure John wouldn't mind a couple extra dollars in his pocket..." she added. John was an old family friend who would tend to the animals as they went away on vacations or riding trips. Leon studied Raina for a minute.

"Have you even spoken to Asher? He's been worried sick about you... we all have... but I know I could go for some nights under the stars as well." Leon said, ending it in close to a whisper. Raina had not even thought about the fact that she was avoiding the phone or the fact that the guys had all decided on some unspoken pact to give her space. The phone was another gateway to reality that she had been avoiding not wanting to read things like sorry for your loss or where have you been or anything else of that nature. She did not want to have to explain anything to anyone.

"I haven't... I've been ignoring my phone. I just...I didn't want to..." Raina began to try to explain but was having trouble saying it. Leon held his hand up to her.

"You don't have to explain... I understand, Raina. Take care of talking to them, I'm sure Luke will be all for it. I'll also give John a holler to see if he's up for it." Leon said as he tapped on the rails and began to walk away.

"Are you heading into work now??" Raina called after him. Leon nodded as he waved his hand in the air. "Have a good day!" Raina yelled after him, standing on her tip toes for some reason. She gave Artemis a pat, then took care of the tools and headed to the guys house. As she walked in, she expected Luke to be up already, but she could hear him snoring from his room. Taking off her boots made her realize just how tired she really was. Maybe she would lie back down for a while. Raina made her way to the room and stripped off her dirty clothes. Exhaustion seemed to be taking over her faster than she expected. So, instead of dressing herself, she just collapsed on the bed. Raina leaned to the nightstand and grabbed her phone she had left on the charger. Picking it up, her hands began to shake. Why was this such an issue for her?? She didn't have to read any of it. Just swipe the notifications and bam! Done! The phone dropped on the bed out of her hand. Maybe she would feel more up to it after she slept. That was a lie, and she knew it. It was the continuous lie she kept telling herself every day since that night. A sigh escaped her lips. Picking up the phone, she once again began to tremble but was able to unlock her screen. Quickly, she swiped everything out of sight. Another sigh passed her lips. There now she just had to text Asher. She opened her messages and ignored everything unopened till she reached his name. Clicking onto his name, she saw long lengthy messages from him that she couldn't even muster the strength or want to read them. She instead clicked on the message box and began to type. Erasing her message at least thirty times, she finally settled on, 'Sorry, no answer before now. I'm doing better. Would you wanna do a camping trip like old times?' In the end, she still was not happy with it, but it would do the job. Placing the phone back on the end table, she rolled to her other side and gave in to her exhaustion at last.