I watched Orion pull his ridiculously impossible magician's trick every day that first week, doing most of the chores and arriving at school, looking too good for what his personality deserved. I had an uncomfortable amount of free time on my hands. The only chore left was keeping track of the corn stalks. How could Orion do something so easily with so little practice? And why couldn't I?

At the end of a very painful week of watching him jump through every difficult hoop I could think of, I had no choice but to agree to let him stay on. It would have been a stupid move to ask him to leave. I had to admit that even though I hated him, he did a great job.

"He can stay," I muttered to my dad over dinner that Friday as I stared down at my half-eaten chicken spaghetti, poking at it halfheartedly.

"You don't like the kid do you?" my dad asked, sitting at the other end of our dining room table. He brought a napkin to his beard, which was peppered with marinara and parmesan cheese, and meticulously wiped it clean.

"Nope," I said stabbing my fork into a piece of chicken.

My dad laughed, his voice booming across the dining room, shooting more color into his beard. "I've never known you to hate anyone."

"We all have our firsts," I answered with a mouthful of food.

He made a face and began to clean his beard again. "You have no manners." I shrugged in response. "He's handsome."

It was my turn to make a face. "Dad... I've never heard you call anyone handsome before. You've used smoking and hot, but handsome? That's weird even for you."

My dad stood up and rinsed off his plate. "Hon, it doesn't take a genius to figure out how objectively attractive someone is. There's that whole..." He picked up a sponge and waved it around, sending soap suds plopping down onto the counter as he tried to remember the word he was looking for. "...symmetry thing. It's science." He finished washing his plate.

"His personality is terrible," I said, joining him at the kitchen sink with my own plate.

My dad muttered something about how he was never going to get me married off if I wasn't open to new possibilities. I quickly washed my plate, scrubbing furiously at the cheese that was stubbornly clinging to the surface. "Dad. Just because someone is good at something and is objectively attractive doesn't make them a good match for me."

He chuckled. "Unlike the Millers kid, he'd last five minutes on this ranch and has. Even with everything you've thrown at him." He shot me a look. "I've never seen anyone try so hard to prove that they belong here. Cut the kid some slack."

I picked up a rag and began to dry my plate. "No promises."

He wiped down the counter. "Try Alina. He's good at his job."

I placed our plates in the drying rack, processing the last week. "And don't you find that strange? He's faster than he should be. It's humanly impossible to do what he does," I said mostly to myself.

My dad turned and looked at me with a brow raised as he placed the drying rag over his shoulder. "Now you have a problem with someone being fast?" He scoffed. "First you thought he couldn't handle it. Now he's so fast that you're suspicious? All that coffee has started to rot your brain, baby girl."

I groaned. "It's not the coffee." 

He chuckled as I left the kitchen in a huff. I was not interested in talking about Orion's attractive level or hearing my dad talk about the side effects of my coffee intake. Slumping onto my bed face first, I buried my head into my pillow, processing the week's events, trying to wrap my head around the impossible.

It doesn't add up. It's physically impossible for anyone to work at the speed that he does. I rolled over and stared at the ceiling. Even if he could do all that, he couldn't do that AND look as perfect as he does for school. No one is that fast!

I sat up, pulling my knees up to my chest. Thoughts swirled around in my head, making me restless. Does he start work in the middle of the night? Does he cut corners? Is he pulling a prank on me with my dad's help? I slumped back on the bed, tired, letting out a deep breath. 

"I need to let this go."

I waited until my dad was asleep before sneaking out of the house, after coming to the conclusion that I was in fact never going to let it go. I needed to blow off some steam and tire myself out to get my brain to shut up.

I zipped up my sweater to keep the crips cold air at bay as I quietly made my way down the front porch steps. Stars were brightly splashed across the dark sky, guiding my path as I moved through the tall grass to the barn.

I was thankful, not for the first time, that I lived somewhere rural enough to see the stars clearly. They dusted the dark. Breathtaking and immense as they blinked to life across the heavens. I stopped and looked up. Shoving my hands into my sweater, I took a moment to appreciate the sky. Calm washed over me, erasing my anxiety. I hope I never get used to this view.

I strode the rest of the way to the barn where Hank was kept at night and led him into the bull riding fenced-in section of our ranch. He grew restless, knowing what I was there for. He didn't like me much by this point in our relationship and I couldn't blame him.

I quickly took my spot and prepared myself for the mount. I took a deep breath, relaxing my muscles, and launched. Half a second into moving, I realized my footing was off and landed wrong, unable to correct it in time. I lost my grip and quickly slid off Hank's back, slamming my elbow onto the hard dirt as I hit the ground.

Hank began to buck angrily. Rolling, I attempted to move out of his path but wasn't fast enough. Hank failed towards me and I froze as his back legs bucked into the air and began to fall down towards my body. My brain shut down under the realization that I was about to be trampled by a two thousand four hundred and sixty-five-pound bull. My breath caught in my throat, terror raging through me. A scream caught in my throat, trapped.

Suddenly, a dark figure hopped over the fence and moved at lightning speed towards me. I was scooped up and brought to the side of the fence in a flash. From ground to fence in a blink of an eye. Hank slammed down his back legs a moment later, the dirt swirling around wildly from the power of his hooves, right where I had been a half a second earlier.

I looked up startled. Orion was holding me in his arms. "Are you okay?" he asked, concern lacing his velvet voice. His eyes sparkled with bits of orange, full of worry. My voice caught, unable to answer. I should be dead. 

My heart hammered against my ribcage, adrenaline coursed through me, filling my cheeks with fire and making it hard to breathe. I was so thankful for the cover of night. I didn't want him to see how terrified I was. How am I alive?

As he shifted his weight, I watched his black locks flare brightly with a hint of orange and a wave of dizziness washed over me. Did his hair just change? Is it the way the moon is hitting it? Am I dying? I don't really trust my observational skills at the moment. I can't even open my mouth to say anything. 

I nodded in answer to his question.

He swiftly lifted me over the side of the fence and gently placed me on my feet in a nauseating swoop. I gripped the fence, trying to calm my racing heart and keep myself standing, my legs far from reliable.

Orion turned, walking cautiously back to Hank who pawed the ground, ready to charge him. But Orion continued forward with a calm sense of confidence. Hank huffed, shaking his head back and forth, growing angry. Before I could tell Orion to back off, Hank bolted for him. Orion dashed to the side, swiftly moving out of the way.

Then as Hank turned back, Orion grabbed the bull's nose ring and stood his ground, staring Hank down, his grip strong, unmoving. Suddenly, Hank lowered his head, resigning, calming instantaneously under Orion's touch. He slowly ushered Hank back inside his pen in the barn, leaving me standing there looking after them, astonished. Hank never calms that fast.

Orion returned, his eyes and hair now dark, no strange orange highlights in sight. I took him in. Processing Orion more closely than before. His hair was tousled, messy as if he had just woken up. His grey shirt wrinkled and worn. He wore a pair of sweatpants and no shoes. I guess he doesn't always look perfect. But I had to admit, the bed head style worked on him. Another addition to his too perfect to be trustworthy list.

Orion jumped over the side of the fence effortlessly and landed in a crouch in front of me. He stood straight up, forcing me to tilt my head up to look into his night sky eyes. He touched my arm gingerly. I really hoped he couldn't feel my pulse which had sped up to an unhealthy level, making it hard to breathe. Orion's eyes grazing over me. "You're hurt," he said in a low voice.

I pulled my gaze away from his and looked down. My sweater was ripped at the elbow and I was bleeding. I hadn't noticed it earlier, my mind too busy flying to a thousand places and yet, stuck on one thing among them all that was impossible. He moved fast. Impossibly fast. How? I should be dead. He tugged me gently towards the barn and sat me down on a bale of hay inside.

The horses huffed quietly in their pens, irritated by the sudden noise. The tall wooden rafters were painted a dark red, chipping in several places. It was on my list of things to fix. One of the many I had kept to myself. I didn't want any more of my chores taken away.

Orion kept his hand on my arm for a moment as he leaned down in front of me. "Are you hurt anywhere else?" He looked over me with his depthless black eyes, scanning for injuries. I couldn't speak under his gaze. My brain, unhelpful in forming coherent replies. So I just shook my head.

He slowly let go of my arm and walked over to a first aid kit we kept in the tack room with our saddles, medical, and grooming equipment off to the right. When he returned, he knelt down in front of me. "You should take off your sweater."

I blinked at him, not comprehending, my brain felt like muss in my skull. Orion opened the first aid kit. "I can't clean the wound with your sweater on."

I unzipped my sweater and painfully peeled it off my bloody arm, holding back a gasp of pain. Orion took my arm again and cleaned the wound, surprisingly gentle. His face was full of focused concentration, his brows furrowed. His coal colored lashes lowered, hiding his eyes, giving me a private moment to take him in much closer than I would have normally wanted.

Several strands of hair fell forward, touching his jaw, accentuating his dark, sun-kissed skin. I looked down and watched his hands work. He had long slender fingers. I glanced up and took in his arms. They were corded in muscle, and his shirt was pulled taut across his chest. I looked away, suddenly flustered. "Thank you," I finally said, relieved that my voice sounded even.

He looked up at me, holding my gaze. "Of course."

"You saved my life. I didn't even see you..."

He smiled, "I told you I was fast."

I shook my head. "That was impossible. How'd you get to me so quickly?"

Orion shrugged, looking back down. "I was walking by when I saw you get thrown off. Right place, right time."

I didn't believe him. But I also didn't have a better theory. "Were you... watching me?"

He shook his head. "No. Like I said, I was taking a walk. Couldn't sleep."

"I couldn't sleep either," I replied quietly. "Why couldn't you?" It was my first time asking him a question about himself and he seemed as surprised as I was about it.

He worked a muscle in his jaw, a look of frustration crossing his features. "Just have a lot on my mind." He finished cleaning the wound and placed a bandaid on the cut. Letting go of my arm he stood up and put away the first aid kit, ending our very poor attempt at a conversation.

His back was to me when he spoke again. "What were you doing?"

"Bull riding." I tugged on my sweater, feeling cold. "At least attempting to."

"It looks dangerous."

"It is," I replied, running my fingers through my red curls.

He turned around, confusion flickering in his deep dark eyes. "Why would you do it then?"

"Because... I love it," I answered honestly. And even though tonight had terrified me, I would get up and do it again tomorrow.

"Do you like a lot of dangerous things?" he asked, making his way back to me. He stopped closer than I was prepared for, staring down at me with his depthless dark eyes, waiting for my answer. 

His question seemed loaded, hinting at something I didn't understand. I felt like I was being tested, but I didn't know the rules of the game.

"No. That's the only one," I uttered after a beat too long.

"Good." He took a few steps away, looking out the open barn door and up at the sky. "Don't think I want to spend all my time saving you, Ranch Girl."

I stood up, irked by the idea of needing to be saved. Irritated that I had needed his help at all. Annoyed that of all the ranch hands that my dad could have hired, it had been one that not only caused me to feel completely useless around the ranch but one that I was now indebted to for saving my life. "Fine by me."

Amusement flashed across his face, relief causing his posture to relax slightly. He seemed calmer now that I was angry at him. Why he insisted on making that a regular thing, I had no idea. "You really don't like me do you?" He turned his charcoal eyes back on me. I took a long moment to think of a civil response. I really didn't. But it felt rude to admit that after he had just saved me. Orion answered for me. "You don't."

I sat back down, letting out a heavy breath. "No. But—"

"That's a good thing," he said in a low, gruff voice that sounded strange, like a warning I should listen to.

Orion was suddenly right in front of me again. I hadn't seen him move. I swallowed back my surprise. I needed to lie down. Everything felt off. Strange. "Why?" I managed, looking up at him.

His face went from unreadable to a quirk filled grin in a nanosecond. "Because I won't be around long, it doesn't make sense to try and connect if I am just passing through. Right?" His question left me feeling like he had asked something entirely different. Something buried. Another question I was not going to pass without him explaining what the rules of the game were.

I nodded. His words made sense. His contract was only through December. My dad had mentioned wanting to keep him on longer, but Orion hadn't seemed interested. Something I normally found comfort in, until that moment. I was suddenly sad at the idea of this stupidly irritatingly attractive boy being gone. And then angry at my sadness. I need to get some sleep. I'm not making sense.

I quickly stood, wanting to get away. I had forgotten that he was right in front of me, and was now suddenly inches away from me, our faces a breath apart. I tried to take a step back but hit the bale of hay behind me. He caught me before I could fall backwards, embarrassing myself further. 

A slow smile spread across his lips as he tilted his head down to look at me, his hair falling into his face like a dark curtain. "Stay out of trouble, Ranch Girl." I flinched under the nickname. It had left a bad taste in my mouth.

The taunting at school had grown worse and had moved to pranks. Someone had filled the bed of my truck with dirt, which had been more confusing than anything. The day before that, someone had caked my desk in mud, which had resulted in ten minutes of scraping and far more paper towels than I cared to admit to clean it up. The day before that, someone had put several hay bales in the spot where I normally ate lunch. Luckily for me, whoever was behind it all, lacked creativity in their pranking.

Ranch Girl, had proven to be a very irritating nickname. But strangely, it sounded different coming out of Orion's mouth. Why does it sound kind instead of hurtful? It scared me. 

"No promises," I said before I could stop myself. He chuckled. Then turned and left me standing in the barn. 

---

Thank you for reading chapter five! I hope you are enjoying the story! Or are at least curious to see where it goes!

UPDATE DAYS - A NEW CHAPTER EVERY WEDNESDAY AND FRIDAY!

What do you think Orion is really up to? 

Will Orion change his mind and stay around longer?

What do the colors Alina keep seeing, mean?

CHAPTER QUESTION - Would you ever try bull riding? Why or why not?