Outback Hearts (Beyond Reality Book 1) (8 page)

Finally, they’d all told their stories and everyone got to know a bit about what each of the jobs entailed. They were tired and smelly and definitely ready to go inside and have a good meal, a shower, and hopefully visit more with Al. Robert and Eddie, as usual, had other plans for them.

“Now that you’ve all finished your chores today you can go and find a place to sleep in the bunkhouse.” He pointed behind them toward the barn where off to the side there was a long rectangle shaped building. “There you will find your cots for the night as well as the kitchen where you’ll need to fix your own food for the night. I wouldn’t stay up too late, tomorrow will come soon enough.”

Many of the women were flabbergasted. They weren’t going to be allowed to sleep in the house tonight? What was this? How would Al get to know them and how would they get to know him better if they were stuck in the bunkhouse with each other? As it usually happens when women get together in tight spaces for too long of a time, they were starting to grate on each other’s nerves. Cliques were definitely forming. It was as if the battle lines had been drawn. They were like wild dogs circling their prey—which was Al. If they didn’t get first “crack” at him, then they’d fight for what they believed was “theirs.”

Sam was tired of the “game” already. It wasn’t the work she was doing, it was the fact that she was expected to be just as eager to discuss Al at all times and that she was expected to fight for him and to do anything to “get” him. It just wasn’t her style at all. She figured if a guy was going to like her, he was going to like her as she was. She shouldn’t have to
fight
for a guy. She believed if a guy was having a hard time choosing between her and another woman, then he could have the other woman.

She wanted a man who would walk into a room and the first thing he’d do would be to seek her out. Who’d walk into a room and have eyes only for her. She wanted a man who she wouldn’t have to worry about where he was, if he came home from work late and who he was with. Trust. She wanted complete trust in a partner. She knew she wasn’t as pretty as the women she was surrounded by. She also knew that most likely she wouldn’t make it past the next few eliminations. She had high self-esteem, but it was being battered a bit constantly being around the models as she was.

Sam followed the other women to the bunkhouse where their suitcases had been dropped off earlier in the day. There were seven bunk beds set up around the small room, with a small bathroom and a kitchen. Missy immediately tried to take charge.

“Who’s going to cook? It looks like we have food here,” she said, looking at the other women expectantly. “Although it looks like we only have the fixings for pasta…anyone want that?” Of course, most of the women were horrified at the thought of eating all those carbs and ruining their diets. Sam was hungry. She’d spent most of the day working hard, she loved pasta, and she figured that if she was going to eat she’d better volunteer to cook. So she started getting out pots and ingredients to make the meal.

“So what did you think of them?” Alex asked his Aunt Nancy. Nancy and her husband owned Choxie Station. Nancy had married an Australian and raised her children, Alex’s cousins, there on the station. They were now all gone, the kids moved away and her husband passed away a few years ago. Eddie figured this was a great opportunity to shake up the “game” a bit. It was going to be Nancy’s job to tell the producers who the next woman would be to leave. She was to get to know as many of the women as she could. She’d watch the tapes of the women doing their chores with Alex. She would also meet the women who were working in the house in person. She wouldn’t get to meet them all in person, but she’d get to meet most of them.

“Where in the world did they find these women?” Nancy asked Alex. “They have no clue. They all look like Barbie dolls.”

Alex agreed, “I thought the same thing. I haven’t gotten to know them all very well yet, but they seem to be nice.”

“Nice?” Nancy asked incredulously. “That isn’t a word I’d have imagined you’d use when discussing beautiful women!” They both laughed and settled down to watch the tapes of the day.

Two hours later, the duo had enough. It was obvious that the women were out of their element. Most tried to make the best out of a bad situation, but it was clear that some of them just weren’t trying. The three most obvious were Katie, Nikki, and Candi. They did everything they could do to get out of work and to let others do most of it.

“Come on Alex,” Nancy said. “Let’s get some chow and hit the sack. Five am is going to come up pretty fast for our city-slickers!”

At exactly five in the morning, the women were awakened by a loud clanging. It was one of the jackaroos standing outside the bunk house, banging against a metal trash can.

“Time to get up, ladies, you have twenty minutes before you need to be up in the clearing for breakfast and then for your assignments for the day.”

Sam had never heard such complaining and moaning in all her life. She was pretty sore, but she couldn’t believe how the others were carrying on. You’d think they’d spent yesterday being tortured or something. Sam would kill for a shower, but she knew that wasn’t going to happen with all the other women also clamoring for the use of the shower. Some were showering together at the same time. There was no way Sam was going to stand next to one of the other women without any clothes on. That would be too much even for her ego.

They all trudged back to the clearing. Robert was there looking as clean cut and refreshed as ever. It was actually pretty annoying. They all sat down on benches that were put out for them as the kitchen staff brought out their breakfast. There was food piled up. It looked like they’d gone all out. There were eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, muffins, doughnuts, and even breakfast burritos. Sam laughed to herself, there was no way that some of those women would touch some of that food, but Sam was in heaven. She was happy she didn’t have to make her own breakfast this morning. She took a bit of everything, not knowing when they’d have the chance to eat again. Besides, she knew it would give her a bit of energy for the day’s activities.

When everyone finished eating, they all gathered in their respective places again and Robert began a speech about hard work and how they would be switching around jobs for the day. Al would be making the rounds and visiting each work team as they were doing their chores to see how they were getting along. Robert started pulling names out of the hat again.

Jennie and Kiki were going to work in the kitchen. Nikki, Cindee, and Candi would be working with the maids. Brandi and Ashley would be riding the fence line. Amy and Kathi would be feeding the animals. Lori and Katie would be weeding, and Courtnee, Missy, and Sam would be mucking out the stalls.

Sam couldn’t believe she got the same job as she had the day before It wasn’t fair, but it wasn’t like any of the other jobs were really all that good either. As far as things went, she supposed it could be worse, but she wasn’t happy with the fact that she’d have to work with Courtnee and Missy for the day. She knew neither of them liked her, so she figured it’d be a very long morning. No one seemed to notice or care that she’d done the same job the day before. Sam decided that if no one else was going to say anything, neither would she. It wasn’t that big of a deal. As much as she wanted to get into the house and see if it was as beautiful on the inside as it was on the outside, she wasn’t going to make someone switch with her. Mucking the stalls wasn’t exactly a job that someone would want to switch her for anyway. She’d have loved to have spent time with the animals, but she also knew there was no way in hell that Kathi or Amy would switch with her. She couldn’t blame them either.

They all left to attend to their respective jobs. As Sam, Courtnee, and Missy arrived at the barn they saw Al was already there. It looked like he’d be starting his day with them. Courtnee and Missy were beyond excited. They were glad they’d get to see him before they got all sweaty and smelly.

“Mornin’, ladies,” Al said with a drawl.

“Hi”, “Hello”, “Hey,” they said in unison.

Courtnee sidled up to Al and asked, “Are you going to show us how to do this?”

Alex laughed and said, “Nope, that’s Henry’s job…Henry?”

With that, Henry came over from the stall he’d been working in. Noticing Sam, he frowned at her a bit and at her small shake of the head, he looked away and started explaining the best way to handle the pitchfork and the technique for throwing poo out of the stalls. When he was done with his explanations each of them grabbed a pitchfork and started working.

“Are you going to start with me first?” Missy asked Al while fluttering her eyelashes.

“Sure,” Alex replied. He really hated mucking stalls, but it was funny to think of these women doing it. He laughed at Missy’s attempts to pitch the poo over the stall and into the bin. She was actually pretty fun to work in the stalls with. She was funny and entertaining and certainly easy on the eyes. Soon he moved on to Courtnee’s stall and decided she was also fun to work with. Besides the over-the-top flirting, the women seemed eager to learn what to do and they were funny as well. Finally, it was Sam’s turn. He moved up the barn to where Sam was working.

“Hey, looks like you got the hang of this pretty fast,” Alex told her, impressed.

“Yeah well, I got lots of practice yesterday,” Sam responded, deciding it didn’t matter if she’d done the same thing the day before.

Alex immediately got a frown on his face. ”You did this yesterday? I didn’t realize—”

Sam cut him off. “It’s okay, it’s not a big deal. I think I’d rather be doing this than some of the other jobs.” She smiled at him to try to let him know that she really was okay with it. “I’ve never even been near a horse, I’m sure it’d buck me off or something.”

“Gosh, maybe they should hire you for a permanent job here in the barn,” Alex joked. “You’d make a good jillaroo.”

Sam just looked at him. Was this all he thought she would be good at?

Alex must have noticed she wasn’t laughing at his feeble joke. “Hey, I was kidding,” he said. When Sam turned around and continued to clean the stall, Alex touched her arm and pulled her around to look at him. “Honestly, I didn’t mean anything by it.”

Sam shrugged. “It’s okay, really.”

“Sammi,” Alex said, still holding on to her arm, firmly, but not hurting her. “Don’t do that.”

“Do what?” Sam asked a bit peevishly.

“Don’t lie and tell me what you think I want to hear rather than how you
really
feel.” After a beat where Sam didn’t say anything, he continued, “If you want to tell me to piss off, tell me to piss off. If I do something that hurts your feelings, tell me.” His voice suddenly lowered and he took her hands in his. Sam had to lean into him to hear him over the noise of the barn.

“For the love of God, you’re the only real person here. If I can’t rely on you to tell me like it is, who will?” He paused. “Now, please tell me what upset you.”

“It’s just that…” She paused, finally continuing when Alex squeezed her hand. “I don’t fit in with the other women here, and I don’t want you to see me as…less…than they are. And when you said I’d be good at shoveling crap…It just hit me the wrong way.”

“I don’t see you as less,” Alex immediately said, not even pausing to think about what he wanted to say. “We don’t really know each other, but when I’m lying in my cot at night I find myself thinking about you and what
you
are thinking about.” He brushed his knuckle over her reddening cheek and continued, “I’d never intentionally insult you like that. I just have to learn how I can tease you and not have you take offense.”

They just stood there and looked at each other for a brief moment until they heard Courtnee laugh in the next stall over. The moment between them was broken and Alex dropped her hands and took a step back.

Searching for something to talk to him about, she asked inanely, “How’re you doing? I mean, are you enjoying the experience of dating all these women?”

Alex laughed. “It’s certainly interesting.”

They spent the next few minutes chatting about nothing in particular while cleaning out one stall and moving to the next.

Alex rotated between talking with Courtnee, Missy, and Sam for another thirty minutes, then said he had to go and visit with the other women.

“Are you going to miss me?” Missy pouted.

“Uh, yeah, but I’ll see you later,” Alex responded quickly with a look in his eye, like a rabbit cornered by a hound dog.

Missy grabbed Alex and kissed him on the lips, and Courtnee, not to be outdone, also grabbed Alex and kissed her way down his face to his lips. Alex finally extricated himself from the two women and looked toward Sammi. She merely waved at Al from the stall she was cleaning, refusing to stoop to Missy’s level of desperation, and then went back to work.

“Whew.” Missy fanned her face. “That man is
hot
! I can’t wait to have him to myself!”

“What makes you think that’ll happen?” Courtnee complained. “There’s no guarantee you’ll get the chance.”

“You idiot,” Missy told Courtnee snidely. “These shows always have one-on-one time with the bachelor. I’ll get my chance.”

The two women continued to sit on bales of hay and discuss Al and what they’d do when they had him alone and when they won at the end. Sam tuned them out. It was obvious they were pretty much done mucking out the stalls for the day. Figured that as soon as Al left, they stopped pretending and just quit. Sam knew they wouldn’t get as many stalls done as they’d done yesterday. After all, it was only her working. She’d do what she could, and Henry would just have to finish up when they were released. She didn’t like to put the work back on him, but she could only do so much.

“Hey goodie-two-shoes,” Sam heard Courtnee call out and decided to try to ignore her. She wasn’t going to start anything with them.

“Hey, I was talking to you!” Sam heard Courtnee say from outside the stall she was currently mucking out.

“What do you want?” Sam asked peevishly, not bothering to even turn and look at the other woman.

“We’re going to take a break, we’ve been working really hard, so you just keep shoveling and make sure you get to the other side of the barn by the time we get back. We wouldn’t want anyone to think you weren’t doing your work.” Courtnee giggled evilly and turned and left the barn with Missy.

Sam ignored them as they walked out of the barn. It wouldn’t do any good to argue, they would do what they wanted to anyway. She’d continue with her work and she’d
not
do theirs as well. It was ridiculous. They were grown women acting like they were in middle school! Sam certainly didn’t want to re-live middle or high school. It wasn’t terrible, but she certainly wasn’t one of the popular kids. As a result, she occasionally got picked on and teased, but she had a feeling that Courtnee was a pro at making others feel small.

Sam worked hard for the next hour. She’d finished her side of the barn and had even laid down fresh hay. She’d really gotten the hang of the mucking the stalls thing. Since she was finished with her portion of the task, and she was really thirsty, she decided to go around the back of the house where she’d seen a water pump. Perhaps she’d get herself some water. She was hot and tired and she knew she probably smelled horrible.

She walked around the barn to the pump at the back of the house. She didn’t see anyone around. Sam pumped some water into her hands and slurped it up. Man, was it good. The water must be coming from deep within the ground because it was ice cold. By the time Sam was finished refreshing herself, she was wet from almost head to toe. She’d splashed water onto her face and it had dripped down onto the front of her shirt. She felt much better and could even manage a smile. The water felt so good evaporating from her skin. She turned around to go back to the barn and almost collided with a woman that was standing behind her.

“Oh, excuse me, I didn’t see you there,” Sam said breathlessly.

“Who are you?” the woman asked with hardly any inflection in her tone.

Sam couldn’t tell if she was mad or irritated or some other emotion. She decided it’d be best not to antagonize her.

“I’m Sammi,” she responded, remembering her “new” name for while she was on the show. “Uh, I was working in the barn and finished up and thought I would come and get a drink…um…I’m sorry if I’m not supposed to be here, I didn’t know.”