Summer
“What do you think, not so bad?”
Gabby wiped sweat from her brow before casting a dubious look at her sister.
“The sun is an inch from the Earth, I just saw a literal tumbleweed blow by, and you’ve got dust all over your jeans Fleur, how could it be any worse?” Even in the shade of the long porch, wrapping the house, with lazy ceiling fans spins overhead she felt like she was melting.
“It’s summer,” Fleur dismissed, she was trying her hardest to be positive, so Gabby couldn’t help but sprinkle a bit of pessimism on the whole ordeal. They were sisters after all.
“It's May.” Fleur let that observation roll off her like the sweat beading up on her neck. Gabby loved her sister, but if this first impression of her new hobby was anything to go by she would not be visiting often.
“Come on, I’ll introduce you to the ‘corns.” Gabby cocked an unamused eyebrow at Fleur’s self satisfied look.
“You sound like a hick.” She told her. Little clouds of dust puffed up around her boots, and the blistering Texas sun lit her silver hair like a beacon. “I think I’m good!” Gabby called, having no intention of stepping into the oven that was apparently a late spring norm in this hellscape. Her heels were not made for this terrain, and the reddish dust coating her sister’s simple clothes would not do for her far more fashionable and expensive attire.
“Come on~” Fleur cajoled, turning to face her, “you can’t just sit around the house all day!” She could, and had every intention of doing so. She did not know what came over her when she decided to head across the Atlantic to see this place, she knew about Texas, well enough to know it wasn’t for her at least.
She wondered if she could get her father to change her portkey to tomorrow.
“Really, I think I’m good.” Gabby told her, not moving from the wicker rocking chair.
In the distance a trail of dust was rising, she squinted in that direction and made out a lone figure on unicorn back. She looked over at her sister and saw Fleur’s brow furrowed in annoyance.
“Who’s this then?” She asked, and watched Fleur’s mood sour a little more.
“Luc, he’s the main ranch hand.”
“And we don’t like Luc?” She surmised.
“Luc’s fine…”
“But?”
“The unicorns like him more than me.” She admitted and Gabby snorted.
Said rancher approached, and Gabby squeaked and moved chairs as an errant breeze carried the dust from his arrival her way.
“Luc, this is my sister, Gabrielle.” Fleur said in English, and Gabby put on a smile as she held in a sigh. The figure had dismounted it’s steed, a giant horned horse that had the oddest patterning, like a calico cat, she’d never seen it’s like on a beast this size. She moved to the edge of the porch, unwilling to step out of it’s shade but figuring at least a modicum of politeness was warranted. This was her sister’s employee now, and if they were all being honest with themselves, probably the person actually responsible for getting work done around here.
“Howdy ma’am.” The country bumkin said in a rich baritone, tipping his white hat to her, then he looked up and pulled down his bandana and Gabby could only gape at the man she saw.
Maybe Texas wasn’t so bad afterall.
Cinder
“Storm’s rollin’ in,” Luc’s low voice called from the porch, disturbing Fleur and Gabby’s afternoon break. Fleur was on her feet, muttering a string of expletives in French, and was a few steps away before she seemingly remembered her sister.
“We have to round up the free-rangers,” she offered in explanation before moving toward the door. Gabby looked at her cold coffee, mostly just a pile of half-dissolved sugar at this point, and followed on a whim.
“I’ll get the stables ready,” Fleur was saying when Gabby caught up to them near the barn. Luc was leading his dappled mare Calli out of a stall. She cocked an eyebrow at the general urgency of the two, particularly the usually easy going Luc.
Calli came over and bumped her shoulder with her head, earning narrowed eyes for the two of them from Fleur.
“Come on girl,” Luc urged, giving the reins a light tug, and Gabby walked with him back out into the rapidly cooling afternoon to encourage the unicorn to follow.
“What are free-rangers?” she asked as he checked buckles on the saddle.
“Couple of the ‘corns don’t take much to people,” he said, using that awful abbreviation that made the pair of them sound twice as country to Gabby’s ear. “We let ‘em roam the ranch, but if the weather gets too bad it’d be best to have ‘em stabled.”
She looked off to the east, where towering thunderheads had sprung up seemingly from nowhere. The cloud cover that morning had been patchy and fluffy white, lazily strolling through the sky. These were anything but lazy, tall and billowing and deep gray bordering purple in their hearts. A fitful wind gusted into her, making her sway back, and it was cold, at least fifteen degrees down from an hour ago.
Luc hauled himself up into the saddle, eyes already searching the treeline on the horizon, he turned back to say something to Gabby but stalled when he found her hand extended up toward him.
“We ain’t liable to beat the rain,” he warned and she shrugged.
“I want to help.” Luc smiled at that, a little furtive thing that set off the butterflies in her stomach in an annoying way.
“What do you say girl?” Calli turned to inspect Gabby with a solitary black eye and then sidestepped closer. Luc took it for the acquiescence it was and hauled Gabby up onto the saddle behind him. “Hold on tight!” he said and then coaxed his calico steed into a gallop, much faster than the few rides she’d been taken on before.
They did not beat the rain.
Across the fields, just past half-way to the copse of trees that concealed the watering hole, the drops began. There were two skittish unicorns huddled under the protection of the canopy near the edge of the clearing. Gabby jumped down first, to make it easier for Luc to dismount, and not for the first time she was grateful for her sister talking her into practical boots. Even if the embroidered heeled ones had been somewhat cute for a cowboy boot.
Luc approached the two animals quickly, confident but careful not to spook them, he had a way with the beasts that neither Fleur nor Gabby could match so she stayed back with the one that had decided to like her. These two were more scarred than the average unicorn they showed on the tours, and they tossed their manes in agitation as Luc sidled up to them, but he went carefully and calmed them to the point that he could pat their heads and send them off to the barn with a gentle word.
Back in the saddle, and out into the pastures, the rain began in full. Gabby had spent long enough on the ranch to know how these storms went, intense but usually short lived, or at the very least sporadic. They were in the height of the downpour at the moment, and even pressed into Luc’s back she was soaked to the bone in a matter of seconds. The unicorn and rider were unperturbed though, trotting along at a reduced rate for fear of muddy potholes in the terrain, but pressing forward nonetheless.
“How many more?” Gabby called. They had been out for fifteen minutes now and sent another three Fleur’s way since the initial two.
“Just one!” Luc answered, having to yell because the gusts at their back wanted to carry his words away from her.
“There!” Gabby called, catching sight of an ashen pelt to the right in the trees. Luc pulled up on the reins and directed Calli over, but he stopped her a good ways out from the trembling animal and hopped down.
“Cinder’s skittish,” he explained, “don’t much want for company, had a brush with poachers when she was a youngin’. I’m fixin’ to approach, best you wait here.” Gabby nodded and he set off slowest of all, maintaining eye contact but doing his best to diminish himself in demeanor.
The rain let up a bit, the stinging sideways torrent petered off to a steady drum, but lightning still split the sky regularly, sending great loud peels of thunder across the land. She had never seen Luc struggle so much with a unicorn, she’d allowed the approach, and he’d managed to get a hand on her neck to pat reassuringly but the gray mare was obstinate in her refusal to move.
She almost fell when Calli bumped her in the back with the side of her head, she did stumble a step forward before looking back. The animal tossed her head, horn arcing in Luc’s direction, and Gabby cocked an eyebrow at the intelligent beast.
“What am I supposed to do?” she asked and the unicorn turned her head to nudge Gabby with her neck again. “He said to wait here.” She only got an unamused deadpan look from one black eye and as odd as it was she found herself pacing nervously toward the trees, unwilling to push the issue and truly lose an argument with a glorified horse.
The last free range unicorn eyed her approach, and Gabby’s limited knowledge of unicorn temperament told her that she wasn’t in immediate danger. Luc’s ministrations had calmed the beast greatly by this point, though her hooves were still dug in resolutely. On closer inspection, the uniform gray of her coat was revealed to be spotted with whites and blacks, but the most prominent feature of the unicorn was the sawed off stump of a horn on her head. It choked up Gabby in a surprising way, as she generally looked at her sister and boyfriend's animal charges as mildly endearing pets at best.
Cinder spotted her approach before Luc, but didn’t bolt or take an aggressive stance. Luc cast her a worried look when he noticed, but was busy muttering low platitudes to the animal so she wouldn’t spook. Gabby approached in the same way she’d seen Fleur and Luc do, from the side slightly to stay in the animal’s line of sight, but hands up and open, holding their gaze.
The weary unicorn allowed her to approach and Luc blinked dumbly at her when she managed to get a hand on the trembling neck of the scared animal.
“I’ll be damned,” Luc whispered, watching Cinder eye her hesitantly before bumping her shoulder with its cheek. “You ready to come in, girl?” He asked next and she gave a snort and toss of the head but then took one step forward.
Gabby had never ridden a unicorn without Luc, definitely never bareback, but when they reached the treeline and Cinder caught sight of Calli backlit by a peel of lighting she stalled again and something compelled her to act.
“Come on Cinder, it’s okay,” she told the unicorn, and then, with an absolutely dumbfounded Luc watching, she took a quick step and a skip and threw her leg over Cinder’s back. Using her arms across shoulders to get herself into something like a riding position. “What?” she asked Luc self consciously, because he was gaping at her with a literal open mouth.
“I- Nothing, come on,”
he said, as the rain picked back up again and Calli pawed at the mud in irritation.
They had to move slowly, because Gabby lacked a saddle and didn't feel too comfortable grabbing fistfuls of mane, but they plodded back to the barn amid the storm. Cinder looked less than pleased with her little stall next to Calli, but she didn’t fight them when they herded her in. She leveled a steady gaze at Gabby once situated, and again acting on instinct she reached out to pat her brow before turning to leave.
Luc was staring at her back when she turned, but he quickly averted his gaze, cheeks reddening. She frowned at him, taking in his awkwardly shifting and blushing form.
“What’s your problem?” She asked “don’t tell me you’re going to start acting all jealous like my sister.”
“N-no,” he stammered, inspecting the surrounding stalls. “We should probably get changed.” She looked down and saw her soaked clothes plastered to her body, white shirt revealing the black of her bra beneath, she smirked.
“You’re my boyfriend doofus,” she teased, using her favorite Americanism picked up from Harry. “You’ve seen it already.” She didn’t give him a chance to respond, just pulled him down for a kiss as thunder rumbled outside.
Brisket
Gabby lingered by the barn entrance, holding her hands behind her back and doing her best to look cute in the oven of a noonday sun. She'd raided her sister's closet for a pair of jeans, and artfully remodeled them with a pair of scissors. Shirt sleeves rolled up to the elbow, and buttoned low, furthered the look and it all came together with boots and hat and two days tan.
She was adorable.
She knew it, the fashion world knew it, and by the gods this oblivious ranch hand would too. Today, her third day in Texas, would be the one.
Luc Bennet was in trouble.
Since her first introduction to the illusive man, riding up to the house and into her dreams atop unicorn-back on her first afternoon in Texas, he'd proven maddeningly absent. She asked after him, casually, as she and Fleur went into town for dinner that night. Fleur was distracted and didn't seem to notice Gabby's subtle but keen interest in her answer as she told of his afternoon of work and usual dinner haunts from something called a "food truck".
The next day Gabby woke to an empty house.
Fleur was already out in the barn, her note said, but she'd be back in around ten. Gabby checked the grandfather clock by leaning back in her kitchen chair to peer into the living room. The screen door banged closed out of sight, punctual as ever, as the clock began to toll ten chimes.
From afar Fleur actually looked kind of cute, her jeans very maman-ish, but hugging good curves nonetheless. She had red clay dust on the tip of her nose and a smudge of it along her jaw on the right side of her face.
She was Veela, and sister to Gabby, so she was stunning; just in a more FarmersOnly calendar model way.
The effect was somewhat spoiled by her approach, bringing with her the strong scent of manure. Gabby wrinkled her nose as Fleur swept into the room asking:
"Have you eaten?"
Gabby looked to the table, an array of crepes and toppings on display and magically preserved.
"Not yet," she said, mouth beginning to water, "and I can't with you stinking up the place."
She waved her hand in front of her nose exaggeratedly to soften the words, and gave Fleur a playful smile when she narrowed her eyes.
"Okay, okay," Fleur shook her head a bit, moving toward the fridge now that Gabby was edging toward the table. "I can tell where I'm not wanted."
She pulled a pitcher of lemonade from the fridge and poured two glasses, "I think i will be done by lunch today, we can go into town and do some shopping if you like?"
Gabby pursed her lips, eyeing the second glass in Fleur’s hand.
"Yeah, maybe," she said, and Fleur departed, leaving her to her breakfast creations.
Gabby joined Fleur in the barn an hour or so later, eager to look helpful and doing the best she could with overalls and a sports bra. The selection was slim.
Luc was not there, and Fleur was delighted by the prospect of help. She didn't seem to take Gabby's clear displeasure as a hint, and set her about brushing Unicorns. Something Gabby did only because it looked as if Fleur was shoveling straw covered shit out of stables and Gabby would sooner die.
After a few hours of work they were, in fact, done but lunch, but Gabby smelled of unicorn hair and poop. She stalked off when Fleur declared them done, and she didn't venture out from her triple bath until well after sundown.
Today was the day though.
She had the outfit, she had the tan, she smelled of lilac and gooseberries, and Luc Bennet had walked into that barn not ten minutes ago. So she stood outside, looking quite cute, ready to make her move.
“Luc! There you are,” she said, all grins and a bouncing skip up to his side as he slipped out of the large building. He came up short at the sight of her, between his pale hat and red bandana crossing his face, she could only see his eyes.
They were wide at the sight of her.
“Ms. Delacour-” he said, and she smiled at the hesitancy in that smooth low baritone. He was so cute.
“Gabby, please,” she purred, and she noted with glee that his cheeks were mirroring the bandana as he pulled it down to rest around his neck.
“G-Gabby,” he repeated, tipping his hat to her even as his eyes dutifully avoided her. She’d seen them sweep her full attire in their widened shock in that first moment, and it had put him on the back foot, so cute. “What can I do for ya, Ms. Gabby?”
She reached over and put a hand on his arm, giving him a little shove but keeping her grip firmly on his rock hard bicep. He looked down at the point of contact, and then up toward her, finally meeting her eye again.
Boys she thought, so cute, so easy.
“I’m hungry,” she informed him, “what's a girl gotta do to get some lunch around here?”
He took in her big innocent eyes, and probably was not consciously aware of the gentle squeeze she gave his arm, but it disarmed him nonetheless and he smiled at her.
“That can be arranged ma’am.” She was barely aware of his exaggerated drawl, his lazy half smile had brought out a dimple in the smile line of his left cheek and it did funny things to her pulse.
-o-o-o-
"There's no way I'm eating that," Gabby told him flat out.
He’d suggested a ride down the lane to this food truck she’d heard Fleur mention. Gabby was not quite up to riding a unicorn, even if the cowboy’s calico stead was mild mannered as far as she’d seen it, so he'd gone alone.
She sat on a picnic table in the shadow of a towering oak tree, boots up on the bench. He hadn't taken more than ten minutes to get back to her, bounty in lap.p
"C’mon Ms. Gabby, give it a try." He was standing at her side, just far enough away to be casual, just close enough she could reach out and brush her leg against him if she tried.
"I can see the fat from here," she deadpanned, looking at the afternoon sun glint off fat marbled into the beef cuts he had on little paper trays.
"That's what makes it so good!" he insisted, and he laughed for the first time that she’d heard. It was worse than the dimple for her train of thought, and she just listened for its duration, a little dazed.
He was holding a small cut of the stringy meat in his fingers, liquid fat running down into his palm sickeningly. She reached out and took the morsel, reluctantly, because that damnable dimple made her heart skip a beat in the wake of his laugh.
She got the bite from her hand to her mouth as fast as possible, and without thinking, she reached out and wiped her greasy palm on his knee with a shudder. She chewed and the brisket exploded in her mouth, washing the smoky taste of char across her tongue, the meat melted, cutting the strong smoke flavor with the gentle flood of the fatty juices.
Her eyes went wide, and she only contained a moan of delight through sheer will.
It was damn good. That was going to be a problem.
His cheeks went a little pink, and she realized she was still gripping his knee from her emergency degreasing move. She grinned at him, and left her hand there.
“Okay, that was pretty good,” she told him, tone playful and clearly only half-impressed.
“Okay,” he said, catching on, and his easy return banter was a pleasant surprise after so many shy blushes. “I suppose I’ll have to just finish both of these.”
“Well-” she was quick to contradict, “I’ll have mine, just to save you a trip back up there for a replacement lunch.”
His eyebrow quirked, dimple reappearing, and he passed her the already grease stained white and red checkered paper tray.
“Though we could’ve done with some cutlery,” she observed dryly.
"Nah, use your hands!” he said, and she recognized the challenge in his eyes. “That's what makes it finger lickin’ good!"
Oh she thought, bless his heart.
"Are you offering?" she asked with a salacious smile, and it was her turn to flash dimples as his face reddened. Confident that her flirting had been received and, given time, returned- she reached over to capture his wrist and raise his brisket-y fingers to her lips.
With a challenge in her eyes, she held him in a stare, and Luc knew he had likely met his match and more. She took his seasoned digits into her mouth and cleaned them herself, never breaking that look they shared, and she smiled as his whole body shook.
He was in serious trouble.