Endless List of Possible OCs - Beth McAde
Dancing with Fire
Bumping into a celebrity was the last thing on Beth McAde’s mind when she was racing through the crowds to find a missing racehorse…having him come to work on her family ranch even further.
Nick Jonas has been having troubles ever since the band broke up. While his brothers flourished he found himself obsessing, unable to write a song without them and wondering if he could really go it alone. It was only when he began replacing performing with partying, writing with drinking, that his manager decided to step in.
Rehab would cause too much press attention but a remote Canadian Ranch specialising in helping damaged horses overcome their battles seemed perfect.
After first impressions not going too well Beth isn’t keen on having an extra, seemingly useless, body taking up space on the ranch when all she needed to do was work.
Yet the two of them are hurting - him from the loss of his band and her from the loss of her father - and maybe they could be more help to one another than they realise.
Small excerpt below
“Okay we got a code red.”
Beth sighed as she stopped in her tracks and unclipped the radio from her belt, raising it to her lips and pushing her hair from her face “If this is a joke I won’t be happy Jack.”
“No joke Mac, Dagger’s Point is missing.”
The small part of her which had truly believed it was a practical joke was downtrodden and disappointed but the adrenaline surrounding the situation spurred her on. Turning on her heel she plucked one of the spare head collars from the side and clipped the radio back onto the belt “What the fuck happened?” she called as she flew past Jack rolling her eyes as he sent her a shrug. With a racehorse worth hundreds of thousands of dollars on the loose she would have thought the team’s main stable hand would have at least shown a little more enthusiasm to help her find him.
Jack hadn’t been much help ever since she had touched down in New York and arrived on his yard earlier on in the week. Not only was he ready to give up on Dag’s career, ready to ship him off to be retrained in a different discipline, but he didn’t really believe in Beth’s way of doing things.
He still didn’t fully believe, though he had become slightly more tolerable, and she knew he wouldn’t until Dagger crossed that finish line in first place.
Pausing she took a moment to breathe as she tightened her ponytail and glanced around the busy area, horses were being walked, people were rushing everywhere and Beth was actually going to kill Ali.
It was one hundred percent her older sister’s fault she was there. If it had been up to Beth she would have turned down the job and she’d be back at home helping to do all of the work which was in desperate need of being done. She wouldn’t be dodging through racegoers trying to find an escapee racehorse she’d be fixing fences or working with Saxon.
“It’ll bring in good money!” had been Ai’s argument when the call had first come in “Getting your skills out there beyond this little town!”
She had stuck to her guns at first, remaining stubborn as she rolled her eyes every time the subject had been brought up, but, as predicted by everyone, Beth had caved. Not because the money was enough to get them the new barn they needed or because it had the potential to bring in more highly paying work or even because Ali had asked her to.
She’d caved as soon as she had seen the horse.
He was a gorgeous chestnut thoroughbred standing at 16 hands high glowing with health and perfectly defined muscle. He was fast, he was agile, he was trained by some of the top American trainers…he just refused to stay in any kind of enclosed space. Stables, horseboxes, starting gates had all been no-gos until he’d spent a week in Beth’s company.
And now he was missing. She’d told them he needed a well spaced stall with plenty of sunlight to stay in until his race but they’d insisted his assigned one was set in stone…
“Ouft!”
A pair of arms grasped onto and steadied her as she collided with another body “Whoa watch where you’re going!” he exclaimed scowling down to his, expensive looking, suit jacket which was now dusted with horsehair and mud from Beth’s own jacket.
“I’m sorry. Gotta go!” she replied attempting to rush around him only for her hand to be grasped hold of as she was pulled back around “Please let go of me I need to be somewhere.”
“Me too,” he said with a shrug “Only now I’m all dirty.”
“Your problem not mine now I’ve really-”
“Do you work here?” his eyes fell to the polo shirt she was wearing where her name was embroidered just below her collarbone (another one of Ali’s brilliant ideas) “Beth is it? Is there, like, a manager I can talk to about this situation?”
She rolled her eyes and tugged back her hand “If you do not stop distracting me this situation will get a whole load worse,” she said backing away and turning to head in the direction she had been running.
“You’ve ruined my suit?!”
“I’m not from around here but I’m sure you have a number for a decent dry cleaners!” she called over her shoulder, throwing him a wave “Hey make sure to bet on Dagger’s Point! He’ll help you pay your bill!”
She didn’t think anything more of her encounter as soon as he was out of her sight and her focus was back on Dag. She hadn’t spent a week in New York, away from her family’s busy Canadian ranch, working tirelessly to help control Dag’s fear just to be distracted by a handsome guy in a suit.
“There you are,” she said with a smile as she rounded the next corner, ducked around a few barriers (dodged past more than enough security by flashing her Access All Areas badge) and came face to face with Dagger’s Point “Do you not remember what we talked about?” she asked as she slowly took a step forward and he spooked slightly on the spot “You love to race D and to race you gotta stay in your stall so we can get you ready for the track.”
It hadn’t taken her long coax him into his headcollar so she could lead him around the back of the stalls he’d escaped from to get him tacked up and ready to race. Too look at him, with the friendly sparkle to his eyes and the reassuring way he nudged her hand with his velvety soft nose, it was almost as though he was a perfectly tempered riding school horse. He trudged behind her, reaching out to nudge her hip every now and then, the entire time they walked along the long path back to his stall.
It was his temperament which had set him apart from all the other racehorses she had met in her life. He wasn’t too highly strung or hyper his energy was controlled to doing what he loved to do; race.
Which was why it took her even less time to watch him cross the finish line in first place.
“Nice tip.”
Beth turned around at the sound of the oddly familiar voice behind her, moving away from where Dag’s team were celebrating she arched an eyebrow when she noticed the guy from earlier on stood behind her “Nice new jacket.”
He shrugged “I always bring a spare.”
Remembering the fuss he had made about the little spot of dirt she’d accidentally passed over to him when they’d collided she rolled her eyes “And do you always throw a diva fit over nothing?”
He smirked as he glanced up to her from the betting slips he was holding in his hands “I came over here to thank you for making me a shit load of money not to be insulted.”
“That’s a pity,” she said with a shrug “Because I tend to only communicate in insults.”
He still had that lopsided smirk on his face as he stepped closer and held his hand out for her to shake “Nick,” he said as she tentatively accepted the shake and placed her hand in his “I figure I owe you a drink for the winnings I’m about to collect.”
“Can’t,” she replied as she took her hand back and placed it into the pocket of her jeans “I’m heading home on the redeye tonight. I’m saying goodbye to Dags then I’m off.”
His eyebrows twitched into a frown “You’re saying goodbye to a horse?”
“A horse who just won you a what was it? Shit load of money?” she asked with a smile as he shifted slightly beneath her gaze “You’re welcome,” she added in a whisper before she turned back to stand beside Jack.
“Do you even know who that is?” he asked her out of the corner of his mouth as she leaned forward to take one of the chocolates Dags’ trainer was offering out with a smile of gratitude.
She thought for a second as she straightened up, glancing across to Jack she shrugged “Nick or something,” she replied “All I know is I probably owe him the total of a very expensive dry cleaners bill yet it’s more than likely I’ll never see him again.”