Page 20 of His Wilde Little (Saddle Up #2)

I definitely don’t think consuming all that pie was a good move, but I had to be sure about what future competition was going to provide for the events, and I was pretty much a shoo-in for a lot of the sweet bakes in Pineberry.

The journey back to the ranch was a bumpy one. Lorenzo in his best Daddy attempt at comfort brushed the back of his hand against my upper arm and whispered about how it would be just like on the back of the horse.

“If you’ve got any sick in you, best to blow it out right now.”

If I hadn’t burst into laughter, I might’ve began throwing up. “Blow it out,” I repeated in a giggle. I’d never heard that phrase before, but I’d be using it from now on.

“As long as it’s outside the van, you’ll be fine, I’m sure.”

“The last thing I need is my mom to give me a whack around the head for stinking up the van with vomit.” The topic alone was bringing up nausea from a time when I had thrown up in the back of a car on the way somewhere—my mind told me it was a vacation, but the memory of vomit told me it could’ve have been something so pleasant.

Daddy’s hands brushing against mine were actually relaxing.

I sucked in air and blew it out slowly taking slow deep breathes as I tried my best to drive on.

I wasn’t exactly going to cause anyone harm on the road; there wasn’t anyone around on the slip of road toward the ranch.

Unless Diane was on her way down, which I highly doubted.

As soon as we got back to the ranch, I opened the driver’s side door and whoop, my head dropped over the side and my guts came up, all over the stone pebble driveway. Lorenzo patted my back from his seat and as I lifted my head, my mom was stood watching. She cocked a hand on her hip and sighed.

“Eyes are bigger than your stomach,” she said. “I mean, I’m assuming all of this comes from eating at the new bakery. Yes, I saw the way your eyes lit up when I mentioned it earlier.”

Lorenzo left the van, rushing around the side to meet her.

“I might’ve overindulged,” I said, hacking vomit from the back of my throat. “Sue me.”

She laughed. “One day, you’ll say that, and someone will,” she said. “Lucky for you, I don’t think I have any grounds for it.”

Staring at the vomit, a beige chunky mess on the ground. “I guess that means I won’t be able to do any of that horse stuff today.”

They both stood now, facing me, hands on hips.

“No, you’re going to be getting on the horse,” he said. “We’ll just have to flush the vomit out first. Let’s get you started with sipping some water, and then maybe some electrolytes, if you’ve got them. If not, I think I have some sachets in the guesthouse.”

It was not fun to be attacked right now, I’d just thrown up, but I knew better than anyone else.

Throwing up was not going to get me out of doing work.

I’d tried plenty of times as a kid, then as a teen, and I’d grown to accept that work came first, although I didn’t know if Lorenzo would offer me the same strong pat on the back for work ethic my parents did.

“It’s not like you’re ill,” Lorenzo added. “You just ate too much.”

“Oh my god, whose side are you on?” I asked.

“Looks like we’re on the same side,” my mom said. “Could you give me a hand with the things inside? We can let Jace clean this mess up.”

A longing stare, I wanted to be held, even if this was all my fault. “Or someone could help me.”

“I’ll get Olivia,” she said.

Lorenzo bit the back of his lips together, seemingly hiding his laughter.

“Fine, I’ll do it myself.” I was already feeling better, although the smell of sick was right in front of me, and lingering in the back of my throat. “But I—” I proclaimed loudly and stopped myself. I was about to say something nobody, but Lorenzo should hear.

Fifteen minutes later, a bucket of warm water washed the sick away, and I’d cleared my nose and throat out of that vomit smell and feel. The one that cloyed in the senses. It wasn’t something I liked to experience.

“I know you’re going to be able to do this, in fact, I am so damn sure of it. And you know what’s at stake,” Lorenzo said when we were alone together on the way up to his place. He carried the big box in his arms, the one that he was still not going to let me peek at before I put in the work.

“Ok, but I want to be held as little spoon for so long tonight,” I told him.

“When do I not hold you all night as little spoon?”

“Even if it gets too warm.”

“Well, when it’s too warm, I’m not sure what I can do about that,” he said with a smirk. “I know one thing that can be done, but it’s mostly something that you can do.”

I glanced around as we got closer to the guesthouse. The road was empty, but that didn’t mean people weren’t watching. “You mean, you want me to get naked?” I asked in a whisper. “You know I like to sleep in my onesies.”

The urge to pounce on him when he gave me that look, raising his brows and winking at me. I was going to become feral if he did that again to me. I would’ve also flicked the back of his hat off, but I didn’t want to anger the cowboy gods by getting his Stetson dirty.

Inside the guesthouse, I waited until Lorenzo had put the wrapped box down before I jumped into his arms. My breath all minty fresh and my teeth brushed twice, he didn’t have to worry about it—except he did. Avoiding the kiss I tried to plant on his lips.

“Come on now,” he said. “You’ve got to save all that energy.”

“I don’t wanna.”

“And I’ll wait until after you’ve properly eaten something before kissing ya,” he said, kissing my neck instead. “Not to be rude or nothing, but I think you should be standing for a little while. At least until we know all that stuff is out of your system.”

I let my legs go limp from around his waist and stood straight, brushing my jeans off. “I wasn’t distracting you, Daddy,” I said, pouting up at him. “I pwomise.”

“Aw, a little baby talk, almost like it’ll solve everything.”

“Does it?” I asked with a couple big blinks.

“Almost.” He took the back of my hand and kissed it.

“But if you wanted to impress me, you’d be sipping some more water, and let me get you that electrolyte stuff.

It’s good at keeping you hydrated, which you know, is going to be very important when you’re out on that horse with a little flop sweat setting in from being so close to them horses. ”

He read me like a book, which was nice, because I knew it was probably a picture book and not one of those big wordy ones with zero pictures, like absolutely none at all, who would do that? And I don’t mean those pictures you see in non-fiction manuals either, they were just as bad.

“What if I don’t want your electricity water?” I asked, giggling at him.

“That’s tough tiddies,” he said. “You’re getting it, one way or another. I’m not having you actually getting sick.”

“Fine.”

I sat on the sofa while he prepared me the electricity water. It was this orange fruity water thing that made my mouth pucker and my eyes screw slightly from the sourness. I drank the entire thing, and seconds later, I thought I was able to see sounds.

“You’re gonna get stomachache,” he said. “And you’re not going to get out of this. You’ve been so good with the horses so far, the natural next step is to actually get on the back of one of them and you know, actually ride. You’ll feel a lot better once you do.”

He sounded just like my mom when I was younger, before going to the dentist, telling me I had to see someone because of the toothache, and it would feel way better once I did, even if they had to remove it.

We sat on the sofa together for a moment. Lorenzo stroked my head and his hands travelling down my back with his gentle strokes and tickles, it was nice, although he was buttering me up for the eventual climax that was me climbing onto a horse and seeing whether fight or flight took place.

“You’re gonna love the present,” he said.

“How much will I love it?”

“A whole lot.”

I didn’t know what would be worth it, but these head scratches and the way he was so soft in my ear were helping. “Can I get a small clue?”

“Yes.”

Nearly spinning my body to him in excitement, I looked him in his eyes with a big smile. “Ok, I’m ready.”

“The clue is, you’re gonna love it.”

The smile vanished. “That’s cruel. I wanted to know something.” I trusted him with the fact that this was going to be something I loved. I tried to dissect the appearance of the box itself, but it could’ve been anything in there, and that was throwing me off for any potential guesses.

“Come on then, fresh air and a walk to the horses will do you some good as well,” he said, giving my knee a squeeze. “You’ve come a long way since I saw you the first time almost recoil like a slug when you were giving Mary those sugar cubes.”

He was right. I’d come a long way, and I was just full of nerves, but it wasn’t made any better dragging this whole thing out.

“Let’s do it,” I said, standing upright. My stomach much lighter and nearly knocking my center of gravity. Lorenzo took my hand. “It’s like riding a rollercoaster, you know, standing in line, the anxiety is there, but then once you’re on, you’re on, and then you just need to ride it out.”

Lorenzo stood beside me, rubbing my back and chuckled. “That’s a good comparison, although I’m a sucker for a big rollercoaster, haven’t been on one in a long while, but I do love them.”

I told myself to think about the surprise gift which wasn’t a surprise at all. I knew it was going to be something I could use for my little play, or at least, I hoped.

We walked together toward the field the horses were in. There was a lot of talk about which horse I would ride. Mary was old, but she was definitely still capable, and the other three were all a bit too wild.

“It’s your decision,” he said. “Mary has a better temperament, but she might also be a little bit annoyed. Ashwind is a lot better around you, I think. Coal is probably the one most likely to buck, and Bramble is still a little week.”

“Which one would you choose?”