Page 25 of His Wilde Little (Saddle Up #2)

I would’ve gnawed my arm off to let him stay in bed, snoring.

I woke before him and just stared, watching him, my stomach growling for keeping it from eating breakfast. It took around ten minutes before I was able to pull my arm out from Jace, and even then, he woke, huffing and shuffling around on the bed.

“What time is it?” he asked in his cute hoarse voice.

“Time for some breakfast,” I whispered. “Go back to sleep, I’ll make some porridge oats.”

“I’m so tired.”

Well, we had both been having a lot of fun last night, it was no surprise he didn’t have the energy right now. “You take another ten minutes to sleep.”

Yesterday, Jace had been through a lot, so it made sense he needed a little extra time to sleep it off in bed. I was just glad he got to do that in my bed, making my sheets smell just like him. IT was that sweet musk from him that I wanted to bottle up and inhale whenever possible.

In a pair of long johns, I headed to the kitchen, and just as I reached for the porridge oats in the cupboard, I caught myself smiling.

This is what my life looked like right now, with a cute guy, some fun play, and a ranch with so many animals, and not a single cow in sight.

The smile faded slightly, I knew it wasn’t my ranch, or my dream coming true, but I could imagine, and I could play pretend about it.

Before I could finish breakfast, Jace came into the kitchen, yawning and looking all adorable dressed in his onesie again. “You have maple syrup, right?” he asked as he took a big stretch.

“Think so,” I said. “You sit down, and I’ll bring a bowl over once it’s thickened up a little more. Ok.”

He nodded, yawning again. “Last night took it out of me. I don’t think I’ve ever been so tired.”

“For what it’s worth, you looked adorable,” I told him. “And you still do now. Of course.”

“Lorenzo,” he said, sitting at the table against the side wall of the kitchen. “I was thinking, I—”

I looked at him, apprehension in his eyes as he bit the inside of his lip and just stared. “I think I know what you’re going to say.”

“I don’t think you do.”

“I do think I know.”

He shook his head. “Nuh huh,” he continued. “Like, I don’t think you do.”

“We should tell your parents about us.”

He giggled. “Ok, maybe you do know what I was thinking.” He sighed.

“I know we were keeping this low key and secret, but I don’t want to keep this secret anymore.

I want you to come over for family dinner, and that way, I don’t have to sneak out in the middle of the night, and you don’t have to stay awake for me, waiting. ”

Those same points were being made in my own mind. “My argument against it is, maybe it’s too soon,” I said. “And maybe they’ll think I’m doing this like I’m a gold digger.”

He scoffed. “Ew, no. If anything, a relationship would make you stick around.”

“And what would this relationship look like?” I asked, nearly forgetting about the oats on the stove.

I quickly turned it off. “Think on that for a second while I—” I didn’t stir the bottom as I knew I’d burned it a little.

I poured the porridge into two bowls, and at the bottom, the darkened patch of oats I’d burned from a moment of distraction. “I hope this doesn’t alter the taste.”

“I’ll eat whatever you put in front of me,” he said. “As long as it’s covered in maple syrup, you know, just in case it needs a little help in hiding the burned taste.”

He had a point. The syrup would hide the burned taste, and I knew that from experience.

This was something I wanted to get comfortable with, something to feel.

It wasn’t like one of my books where the hero would swoop the other off their feet, and they would escape the horrible situation they were in to live their best lives together on a small plot of land they’d saved and sold everything off to purchase.

This was oddly deflating in the face of fiction.

“When did you want to bring this up to your folks?” I asked.

“You know, so I can make sure I’m wearing one of my good shirts.

” I had my day-to-day shirts, and then I had the stuff I would only wear for special occasions, like showing off my hard work at a livestock auction and events surrounding it, or meeting my new boss.

I’d never had to think about what I’d wear to meet the parents, especially since we’d already met.

Jace had said something but in the moment I lost to thought, none of those words went in. I just stared at him with a blank expression, a spoon with oats sliding off the side nearing my lips. “You didn’t hear a word I said, did you?”

“Can you say that again?” I asked.

“I think we should announce it today, like around the afternoon over lunch, something I can prepare and invite you to,” he said.

“Hope you don’t think this gets you out of getting back on the horse,” I said.

He scoffed and then grinned. “I was hoping it would lessen the amount of time I’d have to be on the horse, but fine.”

Under the table, I played footsie with his foot, trying to grab both his feet with mine. “And how are you feeling about yesterday?”

“Physically?” he asked, and then looked down at the bowl of oats. “I’m surprisingly not too achy, but I will say that I had an excellent stretcher-er.”

“A stretcher- er ,” I repeated. “I suppose I can take that title.”

He giggled. “Well, it is what you’ve been doing to me, and in the best possible way that is.”

As I stared at him, I wondered what people would think of us together officially.

I knew the town didn’t care at all, but eventually, I would have to take him back to Texas with me to meet my folks, even if that meeting was just for an hour in an afternoon, you know, something short and sweet, and not long enough for them to begin talking politics or their back and forth thoughts on gay rights that I had to grow up hearing over the dinner table.

“Well, looks like we’re going to have to get ready then,” he said. “If we leave it any later, the goats are actually going to try and bite us. They need to stick to their schedule.”

That went hand-in-hand with another thought, always being on the move, always being occupied, and never staying in one place for too long. That would all change, especially if this thing with Jace was the real deal. And maybe I could get used to experiencing all four seasons with him.

After breakfast, we got dressed. Jace went home for coffee and to let everyone know about the lunch plans he was cooking up.

I went out to the horses, a nervous anxiety spike in my belly, maybe from too much sweetness on my oats, or maybe it was because this was my first outed relationship.

Either way, I knew the only thing to calm me were the horses.

Coal was already looking out over his stall at me.

I spoke to him for what felt like hours, just expressing all my thoughts about the situation.

It wasn’t like he could tell anyone what I was saying, so I always felt the safest around them.

It was maybe the reason I liked horses so much anyway, because they were secret keepers, and I knew they wouldn’t judge me.

“There’s nothing else I can do but smile,” I said.

“Through it all. It might be the way the world is rewarding me for all the good work I’ve done, this thing with Jace.

” Or maybe they’d hate the idea, and hate me, especially since there was that kid who fell from the back of the horse. I felt awful about it still.

The squelch of mud underfoot caught my attention from the stable door as Jace approached with two thermoses filled with coffee.

He came over, trying to avoid the sodden parts of the soil, sighing and nearly stumbling.

“I bet you never had to deal with this, did you?” he asked, carrying out his juggling act.

“Well, it does rain, but you’re right, it’s never like that,” I told him.

The earth was so soft up here, I felt like I could dig my hand right into the dirt itself and without any rain, I felt like I could pull it right up and cover myself in it.

It wasn’t something I was planning on doing, but it was definitely a thought, like an inexpensive mud bath.

“So, are we’re taking the horses out to the field first, or milking the goats?”

“Horses,” I said. “Since we’ve got to take them one at a time. And they’ll be out there all day.”

I nodded. “I’m also thinking that there’s a good chance we could give them more space soon, when they begin to explore and gain more independence, I think they’ll need more open land to explore.”

“We have plenty of fields around for them, but might need to talk to my dad about that, or sister, they know what plans are in place for them,” he said with a shrug. “Actually, first, I think we should drink.” He handed me a thermos.

“Everything good?” I asked. “I mean, with the lunch plans.”

“Oh, yeah, they love that.”

“Then, why do you look a little down?”

He laughed. “I was just thinking about how everyone is going to know soon, and it’ll be nice. I mean, it’ll be incredible once everyone has been told, and we don’t have to actually worry about being caught or anything like that.”

“Aw, you were worried about getting caught?” I asked, teasing him. “Because from what I remembered, you were pretty fearless about the whole thing, coming out to me in the middle of the night.”

Coal huffed a little, reminding us he was there, and probably also wanting to be the first out. He was the only horse standing with his head over the stall. He was definitely trying to see if any of his friends were awake or watching over the place like a security guard.

As we guided the horses to the field, starting with Coal.

We spoke about what Jace was going to make and how he was going to announce it.

In some ways, it felt a little silly, like we were about to commit to a lifelong marriage, but in other ways, it felt right, because this was something we wanted.

I’d yet to fully taste a full meal he’d prepared, I’d tasted the baked goods, but they were always sweet, and a little too sweet sometimes for my teeth.

“You think anyone suspects us?” he asked. “Because I think my sister is probably going to take this the hardest.”

I chuckled. “I think your mom’s friend will take it the hardest.”

“Diane,” he laughed. “Oh my god, you. might be right about that. I definitely think she’s going to shed a tear, but fortunately for all of us, she’s not going to be there for lunch.”

“She’s always around, I’m surprised she won’t be around for lunch.”

He shrugged. “Well, Max isn’t going to be around either, but he doesn’t care what anyone does. In fact, he’ll probably ask when I’m moving out, and if he could knock a wall through to my room.”

“Your rooms are beside each other?” I asked.

“Technically, yes, but there’s also a linen closet between our rooms as well,” he said. “So, I never hear him or his loud ass music, and he never hears me, not like I’m ever even in my room because the work never ends here.” He added a little eye roll.

“So, you wanna move in with me immediately?” I asked. I wanted him to move in; I wanted him to be close to me at all times. I took his hand and held it, caressing my thumb across the back of it. “I hope you do.”

“Phew, I thought you were going to say something else.” He let out a chuckle and wiped his brow with his free hand. “They’re going to have a lot of questions as well, so just know, you don’t have to answer any of them.”

“The only question and answer I think they deserve is, do I like you, the answer being yes, and then, what are my plans with you, of which, I don’t think they’ll want to hear about all that.”

His hand clenched mine. “But I would.”

“Ok, well, then you’ll hear all about it. But not yet. You’ve got to wait as well.”

“Until when?”

“Until this is all official, I can’t let you in on all the things I want to do with you before we’re officially together.”

He clung to me, desperate to know all the little ideas I had.

All the things that I was trying to explore in my mind, he wanted in on it.

And I couldn’t blame him one bit, it was teasing at its finest, and to feel the way he wanted desperately to almost be part of me was something my soul had craved.

Human touch. And he gave me every single skin-to-skin feel I’d ever dreamed about from those books I’d read, almost on a loop.

“You like me, right?” he asked.

“Like you?” I asked, wrapping an arm around his back. “Let’s not get carried away.”

He gasped, pulling away. “Rude.”

I grabbed his hand, pulled him back into my chest and squeezed him in an embrace. “Of course, I like you, and I like you even more when you’re so close to me like this. I don’t want to let go of you, ever.”

As he moved around, our hats collided, almost knocking each other away. He giggled, slowly raising his head to mine and kissing me. “You don’t have to, except, when we’ve got to work.”

Mushing my lips back to his, I let out a slight vibrational hum letting our facial hair tickle against each other.

If there was ever a case to be made for us becoming one, it would’ve been through something like this.

The way our entire bodies reacted to one and other, like magnets, suctioned together through no outward force but the attraction we had.

And yet, it felt like it was too soon to say love , even if my heart and stomach were screaming it.