Page 35 of His Wilde Little (Saddle Up #2)

Livestock shows were my favorite part of living on the ranch as a kid.

I got to travel around the country with my dad and grandpa, and we’d go see all the animals.

This was when we were in the business of buying and selling, way before I realized as an adult they were just shuffling assets around and were in the same hole of debt they were now.

But they still had the same magic for me because of all the animals there, on show with the potential to come home with us.

And in the last couple of years, an opportunity for me to showcase some of my other skills, but I hadn’t been able to bake in the past since we’d stayed in hotels with no kitchenettes.

I was prepared this time.

For the event, it was my dad, Olivia, me, and Lorenzo.

My mom and Diane were making sure the ranch was being taken care of, and while Diane never came with us, she was taking a more active role in the ranch, specifically overseeing the construction workers building the new stable.

And my mom naturally had to oversee her.

We’d booked out an AirBNB house for the livestock show, it had a great oven, high speed internet, and it was a ten-minute drive away from the event in Houston, so we lucked out big time.

In the kitchen, we were having a bit of a team meeting. Olivia leading the charge.

“We are here to make some connections,” she began.

“The riding school opens this summer, fingers crossed, and we need to get word out about it. So, you can do your baking, but I want you all to be giving out these business cards.” She opened a small folder on the counter and hundreds of business cards spilled out.

“I’ve been working hard on the website, so you can direct them there if you need to, but give these out.

In fact, leave them around as well. We got a good deal on the cards. ”

“I’ll stay close to the horses, and maybe a little venture to see some of the guys get on those bulls. You know I always said—” he began, about to go on about how if his back was good, he’d have been out there winning medals on the back of those bulls.

Olivia finished the thought for him. “You’d be out there, getting gold.”

“Maybe I should. Might be like a chiropractor just blow my back out a bit,” he said as I let out a cackle of laugher. I never thought I’d ever hear my dad talk about having his back blown out. He probably had no idea what he’d just said. “What?”

“Dad, just don’t tell anyone else about having your back blown out,” Olivia said with a stern face.

I was nearly on the floor laughing, holding myself up by Lorenzo who was struggling to keep it together as well. It might’ve been all that time in the air or someone had given me laughing gas, but I couldn’t stop myself.

“Come on,” Lorenzo said, pulling me away. “We need to go buy your ingredients, and see my friend.”

I’d forgotten that we were doing that, suddenly very serious again.

Meeting one of his friends. I wondered if he’d drop anything about Lorenzo I didn’t know.

I was a little bit scared of the idea, but I knew it was going to be ok.

I’d also worried they were exes. I hadn’t asked, and he hadn’t said anything outright, but he was the first and only friend I’d heard about.

In the rental car, Lorenzo drove us all the way out to a superstore.

I had a list of things I needed for the two desserts I was going to make and then decide on the day which to submit.

In the superstore, I saw another guy, he was carried a stuffed teddy with him.

He was also accompanied by a certified cowboy —at least with the hat, boots, and that freshly off a horse walk. I wondered if that was him.

It wasn’t. I was nervous. Too nervous.

Lorenzo took my hand. “Come on,” he said.

“Aren’t you—scared people will see?”

“Listen, baby, people can look, people can stare and say mean things, but they’re just people,” he said. “They can’t touch our love.”

Just the touch of his hand was enough to reassure me. I needed my stuffed teddy though, and seeing the other guy with his gave me the confidence I needed to bring mine in future.

“Your list,” he said, tugging on my arm as we headed down a random aisle. “What did you need? We’ve got about an hour until we’re set to meet my friend. So, we should probably get through this all first.”

I pulled out a scrap of paper I’d written all the things I needed, including some metal pie trays. “Is your friend going to be coming to the livestock show?” I asked.

Lorenzo took one look at the list and sucked on his teeth. “Guess we should get a basket,” he said. “And I doubt Thomas will come to it; he’s probably not enjoying the sight of people doing what he wanted to do.”

“Thomas,” I said.

“Yeah, that’s his name.”

“You’ve never mentioned him by name,” I said.

He laughed. “That’s because I try not to talk about him.

I—” He pressed his lips together in a thin smile and nodded.

“I still feel a lot of guilt, even when he told me it was fine, I’m responsible for what happened to him.

If the world knew, I doubt your dad would be out there touting about my skills with the horses. ”

I took his hand again and caressed the back of it with my thumb. “And then they’d meet you, and they’d see how special you are,” I said. “But if they start flirting.”

“Relax, these guys, if they’re gay, are so deep in the closet that they only come out when they’re alone in the middle of nowhere,” he said.

“Is that a place in Texas, because I noticed a lot of funny named towns and stuff around,” I said.

“I saw one place called Comfort, Texas, apparently there’s a B whipped cream, sprinkles, cocoa dust, and even a crumbly stick thing of chocolate that sat on the bed of cream.

I got so many pictures of it and made sure to send it to my mom and the group chat. I knew they’d all be jealous.

His friend arrived with a slight limp, accompanied by a short woman dressed in double denim with her black hair pulled into a tight ponytail. She had a huge smile that almost seemed infectious.

“Lolo!” he said, and Lorenzo stood to give him a hug. “It’s been a while. This is Karina.”

“Nice to meet you,” he said. “This is Jace, his family own the ranch I’m at now in Vermont.”

“Vermont,” they said in unison.

“Nice to meet you too,” I said. “I was worried you—”

“In a wheelchair,” Thomas finished. “Nah, I was for a couple months but Karina helped me through it all. She works the reception desk at the place I was getting my leg rehab done.”

Lorenzo took a step back and sighed. “I’m so thankful you’re standing, walking even.”

“He’s put in a lot of work,” Karina said. “But he’s not going on anymore horses, ever again.”

“So, what are you doing now?” Lorenzo asked, sitting back beside me. “Last I heard, you weren’t at Dixon’s, so I assumed you were back with your folks.”

Thomas laughed. “Nope, not working at that ranch anymore, instead, I got a little insurance payout. I didn’t even know I had insurance, but I bought a laundromat. Those things are cash cows, and all I’ve got to do is restock the detergent and stuff.”

The fear that they’d had some intimate relationship had well and truly vanished from my mind.

And we spoke for over and hour. Lorenzo and Thomas shared their stories about working together, and I talked about pies.

Karina was keeping Thomas from the event and Thomas agreed it would’ve been like sitting him in front of an all you can eat buffet and telling him he couldn’t touch a thing.

Once we were back at the house, Lorenzo headed back out, telling me he was doing a quick scout of some horses for my dad.

All three of them had left the house, and it was the perfect condition to begin my work.

With my alpaca stuffy, Berty, propped up against a salt and pepper shaker, I had all the audience I needed to create magic.

There was some strong competition at Saddle Up, and I was going to throw my hat into the ring.

It was going to be much tougher than all the events I’d been part of in Pineberry, but like those events, I would put on my best confident smile and force myself to believe I’d already won.

Because I had, the judges just needed to eat one of the pies I made, and I had to decide which one to put forward.

Saddle Up was a huge event. There were plenty of other livestock shows and rodeo events that happened throughout the year, and I’d been to a lot of them, but this one was the one my father decided was the best, and by proxy, I’d also decided it.

It didn’t hurt that there were also a lot of unique animals here—most specifically, the alpacas.

With a couple of pies ready, they were just for tasting right now since the actual ribbon giving contest wasn’t for another couple of days, but that didn’t stop people from seeking out the judges and swaying them early with samples, getting feedback, then incorporating it.

It was an underhanded tactic, and I wouldn’t be caught doing that.

The following morning was the first day, and I went armed with Berty, my alpaca stuffy, he was my comfort and support. The first stop for me was the alpacas. There were two breeders there selling them for far too much money. But that didn’t stop me from going there to see them.

A woman at the metal fencing approach me, tipping her head and hat. “You in the business?” she asked with a big smile.

I looked around to see if she was talking to me, and since Lorenzo had stopped a couple fences away to look at some other animals, I knew she had to be talking to me. “What business?”

She laughed. “Alpacas.”

“I have two of them.”

She nodded to the small herd of them behind her, staring nonchalantly while chewing their way through grass and hay. “Is that made from their fibers?”

I’d been clinging to the alpaca under my arm so much I’d nearly forgotten it was there as my comfort support. “Yeah, we produce yarn with it. Obviously, not too much yarn because we only have the two.”

“Want to come inside and give these a feel?” she asked. “They’re all about ripe for collecting soon.”

They were so fluffy with all the fur, some of it falling over their eyes like a little fluffy mop. “Yeah, I’d love to.”

As I stroked the alpacas, too busy eating to even bother trying to spit, the woman told me all about their pedigree and how many competitions they’d won for their fibers.

It was the start of a sales pitch, and I had to listen to it all, knowing this trip wasn’t going to result in me getting any new friends for the ranch.

“I’ll have to swing back with my father, he does all the major buying,” I said, and before I left, one of the alpacas dipped its head to my arm where the teddy was, letting out a couple huffs to sniff. “Hope it doesn’t try taking it.”

“Oh no, these ones are curious, well-behaved as well,” she said, more to her sales pitch. “If you buy multiple, there are discounts, and they all come with their papers.”

Lorenzo appeared by the gate with a smile, almost like he was there to get one for me. “Come on,” he said. “Your dad wants to know your thoughts one of these horses.”

I groaned, almost kicking the ground. “Fine, but I’ll be back here later, I want to know more about those discounts,” I said, even though it wasn’t likely, I could dream, maybe take out a loan, and hope my bank could process it the same day.

I wasn’t ever this desperate for new alpaca friends when I was on the ranch, but when they were right in front of me, every fiber of my being was desperate to collect.

“We’ll be back later, I’m sure,” Lorenzo said as I walked out of the structured pen. He placed an arm around me. “You’re just teasing yourself at this point. I don’t want to see you sad, ok.”

He had a point, and I hated it, but that was quickly overturned when I realized he was walking with me, joined at my shoulder. It was practically the same as holding hands. And then he kissed me, right here, among all these cowboys.

I giggled. “I should’ve put a pride pin on you,” I said, trying to hide my face from all the heat blushing up my cheeks.

“Daddy’s got to let everyone know who you belong to,” he said, kissing my cheek again. “A lot of these are in the closet, I don’t want them trying to slip you a note asking you to meet them in some water closet.”

“Water closet,” I giggled.

“You know where I mean.”

In all the years coming here, I hadn’t been hit on once. Although I had been too preoccupied with the alpacas, every single time, and while most of the vendors were repeat, I like coming across the new ones, because they might have at least been selling their alpacas for cheap.

“The only guy you’ll be seeing in there is me,” he said. “And that’s a promise, baby.”

“What’s got you all frisky?” I couldn’t stop all the giggles coming out.

“Nothing, just that I love you.”

Those words, I’d never get tired of hearing them ever. It made it even more special that he was saying them here, setting an example, I hoped to some of the other stone-faced cowboys.