Page 15 of Tying Little Tay (Littles of Rawhide Ranch #13)
Tay
Guilia had offered to come with Tay to the petting zoo, to watch them as they milked Elsa, but Tay had very politely and very firmly refused. The whole experience was going to be stressful enough as it was without having to cope with their Daddy seeing Tay melt down over a little bit of mud.
Tay was pretty good at coping with most things, but mud was not one of them. The sound it made as it squelched beneath their boots made them shudder—and not in a good way. It was all very icky and yucky indeed.
But they didn’t want Guilia seeing them melt down like that. It was bad enough that she’d seen them get into a state the day before, but meltdowns weren’t conducive to sexy sitting-on-Tay’s-face times. And so they left Guilia in her planning room, cooking up more interesting ideas and flavors.
The petting zoo was in theory really lovely, with an array of rescued farmyard animals, all in need of a home and some love.
They got a lot of love from the Littles on the Ranch, but this was one of the places that Tay had pretty much avoided since arriving.
They were fine with a picnic on the lawns, or even swimming in the lakes, but mud and animals who seemed to get behind you everywhere you turned? Not their idea of fun.
However, she’d promised Guilia that she’d come up with a good punishment, and hand milking a cow would certainly stop Tay from endangering Guilia’s ice cream ever again.
They trudged through the straw and mud to the barn and peeked round the door nervously.
“Tay?! What are you doing here?!” The curvy petite blonde who came bouncing over was smiling and had an African Grey parrot sitting on her shoulder. “I’m not sure I’ve ever really seen you out of the Italian restaurant.”
“Hey, Reese, I have to milk a cow.” Tay had intended on sounding informative, but instead they sounded as sulky as they felt. The whole idea of hand milking Elsa or Anna made them want to cringe.
Reese recognized this in an instant. “Oh Tay, come on in. I can do it for you if you like?”
“No,” they admitted sorrowfully. “It has to be me. It’s part of my punishment.”
“Punishment?”
“I stole all of Chef Guilia’s ice cream and fed it to the Littles’ Wing for breakfast.”
Reese’s eyes danced. “That’s a prank and a half! I bet the Littles loved it.”
“They did, but Daddy—I mean Chef Guilia—wasn’t very impressed. I made her sad and so I’m going to make her some homemade ice cream to make up for it. And as part of my punishment, I gotta milk the cows myself.”
Tay could feel themself getting Littler and Littler as they spoke.
“That’s okay; I can show you what to do first, and then you can do it yourself. How does that sound?”
“I’m the boss!”
The declaration startled them as it was issued not by Reese, but by the parrot!
Reese laughed. “Ignore him. Bossy P just thinks he’s the boss. Ready to give this a try?”
They nodded, and Reese reached out to take their hand and pull them over to where the cows were.
“You can’t milk Stella, because she doesn’t produce any milk, but Elsa and Anna are very good dairy producers.” She pulled over a stool and placed it next to one of the cows.
Tay edged over to it, keeping an eye on those hooves. They were large and looked like they could break a Little’s toes if the cows went a-trampling.
“Sit here and let me get you some buckets.”
Tay sat with the cows and very tentatively patted them. Elsa turned her head to look at them and they almost fell backward off the stool.
“You’re okay,” said Reese, appearing with the bucket. “I promise you, they’re very sedate cows.”
She showed Tay how to pull on their teats to make the milk flow and then Tay gave it a go. Pulling and tugging, they made sure to aim the stream of milk into the bucket. It was sensory hell, but Tay got through it, with more than enough milk to make plenty of cream.
Back in the kitchen, they begged a spare stovetop and brought the fresh milk to a rolling boil before lowering the heat and simmering it to let it thicken.
Then Tay put it in a large metal container and placed it in the refrigerator.
It would need to sit there overnight before they would be able to skim the thicker fat off the top.
It would be a thicker consistency, a bit like clotted cream, that could definitely be used to make ice cream.
They also had a plan. The details for the different types of savory ice creams were written out in Guilia’s creative room, and Tay had every intention of taking photos of them and attempting to make them as an extra surprise for their Daddy.
By the time they got back to Guilia’s suite though, they were hot and tired and more than a little bit grumpy.
“Tay, tesore, what’s the matter?” asked Guilia, when they knocked on the door and slumped against the frame as she opened it.
“I’m tired, Daddy,” they said, and Tay could feel themself slipping very definitely into Littlespace. They didn’t go super Little very often, spending so much time at work as they did, but right now it was all they could do to stay upright.
“Come inside,” said Guilia, and she took Tay’s hand and pulled them firmly into the room. “What do you need, Tay?”
“I don’t know ,” wailed Tay, and tried not to be humiliated by how very Little they sounded. “I don’t know and I’m tired and hot and I hate being Big.”
Guilia’s eyebrows raised all the way up, and she looked surprised. “You hate being Big? I thought you liked being Big?”
“ Sometimes is okay,” muttered Tay, fiddling with the bottom of their top. It had a cute fringe and they liked that, but their jeans were too constrictive and hot and… “I need my jeans off p’ease!”
Guilia dropped to her knees in front of Tay and started undoing the button and zip of Tay’s jeans. “It sounds like you might be feeling a bit Little right now,” she said, not unreasonably.
“So?!” said Tay and almost stuck their tongue out at her. That certainly had an effect.
“Tay Martin, that is quite enough of that, grazie .”
They pulled a face and rolled their eyes.
Guilia took their hand and rapped it smartly. Tay felt their eyes fill with tears and before they knew it, they were bawling.
“You don’t love me anymore, Daddy.”
Without even dropping a beat, Guilia said, “Of course I love you, but that doesn’t mean that you get to be cheeky.”
“I is just Little though,” said Tay. “Is not my fault.”
“I think that someone needs a nap,” said Guilia.
The thought of that almost had Tay running out of the suite. They didn’t need a nap . They’s done all sorts of Big things today and Bigs didn’t need naps.
“Tay…” said Guilia, warningly.
“Fiiiiiiiiiine,” they said, and stomped across to the bedroom, and threw themself onto the bed. Guilia didn’t laugh at them, and she didn’t tell them off. Instead, she did the most Daddy thing possible and calmly undressed Tay and encouraged them to clamber under the covers and curl up to her.
Tay had absolutely no intention of napping. It was sweet that Daddy thought that they should, but Daddies didn’t know everything, and they certainly didn’t know that Tays were good at pushing through and keeping on when they were tired. Because that’s what Tay had always had to do.
Only Daddy was really comfy, and she moved Tay’s head to rest against her breast and Tay found themself nuzzling up and just resting their eyes. Only resting their eyes, and then…