Page 35 of Cowboy Wolf's Secret Baby

“What do you want to do?” Conner asked.

“How about the Tilt-a-Whirl?” she asked.

“Is that one of those things where you stand up against a pad and hope that gravity holds you in as you go upside down?”

“Yep.” She grinned.

“What about the blech factor?” he asked.

“Only happens if I go too many times on the loopty loops. I can even do those twice. It’s the third ride that gets my tummy.”

Conner was dubious. He had a blatant distrust of crazy rides like that, especially the ones at fairgrounds where they are set up in a matter of hours. One loose screw and the entire thing comes apart. He’d seen rides malfunction and people hurt.

“Is the big, bad cowboy scared?” Taryn taunted.

“I might be,” Conner said.

“I read that the best way to conquer a fear is to face it. Let’s go.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him to the line. They dutifully showed the wristbands he had bought for the both of them and got on.

Conner could never admit that he enjoyed the ride. However, he loved the sounds of Taryn alternating between screams and giggles. They hit the bumper cars several times, the swings, and even the carousel.

“When I was little, I always wanted the horses to jump off the carousel and go for a ride all over the place, like they did in Mary Poppins.”

“You’ve seen Mary Poppins?”

“Chim chiminy chim chim cheroo. Good luck will rub off when I shake hands with you,” she sang.” Mom loves it. I’ve seen The Wizard of Oz, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Grease, and all kinds of movies like that. She loves the older movies, especially the musicals.”

“Good to know,” Conner said.

In between all of that, they ate Philly cheesesteak sandwiches for lunch and had cotton candy afterward. She popped more balloons with darts than he did, and he knocked more bottles down with baseballs than she did. They tossed rings on bottles and shot basketballs into hoops. By the time they needed to leave, they each had two stuffed animals of various sizes tucked under their arms.

“I had a lot of fun today, Dad,” Taryn said. “Thanks.”

“I did too, kiddo.” Conner smiled widely. It was still a shock to his system to hear her call him dad, but he liked it.

They stowed their prizes in his truck and prepared their horses for the night’s events.

As usual, Taryn did amazing. He wondered briefly if it might not be cheating a little bit that Taryn could talk directly to Pegasus. Then, he decided that it wasn’t. No amount of talk between a girl and her horse could create talent. Both of them had the skills needed to excel. Tonight, it was Taryn and Pegasus who came in first on the barrel racing, with Jenna taking a close second. She took third in the breakaway roping.

He was about to walk over to the bull chutes when he saw Kelly purposely walking over to Taryn.

“Nope. She is going to stay away from my daughter,” he muttered.

Just as he reached them, Kelly shot him a sweet smile and scurried away like a cockroach that had just been spotted and didn’t want to get smashed.

“Hey, Taryn, nice job tonight.”

“Thanks,” she said.

“What did Kelly want?”

“She told me that I did a great job. She said that she was a barrel racer and breakaway roper when she first started out. She also told me that I’m pretty enough to be rodeo queen someday.”

“Did she now?”

“Yeah. She frowned when I told her that I was going to go to college and get my medical degree so I could be a vet. I didn’t want to be a rodeo queen.”

“What else did she have to say?” he asked.

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