Page 7 of Wild, Wild Cowboy

“I’ve never been to Paris,” I said. “Or seen the Statue of Liberty.”

“Yeah, well, no one in this sewing club has fucked Zack, either, and that’s a crying shame, quite frankly.” Essie tossed her hair—she had recently traded rainbow ends for bright pink highlights framing her pretty face, a purposeful, defiant clash with the deep red lipstick she always wore—and thumped her fist on the laminate table. “Someone needs to fact check his reputation, dammit. Forscience.”

All four of them were staring at me now with amused, knowing smirks. I had seen those looks before, always directed at another member of the sewing club when she found herself entangled with one of the infamous Hale brothers. First James, when she started sleeping with her boss, Adam Hale. Then Essie, when she went from hating Brax Hale to marrying him.

I knew that look. They wanted gossip. Entertainment. Things no one had ever looked to me to deliver, and with good reason. Fitting in never came naturally to me. These women—James, Essie, Chloe, and Janie—were the first real friends I had ever had, and even so, I was still on the outskirts of the friend group, watching wistfully as the others formed tighter bonds that I simply didn’t know how to forge.

I wanted to. I wanted to so very badly.

Obviously, I wasn’t going to agree to sleep with Zack as a science experiment just to have something to bond over, but I wanted to give themsomething.

“I saw Zack naked,” I blurted out.

The smirks immediately shifted to gaping jaws.

“Details!” Chloe demanded.

James laughed. “What she means is, how did that happen?”

“No, what I mean is, how big was his dick?” Chloe clarified.

“Oh, um…” I faltered. Wasn’t that private? On the other hand, so many other people had seen Zack naked and talked about it that he probably wouldn’t care. “Well, he wouldn’t be popular in ancient Greece, that’s for sure.” I laughed at my own joke.

James, Chloe, Essie, and Janie did not laugh. They stared at me blankly.

“Because the ancient Greeks preferred men with small penises?” I tried. When they kept staring at me like I was speaking, well, Greek, I explained, “Like Aristophane said. The ideal man had a strong butt, small tongue, and little prick. Big dicks meant big dick energy, and the ancient Greeks saw that as a bad thing. Men should be rational, intelligent, and not guided by passion.”

“Huh.” Janie blinked. “But I’ve seenTroy. They literally fought wars because they were all thinking with their dicks.”

“I think that’s Aristophane’s point,” I said.

“Huh,” she said again.

“Alright, we’ve established that the Hale brothers would not have been model Greek citizens, due to their penis size,” Essie said. “Now,howdid this happen? Were you naked, too?”

“No, I was not naked,” I said.

I told them the whole story. They hooted with laughter at every new detail. The earphones. The ramen. How he had toldme to time him getting dressed, and how I had actually agreed. The god-awful belt buckle.

But I didn’t tell them about the bunny slippers. It seemed too intimate, somehow. Which was ridiculous, because I had told them all about his dick size, so why should slippers be a bridge too far?

Maybe it was that he hadn’t seemed at all bothered that I’d seen his penis, but he felt the need to explain the slippers.

He probably didn’t care, and I was just imagining him to have depth he didn’t possess. A hundred other women had seen him in those slippers, probably.

But still, I kept it to myself.

3

ZACK

Missy heaved a sigh, thinking she had won, and I took the opportunity to tighten her girth another notch. She gave an annoyed toss of her head, but a loose saddle wouldn’t be safe for either one of us. I patted her neck and slipped the bridle over her ears. She took the bit easily. Missy never minded the bit, so long as I took care not to clank it on her teeth.

In truth, she didn’t mind the saddle, either, despite her nonsense about the girth. She had jogged eagerly to the gate when I called for her, and only part of her excitement had to do with the apple she knew I’d give her. My girl enjoyed our rides. We’d been a pair for the last fourteen years. Even though I was away from Aspen Springs half the year, I always made time for her when I was here.

Sliding into her saddle should have felt like coming home.

It did not.

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