Page 8 of Wrangling the Orc Cowboy

My aunt smiled. “I was going to reach out to you later about?—”

“Not now! Not now. I need…” I slammed through the medicinal supplies, grabbing handfuls of ointments. “Which is best for burns?”

“Burns?” She hurried around the counter to stand beside me, her pretty green face wreathed with concern. Her gaze traveled up and down my body. “Where are you burned?”

“Not me. My… Well, notmy. Gracie is here, and she’s burned.”

My aunt’s dark eyes widened, and horror tainted her voice. “You burned her?”

“Not me, no. I slammed my palm into her chest, but she was already burned. I need to help her!”

“What kind of burn are we talking about and how did this happen? I’m confused. She was arriving today; I knew that, but she arrived with burns?”

“Her skin’s pink. She has a few blisters. Hot liquid. Which one?” Grabbing a plastic basket from the floor in front of the counter, I rushed back to the rack of supplies. “I can’t tell. Please help me.”

“This one might be best.” She removed a long tub of ointment from the rack and handed it to me. “And some of this.” She added a bottle to my basket. “Those are pills that supposedly help with the pain. Human pain, that is. Who knows what they do to orcs? I’m not ready to try. Orc methods are my way. You know that.” She gave me a pert nod. “I prefer to stick to what we’ve always used in instances like this but?—”

I eased around her with the bottle and tube in hand and hustled over to a rack of female shirts and pretty dresses. I was told they were pretty, that is. I’d never tried any on myself to find out. We’d ordered boxes and boxes of the things in various colors after someone who helped in the early planning suggested humans would enjoy purchasing authentic wild west clothing and items with our logo while they were here. “Should I get a bonnet?” I held a light blue one up that matched the shirt, its ties dangling.

“For her burn?” My aunt joined me at the rack, taking the top and lifting it. “What size is she?”

“I didn’t ask.” I gulped. “Why didn’t I ask? You’d think I’d want to know something like that about the woman who’s here to save— I meanhelpme with social media.”

“Why does your social media need saving? Last I heard, you were doing a fantastic job.”

“Oh, I am. She’s going to…enhance my presence. Make it even better. Not save it. No need for saving.” I needed to close my mouth and stop jabbering.

And get back to Gracie.

“She’s this tall.” I made a sideways hand chopping gesture midway up my chest. “About this wide.” Dropping the basket, I spread my hands out, realizing as I did it how much smaller than me Gracie was. Not that her size mattered when it came to employing someone, but she was beautiful. She’d stunned mewhen I first saw her. Some little tiny corner of my heart had perked up and started dreaming.

Dreaming about love and romance and all that stuff that wasn’t for orcs like me.

“About Jessi and Rosey’s size, then,” my aunt said.

“Yes. She is.” Now that I thought about it, I realized that myself. I’d only met a few humans in person, though I’d seen many online during my social media forays. Clicked on their profiles and studied their faces that were similar to an orc’s yet different. We were universally much larger, even our females, standing at seven of their feet. Such an odd term for measurement when feet came in all sizes.

None of the profiles I’d examined showed females as pretty as Gracie, though that could be because I was seeing her in person and not in a flat image.

“Take this shirt, then,” my aunt said, nudging her chin to the one I still held. “Actually, why don’t I go with you?”

“No!” Alright, so I shouldn’t have roared the word, but I wanted to do this for Gracie. I was the one who’d messed up, and it was up to me and only me to fix it.

“I want to meet her,” she said.

“You can but later.”

Sharga skidded through the air, knocking something off the top of a rack as he flew in his jagged way over it, and landed on my shoulder. He dug his claws in deep enough I winced. But he didn’t realize, so I stroked his spine, something both of us found soothing.

The gesture didn’t soothe me as much as I’d like, but I had a good reason. Gracie was in pain. I’d made it worse. Only helping her would make it better.

“You can meet her tomorrow or the day after that.” With that, I fisted the ointment, bottle, and shirt, and bolted for the door. Iskidded out onto the boardwalk with Sharga flapping his wings and squawking, either urging me on or telling me to slow down.

Actually, rushing was what got me into trouble. I might not have fallen against Gracie if I’d watched where I’d placed my feet, something my parents had reminded me of over and over as I grew from a big youngling into the really big male I was now. I’d listened all the time and tried to take things more carefully, but I still found myself bumbling my way through life. I’d accepted this was me even if I didn’t like it.

But again, there was no harm in reminding myself not to slam into everything all the time, to take a moment to think about what I wanted to do and delicately do it. Assuming a big orc like me could do anything in a delicate manner.

Not much chance of that.

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