Page 66 of A Girl and HER Prince
There was no answer.
Passing an upended table on the neat cobbled flooring, she rocked it back to its feet. The staff must’ve deserted the place before they could secure most of this down. As she straightened, she saw that the figure eight pool and Jacuzzi overlooked a view of the ocean that was absolutely stunning. The storm had made a mess of the clouds, and they were touched with colors she didn’t normally see in the late afternoon skies.
Some heavy breathing animal began to nibble on her hair. She twisted. The donkey whined and worked on stealing her blanket next, but in a playful, cutesy way. Did this donkey think he was a puppy?
“Well, you’re adorable,” she told him. She bunched the blanket up, so he couldn’t get at it. “You already know that, huh?”
His lips curled back to show those buck teeth again while it did that braying, yelling thing it did.
“What are you trying to tell me, little guy?” Had he been locked out of his barn? Which one of these amazing structures belonged to a donkey?” Studying each one, she saw the one at the end had an upside-down horse shoe nailed to a barn-shaped door.
It didn’t take a genius to connect the dots. The complaining donkey followed her all the way to his home. Sure enough, she inhaled the sweet smell of hay as she led him inside. Two other braying donkeys greeted her in their stalls, one with creamy white fur, and a petulant brown one.
“So, this is what you were trying to tell me,” she called to her newest companion. “You’ve got some hungry friends stuck in here.”
Their names were written over their stalls: Ronnie, BamBam, and Steve. They were well groomed and clean, poking their noses at her through the slats. The cream one was Ronnie, and the loud brown one was BamBam. That meant the one who’d gotten out was—she looked over at the empty stall—Steve, was it?
Well, Steve was the loudest of them all, tugging at whatever piece of clothing he could find on her, which honestly, wasn’t much. Since she’d bunched up the blanket to keep out of his reach, he went for her hair next.
She pushed him away with her hip. “You need to get your energy out, Steve, on something that isn’t me.”
A door led out to the back, and glancing out the window, she saw there was a pasture behind them where they could play; she also noticed halters, bridles, and their packs too. Apparently, they were also used as burden animals, perhaps to get their owners up this winding hill when they didn’t trust that cable car.
The thought made her pause. Did anyone here ever trust that cable car?
She didn’t want to think about it.
The donkeys were braying all their complaints out to her. “Yes, yes,” she replied. “Let’s get you some food.” She searched around the barn and found what looked like bags of feed and hauled them over to their stalls.
They had plenty of food still in their troughs.
Hmm, so what were they trying to tell her? “Do you need to go out to use the potty?” She honestly had no idea how this worked. Couldn’t they do that in here? They weren’t actually dogs.
She poked her head out the back at their pasture. The gates were still in one piece. Sighing, she went to the stalls and let out the other two donkeys so they could go outside.
They surrounded her, instead, nuzzling her with their noses. Apparently, they all wanted her to pet them. This was so bizarre! BamBam wound his neck around her and Ronnie bared her teeth at BamBam for getting all the attention, while Steve joyfully nipped at them all.
Livvy backed away, her hand grappling with the door so she could make a break for it. “I’ll be right back,” she said. “I’ll get you all a little treat. How about that?” She wriggled out the door and shut it firmly behind her before dashing around the pool.
No one would leave behind such adorable donkeys for long. These people would have to come back for their pets by the end of the week, if not today. Livvy returned to the kitchen and shouted out in greeting when she saw Venice in the kitchen, making the sandwich she’d promised him. He was in sweats and a baggy t-shirt, and he looked so absolutely comfortable that she was immediately jealous.
“Where did you find those clothes?” she asked.
“Upstairs,” he said. “They have enough rooms up there to fit a small army.”
“Are there any women in that army?” she asked,preferably a tall one with a preference for baggy clothes?
“Yeah, I brought you down a little something, Luvvy.” He pointed behind him with the butter knife he’d been using to spread the mayo.
She rushed forward eagerly, and stumbled over her feet when she saw that he’d brought down a mermaid costume and a toga. “Are you kidding me right now?”
He broke out in a laugh and came over to her, his hands sliding playfully around her waist. “Yeah, you’ve got a whole closet of nice clothes to borrow up there. No worries… not to say that I wouldn’t love to see those on you, too.”
She bumped him away with her hip like she’d done to Steve. The fact that he was back to his joking ways made her feel unbelievably better about getting stranded here. Everything was going to be okay; they just needed to wait this out until help came.
And now she could put on some warm clothes! She almost squealed with joy at the thought. The world was a miraculous, beautiful place! Giving Venice her brightest smile, she headed out of the kitchen, and then feeling mischievous, she tugged the mermaid costume from the counter and hung it over her arm. Two could play at this game. “You never know,” she said with a wink. “Your greatest dreams could come true—I reallycouldbe a mermaid.”
He froze like he’d done in the cave when she’d turned flirtatious. That bewildered look on his creased forehead was irresistible as he stared after her. Livvy spun on her heel before she could do something stupid like smother him with kisses for being so cute and alive and all that, and she headed to the rumored closet of clothes upstairs.
