Page 16 of Roped in Chaos
Well, color me impressed. She’s been out at seven a.m. every day for the past two weeks. She waits patiently for my list of things to do and goes and does the best she can. I admit, sometimes I give her something in hopes she’ll struggle. She’s just so cute when she has a hard time with something. Her cheeks puff out, and she stomps her foot like a bull before really giving it her all. She hates to ask for help, but will accept it if I just come in.
Having two people has really made the chores go quicker. I’m running out of tasks for her to do quickly. I decide over my cup of coffee that today, we’ll go have some fun down at the river. She’s been bugging me to let her ride a horse, and today is her lucky day. I smile at myself at the thought of her getting happy and excited. I’ve grown to like the little princess—she’s not all that bad when you give her a chance. I’ve stuck to my guns, no touching, lots of looking though.
I meet Miss Princess in the barn at seven a.m. She comes skipping in with a big ol’ smile on her face.
“Reporting for duty, sir.” It takes every part of me to not react to her calling me that. “What are we doing today?” she asks.
“Well, I’ma go check cattle.”
“Yes, you do that every day.”
“Yes, well if you wouldn’t have cut me off, you’d know that I was going to say that afterward, I’ma tack up Rooster.”
“Why are you tacking up Rooster?” I think she’s starting to catch on. There’s an inflection in her voice that made it go up a tick at the end like she’s getting excited.
“Well, I was thinking we could ride out to the river to go swimming for a while to cool off before evening chores.”
She starts jumping up and down and squealing like she’s five again. The horses throw their heads up and startle.
“Hey, hey!” I snap at her.
“Oh shit, sorry.” She walks over to the gray mare she’ll be riding and pets down her nose in a comforting motion.
“Do you mean it?” she asks.
“Yep. But I gotta head out. Be ready around twelve. You might wanna pack something for us to eat if you get a chance. Don’t forget your bathing suit.”
She jumps up again and wraps her arms around my neck.
“Oh.” I chuckle. I wrap an arm haphazardly around her. A hug was the last thing I expected from her, but it definitely just broke the no-touching rule. It doesn’t count if she initiates it, right? And it totally wasn’t sexual, just excitement.
“Okay, you go.” She backs away, and the smile on her face brings one to my own. Her happiness is contagious.
“Okay.” I chuckle again.
She runs out of the barn, and I can’t help but continue to smile as I get on Dom and head out to pasture. Yep, I’ve definitely decided that I like her.
* * *
The cattle are closer up to the front of the pasture, and I’m excited to get back to Esme. With how things started when she got here, I wasn’t sure I would ever say that, but here I am. I pull the saddle off Dom and let him go in the paddock, since there’s still a couple of hours until we head out. I start to walk up to the house, but she comes running at me with a bag full of something.
“Oh my god, am I late?” She enters, frantically screaming as if her ass was pricked by a cactus.
“What? Late for what?”
“Late to go? I could’ve sworn it was only like ten, but you’re back already.”
I chuckle. “Observant are we, Princess?” She scowls at me which only makes me laugh harder.
“No, you’re not late.” She breathes out a sigh of relief. “Come on, let’s get back up to the house, and I’ll help you out before I go get dressed.” I touch her shoulder to spin her around and guide her back to the house. As soon as I realize what I’m doing, I drop my hand like I touched a hot pan. She’s the hot pan, though, her skin was so smooth and delicate. But I broke the goddamn no-touching rule again. The more I get to know her, the more I just want to keep touching.
We get into the house, and I look at the disaster before me. There’s a loaf of bread spread across the counter, meat and cheese strewn about, an open jar of pickles, and various condiments laying haphazardly.
“What the fuck happened here?” I ask.
“Well—I wanted to make it good, but then I realized I didn’t know how you like it. I didn’t want to fuck it up, so I was going to make as many combinations as possible, but then I saw you ride up so I panicked.” She gives me a guilty smile, and I start laughing. Full on belly laughing, bending over and having to catch my breath belly laugh. I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time, but here I am with tears forming in my eyes.
“Oh fuck, Princess,” I say, catching my breath and wiping my eyes. “You’re too much sometimes.” I reach an arm out to pull her into me, and I see her get ready to lean into it, but I manage to catch myself in time.
