Page 44 of His Wilde Little
“Again, not getting out of this that easily,” I told him. “Unless you want me to take you present back. If you do, then sure, I’ll take it back.”
“Present.” He perked up at the sound. “Obviously, I’ll be able to try my best, but you know, sometimes things just need a little more time to sit and digest.”
Closing the van door as he tried to peek and see what the box was. “There’s no rush, as long as we do it sometime today.Although, if I were you, I’d probably want to get it over and done with as soon as possible.” I just wanted to give him the present and witness his little side come out to play.
There was probably going to be more to it than that, and since the only side to him that I’ve seen at play recently was the way he’d been playing with me in the bedroom. I didn’t mind that he wasn’t going to play with me and the toys, but I wanted to witness it. It had been far too long since I’d had something so pure and fun in my life, and this entire move seemed like I was heading in the right direction.
“You’re gonna make me wait, aren’t you?” he asked before putting his key in the ignition.
“Yes, of course, you’re gonna have to wait if you want it,” I told him. There were rules in place already and the rule that we’d put in place was that he had to ride the back of one of the horses, if not, then he wasn’t getting his reward. “I will tell you that there is a second reward if you’re lucky enough.”
Jace became all giddy. “I think I’m definitely lucky enough,” he said. “I mean, for one—”
I pressed a finger to his mouth, hushing him before pressing my lips to them, forcing them shut while I kissed him. I didn’t want him to ruin the luck. There was already so much luck between the two of us already, the luck from finding each other in this place, to the luck of matching each other’s wants and needs. To say we were lucky was an understatement, although there was going to need to be a lot more luck involved if we were going to get through the horseback riding.
He kissed me back. “I won’t ask again.”
“You won’t need to ask again if we get back to the ranch quick.” But that could’ve spelled trouble the whichever horses temperament seemed good enough for him to ride, and I didn’t want any of them bucking him off, or worse yet, him spewing his pie-filled guts all over them.
19. JACE
I definitely don’t think consuming all that pie was a good move, but I had to be sure about what future competition was going to provide for the events, and I was pretty much a shoo-in for a lot of the sweet bakes in Pineberry.
The journey back to the ranch was a bumpy one. Lorenzo in his best Daddy attempt at comfort brushed the back of his hand against my upper arm and whispered about how it would be just like on the back of the horse.
“If you’ve got any sick in you, best to blow it out right now.”
If I hadn’t burst into laughter, I might’ve began throwing up. “Blow it out,” I repeated in a giggle. I’d never heard that phrase before, but I’d be using it from now on.
“As long as it’s outside the van, you’ll be fine, I’m sure.”
“The last thing I need is my mom to give me a whack around the head for stinking up the van with vomit.” The topic alone was bringing up nausea from a time when I had thrown up in the back of a car on the way somewhere—my mind told me it was a vacation, but the memory of vomit told me it could’ve have been something so pleasant.
Daddy’s hands brushing against mine were actually relaxing. I sucked in air and blew it out slowly taking slow deep breathes as I tried my best to drive on. I wasn’t exactly going to cause anyone harm on the road; there wasn’t anyone around on the slip of road toward the ranch. Unless Diane was on her way down, which I highly doubted.
As soon as we got back to the ranch, I opened the driver’s side door and whoop, my head dropped over the side and my guts came up, all over the stone pebble driveway. Lorenzo pattedmy back from his seat and as I lifted my head, my mom was stood watching. She cocked a hand on her hip and sighed.
“Eyes are bigger than your stomach,” she said. “I mean, I’m assuming all of this comes from eating at the new bakery. Yes, I saw the way your eyes lit up when I mentioned it earlier.”
Lorenzo left the van, rushing around the side to meet her.
“I might’ve overindulged,” I said, hacking vomit from the back of my throat. “Sue me.”
She laughed. “One day, you’ll say that, and someone will,” she said. “Lucky for you, I don’t think I have any grounds for it.”
Staring at the vomit, a beige chunky mess on the ground. “I guess that means I won’t be able to do any of that horse stuff today.”
They both stood now, facing me, hands on hips.
“No, you’re going to be getting on the horse,” he said. “We’ll just have to flush the vomit out first. Let’s get you started with sipping some water, and then maybe some electrolytes, if you’ve got them. If not, I think I have some sachets in the guesthouse.”
It was not fun to be attacked right now, I’d just thrown up, but I knew better than anyone else. Throwing up was not going to get me out of doing work. I’d tried plenty of times as a kid, then as a teen, and I’d grown to accept that work came first, although I didn’t know if Lorenzo would offer me the same strong pat on the back for work ethic my parents did.
“It’s not like you’re ill,” Lorenzo added. “You just ate too much.”
“Oh my god, whose side are you on?” I asked.
“Looks like we’re on the same side,” my mom said. “Could you give me a hand with the things inside? We can let Jace clean this mess up.”
