Page 7 of His Wilde Little
“We’re heading into town,” I told her.
“Great. I’ll come with you, I live in town,” she said.
“And then how will you get here tomorrow when your car is here?” I asked. “We won’t be long, I’m just going to show him around, let him grab some supplies and we’ll be back.” Glancing to Lorenzo, he nodded to what I was saying.
Diane approached the van to my side and whispered to me. “Tell him nice things about me,” she uttered, and while I don’t think he heard, he definitely knew the vibe she was throwing out there. She seemed unable to keep her eyes off him, and I couldn’t actually blame her, he was an enigma I wanted answers to.
Once we were outside the ranch, Lorenzo chuckled. “You know, I get that a lot,” he said. “Ladies throw themselves at me. I don’t get it. I think maybe it’s that they think because I’m not loud or outspoken, that I’m an ear to listen to them.”
The enigma was unravelling, and all it took was my silence. “Do you?”
“Do I listen? Sure, but I’m not a relationship guy.”
“I get it, you’re one of those guys who waltzes through town, leaving a wave of broken hearts in your stead.”
He laughed. “Definitely not. I was with the same ranch out in Texas for years. In fact, there was once a time when I would never have even imagined leaving that place.”
“So, why did you?”
He went quiet again, just when I thought we were getting somewhere. I knew it couldn’t have been money, mostly because the ranch was just profitable. We’d gone a lot of years breakingeven, and with the little extra money we were making, I’d pushed for buying another alpaca, and that almost happened.
Once we arrived in town to the sight of all the rainbow-colored adornments on the different buildings, I looked to him again, trying to gauge what he was thinking. There was a wry smile, for whatever that counted for, but besides that, I couldn’t get a read on him at all.
Although what I didn’t learn about him from his reaction to the colorful town appearance, I did learn more about him from what he was deciding to buy in town. He bought bacon, scotch, a near palette of cup noodles, hair pomade, shoe polish, tinned soups and stewed meats, and a whole lot of peanuts. He practically cleared one shelf. It gave me an insight, just a small one, that he was used to being alone, and surviving on quite literal peanuts and whatever nutrients cup noodles had in them.
“Hey, don’t judge me,” he said as we got back to the van.
“I’m not—”
With one brow raised, he stared at me intensely, breaking the lie right out of me. “You know you’re invited to eat at the house,” I said. “My mom always makes more than we need, and I always bake more than we’ll eat as well.”
He shook his head. “That’s your place, I’ll only go in there if I absolutely have to,” he said. “But thank you for the offer. I appreciate it. I’m just used to the way I do things. It means I get to keep my own schedule and time. Plus, now there’s about to be three horses in the stables in need of around the clock care.”
“Ok, but if my mom asks you to come over and have dinner with us, I don’t think she’ll takenofor an answer.”
Lorenzo had a deep growly chuckle from the back of his throat, it felt like an embrace around my head. “I’ll let her now not to set a place out for me. I think it’s important that I keep my own hours since I’m here for the horses.”
“Even if they’re actually not here yet,” I said. I wouldn’t mind having a meal with him, having my sister pull information from him like it was her job. I wanted to know more now. What had happened to him to make him this way? “Anyway, it’s probably for the best, I think my sister has a crush on you.” I don’t know why I’d said it, but I did, blurted right out of me like his silence demanded to be filled.
“That’s sweet,” he said. “But I’m not here for any of that.”
It kinda crushed my crush on him. I was out of my mind for even thinking it for a second. But there was something about him, and I didn’t want to try putting my finger on it.
“Should we get back?” he asked. “I want to get adjusted as quick as possible.”
“Sure. Unless there’s anything else you want to do?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Maybe another time.”
Another time that wouldn’t involve me, is what I heard it as.
4. LORENZO
I was so used to being given work and nobody interrupted me, but it seemed like everyone wanted to talk to me here. I got that this wasn’t like it was in the South, these people were different, and for starters, they didn’t have any cows to herd. It made calling myself a cowboy a little silly, and we were so far away from the Saddle Up event in Texas that I wasn’t even going to begin with the logistical nightmare I knew was going to be posed to me soon.
Tom, the ranch owner was firm on his ideas of what he wanted to happen. He wanted to bring horses back and he wanted this place to be like the place it was when he was growing up. I didn’t know what any of that was, but I didn’t question it. I wasn’t even questioning it now when he told me that there were three horses instead of the one.
At the guesthouse, Tom stood with his hat in hand and a wry smile on his face. “It was thrown on us as well,” he said. “I hope you can handle three horses.”
