Page 1 of Daddy's Little Farmer

Chapter One

Rafael looked out the limo car window as they drove down a dusty gravel road. The fields and trees on both sides of the road brought a lot of color and definition to the area, and he would have liked it if it hadn’t been so isolated.

His friends and business partners, Darian, Gage, and Kaleb, were in the car with him, along with their women, Larkin, Brylee, and Aleena. They were in the area looking for a location to put in a strip mall. He turned to study his friends and their littles.

The way the couples interacted with each other made him slightly envious. He could tell the guys loved their littles by the way they touched and looked at them. And their littles worshiped their daddies and did whatever they could to please him.

The last few relationships he’d been in were disappointing. All the women he’d met were high society, high maintenance, and snobbish, and he was bored or pissed within the first few weeks with them. He wanted what his friends had, but he didn’t think it would happen in the circles he ran in, so he concentrated on making more money. It was the only thing that gave him pleasure anymore.

“Do you mind if I stop at the widow Coleman’s place to check on her?” Tony asked. He was the man that had been showing them some land the men might want to invest in. So far, it didn’t look promising because the land wasn’t near a city or even a large town.

They pulled into a long driveway and up to a weather-beaten two-story white house. The area was organized, but he could tell these people were poor by how the machinery and truck looked. Everything was ancient and rusty.

They all got out and looked around. The place was extremely quiet except for some birds and what he guessed might be chickens. The air felt fresher than it did at home until he got a whiff of the animals. He could honestly say he’d never smelled anything so potent in his life.

Rafael looked around. He’d never been on a farm like this in his life. In fact, he’d never been around animals of any kind because his father forbade him to have one. His father had been a harsh cold man, and he couldn’t remember ever seeing him smile.

Tony walked up to the house and knocked. He did it a few more times, and no one answered.

Depending on how old she was, she might not have heard him knocking. Another thought popped into his head that maybe she’d hurt herself, but Tony didn’t seem alarmed.

“I’ll go check the barn,” Tony said.

“Daddy, can we go with Tony? I want to see the chickens?” Larkin asked.

“How about we all go?” Darian said.

Rafael followed the group into a barn, and although old, it was clean and tidy, like the yard. He wondered if the old woman got help because she surely couldn’t keep the place up herself. Even if she was fairly young, the place looked large, and they found more and different animals the longer they looked for the widow.

Through the barn, there were a few fenced-off areas that housed the animals. The animals were well-behaved because they weren’t squawking or making any noise.

“Mara,” Tony yelled. “How often have I told you that you can’t take a nap on a horse? You’re going to get stomped.”

Rafael came around the corner to see what had upset Tony, and his eyes widened. This couldn’t be the widow. She didn’t look like she was out of high school. She also looked like an angel with her long, light-blonde hair and big eyes.

“That’s the widow?” Larkin asked.

“Yes. It’s a long story,” Tony said.

The woman sat up on a large horse with no saddle or reins, so he didn’t know how she controlled the thing.

She rubbed her eyes and yawned. “Tony, Charlie would never stomp me.” She leaned forward to hug the horse’s neck. “Would you, Charlie?”

Rafael was amazed when the horse whinnied as if it was answering her.

“Oh, can I pet it?” Brylee asked.

Mara nodded. “Sure. Have you ever been around a horse?”

Brylee shook her head.

“I want to pet it, too,” Aleena said.

“I don’t think I want to,” Larkin said. “It’s very big.”

Mara smiled. “I’ll help you. I promise Charlie is the perfect gentleman. Right, Charlie?”

Rafael smiled, and the girls laughed when the horse nodded its head. Hell, could the thing understand her and communicate with her?

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