Chapter 46 Crazy Little Thing Called Love – Queen
Crazy Little Thing Called Love – Queen
Wilder
The moment I parked the truck outside the main house, the door flung open and the whole damn family appeared. Bertie led the way barreling down the porch steps wearing her new cowboy boots and a full denim ensemble.
“Open up Uncle Wilder, let me see him,” she called as she strode toward us.
“Okay, okay, give me a minute.”
I chuckled as she snapped her fingers at Dorcas, her puppy. “Sit Dorcas, I’ve got business to attend to.”
Nash, with Billy on his shoulders, rolled his eyes. “She’s taking this being foreman at the kid’s camp a little too seriously,” he muttered as he drew close. “Good trip?”
Tally appeared around the hood of my truck looking more relaxed than I’d ever seen her.
It seemed two days of orgasms and spa treatments were good for my girl.
Her green eyes sparkled like the finest cut emeralds, her hair shone with the deep auburn luster of fall, and she walked with the confidence of a catwalk model, and I made a promise to make sure she got a break like that at least once a year.
“Hey Tally,” Lily said, smiling. “You look incredible.”
Tally blushed, dropping her gaze to her cowboy boots. “I think it was just what I needed.”
“Cowboy, you need to take notes from your little brother,” Cassidy added, nudging Gunner.
“Didn’t I just take you on the most romantic few days of your life. Where I put a huge rock on your finger.” He pulled her close and kissed her temple. “But I hear you, sweetheart.”
“Do you all want to meet Petey, or not?” I moved to the back of the trailer ready to get business done so I could spend some more alone time with Tally.
“That’s what we’re here for.” Bertie looked up at Nash and shook her head. “You just can’t get the staff, can you Daddy.”
If that kid wasn’t so damn cute she’d been dangerous. God help the guy she set her sights on in the future. There was no way he’d get away with gas station flowers and a box of Hershey Kisses to show he cared about her.
“I guess not, Munchkin.” Nash raised an eyebrow. “I can still call you that, can’t I? Now we’re with family and you’re now a ranch foreman.”
“Yep. No problem. Just not in front of my hands at kid’s camp. We need to show them who’s boss.”
“No danger of them not knowing that,” Nash muttered under his breath. “Okay, Wild, let’s take a look at him.”
“Daddy down,” Billy demanded.
“Okay, buddy but stay well back, okay?” Nash lowered his son who toddled over to Bertie, buy when Petey moved in the trailer and gave a loud snort, he ran to his mom and hid behind her legs.
Once I opened the back of the trailer, Tally and I stood back to let everyone get a better view through the railed gate.
Draping my arm over her shoulder, she slipped her hand into the back pocket of my jeans and leaned into me.
Inhaling the sweet smell of the coconut body butter she’d smeared herself in, everything felt damn near perfect.
I’d thought I cared about her before, but a few days away, just the two of us, no distractions or worry, had cemented how I truly felt.
I loved her. I just didn’t have the balls to tell her yet.
It felt too soon, like maybe it would scare her.
Then there was the Declan situation. She was still married to the little douchebag and I kinda wanted her to be free when I said the words.
The thought of losing her, though, of her not knowing how I felt, made my chest tight with a panic that I didn’t want to examine too closely.
“Woah,” Bertie said, her voice full of awe, garnering my attention. “He’s huge. Look at the size of his grenades, Momma.”
Lily playfully slapped Gunner’s arm. “What have I told you about talking to her like she’s a nineteen year old boy?”
“Ow, it wasn’t me,” he protested. “Ask your damn husband.”
Nash quickly moved away from hitting distance from his wife, pretty much admitting his guilt. “It’s that or fun sacks, which Wilder taught her when she was eight!”
“Don’t bring me into this,” I protested while Tally giggled at my side. “I taught her the correct anatomical name; ball sack.”
“Don’t think you did Uncle Wilder,” Bertie said, stooping down to get a better look of Petey’s balls through the rails. “You told me about Daddy’s fun sacks drying up.” She stood upright and clapped her hands together like she was dusting them off. “Okay, I think he’ll do.”
Fighting a grin, Nash scratched behind his ear. “Thanks Bertie, we appreciate your input.”
As she moved away Nash and Gunner moved in and from the sounds they were making and the words they exchanged, I think they agreed with Bertie’s assessment.
“I’ll drive him around to the paddock,” I told them.
“Jamie and Sam should be there to help,” Nash said. “Called them when you messaged to say you were thirty minutes from home.”
“I take it Gideon’s been moved.” The last thing we needed was two bulls going head to head to prove who had the biggest…grenades.
“Yep, I got Davey to put him in that fenced off pasture next to Henry’s farm with that half dozen cows we were thinking of selling.
Figured they’d be company for him and they’re past breeding age so they can grow old together.
” He looked pointedly at Bertie. She’d been adamant that Gideon was not allowed to go to slaughter and because it would be cruel to leave him alone, it looked like we were keeping six cows, too.
“Well, it won’t break the bank,” Gunner replied and nodded at our niece. “And it’ll keep our new foreman happy.”
We all laughed, except for Bertie who was too busy trying to get Dorcas to give her a paw in exchange for a treat. It seemed our new bull was no longer of interest to her—not now she’d examined his balls.
“Okay, you coming with me Brownie?”
She chewed on her lip. “Do you mind if I go and see Dreamy? I kind of missed him.”
“Sure thing.” I gave her a quick kiss and tried to dampen down the anxiety of her being alone.
Glenn was gone but we still didn’t know who’d been sending the messages or had trashed her lingerie drawer, if it wasn’t him.
“Come back here, though. Don’t go to the cabin alone.
Okay?” Cupping her face in my hands, I pinned my gaze to hers until she nodded.
It was only two hours later, when we walked hand in hand back into her cabin, that I finally let out a breath of relief.
“You want toast, honey?” Tally asked two days after we got back from Omaha.
Two days of fucking domestic bliss in her cabin, like two little love bugs settling into a new routine and I liked it.
I’d stayed there with her, not wanting her to be alone, needing to be with her and pretty much deciding I was never leaving.
Not while she still wanted me there at least. I hadn’t moved all my clothes into her tiny closet, but I could get by with a couple of pairs of jeans and a half dozen shirts and t-shirts if I needed to.
We hadn’t discussed it. I just hadn’t left. Maybe we should have. Maybe she didn’t want me there all the time, but the orgasm’s I gave her every night seemed to be more than welcome. My horny little Brownie had a greedy pussy where my dick and tongue were concerned.
“Yeah, please.” I moved up behind her as she dropped three slices of bread into the toaster.
Wrapping one arm around her shoulders and snaking the other around her waist, I buried my nose in her hair and inhaled.
The smell of her shampoo and body butter made my mouth water, and my dick got hard behind my jeans even though I’d only had her an hour ago.
We’d reached for each other the moment we opened our eyes, like magnets, every waking breath making the pull stronger.
“What’s on your schedule today?” I asked, dropping a kiss behind her ear.
“Two horses go home today and then later we’ve got a quarter horse coming in that keeps bucking its owner.”
“Any ideas what’s wrong with it?” I asked, moving back and giving her braid a gentle tug.
She glanced over her shoulder, screwing up her nose.
“Gunner saw a video of him and thinks he might just be bored and being a devil about it. He was a rodeo horse, but his owner retired and retired the horse, too. Gunner’s friend, Deacon is it?
” I nodded. “Well, he was the one who told the guy about our program.”
“Where’s he coming from?” I reached for our two coffee mugs that were on the drainer from the night before when we’d had hot chocolate on the back porch. Wrapped in a blanket, Brownie in my lap, watching that sapphire ocean she loved so much.
“Would you believe it's from Kentucky?” She scoffed. “Ugh. Just the mention of the place gives me hives.”
“Do you know him from there?”
She shook her head as the toast popped up, pale brown just as we both liked it. “No, we only really dealt with racehorse owners.” She reached for the peanut butter, sticking a knife in and getting a big helping before spreading it on one of the pieces of toast.
The coffee pot was steaming as I took it and poured two mugs of strong black liquid. “That’s one hell of a drive. What is it, nineteen, twenty hours?”
“Nineteen hours and forty nine minutes to be precise.” Blowing out her cheeks, she moved on to the next piece of toast. “I hated every single second of it but just knew I had to get Dreamy far away from there. The tiredness was the worst part. I lost count how many cups of gas station coffee I bought, just to stay awake.”
“I still can’t believe you drove all that way alone.” She fucking amazed me. Her bravery, her tenaciousness. Not sure I would have done what she did…damn who was I kidding, of course I would in the same scenario. “Weren’t you worried Kennedy would come after you?”
“Not really. He’d just left me to feed and water Dreamy and as far as he was concerned he was locked in his stall. Bernard rarely came to the stables. We used to have to hack the horses out to the training field about a mile away.”
My skin prickled as I thought about my next question. “What about Declan? Did he not chase you?”
“Nope. Declan’s answer to any crisis is Irish whiskey. I imagine he was drunk for a couple of days before he even thought about trying to find me.” She shrugged. “In any case it took him almost eight months to come here, so clearly didn’t care that much.”
Pushing a mug toward her, I ran a hand down her braid, letting my hand settle on the round curve of her ass. I knew she didn’t care about him, didn’t want him back, but that had to have hurt her.
“Didn’t realize what a good thing he’d had,” I told her.
Tally’s eyes met mine and she grinned. “Seriously, I do not care. It just proved I was right about him all along. I told you I should never have married him. I was just lonely.”
My chest tightened at her words, the weight of them settling deep. Loneliness could be a brutal thing, like the longest night with no stars, just endless clouds stretching across a sky that never broke.
“You don’t feel like that here, though, right?”
“God, no.” She moved into my space, reaching up on her tiptoes to kiss me softly. “How could I when I have you.”
She did have me, and it was becoming more and more difficult to imagine a life without her in it. Even thoughts of my old age, sitting on a porch watching grandkids run around had her in them. I just needed to find the right time to tell her.