Chapter 5
CHAPTER 5
B oone’s ranch was only a few miles away. Tildi kept what she hoped was a look of rapt excitement on her face as she fought hard not to throw up. She was trying her best to hold onto the belief that her Daddy wasn’t disappointed in her because she hadn’t been able to stay at Sevin’s compound.
Sev could call it an estate all he wanted, but it was a compound.
Even if that was true, she should have better control over her emotions. She’d let her Daddy down whether he knew it or not. The General would have been disappointed in her. A cold shiver traced the length of her spine as visions of her father’s cold black eyes drifted through her memories.
You’re an embarrassment to the family, Seraphina. Do you have any idea how much money I’ve spent, no, wasted, in trying to turn you into a successful student? If you can’t do any better than that I’ll have them transfer you to that special school in Knoxville where all the other drains on society attend.
She’d been seven years old in the third grade the first time she’d gotten that speech. She’d misspelled the word chiaroscurist in the semi-finals of the state spelling bee. Second place meant failure as far as the General was concerned.
Boone wasn’t like the General. He didn’t care about things like winning spelling bees when you were terrified of being in front of people. He cared about her being happy. At least he said he did. She was doing her best to believe him. Even though it was really, really hard.
The closer they got to Wild River Ranch, the tighter her chest grew. It was getting hard to breathe. What if she didn’t fit in? She had no idea how to be a good cowgirl, much less the best. What if she did it wrong? If she wound up being a burden, Boone’s family wouldn’t want her to stick around.
Puff, Tildi's tie-dyed dragon, had worried about leaving the yacht at first, but Tildi had held her extra tight, and she’d been all right. Then, when Tildi had seen that huge museum of a house Sevin called a home, Puff had returned the favor.
Now they had to comfort each other again. It had been a long time since dragons had been around bison after all. Puff had calmed down when Tildi assured her they weren’t over eight feet tall or weighed two tons.
She and Puff had both gotten excited when they reached the mountain crossing in Wyoming. Tildi proved to be a very tenacious, dedicated backseat driver until Boone threatened to make her rear end hot enough to melt the snow. It was just as well she’d already helped Grif all she could to navigate the snowy road with its sharp curves.
She’d thought the mountains in Tennessee were hard to drive on in the winter. The Rockies were the Appalachian Mountains on steroids. Lost in thought, she didn’t realize Grif was slowing down until the Jeep stopped in the middle of the road.
“What are we stopping for?” Tildi plastered her face to the icy window, trying to see through the frosted glass.
Even though they were in the middle of nowhere, Grif tapped the horn and flashed the lights. What in the world?
She turned to ask Boone what was happening, but as she did, her coat sleeve caught the door handle. When she tugged it loose, her door flew open. She'd have fallen out if her Daddy hadn’t caught the tail of her shirt.
“Tildi, what happened to your seatbelt?” Boone reached across her to grab her belt and click it back in place, muttering something about car seats. He glared at her as he spoke to Grif. “What happened to the damn child safety locks being engaged?”
“Sorry, chief. They’re on now,” Grif said. “Hopefully, this guy will mosey on across the road in just a second. The heat won’t work as well if we’re stopped for long.”
Tildi tried to push up in her seat, but her seatbelt was locked in place. “What guy? Why is there a guy in the middle of the road?” Was he crazy? “Let me see.”
She grabbed the seatbelt latch, finger on the button, to release her belt and see what Grif was talking about.
Boone's stern, “I wouldn’t advise it," froze her in place. "If you want to see, ask Daddy.”
“Daddy, can I see what’s going on?”
“That’s better.” He signaled his permission by calling, “Grif?”
“On it.”
Grif released the safety lock as Boone unhooked her seatbelt and patted his lap. Once she settled there, he let down his window and helped her lean out.
A shiver shot from her knee to the apex of her thighs, not from the cold but from the way he gripped her legs. His thumb was pressed high on her inner thigh. If only they were alone so he could move it a bit higher.
Boone didn’t miss her shiver or the reason for it. She knew this because he ran his thumb along the lower crack of her bottom and chuckled.
Naughty Daddy. Did he know how wet that simple move had made her? It may be cold outside, but now her body was on fire.
The frosty afternoon air bit her other cheeks. The scent of spruce, fir, and pine trees filled the Jeep. Without pause, she leaned as far out of the window as she could. She couldn’t see anything except snow. It blanketed the floor of the forest and whitened the deep green trees.
It was beautiful, but Grif wouldn’t have stopped for that. “What am I looking for?”
Dutch laughed. “Look at the road in front of the Jeep, darlin’.” His amusement died when Boone growled. Dutch adjusted his cap. “Sorry, boss.”
Ignoring them, Tildi twisted to look in front of the jeep. “Holy mother of Bullwinkle!” A dark brown shaggy beast with gigantic, flat antlers stood in the center of the road.
“Actually, that would be Father of Bullwinkle,” Grif corrected. “Females don’t have antlers and beards.”
“Yes, but holy father of Bullwinkle sounds weird.” She would have explained why, somehow, if movement among the trees hadn’t caught her attention. “Oh, look! It’s a Mommy moose.”
A moose cow and calf waited in the tree line until the bull looked over its shoulder, calling out to them. They ambled from the cover of the trees and slowly crossed the road.
Tildi pushed off Boone’s thigh, wincing at his grunt. “Sorry. I want to see what they do.”
The bull stood guard as the cow and her calf stepped over the guardrail and moved into the trees on the other side. With one more look at the Jeep, the bull followed and was soon swallowed by the forest.
“Come on back inside before we all freeze to death,” Boone said as he tugged her legs and helped her back inside the Jeep.
“That was amazing! I’ve never seen a moose before. They are enormous.”
“They are indeed.” Dutch turned to smile. “You’ll have plenty of opportunity to see all the moose you want on the ranch. There are all kinds of wildlife around there.”
Wow. She hadn’t thought about all the wildlife that would be on the ranch. “What do they eat? If I can get close enough, maybe I can pet it.”
Tildi jerked back as all three men shouted, “No!”
“Jeez, all right, all right. It was just an idea. I wouldn’t really do it.” Probably.
Boone didn’t seem to agree. “I don’t take anything for granted with you.”
It would have been really cool though. She could have asked Kenzie to take a picture of her standing next to a giant moose to send to Breezy.
She side-eyed Boone to get a measure of how upset he was, but only affection shown in his eyes. Affection and desire. She loved that look. It sent a thrill to her heart every time.
It thrilled places further south, too.
But then Boone’s face grew serious. “We need to talk about a few things before we get to the ranch.”
Well, that wasn’t scary at all. “What kind of things?”
“We’ll be staying in the main lodge for now. There should be plenty there to keep you occupied, so until I know you’ll be safe, you don’t go anywhere alone.”
Yep, she was right after all. Scary. But she wasn’t a child. Not really. She needed everyone to know she’d be able to carry her own weight. If they had to babysit her all the time, well, she didn’t want to think about what would happen then. But she couldn’t be a burden. No one wanted to keep a burden around.