She had a point, I knew she had a point, and I totally respected her choices especially since my choices in life weren’t questioned, but I also knew I could make nicer cake bars.
“I’m giving the list to Lorenzo, because there’s someotherthings on there as well.”
“Whatotherthings?”
Just in time, saved by Lorenzo, stomping on over with his cowboy boots leaving their marks in the soft dirt behind him. They made his feet look completely huge, and they were, but notlike bigfoot. He tipped his hat to my mom. “I’m ready when you are.”
She immediately handed off the folded paper list to him, and before I could snatch it, he’d tucked it into his hand with catlike reflexes. “Don’t let him see what’s on there.”
“I’m gonna know, I’m going with him,” I said.
“I figured you’d be too busy in the new bakery that just opened up in town.”
“New bakery!” I knew the building had sold, but I hadn’t realized it was already functioning. There went one of my dreams. “Well, there goes my big dream.”
She scoffed. “You know your dream is to be here with all these animals, let’s not pretend any differently,” she said, rolling her eyes at me. “So, it’s a good thing it’s been sold. And it’ll be even better when you’re less busy so you can be in here cooking up a storm like you usually are.”
Oh god. She was onto me. She was onto us. I gulped hard, glancing at Lorenzo. He was completely oblivious to the whole thing, shrugging his shoulders and just grinning from ear-to-ear. It was now the norm for him to be smiling like that, whereas he used to be all hard-faced and stoic looking. I just hoped—
“What’s got you all happy?” she asked him, proving my point that she knew something was up.
“Oh, just enjoying this,” he said. “Maybe it’s the cool breeze and the actually foliage you get up here that has people acting less like they’ve got a stick up they’re asses.” He placed a hand to his mouth. “My apologies for the foul language.”
She laughed. It was only making him more endearing. I just hoped she would put to rest the thoughts and ideas that he would marry into the family through Olivia. And there I went, with my brain, thinking about marriage when we were so far away from even solidifying this thing as a relationship.
“It’s ok, Lolo,” she said. “But take your time in town. We should be quiet here, it’s a chilly day, so folks will be staying home I imagine.”
This was my first time into town since I’d last taken Lorenzo. Once the horses arrived, everything else stood still, and that meant attending some of the fun events they put on. Thankfully, it was none of the fun ones I enjoyed, like the paint and play event, or the whittling event that the town mayor’s husband put on. Personally, I could never get into it. I found I would always snap the wood before it was even close to being finished.
Once in the car, I obviously wasn’t going to let it go. I wanted to see what was on that list. “Show me,” I said, showing him the car key. “Or we won’t go.”
“Your mom’s watching,” he whispered, his hand slipping between my thighs. He clenched a little. His hand squeezing just below my balls. “We better go before she asks what’s wrong.”
“That’s so unfair.” I pushed my thighs together, hoping to trap his hand, but it was all for naught, sliding out with ease. And as I backed out of the parking spot, Lorenzo sniffed his hand and made a pleased moan.
“Gotta listen to Daddy,” he said. “Or no playtime later but double the work with the horses.”
He knew my weakness was playtime, and my other literal weakness was being around the horses. I was keeping myself quite cool for now. “Only because you promised playtime.”
Off the ranch, Lorenzo leaned in and kissed me. “I should be driving,” he said.
“You’re not insured on the van,” I said.
“I just think I’m better suited to being in the driver’s seat,” he continued. “And you can be my passenger princess.”
It was appealing, adding to that, I would’ve loved being the one touching all up on him right now, especially since that’s what he like doing to me. “If you show me the list, I’ll let you.”
For several moment, we drove in silence until he sighed and shook his head. “No can do, baby,” he said. “But I’ll give it to you that was a good play.”
“Just as well, because I don’t think my mom would’ve been happy if I’d let you drive without all the proper paperwork,” I said. I dropped a hint of what I wanted to happen, and I didn’t know if he was picking any of the hints up. I hoped he was picking a single hint out of the sea.
And he did. “Then it looks like getting me on the insurance is what I need to do, but I guess that also means I’ll probably be sticking around, and I might have already made other plans once the horses are all less trauma bonded to each other.”
I gave him a gentle jab on his thigh. He probably didn’t even feel it with the way his jeans were always so rough and tough to the touch. “You’re not making plans to leave,” I told him. “If anything, you’re making more plans to stay.”
We went back and forth a little playfully until arriving in town. It was always like a breath of fresh air when I was here, from all the faces I hadn’t seen in a while, to the literal fresh air that rolled in from the lake. It set my entire body at ease.
“I’ll go make my way around town to collect these things for your mom,” Lorenzo said with a head nod. He removed his Stetson for a moment, dipping his head as he left the van. “So, you should go occupy yourself for a bit, go see your friends, or something.”
