Page 18 of Buck Wild Orc Cowboy
I wanted her to work out, and not only because I could already see she did a great job. I wanted her to stay. A dangerous thought, because I wasn’t interested in being with someone new, but I couldn’t seem to suppress it.
“All of this is amazing.” She stared around in wonder. “The town, the business, and what you and your brothers have built here.”
“It’s a simple barn. About forty feet long and housing ten sorhoxes,” I said, focusing on this building alone. “We’ll build another barn as we grow, but we purposefully started small. For now, it’s just me and my five brothers, plus Aunt Inla and Grannie Lil, though she lives here to be close to Jessi, who’s mated to my brother, Greel. She’s sharing with my aunt, but we’ve started construction on her home already.”
“That’s nice of you and your brothers.” Holly strolled down the center aisle, her head back to take everything in.
“We store feed above and in the attached silo,” I said. “The last room on the right is for tack. Orcs ride without saddles, and we don’t use harnesses or reins, but the tourists do.”
She stopped partway down and studied a sorhox staring her way. He bucked his head, which meant he was begging for pats. “How do you get them to go where you want if you don’t use reins?”
“All are trained to respond to foot commands. They’re docile creatures in general. Those we work with, that is. Even our regular mounts roam free.”
“You mean they just wander around?” Max asked, blinking behind his glasses.
“They do. They come when we call. We trained them to do that as well.”
“I’ll ride without a saddle and reins?” Max actually sounded excited about the idea, but I’d already seen he was not only a smart youngling but curious and brave. And protective of his mother, as he should be. He’d make a fine man one day.
“I’ll saddle and put a harness on Brelar for you,” I said. “We can work on your foot commands over the next few days and see what happens after that.”
His jaw dropped. “You mean I can ride him more than to your house?”
“If you want.” I watched Holly as I spoke.
I wasn’t going to push this either, but a youngling should be out in the sunshine, not sitting in a bakery all summer long reading books. A boy his age shouldn't need permission for fresh air and muscle aches. He should already have it, handed freely like bread after a long day. But I could see it, the way he kept glancing up at her. Waiting. As if the world only widened if she let it.
“If your mom doesn’t mind, that is,” I added. “I’ll be happy to teach you and if you feel comfortable, you could take Brelar out on one of the trails.”
“That…” Holly swallowed, a touch of panic flaring in her eyes. “Sounds lovely.”
“You said you have young sorhoxes that need training.” Max stiffened his spine, standing tall. “Can I work with them soon?”
“We’ll see,” was all I wanted to say right now.
Holly and I could talk later, once Max had gone to bed. I’d misspoken already. I should only offer things to him with her prior approval. After what she told me about Max’s father, who could blame her for hovering over her son like a motherchumble? She would protect her young with her life, just like I would her and Max.
Funny how I knew that already.
The more Holly watched me, the more I felt off-kilter. Like my bones itched beneath the skin. It was an awareness. A knowing I had no idea how to analyze. Max watching did nothing to my self-control, but Holly…
I swallowed hard. She looked good. Sun streaming through the back window caught her auburn hair, making it gleam like a sunrise. There was a slow kind of quiet to her right now, and it hit something deep in my chest.
I’d never used creatures to impress anyone before, but I very much ached to impress Holly. Which made it worse. I had no business hoping. Not with her still scanning exit doors like the walls might bite.
She's not impressed,I told myself.She's watching you closely because she’s a survivor. Like a mother chumble, she’d do anything to protect her young, even attack someone twice her size.
But a part of me wondered.
What if she truly was impressed with me?
Chapter 6
Holly
After retrieving a saddle that Max carried, and securing a harness over Brelar’s head, Sel opened the creature’s gate and gestured for the beast to follow him outside. We followed, Max shutting the barn door once we were through.
Brelar plodded over to the side of the barn calmly while Max gaped in awe at the sorhox, and I gaped in awe at Sel. He was so…strong. Kind. Thoughtful. And a lot of other adjectives I didn’t want to think about too much. Gorgeous being one.
