Page 56 of Kissing Kayley
He crossed his arms over his chest. “And what is it?”
She beamed. “This place has long been lacking a disco horse!”
Derek slapped a hand over his eyes. “You cannot glue mirrors to a horse!”
She planted her hands on her hips in indignation. “Well,duh! Uh, duh, sir. That’d be cruel! We, I mean me and Lilah, we… eh…acquired a disco horse. Not a bio-horse,” she quickly added. “It’s kinda like a statue. I mean, it is a statue. Sort of.”
He heavily sighed, not removing his hand from his eyes. “Do I even want to know?”
“Probably not. It involved bad decisions, a bottle of Malört, and a rigged strip poker game.”
“Do I need to ban Malört from the premises?” he asked, finally dropping his hand.
She beamed. “No, because we were on the winning end of it! Besides, it didn’t happen on the Ranch, and we weren’t the ones stupid enough to make the bad decision to drink it.”
“Wait, strip poker? Where were you? Who was with you?”
“It was me, Lilah, and Daddy.”
A slight scowl darkened Derek’s features. “Your Daddy took you to a strip poker game?”
“No, sir! We were safe. It was just a party with some old friends of ours from out of town. Uh, vanilla-ish friends.” A sneakily evil gleam twinkled in her eyes. “It was Daddy who suggested they play, then me and Lilah kinda… uh, egged on the losers.”
“They were probably all losers if they were drinking Malört,” Derek said.
She grinned. “Did you know it’s really hard to deal and focus on cards when drunk on Malört?”
“Okay, now I have more questions than answers,” Derek said. “Where did this disco horse come from, anyway?”
“Lilah and I saw it in a store the other day but Daddy wouldn’t buy it for us. He said if we could either come up with the money ourselves, or get someone to buy it for us, we could have it. But we’d have to keep it here because it’s too big for our living room.”
I almost felt sorry for Derek. He looked as confused as I felt.
“So how did the poker game lead to you and Lilah acquiring this thing if you weren’t in the game?” he asked.
She bounced on her toes, her hands clasped behind her back, and widely grinning. I could easily picture her as a kid, or a tween.
“Well, we kind of backed them into a corner and got them to agree to buy it if they lost. I mean, there’s more to it, but Daddy will probably tell it better. Pleeeease?”
“Do I need to call your Daddy to verify this story?”
She solemnly nodded. “If you want to, Master Derek. He said he kind of expects you to call him. He’s at work until late today. He had to take another paramedic’s shift because the guy was injured yesterday.”
Another heavily weighted sigh escaped Derek. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“I promise we didn’t break any rules! And Daddy gave me and Lilah permission to be sneaky and do heavy pours on the Malört. But that’s what’s in the crate—eh, the disco horse, not Malört—so can we pleeeeease get it waved through? I promise it’s not anything bad or against the rules. Please, Master Derek?”
“All right, all right,” Derek grumbled after another heavy sigh. “I have a feeling I’ll regret this, but I’ll allow it. How big is this thing?”
She held her hands out sideways, then up and down. “Kinda big. Not as big as a real horse, but it’s big. Heavy, too.”
“Why is it coming here, exactly?”
“Daddy said besides it being too big that he wanted me to share it with everyone.” She grinned. “He said Sadie will probably love it, and to tell you—I quote—you’re welcome.”
Derek snorted. “That means he’s being a sneaky sadist. Okay, fine. Have them put it in the multi-purpose room in the Littles’ Wing. Will you need help uncrating it?”
“Yes, please!”
