Page 105 of Coiled Tight
“Yep!” No way was I going to tell him about how not ready I was to graduate. He knew, anyway. And he still dealt with me, even though I wasn’t supposed to think about it in those terms. Whatever. Therapy time was over. “The hands are taking bets again. And Dwight wants to know what’s gotten into you.”
Daddy grumbled something I didn’t quite catch beforerolling his eyes. I would roll mine in return, because Daddies could be so silly, and everyone knew he wasn’t actually bothered by the scheming or the nosiness, but apparently, eye rolling was reserved for grown-ups. Whatever.
“Doyouwant to know what’s gotten into me?”
“Um.” I gaped. “Hassomethinggotten into you? Because I thought it was just Dwight talking out of his ass. He kinda does that a lot, no hate.”
My rambling—because what if I was misinterpreted and Daddy thought I had issues with Dwight? He didn’t talk much about Roy now, after the first few weeks when he kept worrying and comparing and all that stuff, but I didn’t want him to fall back into it because he started wondering if I was doing the same thing Roy did, where he said people didn’t like him or he didn’t like them or whatever else.
Sure, Daddy wasn’t the one who overthought things. I was that.
Whatever.
Daddy’s low chuckle got me out of my thoughts. “I might have been more in my head. Snappier. Although I wasn’t the one who kept fucking up and doing a shit job of mucking the stalls.”
I was not going to say that Daddy complained a whole lot about everyone’s mucking skills, and I hadn’t seen an issue with it any of the times he’d tried to prove his point. Some of the volunteers at the vet lair helped out a bit with the horses when they didn’t have anything else to do. More than half of them were scared to death of him.
I found it funny. I didn’t tell either Daddy or the volunteers that.
Survival skills were a marvelous thing.
“Okay…” I spoke slowly. Speaking slowly was what smart people did to prove they were smarter. Or something. It felt hella condescending, though. Maybe I shouldn’t do it. Huh. Back to speaking normally. “Um. So what’s gotten into you, Daddy?”
Daddy took a deep breath, shoulders reaching his ears before he lowered them again. Watching him anxious was disconcerting as fuck. “Remember what I told you about the deal with the kink club?”
“Uh-huh.”
After all the times he’d tried to push me to meet up with the Littles there, I had had the incredibly smart moment of pointing outhecould reach out to them if it was so important to him. There was a high chance I’d added more brattiness to the words, but the point was, he had done it, and no one had hated him as badly as he’d thought they would. To the point where he now had a contract of some sort with them to provide them with new paddles, and floggers, and leather gear, and furniture. It made Daddy happy and gave us another sneaky source of income that meant delaying his dad’s petting zoo idea further.
“Next week, you’re moving your free day to Friday.”
I blinked. “I am?”
What did that have to do with?—
Daddy nodded. He shifted his hold on Swiftheart’s bridle so that he could move closer to me without his mare choosing to take off somewhere. She didn’t run, but one of the new horses was being a bad influence on her already independent streak.
If he didn’t love the other horse—and all other horses, really—I was of half a mind that he would’ve found a reason to not board him in or send him somewhere else by now.
Alas, he had a soft spot for them, and now Swiftheart provided more of an interesting riding experience.
“You are.” I forgave him all the assumptions and lowkey cocky attitude because he finished it up with a forehead kiss. I might still be a bit embarrassed about how warm and gooeythey made me feel, and Daddy was forbidden to do any of that where everyone could see, but forehead kisses were just superior. “I already talked with Sofía and she said you could take the day.”
“I didn’t know she was my boss now.”
Did I grumble for the sake of it? Of course I did.
Mercury picked that moment to nudge my shoulder. We were going to pretend he didn’t almost propel me forward.
Look, I would never say a bad word about an animal. I wouldn’t.
That said, Mercury was a brute. A loving brute, but the poor stallion had no idea how strong he actually was. It was a shock to everyone—fine, to me—that he hadn’t thrown me off his back by accident yet.
“But it’s the first thing you would’ve told me if I hadn’t thought ahead,” he pointed out. It worked to get me out of my head. It sucked because he had a point, then. “So. Friday. You and me. Now ask me why.”
“Huh?” Was it me, or had Daddy spoken faster than usual? I moved closer. Mercury didn’t budge, but it was fine. His bridle was long enough, and Daddy had already done most of the work to cut the distance between us. “Um. I mean. Why, Daddy?”
Was that sweat on the sides of his face? Sure, Daddy sweated a lot regardless of the weather, because manual labor, so I was probably reading into this, but… Was he nervous?
