Page 77 of Coiled Tight
“Sure, little man. What’s up?”
My brain whirred to a stop. “W-why are you calling me that?”
I wasn’t—Well, I was Little, but I wasn’t twink-sized per se, and it was… It was a weird thing to call someone. Had Daddy told him anything about us? He had said he would leave it up to me, and he had a reputation for not talking about anything that didn’t have to do with the animals. Surely, being with me wasn’t making him do a one-eighty.
It was me who had the right to do it.
“Sorry, man. I just assumed… Because of Roy, y’know. It wasn’t a secret that he was into kink that way.”
“Oh.” I scratched at my eyebrow. Daddy had said Roy was Little. He hadn’t said he was open about it. I never would’ve guessed. Then again, that was probably my bad. “I’m not comfortable with that.”
No idea how I blurted out the words like I did. No idea how Dwight would react, for that matter.
“My bad.” In his defense, he looked contrite enough. Although I didn’t think he could ever look fully contrite. If someone had shown me a picture of him before coming here and told me he was some surfer from California or something like that, I would’ve believed them, no further question. “What did you come here for? Sorry, I’m too used to you running in the opposite direction.”
“I don’t…” I clenched my hands. Nope, I was not getting into it. This was already going so badly—even worse than I’d possibly imagined. Wasn’t that a feat? “Saúl said you all wanted to do a barbecue or something?”
“Yeah?” Dwight grinned. “To be fair, we’re always down for that.”
“Okay.” I nodded. I knew I was starting to talk faster than I should because of how fast my heart was beating. When I walked into the surveillance room, I was motivated to get this right and make Daddy proud when I told him. Now I justwanted to get it out of the way and run, which did not feel great, but it had to be progress. I wasn’t grabbing the first excuse I could come up with and running like he’d accused me of doing. “You should set it up.”
“Sure.” I didn’t know if he was oblivious to my fidgeting or believed that if he acted completely unfazed, it would soothe my nerves. It might be working, and I hated him for it. “This Sunday okay?”
“Yeah. Invite Saúl, too.” Inviting Daddy and getting him into the ranch hands’ quarters was the main reason for this. “He needs to get it in his head that you all don’t hate him. I mean, you don’t, right?”
The unfazed smile Dwight had been giving me morphed into something softer. If I was the kind to look for meaning in every little thing, I’d say I might’ve earned a smidge of respect.
For now, I just ignored it and waited for his response. I could, sort of, in a very awkward way, act unfazed, too. If I really put my mind into it.
“You’re goin’ to end up a good influence on him, huh?”
I didn’t grant him an answer.
The difference between a compliment and mockery was a small one at times. I didn’t have the energy to decipher it.
Obviously,it was one of the days when everything went wrong.
I scrunched my nose. Wrong wasn’t the exact word. I’d played with the dramatic foxes, spent more time than was probably professional checking in on the pups I was officially keeping once I set up an appointment with the local vet to get them chipped, and I’d conquered—some—fears.
Disclosing I’d hooked up with Daddy and that we were a thing hadn’t made anyone implode, and I had approached Dwight of my own volition without seeking refuge, even when he turned his teasing to the max.
The worst part about this job was being forced to keep my phone on me the entire time because who knew if there was an emergency one of the hands or volunteers had to alert me of.
If I hadn’t had my phone on me, I wouldn’t have grabbed it on my way back to the house. I wouldn’t have unlocked the screen on reflex, and I wouldn’t have noticed I had a new message.
Fuck.
It had only been like three days since we came back from Houston.
Why couldn’t she have taken longer? I’d even specified it would be okay if she did. It had been more for my benefit than hers, but clearly she hadn’t gotten the memo.
I shook my head. My inner voice sounded like I resented her.
I didn’t.
I was glad she had answered. I just… Fear wrapped around my every nerve quickly, blocking everything that wasn’t the screen and the myriad of scenarios I’d come up with ever since I sent the thread of texts. I couldn’t blame her if she hated me. I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t text her again, no matter what.
It didn’t mean I wanted to see the evidence for myself.
