I’m blushing.
I can feel it even before I see his small grin.
I snatch my hand out of his. “I’m not getting back on that horse.”
“You can get on with me,” he offers.
I blink. “You’re joking, right?”
He narrows his eyes. “Do I look like I’m jokin’?”
“I can’t tell, you always have the same expression, but I have to assume you’re joking because ...”
I wave my hands over my body, as if that’ll give him the answer he needs. There is no way that horse is holding all six-foot god knows what, muscled, masculine man that he is plus me and my tiny, curvy body.
He’ll probably break a leg, and I can’t have that.
Diablo is a king, and kings don’t break legs.
“I’m not sure what you’re gettin’ at,” he murmurs.
Right. Of course he wants me to spell it out. “I’m far too chunky to get on that horse.”
He stares at me, as if he’s confused. “What?”
“Chunky. Round. Curvy. Flabby. Whatever it’s called these days. There is no way that horse can carry you and I together ...”
“You’re jokin’ right?”
“Does it look like I’m joking?” I say, feeding his line right back to him.
“You, sweetheart, are not fuckin’ chunky.”
My lips tighten. “Now you’re just being a dick.”
I turn and pick up my hat, dusting it off and walking toward the house, angry. I don’t care about the damn horse, it can stay there. I don’t care about the group of people staring at me, they can all bite me. I’m not going to be the pity party of a group of men that look like they do, trying to kindly tell me I’m not chunky. I am chunky. I don’t need to feel any less than I do right now.
“Keep goin’, I’ll follow,” Rhett yells, and the sounds of horses galloping off can be heard.
Then, I hear boots nearing behind me. “Lei, quit fuckin’ stormin’ off.”
I stop, spinning around. “I’m going back to the house, packing my shit, and going home. I don’t belong here.”
I can already feel my cheeks burning red from the sun, and now I’m panting from my little act of storming off. I probably look like a tiny piglet huffing and puffing, just to make things even worse.
“Why are you so angry?”
I narrow my eyes, looking up at him. “I know what I am, Rhett. I don’t need men that look like you, trying to make me feel better by telling me I’m not what I am. That’s all I’ve ever had in my life, from everyone who ever mattered. Oh, you’re not fat honey. Oh, you’re not chubby honey. Oh, you’re beautiful.”
“You are fuckin’ beautiful.”
His words shock me, so much I stare at him, mouth agape.
I’ve been lied to and told I’m beautiful before, but nobody has ever said it in the way he just did.
I ... I actually believe him.
“I said you’re not chunky, because you’re not fuckin’ chunky,” he goes on, “you’re curvy in all the right fuckin’ places and believe me, I’ve been lookin’. You’re fuckin’ sexy in the nerdiest most fuckin’ random way I’ve ever seen, Lei. I’m not a liar. I don’t fuckin’ tell bullshit stories to make people feel better.”
I’ve never ... I have no words. Nothing. Zero.
I stare at him with my mouth slightly agape.
Nobody has ever said anything like that to me before.
Never.
Not once.
“You don’t even know me,” I mutter. It’s all I can manage.
“I don’t need to know you to have an opinion on how you look to me.”
God damn.
My crush is going to explode into full blown love if this man doesn’t stop speaking.
“Now, get on the fuckin’ horse because we’re goin’ to ride and we’re goin’ to give you the best time you’ve ever had here at the ranch.”
I blink.
“I’ll fall.”
“Won’t let you fall again.”
Well.
It’s official.
I’m in love.
Someone help us all.
RHETT IS RIGHT.
This is actually fun.
When I finally get the hang of riding Porky, it is actually enjoyable. Rhett takes us all to the cattle yards, and we watch in absolute awe as they all ride beside the cows, pushing them into another paddock with nothing but their horses and a few dogs to do it. It’s the best thing I’ve ever seen, and I can’t take my eyes off Rhett as he moves on that horse in a way that makes me feel things I’ve not felt before.
In places I’ve not felt them for a very, very long time.
“God damn,” Kara sighs. “I could stay here forever. I would be happy never to leave, just so I could come here every day and watch this.”
“It is the best thing I’ve ever seen,” Grace sighs, leaning forward on her horse.
“I have to agree,” Emily murmurs, eyes following the men as they move.
“I see why it’s called a retreat now,” I tell them, watching Rhett. “This is all the therapy I’ll ever need.”