Lucky Forever - Cee Bowerman Page 0,16
come and let the girls out to pasture every morning, clean up their stalls and get them ready for the evening. Sometimes on weekends, we’ll saddle a few of them up and ride for a while, but we don’t get to do it nearly often enough to suit us.”
“Lexi is going to shit when she finds out you have horses.”
“She likes them I take it?”
“She’s that little girl that asked Santa for a pony every single year.”
“Well, maybe someday we can get her one. I have my eye on one for Leia right now and if I can, I’m going to buy her and board her here with Nicole’s girls.”
“If you marry a millionaire, you can buy both girls a pony.”
“Yeah, we’ll have to talk about that money thing, sweetheart. I’m not going to be a kept man.”
“I didn’t suggest that at all, I just think it will be great to be able to give my daughter - and yours, too - some of the things I’ve never been able to afford before.” I sighed. “Like a house where she can paint the walls of her bedroom whatever color she wants and a dog and a cat for pets. And somewhere with an attic that we can store Christmas ornaments so we can decorate and have traditions every year that she’ll remember when she’s older.”
“Are you sure you’re not talking about what my daughter and I want, because it sounds an awful lot like my dreams for us.”
“Hmmm, imagine that,” I mumbled, knowing that I was already falling down the rabbit hole and dreaming about what I could do with that much money. “I want to do so much for her.”
“I hear ya, sweetheart.”
◆◆◆
“You live here, too?” I asked Rowdy as we got back into the truck. We had finished ‘bedding the horses down for the night’ as he called it and then walked hand in hand to his truck.
“Yeah,” Rowdy started the truck and motioned toward a small house further up the drive. “We can go there to talk if you’re comfortable with it; if not, we can go have dessert at Martha’s Diner and talk there.”
“Would it be too much if I said I’d like to do both?” I laughed. “If it’s too far to drive back and forth, I understand.”
“Not too much effort at all, Sierra.” Rowdy turned the truck around in the grassy area beside the dirt drive and we headed back in the direction of town. “Tell me something about yourself that a fiancé should know.”
“Are you my fiancé?”
“We haven’t really decided yet, have we?” Rowdy shrugged. “Tell me something anyway.”
“I hate pickles.”
“Okay. All pickles or just dill?”
“Let me rephrase that: I hate pickles on a burger, but only if they’re hot.” I shook my head. “Okay, let me explain. I don’t eat cold burgers, therefore I don’t eat pickles on my burger. I’ll eat a pickle on the side, but the pickle has to be cold. If it’s on the burger, it gets warm and that’s just disgusting.”
“Hmm. Maybe that’s why I pick them off my burger but don’t mind them in potato salad or whatever.”
“It’s a valid reason,” I nodded my head seriously. “Warm pickles are just gross.”
“Noted,” Rowdy laughed. “Tell me something else.”
“You go.”
“I’m allergic to evergreen, pine, and fir trees.”
“Like rash allergic or stop breathing allergic?”
“Rash, sneezing, that sort of thing. Not deadly as far as I know.”
“I’m allergic to raspberries. They give me hives.”
“Okay, I’ll keep that in mind. I’m allergic to fresh tomatoes - they give me blisters in my mouth.”
“Ketchup and spaghetti sauce are okay, though?”
“Yes ma’am. And I can eat my own weight in salsa, but it can’t be fresh. Has to be cooked or canned or whatever.”
“Okay, so no tomatoes in salads or on sandwiches and burgers. Good to know.”
“This one may be a game changer.”
“What? Is it horrible?”
“Some people think so. I think it’s delicious.”
“Okay. Sock it to me and I’ll decide.”
“I eat my Chick-fil-A waffle fries dipped in half mayo and half ketchup.”
“No way!”
“I told you it was a game changer.”
“I do that, too!” I yelled. “People think I’m just gross, but it’s so good that way. And on the nuggets, too.”
“Yep. On the nuggets, too.”
“It’s kind of nice to know that I’m not the only one.”
“I think it’s kind of nice to know that when we eat there you won’t give me a ration of shit about it like Leia does. What about Lexi?”
“She thinks I’m disgusting.”
“They’re young. They don’t know shit yet.”