Read Online Sunset Ranch by A. Destiny - Free Book Online Page B

Chloe once she got started. She was like a tortilla-making machine. Seriously, I couldn’t hold her back. She had all those puppies rolled out in like five seconds.”
    â€œHe’s such a liar,” I told Nora. “All I did was knead. He did the rest.”
    â€œDon’t believe her! She should be on kitchen duty the rest of the summer—she’s like a professional chef!”
    â€œYou’re a nut job,” I laughed, shoving him out of the kitchen in front of me. “You shouldn’t be trusted.”
    He raised his eyebrows. “ That’s for sure.” He leered at me, and I rolled my eyes as I headed for the stairs.
    ***
    â€œHow was the trail ride this morning?” I stood in front of the wavery, spotty mirror in our bedroom that afternoon. Dana was propped up on her bed, her wet hair wrapped in a towel, wearing sweatpants and a tank top and scribbling rapidly in her journal with a chewed-up Bic.
    She groaned without looking up. “Those little girls are such brats!”
    She meant the Taylors’ kids—they’d proven themselves to be every bit as out of control as we’d previously thought.
    Dana leaned over and put her journal in the drawer of her bedside table, then lay back again against the pillows. “I’m trying to get the dad mounted and he’s being, you know, the way big men are, all stiff and scared but trying not to show it. Making dumb jokes, clutching the saddle horn. So I’m just trying to keep him upright on Mickey, when I look over and they’ve both gotten on Hans! Without helmets! Which, if Jack saw, he would probably fire me and eat them for breakfast.”
    I nodded. Helmets weren’t the most attractive headgear and certainly didn’t fit my picture of myself galloping in a field of grass with my long hair flowing out behind me, but they were nonnegotiable. Jack had given us a massive lecture about liability. Apparently he could get sued for everything he owned if an accident happened to one of us staff or a guest on a horse and they weren’t wearing a helmet.
    â€œSo poor Hans is trying to keep from freaking out, but I can see he’s getting all trembly and sweaty, and in a minute he’s probably going to dump them.” Dana put her hand over her eyes as if to shut out the memory. “And I’m all by myself, you know, since they were supposed to get on one at a time, and now I’m freaking out, my heart is pounding, I’m thinking that this is it, Hans is going to throw those little girls into a tree and then Mickey will spook and dump the dad and they’ll have go to the emergency room and then I’ll be back in Boise, working at Wendy’s for the rest of the summer.” She stopped to take a breath.
    â€œAnd? Come on, don’t leave me in suspense here!” I said.
    â€œWait, it gets better. So the dad sees what’s going on now—he didn’t before because he was trying not to fall off—and he shouts at the girls to get off the horse. And Hans thinks he’s shouting at him , so he starts trotting off, probably going back to his stall, and I swear to God, the bigger girl jumps off Hans like she’s some kind of stuntman, and does a somersault in the dirt. By now I’m yelling, trying to catch Hans, the dad’s gotten off Mickey somehow, he’s yelling, the big girl’s screaming, and Hans goes straight into the stable and I run after him. He’s in his stall with the little girl still on his back.”
    â€œOh my God,” I said.
    â€œSo I grab the little girl off Hans, slip his bridle off, and go back out—Mickey’s gotten the lid off one of the outside grain bins and is eating everyone else’s lunch,” Dana concluded.
    â€œThat’s crazy! Were the girls okay?”
    My roommate flopped back against the pillows, crossed her eyes, and let her tongue loll out the side of her mouth. “Yeah, they were