Page 13 of Wilder

I forced my gaze away from him, unwilling to let him see even a hint of how badly my cheeks burned when I turned and headed back down the path toward the stables.

Sir.

That was new.

CHAPTER 5

Asher

“Arg!” was the last thing out of Dusty’s mouth before gravity did its unforgiving work.

In an instant, he came down hard, smacking face first into the arena’s gritty substrate that instantly had me wincing out of sympathy. Dust kicked up just enough to color the air, clouding around his fallen form while he lay face down with his arms stretched out on either side of him.

Wrapped around both of his boots was a lasso tugged snugly at his ankles. At the other end of it stood Dallas, his grip steady on the rope, his expression flat and unreadable as he stared down at the boy he’d somehow gotten roped into—ha—catching.

If he had any particular feelings about the stunt he’d been pulled into, he sure as hell wasn’t letting them show. Like usual.

Not far off from them, Ryder was damn near keeling over, his entire body bending backward as he clutched his stomach. A sharp, wheezing laugh tore out of him. “You actually did it! You crazy motherfucker.”

“Language,” Laken shot at him, though there wasn’t much bite behind the warning. A wry smile tugged at his lips, betraying his own amusement. His attention shifted back to Dusty who still had yet to move. “You all right, kid?”

For a second there was nothing, just the slow settling of dust. Then, slowly, a single arm peeled up from the ground, sluggish and deliberate, before dirty fingers curled into a distinctive thumbs-up.

It had me shaking my head.

The cold snap had driven us all inside for the day, including the horses. With the morning chores done and the stables sealed up tight to keep the animals warm from the cold front blowing in, we’d all been left with too much time on our hands after lunch.

Getting a bunch of restless ranch hands packed together with nothing but boredom and an empty arena filled with tack to entertain themselves with, would always give way to this kind of chaos no matter how well-behaved the oldest of us was.

Case in point: Dallas getting himself talked into this mess to begin with.

Wilder and Sully only had themselves to blame.

In all fairness, though, Ryder could be damn compelling when he wanted to be.

It was the easy grin and innocent twinkle in his eye that made whatever came spilling out of his mouth seem like what he was suggesting was just harmless fun. Games to entertain ourselves with until the time for end-of-the-day chores came around. And somehow, he’d miraculously gotten Dallas—who was normally too levelheaded to entertain any kind of nonsense like this—to go along with it.

“Up you go,” Dallas muttered, unlooping the rope before hoisting Dusty back onto his feet.

Dirt clung the boy’s jacket and jeans, a streak of it coloring his flushed cheeks. He coughed into the crook of his arm to clear his lungs, tilting his head back around to lock his glare on the hand holding him upright.

You—” he started, dragging the back of his sleeve across his face. “You hogtied me!”

Dallas blinked, utterly unbothered while dropping his hand. “Yep.”

Dusty threw his arms out, exasperation practically radiating off of him. “You lassoed me! Like... like a goddamn steer!”

“Language,” Laken called again.

Dallas gave him another slow, deliberate blink. “Sure did.”

“And you fell for it.” Ryder barely managed to get the words out before another sharp cackle ripped from his throat. “Literally!”

He doubled over, slapping his hands against his knees as he struggled to catch his breath. His amusement was wild and infectious; hard not to contaminate the rest of us no matter how hard we tried to smother our smiles.

Poor Dusty.

It wasn’t the easiest being the youngest one in a group full of grown men, especially not out here. At sixteen—rapidly approaching seventeen, as he liked to remind us all quite often—he was still stuck in that awkward in-between stage; too old to be treated like a kid but not quite grown enough to be considered one of us.