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“Don’t worry,” Takis said, “as I said, no one has to do anything they don’t want to do.”
The other members of the fast-expanding Littlecreek family started to volunteer, too. Before too long, they’d set out a schedule for the patrols, and also for the weapons training for novice gun users.
Of course, Chuck would have wanted to be the one to teach Millie how to handle a firearm, but he didn’t want to give Takis any more reason to suspect something was going on between the two of them.
Duke was going to be the one to teach the firearms classes. He was the right person to do it, really. Although Duke was something of a maverick in the way he lived his life, there was no one safer and more by the book when it came to firearms training. Duke had spent hours in the range, and his aim and form were second to none. He’d be training Millie, Marianne, Theo, and Carlos.
When it came to patrolling the lands, the schedule was punishing. To Chuck’s dismay, it was going to severely cut down on the time he’d be able to spend with Millie. Because Millie had volunteered to start patrolling, it meant that their schedules would be packed with work. Millie was going to have to patrol during the day, and Chuck—like the doofus he was—had volunteered to take the night shift.
There was also time built into the schedule for all the Littles to spend in Little Space. Takis had erected a building he called the Little House. It was a space where vacationing Littles would stay and play. They were building a nursery there, and it was important to Takis that all the Littles had some time to unwind in as relaxed a state of mind as possible.
“There’s more to this than just the animals,” Takis said. “We open in just a few short weeks. We have guests arriving from Liberty — a small town of Littles and Bigs based out in Texas — to help with the preparations in just a few days. We need to make sure that this place feels safe foreveryone. I don’t want our guests worrying about predators roaming our lands.”
He paused for a moment and took in the scene in front of him. Chuck felt something, too, something he hadn’t felt at the ranch for a long time. It was the sense of a family, dealing with a crisis, and growing closer as a result.
“I know things are tough right now,” Takis said. “But I promise you it’s going to be worth it.”
Under the table, Millie squeezed Chuck’s hand.
*
That night, Millie slept in her own bed in the ranch house. After the shock of being called away from Chuck’s treehouse, they hadn’t wanted to risk getting caught.
She hated being away from Chuck, but after the new patrol schedule that Takis had come up with earlier, it was going to be much more difficult for them to be together from now on.
“What do you think, Edgar?” she asked her steadfast companion. “Do you think that I should ask Daddy to go public with our relationship?”
It had been playing on her mind a lot recently. Clearly, things with Chuck were getting serious. It wasn’t as though the two of them were just mucking around — there was some serious commitment on display, even if they’d only been dating for a few weeks. At least, Millie felt as though she was committed.
“That’s what I think, too. I think we should tell Takis. If he decides to fire us both, so be it. At least we’d be free to be together.”
As she said that though, she felt a chill of worry. She loved being at Littlecreek Ranch. In the short amount of time she’d been here, it felt as though her entire world had changed. It would be easy to say that it was just Chuck’s doing. That wasn’t true though. Of course, her relationship with Chuck was incredibly important, but it was the full experience of being at the ranch which had helped bring her out of her shell.
It was her relationship with Bunny, with Chuck’s brothers, and with the other members of the ranch team. It was the land, the horses, and everything in between. It was this place. And she didn’t want to lose it.
It struck her that since that awful night when she’d tried to run away, she hadn’t even thought about drinking, either. And it had been easy.
As she was getting ready to sleep, her phone started to buzz. That was unusual. For a while after she’d left home, her father had rung her every day or so. He soon got the message, though, and stopped pestering her. It was just as well, because she still hadn’t discussed the circumstances of her disappearance with him.
Hopefully, she’d never have to.
She checked her phone, and to her excitement, she saw that it was her good friend Zara. They’d kept in fairly regular contact since Millie had started at Littlecreek Ranch. It was always nice to hear from her.
“Princess!” Millie squealed.
“Mill!” said Zara in her perfectly posh accent. “I’ve been missing you so much!”
The two of them quickly caught up. Zara was extremely interested in Millie’s fast-developing relationship with Chuck. She’d actually met Chuck a few times back when he’d been Charles. Each time she called, she tried to wheedle out more and more information about the way things were going between them
“So things are getting more hot and heavy! I always knew that you two would be absolutely perfect together!”
Millie could just imagine her best friend’s delicate cheekbones as she smiled her picture-perfect smile.
“Well, it’s a surprise to me,” Millie replied.
They spoke next about Millie’s experiments with age play. Zara was delighted to hear that Millie had embraced her identity as a Little.
“What does your father think about all of this?”
