Page 44 of Finding Little Fiera

They lined up. Mace’s gaze met hers briefly. Smiling, he mouthed, “You’ve got this.” He raised his hand, ready to start the race. “On your marks. Get set. Go!”

They all exploded forward once again. Wren shot ahead immediately. Blake was close behind. Fiera focused on her rhythm. She followed the same bounce, lean, and correct system.

Out of the corner of her eye, Fiera spotted Laura drifting closer. Too close.

Fiera felt the shift before she saw it. Laura deliberately angled toward Fiera’s bull. The next thing Fiera knew, Laura bumped into her, hard and deliberate.

Thanks to the system she’d been following, Fiera compensated instinctively, leaning into the weight shift as her Daddy had taught her. It caught Laura off guard. Instead of Fiera losing control, Laura bounced off her.

Startled, the girl overcorrected. Her bouncy bull bucked sideways, and suddenly Laura went flying. She hit the grass with an indignant shriek.

Fiera didn’t look back. She rounded the stick and raced back toward the finish line. She pushed herself harder than ever. Her thighs screamed in time with her lungs, but she kept pushing.

After what felt like forever, she crossed the finish line in fourth place, behind Wren, Blake, and Sadie. Daisy squeaked in just behind Fiera, laughing her head off. “I got distracted!”

Cheers erupted.

Master Mace reached Fiera in the blink of an eye. He caught her around the waist and lifted her off the bull as if she weighed nothing. “Congratulations,” he said against her hair. She clung to him as he carried her to a bench on the side of the clearing.

He set her down just enough to cup her face and brush a gentle kiss over her lips. “I am so proud of you,” he said. “You didn’t quit.”

The words cracked something open inside her. Had anyone ever been proud of her? Maybe, but if so, they’d never told her. “I almost did,” she whispered.

“But you didn’t. That’s what matters. It matters more than any medal you’ll ever wear around your neck.”

Fiera couldn’t wrap her head around what he’d just said. He wasn’t proud of her for her medal. He was proud of her for not giving up. That meant he didn’t care about her because of what she accomplished. He cared about her for who she was. He liked who she was, quirks and conditions and all.

The question was what she was supposed to do with him? The better question was how she was supposed to leave him at Rawhide Ranch?

Before she could answer him, Laura stomped over with scraped knees and grass in her hair. Pointing at Fiera, she shouted so loud people probably heard her all over the Ranch. “She knocked me down! Again!”

Silence fell. Fiera’s stomach dropped. How could this be happening again? No one would believe that, this time, what Laura said wasn’t true.

Daisy stomped forward and stood toe-to-toe with Laura. “No, she didn’t. You’re a big fibber. You tried to bump her.”

Laura’s face flushed red. “That’s not?—”

Daisy didn’t back down. “Oh yes, it is. I was right there. I saw you ram into Fiera. Serves you right that you fell instead of her, Little Miss Fibby MacFibber.”

Fiera couldn’t be sure, but she thought Master Mace snorted with laughter. When she looked, however, his face was as stern as ever. “Laura, I don’t like hearing that one of my campers tried to sabotage another camper. I’ll be reporting this to Master Derek this evening. I won’t be surprised if he wants to speak with you and your Daddy.”

“I have a few things to discuss with you as well, little girl.” Laura’s Daddy rested a firm hand on Laura’s shoulder. He wasn’t shouting, but his voice had that Daddy edge to it. “Ifyou’ve stooped to telling lies, we’ll go back to our room and have that discussion right now.”

Laura’s mouth snapped shut. She glared at Fiera, but she didn’t argue with her Daddy.

Master Mace’s arm slid around Fiera’s shoulders. “Everybody get some water,” he called out, breaking the tension. “The stick horse race is up next.”

Excited chatter returned instantly. Fiera sipped from the water bottle he handed her, the medal warm against her chest. She should’ve been floating over her placing in the bouncy bull race. Instead, Laura’s glare burned into her skin.

Something bad was coming, and Laura was going to be driving the bus it rode in on. She could feel it. But there was nothing she could do about it right now. She’d have to keep her eyes open and her guard up. She had to look after herself.

Mace brushed his thumb over her cheek, and she leaned into him. How did he do that? How did he know exactly what she needed, even before she did? In that one gentle touch, he reminded her she wasn’t alone. She wasn’t invisible. She wasn’t too much.

At least she wasn’t while she was at Rawhide Ranch. While she was here, the only thing she was… was his.

Chapter Fifteen

Mace staked the last cone into the ground and stepped back, hands on hips, surveying the field. Orange traffic cones pretending to be barrels created four wide cloverleaf patterns across the sun-bleached grass in the clearing. The same posts from the bull race stood at the far end, casting a long shadow toward camp. The mountains cut a hard, jagged line against the bright Montana sky.