Gypsy Girl and Horse Lovin' Boys by K.D. Kinney Read Free Book Online Page A

needed for Ezra. He pulled out some scissors.
    “Do you have a ponytail holder I can have?” He asked me.
    “You have one already.” Josh pointed to the backend of the horse.
    Noah made a face at Josh while he pointed at my arm where I wore a spare one around my wrist.
    I pulled it off and started to hand it to Noah. Ezra followed my hand. I jerked it away and took a step back.
    Josh placed a hand on my shoulder. “Stay where you are, there’s a horse coming up behind us.”
    I whimpered slightly before clenching my jaw to silence myself.
    “I’m here.” Josh rubbed my back lightly.
    I glared at Ezra, swallowed hard before taking a step closer to hand Noah the ponytail holder.
    “I’m fine,” I said to convince myself more than anyone else. Gripping the stall door, I let Ezra nudge me for attention. My heart wanted to escape my chest again as my hand welcomed the horse, running my fingers down her neck. When my feet actually stayed put, I smiled.
    Noah handed me a ponytail full of Ezra’s mane. “I needed to cut more off for her bridal,” he said.
    I held it up in front of me. “I like it. Now I’ll think of that fifty shades joke instead of the horse thanks to Josh.” I bumped my shoulder into his.
    “At least you’ll remember me. Most people don’t.” Josh smiled and stuffed his hands in his pockets. He must have figured I wasn’t going to run away anymore.
    “You want to come in here with your sister?” Noah asked.
    “Not yet. Maybe tomorrow though. Cessie, are you ready to come down?” I asked.
    “No, never. I could stay here forever.”
    “I don’t know about that. We need to go home to check on Peppy real quick and make sure he hasn’t thrown poo all over the Caravan.” I forced my mouth to stay serious as I glanced at Josh.
    “Seriously?” He gave me a disgusted look.
    I laughed at him. “Seriously, it has never, ever happened. I just wanted to see the look on your face.”
    “I didn’t know I was so entertaining.” Josh turned and kicked at the straw to feign being hurt. He side-glanced up at me and smiled.
    “I hope you aren’t mocking me,” I said.
    “No, I’m sorry. I wouldn’t do that.” He touched my arm lightly to reassure me.
    “I just wanted to make sure.” I stepped out of the way when Noah opened the door to the stall.
    “Can we hang out at your ship castle again?” Josh asked.
    “We can hang out inside. Mom doesn’t want fairgoers to get any ideas about climbing all over the outside of the Caravan.”

8
    With the stage floor up, the Caravan was cramped with merchandise boxes stacked along the wall. It always smelled like a zoo inside after a few hours once everything was closed up.
    Cessie promptly removed Millie’s water cup.
    When I took Peppy out and clipped the leash on him, Josh stood up to leave.
    “I need to go outside.”
    Perched on my shoulder, Peppy groomed my hair. We were blocking the hall so Josh had no way to leave.
    “I thought you were kidding,” I said. “You know, trying to make me feel less embarrassed over my irrational fear of horses.”
    “No, I wasn’t.” Josh sat back down on the pillow bench and scooted back.
    He flinched, pulled his legs up, and covered his face when a brown glistening blob plopped on the floor.
    “I told you! I told you monkeys always fling their poop.” Josh pointed at the floor and scooted even farther away from Peppy and me.
    I bent down to examine it. “What is that?” Leaning closer, the brown pile looked familiar and didn’t smell bad. I made Peppy get off my shoulder to check his pants.
    “I don’t know what that is.” I couldn’t identify it .
    Noah kneeled down across from me and sniffed.
    Before we dared to touch it, Cessie wiped it up with a paper towel. She held a chocolate pudding cup in her other hand.
    Noah pointed at it with his mouth wide open.
    “I did it. My pudding burped.” Cessie smirked. “You kept talking about poop. It just made me want some chocolate pudding.”
    We