Читать книгу Her Texas Rodeo Cowboy - Trish Milburn - Страница 9
ОглавлениеFrom his seat in the saddle, Jason glanced toward the grandstands. He needed to concentrate on his ride, which was only moments away, but he couldn’t keep himself from trying to catch a glimpse of Sloane.
The sound of laughter drew his attention back to the area around the chutes. Bo was sitting atop one of the gates and he hadn’t missed where Jason had been looking.
“I thought you had some sense,” Bo said.
Jason snorted. “And you’re the authority on good sense?”
“Never claimed that.”
Jason shifted his focus to the business at hand as he rode into the box, the steer was loaded into the roping chute and his hazer, Travis Morgan, got into position on the other side of the chute. Jason took a slow, deep breath, visualizing the next few seconds, something he’d done countless times before. He pictured tonight as another step closer to a national championship. Then he gave the chute man a quick nod of his head. The chute opened and the steer took off, shadowed by Travis. The moment the barrier rope around the steer’s neck popped off, Jason gave chase. Maybe a couple of heartbeats passed as he leaned off the side of his horse, got his right arm in position on the steer and let his feet slide free of his stirrups. He dug his heels into the dirt, grabbed the left horn with one hand and the right horn in the crook of his other elbow. He pulled the steer off balance but the animal wasn’t going to make it easy. Jason’s boots furrowed the dirt as the steer tried to free itself. Finally, after what seemed like forever, he managed to throw the steer to the ground. Unfortunately, he ate a bit of dirt in the process.
He didn’t even have to look to know it wasn’t his best time ever. Cursing, he got to his feet and spit out the dirt as the steer trotted away down the arena. Despite the disappointing score, he took off his hat and waved to the cheering crowd. He wondered if Sloane and the kids were clapping, but he couldn’t see them beyond the glare of the arena lights.
“Tough one,” Travis said when they met up outside the arena.
“Yeah, wasn’t my night.” Even though he’d have bet money he was focused, had he actually still been distracted by thoughts of a certain blonde?
He considered seeking her out in the stands, but a hit of common sense kept his boots planted on the other side of the fence watching the rest of the bulldoggers. Bo was right. There were easier ways to enjoy some female company than seeking out someone who evidently wasn’t all that interested in him. Someone who wouldn’t distract him so much that he lost an opportunity to move up in the standings. Plus, he’d be gone from Blue Falls in a couple of days and on to New Mexico.
He tried not to think about the long drive and what life was like for normal people who had weekends and didn’t have a longer relationship with the interstate system than they’d ever had with a woman. His parents were lucky they’d both been rodeo competitors. Neither ever had to leave the other behind when they hit the road. But that had never worked for Jason. He’d dated a couple of barrel racers and the daughter of a stock contractor, but none of those relationships had lasted more than a couple of months.
Why the devil was he thinking about relationships all of a sudden?
Maybe it had to do with his parents’ upcoming anniversary and his sister’s question—she wanted to know if he could take time to attend a party if she hosted one. Shannon had sounded so hopeful despite the fact that she probably hadn’t intended to. Even though she had been the one to break with family tradition and not go into professional rodeo, she fully understood the importance of competing in as many events as possible, or at least enough with sizable prize money.
“You coming with us?” Travis asked as Jason removed the saddle from his horse. “Hear there’s a good band playing at the local dance hall.”
Jason shook his head. “Not tonight. Need some sleep.”
“Don’t tell me you’re turning into an old fart.”
“Just wait. You won’t be young and able to operate on no sleep forever.” In some professions, people were just getting started at thirty. But he’d been riding the circuit since he met the age requirement at eighteen.
Even though Travis was only seven years younger than Jason, sometimes that difference felt like three times what it was. He hadn’t been lying about wanting to get some sleep, but the truth was he just wasn’t in the mood to go drinking and dancing. Not when his mind refused to stop replaying his ride over and over, analyzing what he’d done wrong and how to make sure it didn’t happen again.
But as he lay down in yet another generic motel room an hour later and stared at the ceiling, sleep didn’t seem to be anywhere in the vicinity of Blue Falls. His thoughts abandoned his poor performance at the rodeo and drifted to Sloane... Was her last name Hartley like her sister’s, or was that Angel’s married name? Regardless of her surname, there was something that he couldn’t put his finger on that kept bringing Sloane to the front of his mind. And he didn’t think it was just because she was pretty.
Or maybe he was sleep deprived. For some reason he’d been sleeping like garbage lately. He’d been fixated so much on making this the year he got back to the Finals. Maybe he needed a brief break, a few hours to think about something else. Hopefully it would even help him ride better next time.
He rolled onto his side and turned on the bedside lamp. He picked up the business card Angel Hartley had given him and his phone. He’d take her up on her offer to go speak to the kids about rodeo, see if her sister’s attitude toward him was any warmer in the light of day. If nothing else, it would beat hanging around the fairgrounds all day dwelling on his mistakes.
Before he could talk himself out of it, he sent Angel a text. He was surprised by how quickly she replied, confirming that ten the next morning was perfect.
As he turned the light back off, he smiled. It was nice to have something to look forward to, something that wasn’t accompanied by the pressure to win.
* * *
“CAN WE RIDE real horses?” Daron asked as Sloane helped a little girl named Alice out of the saddle sitting atop a saddle rack in the barn’s alley.
“You’ll get to ride around the paddock with us helping you.” The thing she always feared the most was one of the kids getting hurt, and she took every precaution against that happening.
She held Alice’s little hand until she made her way to the ground via the hay bale steps.
“So, who wants to learn how to play horseshoes?”
“We actually have something else planned right now,” Angel said.
Sloane gave her sister a questioning look for a moment before she realized what she must mean.
“Is that right?”
The sound of an approaching truck engine caused a long-suffering sigh to escape Sloane. She got enough teasing from her brothers and not-so-subtle hints from her mother about finding a good man. She didn’t need it from her sister, too.
“I believe that’s our special guest now,” Angel said with way too much glee in her voice before heading out the door of the barn.
By the time Sloane gathered up the kids and ushered them outside, Jason was already out of his truck and talking to Angel. He held one of the recognizable bags from Mehlerhaus Bakery. When he spotted her, he lifted it as if she hadn’t been able to see it before.
“I brought breakfast,” he said.
Behind him, she saw the front door to the house open and out stepped her brothers. Normally, that protectiveness she saw in their stances would annoy the living daylights out of her, but this time it might actually prove amusing. She barely suppressed a smile.
“We ate hours ago. Some of us don’t sleep half the morning,” she said.
He’d probably been partying at the Blue Falls Music Hall until late. On rodeo nights, the place was filled to bursting with cowboys looking for a cold beer, a few spins around the dance floor and maybe a night with a pretty woman.
She couldn’t knock the place. She enjoyed an evening out dancing and hanging with friends as much as the next person. But for some reason the thought of Jason picking up a woman and spending the night with her, then a few hours later strolling onto her ranch to speak to these innocent kids rubbed her the wrong way.
He lowered the bag and shrugged. “It’s never too late for pastries.”
Angel grinned at Sloane. “I have to agree with him there.”
“Aren’t you two going to introduce us?” her oldest brother, Neil, asked as he descended the steps, followed by Ben and Adam.
“That’s Jason,” Daron piped up. “He’s a steer wrestler.”
“Is he, now?” Neil eyed Jason like he did every man who came within close proximity of either of his sisters.
Jason extended his hand for a shake. “Jason Till. Your sisters invited me out to talk to the kids about the rodeo.”
“Sister, singular,” Sloane said under her breath, drawing a curious look from Daron and a couple of the other kids.
Neil took Jason’s hand, and even from where she stood she could tell big bro had made sure Jason knew just how strong he was. A glance at Ben and Adam showed they were doing a pitiful job of hiding their amusement.
She rolled her eyes. Okay, the scene ceased being funny and strode right into annoying. She wasn’t a damsel in distress and she didn’t need her brothers’ protection. She didn’t have any statistics to back it up, but she sincerely doubted guys who posed a threat showed up with a bag of fresh pastries.
“All right,” she said. “Pastries for everyone.”
The kids squealed and jumped up and down, making her smile and ending the testosterone-off.
She motioned everyone to the campsite in a shady area beyond the barn. The circle of tents surrounded log benches and a fire pit. Flying from a small flagpole was a blue flag with white lettering that said Camp Rocking Horse and sported the outline of the ranch’s brand. The kids seated themselves on the logs, and Jason squatted in the center of the circle. She refused to notice how snug his jeans fit his backside in that position.
Yeah, right. She’d have to be dead for that to escape her notice.
“Okay, who likes cherries?” Jason asked.
Phoebe’s hand and that of another girl named Ginny shot into the air.
“Good thing I got two, huh?”
He handed those out, followed by a variety of other Danish and doughnuts. When only one child remained empty-handed, he shifted his attention to Brent, the quietest of the bunch. His story hurt Sloane’s heart, and she’d had to fight the urge to simply wrap the little boy in her arms and tell him everything would be okay. Of course, she couldn’t know that. She got these kids for a weekend, to give them a little light and fun in their lives, a different environment. But then they had to go back to their group homes or to families that had problems of one sort or another. She’d never counted on seeing them leave being so difficult.
“What do you like, little man?”
Brent shrugged.
“Can I tell you a secret?”
“Okay,” Brent said in the small voice she’d only heard a few times.
Jason leaned in toward Brent a little. “The best one is still in here. It’s my favorite. Want to see what it is?”
Brent glanced toward her, and she gave him an encouraging smile. The boy returned his gaze to Jason and nodded.
Jason pulled a pastry from the bag and placed it on a napkin in his palm. “Behold, the cruller.”
He said it with such awe and reverence that one would think he was displaying Excalibur rather than a piece of fried dough.
Angel leaned in next to her and whispered. “He’s good with them.”
Sloane couldn’t disagree, but even that annoyed her for some reason.
After handing the cruller to Brent, Jason turned toward where Angel and Sloane stood.
“What about you ladies?” He glanced down into the bag. “I’ve still got glazed doughnuts and a couple of apple Danish.”
“Doughnut, please,” Angel said.
He gave the doughnut to Angel, then shifted his questioning gaze to Sloane.
“I’m good.”
Beside her, Angel made a frustrated sound. “She’ll take a Danish.”
When Jason extended the pastry toward her, she almost kept her arms crossed. But she realized she was being unnecessarily prickly and accepted his offering.
“Thanks.” When he placed the bakery bag down on an empty log bench, she pointed at it. “Aren’t you having something? It’s only fair since you’ve foisted a ton of sugar and calories off on the rest of us.”
He patted his stomach. “Oh, trust me. I had plenty on the way out here.”
Could have fooled her. Though he was wearing a button-down shirt that wasn’t formfitting, she’d bet good money there was a nice set of solid abs lurking beneath the cloth.
Irritated at the direction of her thoughts, she took a giant bite of her Danish.
Jason sank onto the bench. “So, who has questions about being a rodeo cowboy?”
“How long have you been a cowboy?” Alice asked.
“For as long as I can remember. I started mutton busting when I was four years old.”
“What’s mutton busting?” Daron asked.
“It’s where you ride a big woolly sheep. You wrap your legs around the sheep’s body,” Jason explained, making a circle with his arms, “and hang on to the wool with your hands and see how long you can ride without falling off.”
“That sounds like fun,” Brent said, surprising Sloane so much she was sure her eyes widened. It was the first time Brent had said anything without being asked a direct question.
“It was. It’s how kids get interested in the rodeo.”
“Are we going to do mutton busting?” a boy named Enrique asked. There was such a light in his dark eyes and excitement in his question that Sloane hated to burst his bubble.
“Sorry, but no.”
“Why not?”
She glanced at Jason to find him watching her, also waiting for the answer to Enrique’s question.
“We don’t have sheep, for one.” Not to mention the safety equipment and the level of liability insurance that such an event would require. Or the money for any of those things.
The looks and sounds of disappointment rekindled her irritation, not at the kids but at Jason for bringing up the topic in the first place.
Okay, so he was just answering a question, but still. What kid could resist the idea of riding a big, fluffy sheep? Heck, she would have totally done that as a kid if the opportunity had been there.
“I’m sure you’re going to be doing a bunch of other fun stuff this weekend,” Jason said.
Sloane gradually relaxed again as she watched the continued exchange between Jason and the kids. He never acted as if any of their questions were stupid, and he didn’t talk down to them. It made her wonder if he had kids of his own. He didn’t wear a wedding band, but that didn’t mean anything. Some of the rodeo guys were probably like sailors with a girl in every port.
By the time her mom rang the bell signaling lunch was ready, Sloane had learned that Jason was from Idaho, he’d been competing as a professional since he was eighteen and he’d had six broken bones thanks to his career choice.
Angel herded the kids toward a couple of picnic tables next to the grilling station near the house.
“Are you eating with us?” Phoebe asked as she slipped her little hand into Jason’s.
He smiled down at the girl. “I don’t think they planned for the extra mouth to feed.”
Sloane huffed at that. “You’ve never met my mother and her penchant for making twice as much food as needed.”
“Please,” Phoebe said.
“Well, how can I say no to such a nice invitation?”
Phoebe’s lips stretched into a huge smile, and damn if Sloane didn’t have to fight to keep from doing the same thing.
Phoebe shot off toward the picnic area as if she hadn’t eaten both a hearty breakfast and a midmorning pastry.
Jason chuckled. “Sweet kids.”
“Yeah. And resilient.”
He gave her a questioning look.
“They all come from tough backgrounds. Some are from struggling, low-income homes. Several are in foster care for one reason or another. All of them have had to face more than they should at their age.”
“That’s sad.”
“It is. They seem to like you though.”
“And that annoys you.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.” He grinned at her as he grabbed a ham-and-cheese sandwich and a couple of her mom’s homemade oatmeal cookies.
“Sorry. I just don’t know you, and these kids’ safety is my responsibility.”
“So this has nothing to do with the fact that your sister is trying to set us up?”
“Well, there goes my hope that it was obvious only to me.”
“It’s not a bad idea. I’m a decent guy.”
“Perhaps you are, but you’re also going to be long gone by tomorrow night.” And her record of picking guys to date was far from stellar.
He nodded. “Fair enough.”
Well, that reaction was unexpected. She’d thought he might try to encourage her to live a little, have some harmless fun. She wasn’t a fuddy-duddy and wasn’t on the hunt for a forever kind of guy, but she also wasn’t hot on the idea of being with a guy who’d no doubt been with several women before her and would be with several afterward. She wasn’t judging that choice. It just wasn’t for her.
Of course, she often doubted a serious relationship was for her either. She’d seen at a young age what loving someone too much could do to a person. The one time she’d believed she might have a future with a guy, she’d been proven wrong in a way that still stung years later. The relationships since then had really ended before they started.
They walked toward one of the picnic tables. Though her father and Neil had ridden out partway through Jason’s Q and A with the campers, Ben was still keeping an eye on things from outside his saddle shop. And it was a safe bet that Adam was lurking nearby, too.
“I’m guessing your brothers have scared off a number of dates for you and Angel over the years.”
“They try, the annoying brats. But Angel and I can hold our own.”
“That does not surprise me.”
“You don’t even know us.”
“Call it gut instinct.”
They sat in silence long enough for each of them to eat their sandwiches. She listened to Daron at the opposite end of the table talking to a couple other boys about how he could ride a sheep all day and not fall off. He was so animated that she had to hide a smile behind her hand. Beside her, Jason chuckled.
“That one is full of personality,” Jason said.
“Yep.”
“What’s his story?”
“From a single-parent home, the youngest of six kids. They struggle to get by.” And how heartbreaking was it that Daron’s story was one of the happier ones?
She noticed Brent watching them silently from the other table. “I think someone is a fan.”
He glanced in the direction she nodded. “Hey, Brent, can you help me out? I have more cookies than I can eat. You want one?”
Brent slid off his seat and came to stand at the end of their table. Jason handed him one of the cookies that Sloane had no doubt Jason could eat with no problem.
“Do you have to be big to ride in the rodeo?” Brent asked.
“Not all the time. One of the toughest bull riders I know isn’t much bigger than you.”
Brent’s eyes widened.
“Okay, let’s not put wild ideas in the child’s head.” She could just see one of these kids going home and telling their family or guardians that a cowboy encouraged them to ride a two-thousand-pound animal with three-foot horns.
She expected Jason to leave after lunch, but he hung around for a game of horseshoes. He gave pointers to the kids on throwing technique and engaged in some good-natured ribbing that had them giggling. Part of her wanted to be annoyed, but she was too thankful to see the kids’ smiles and hear their laughter.
“You’re good with them,” she said when he came to stand next to her, echoing Angel’s earlier observation.
“I’ve had practice with my sister’s kids, six-year-old twins.”
“Boys or girls?”
“One of each.”
Well, that explained it. He was probably used to being the cool uncle, which was basically what he’d been today. All the fun stuff with none of the responsibility.
“I better get going,” he said. “Thanks for inviting me out.”
“You have Angel to thank for that.”
“Well, then, thanks for not chasing me off with a pitchfork.”
Phoebe ran up to them. “Are you leaving?”
Jason placed his hand gently atop Phoebe’s light brown hair. “Yeah, this cowboy’s got to go try to make some money.”
“Can we go to the rodeo again tonight?” Phoebe asked, drawing a chorus of agreement from the other kids.
Angel smiled as she picked up the last of the horseshoes. Sloane was going to get her sister back for creating this monster and making Sloane the bad guy.
“Not tonight.” At the groans of disappointment, she said, “We’ve got a hayride and a big cookout planned. My dad makes the best burgers in Texas.”
“And there’s a meteor shower,” Angel said. “We can lie out on blankets and watch them streak across the sky.”
Brent looked up at Jason, who must have seemed as tall as a skyscraper to the little guy. “Are you coming back tomorrow?”
Jason started to say something but stopped and looked at Sloane.
“I’m sure Jason has things to do.” Like drive right out of Blue Falls and on to the next rodeo in the next town in an endless string that would stretch out for the rest of the year, only stopping when winter arrived.
“I have time, if you don’t mind,” Jason said.
She ignored a little flutter of excitement in the center of her chest. It was the height of stupidity, especially when all her attention needed to be on the kids this weekend. But then she saw the naked look of hope on Brent’s face and she simply couldn’t deny him another chance to be near his new hero—even if she thought there were way better heroes for a little boy to idolize.
“Feel free to come by,” she said. “But we’re going to have a lesson on mucking out stalls.”
“I have lots of experience in that department.” Jason grinned.
Damn if that grin probably hadn’t charmed more than one woman out of her panties. If not for the camp this weekend, she wasn’t 100 percent sure that she would be able to resist.
