Grand-Prize Cowboy

by Heatherly Bell

  “You’re certifiably insane, brother. You’ve got a beautiful woman who wants you, but doesn’t want to get married, and you threw that all away?” Dale shook his head as if in disbelief.

  “If a wife and family is what you really want, you should leave the profile up,” Shep said. “You’ll be married in no time.”

  “But I don’t want anyone else.”

  At those words, Boone took a long, hard look at the facts. Easy to do because they’d just slapped him across the face. He’d said the words out loud and suddenly he heard them.

  If he simply wanted to get married and get his family started, he’d sign up with a dating site. Sort through all the women and find one who honestly liked him. Maybe he’d find one that he connected with on some level. Of course, it wouldn’t be that easy. He couldn’t even look at another woman because he only wanted Sofia. Which meant, of course, that he’d been an idiot to break up with her. All she wanted was time and he’d let his injured pride get in the way. He’d pushed forward, thinking only of what he wanted, and on his timeline.

  Somehow, he’d forgotten that she also had a say in their future together, if they were to have one at all.

  “Why not just go to her and tell her you made a mistake? That you don’t want to break up after all?” Dale asked.

  “She’s never going to forgive me now. Are you kidding? I broke up with her and just walked out.”

  The memory of that moment brought him new pain. He was a man who had learned patience the hard way, who relearned it every day when he worked with an overwhelmed and traumatized horse. Every injured animal recovered on their own timetable. Every colt and filly learned at their own pace. He couldn’t rush things even if he wanted to.

  He’d made the cardinal mistake of a newbie wrangler. Asking for too much, too soon.

  * * *

  A few days later, Boone had thrown himself into his work. He’d taken on new clients, filling up his roster so he’d be busy 24/7. Having stayed away from town, he hadn’t run into anyone who knew Sofia or had seen the two of them together.

  To add insult to injury, his buddy Spot seemed to be missing. Maybe he’d gone back to his original owner, though Boone hadn’t been able to find one. He’d meant to ask Daphne at Happy Hearts if she could put some feelers out, but maybe he’d stalled because he’d gotten too attached to Spot.

  Either way, he’d taken several long rides on the property with Burrito, searching for the little guy with no luck. Maybe he’d be back in a day or so. It just didn’t seem fair for a guy to lose his girl and his dog in the same week. Great. He was officially a country-and-western song.

  He shook the dust off his Stetson and reentered the corral where he’d been working with the new colt he’d been breaking for Neal, the one he’d named DG after Dalton’s Grange. The horse had shown his true colors on day one. He’d reared back in fear, nearly knocking Boone off his feet.

  “You’re a pain in my ass, you know?” Boone had said softly, after making soothing sounds. “I should call you Sofia.”

  Today, he was running DG in the corral, letting him spend his energy. He had a saddle on for the first time, and though he’d allowed it, he didn’t like it. DG kept trying to shake it off, bucking like a wild horse. Boone didn’t want to ruin him by trying to mount him too soon, so he’d wait him out.

  “You ready for this weekend?” From the other side of the fence corral, his father shouted to him.

  Boone walked to the side of the corral to meet his father. “This weekend?”

  “You’re going to pop the question.”

  He’d almost forgotten. Call it denial but after canceling the reservations on time, he’d stopped torturing himself with the memory.

  “No, Dad, the engagement isn’t happening.”

  All the color seemed to drain from his father’s face. “What happened?”

  “She couldn’t get away this weekend, so I asked her a few nights ago. Turned me down.”

  Neal removed his Stetson and raked a hand through his hair. “I was worried about that when you told your mother and me. Ironically, you’re the son that’s most like your old man. I also asked your mother too soon and got turned down flat.”

  “What? Mom turned you down? When? How? Why?”

  “Don’t laugh but when I say I asked too soon, well, I asked her to marry me the day we met.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I’ve always been a man who knew what he wanted and didn’t want to waste any time.” He met Boone’s eyes. “Sound familiar?”

  Unfortunately, it did. “I don’t know why, but I have patience in the corral. Why can’t I be patient about other stuff?”

  “Love makes a man crazy. I know it did me. But I waited your mother out. How about that, your old man had patience. Well, she taught me how. When I asked her a few months later, she said yes. Give Sofia time, and if she loves you, she’ll come around.”

  “I shouldn’t have walked out on her.”

  “Did you?”

  “Too proud, I guess. I thought if she turned me down for marriage, I should stop wasting my time.”

  “Your mother would say it’s never a waste of time to love someone.”

  “It hurt, and I was humiliated.”

  “No one understands that better than your old man.” He lowered his head. “I hope it wasn’t me and my reputation that ruined this for you.”

  Neal sounded genuinely sorry, and something shifted in Boone’s chest. His father didn’t deserve all the constant recriminations made against him. He’d made a few mistakes in his life, but who hadn’t? If there was a perfect person somewhere, Boone had yet to meet him. And Neal had walked through fire to make it up to his wife. To his family. With all that money, he could have walked away and started over without them.

  “No, it wasn’t about you. And anyone else who has a problem with you is going to have to answer to me from now on.”

  He’d stood up for his brothers, and now he would for his father, a man who’d been punished enough. Especially by him.

  “Thank you, son. It means more to me than I can say. But I don’t happen to care what anyone else thinks. Just you.”

  Boone let the acknowledgment slide into him. He had the respect of his father and could now give it back. An idea had been ruminating in him for a few days, something he never thought he’d accept.

  “Remember when you said you’d like to do something for me?”

  Neal clapped a hand on Boone’s shoulder. “Anything. You’re talented and anyone can see your gift after watching you work for a few minutes. You want more land for the wild horses, well, I think there’s a way we can make that work from a business perspective. Maybe form a coalition of horse ranchers. I have some other ideas, too.”

  “Actually, what I’d like is for you to think about investing in a fashion line.”

  Neal wrinkled his brow. “A what?”

  “Fashion line. I happen to know a young and talented designer who’s trying to find her way into the big leagues. She’s got a business plan and an amazing work ethic. She’s talented. She’s going places.”

  “Uh-huh. Sofia, right?”

  Boone nodded. “Business is more your wheelhouse than it’s mine. This is what she wants. And I love her, so I want her to have her dream.”

  “Let me do some research, make some calls. I’m just a rancher but I do know a few businessmen I’ve met over the years. They might give me some direction. If this is what you want, son, you’ve got it.”

  “But I don’t want you to do anything to risk your holdings. This should be because you see it as a good investment, not only as a favor to me. She wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  “You really love her, don’t you? Does she feel the same way?”

  “She says she does, but I don’t know. I guess I didn’t give her time to explain. I didn’
t hear anything she said after ‘no.’”

  And with every day that passed, his idiocy became more apparent. He might be a horse whisperer, but he sure didn’t understand people enough.

  * * *

  Sofia popped into DJ’s Deluxe all week hoping she might run into Boone. But it seemed he’d made himself scarce. Once, she thought she’d seen him walking down Main Street, but it was another cowboy.

  The weekend he’d invited her to go away came and went. Sofia would be an engaged woman if she’d gone along with it. And maybe she’d be happier than she was these days, doing nothing but working and sketching. She’d been asked out twice at work, both times by guys in wing tips. Not a single hot cowboy. It didn’t matter. She couldn’t think of dating anyone right now, or for a long time.

  Meanwhile, initial feedback on her designs from Alexis’s contacts were promising, but it would be a while before she heard anything more.

  Her life felt dull and flat, like muted colors, a boring beige.

  She’d decided that if Boone changed his mind, if he wanted to talk, she’d forgive his Neanderthal ways in a second. If he really loved her, he’d come to the realization that he should at least try to understand her point of view. She wanted to marry him. Someday. She certainly loved him, if that counted for anything. And she couldn’t help but believe that it should.

  Meanwhile, the holiday stylings had started, and BH Couture was as usual in high demand with Bronco’s elite. Sofia dressed Jessica Taylor in a ravishing blue sequined Vera Wang with matching shoes. Cassidy had come in, too, reluctantly and somewhat insecure. But she’d be attending these big galas with Brandon, so she wanted to look her best and be fashionable. She’d come to the right place.

  During a temporary lull, Alexis marched to Sofia holding up her phone. “Hey, isn’t this Boone? This is from our photo shoot! How dare they? These photos are the property of BH Couture. I should sue!”

  “Why? What’s wrong?” Sofia took the phone Alexis held out, and there in living color was Boone, holding a red rose.

  Someone was certainly talented with photoshop. He’d apparently applied for the Mr. Montana TV show. Wealthy Rancher Seeks Mrs. Right. She remembered the photo. He’d smiled directly at her off camera as he modeled his new clothes. Later that night, he’d kissed her until she could barely remember her name.

  The ache Sofia had been nursing for the past week rose to the surface. Clearly, Boone wanted a wife and nothing more. He didn’t want her. He didn’t want a partner, didn’t want a lover, didn’t want a friend. He wanted a wife. Pure and simple. And love didn’t seem to matter much to him. Waiting must be a word not in his vocabulary.

  “What’s he doing applying to the show? I thought you two were an item.” Alexis took back her phone.

  “We were,” Sofia said around the sob in her throat.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. It’s clear that he knows exactly what he wants.”

  “Maybe he won’t get chosen for the show. They have lots of rounds to get through.”

  Sofia nodded, but that was hardly the point.

  Chapter Nineteen

  At the end of a long day, Sofia went home to her apartment, hoping to put this rotten day behind her. She wouldn’t hear from Boone again, and she couldn’t blame him. He knew what he wanted, so he’d moved on. But just the thought of him being picked for that show, with all those gorgeous women vying for his attention, made her stomach churn. If that’s what he wanted, a made-to-order bride, he could have her. Maybe it was too difficult for him to have a relationship with someone who had her own mind. While that didn’t sound like the Boone she knew and loved, she had to accept the truth.

  The truth was that he’d dropped her when she didn’t want to get married. If he truly loved her, he’d wait for her. Just like Mami, who understood unconditional love. Boone could learn a thing or two from his own mother. She’d forgiven a lot more. He could have accepted Sofia just as she was, a woman who felt on the brink of her dream career. Marriage and children would have come eventually with Boone. Now she didn’t know if she’d ever want to find love again. Unlike Boone, who was already lining up auditions for her replacement.

  She should be angry, but instead her heart ached.

  Only Boone had made her feel confident when pared down to the bare essentials. She was confident in her own skin, but she’d never felt truly beautiful, until Boone.

  Forgive. I’m not good at that.

  She remembered him saying that as they danced that afternoon at his house. She should have heard him and taken him at his word. If he hadn’t forgiven his own father after years, he’d probably never be able to forgive her.

  Frustrated and aching, she entered her apartment, gathering her mail and tossing it on the table as she took off her coat and hung it up. She thought she was facing another long night, alone with a TV dinner and her sketches, till she caught sight of the package that had come in the mail. The face mask she’d been waiting for. Quickly she opened it, realizing it was just what she needed. When in doubt, exfoliate! She wasted no time. She pulled back her hair into a high ponytail, washed her face and applied the green mask. Setting the timer, she went to the freezer to see if she had any comfort food. Her phone buzzed when she was in the middle of scooping salted caramel ice cream into a bowl. At the same time, there was a knock at her door.

  “Great timing, whoever you are,” Sofia muttered as she walked to the door and glanced at her phone. She gasped at the message from the man who was listed in her contacts as My Cowboy.

  Answer the door. You might not miss my texts, but I miss yours. I’m an idiot.

  It was official! Boone Dalton had the worst timing in the history of history.

  She texted back. You are 100% right about being an idiot, but I can’t see you right now. Come back later, Mr. Montana. Leave a rose at the door and walk away.

  “I can’t do that,” he groaned from the other side of her door. “This can’t wait.”

  This time she didn’t bother with a text. “Cowboy,” she called through the door, “you have really lousy timing, you know that?”

  “Yes, when it comes to you. But I’m not going anywhere. You do have to come out eventually. I’ll stay outside until you’re ready.”

  How about that—until she was ready. Would wonders never cease.

  “Uh-huh. What if I’m not ready until tomorrow? You’re going to sleep out there all night in the cold?”

  “Throw me a blanket and I’m good.”

  But he sounded so disgusted with himself, so dejected, that a jolt of sympathy hit her hard and swift. She wanted to see him.

  Sofia threw open the door and crossed her arms. “What can I do for you?”

  His head jerked back, but then he looked dangerously close to smiling. His mouth twitched at the corners.

  “Don’t!” She held up her finger. “Don’t laugh. As you can see, I wasn’t expecting anyone.”

  “First, I’m not auditioning for the Mr. Montana show. Let me get that out of the way. That was another one of my brothers’ pranks. I had them take it down when I found out about it.”

  When she moved aside, he ambled in, shutting the door behind him.

  “Good, because I don’t know if you have the scoop on those shows, but I do. And I don’t see how anyone can find a wife or husband with that kind of pressure.”

  He winced. “Point taken.”

  Boone looked so wonderful in his leather jacket, boots, jeans and Stetson. So familiar. A day’s worth of beard growth dotted his square jaw. Just the sight of him made her ache to hold him and pick up right where they’d left off. But she forced herself to hold her ground.

  “What do you want?” she said, remembering how he’d walked out on her at DJ’s Deluxe.

  “To apologize in person.” He took off his hat and yanked a hand through that amazing tousled hair.
“I let my pride get in the way when you said no to my proposal. To be honest, it was spontaneous. You might have guessed I’d planned to ask you on the weekend we were going away. But that night at DJ’s Deluxe, I thought I was about to lose you, and I couldn’t stand the thought.”

  “You weren’t—”

  He held up a hand, palm out. “Let me finish. When you said no to me, well, I didn’t hear anything after that. You said you loved me, but I didn’t believe you could really mean that.”

  “Boone, I don’t toss that word around. I’ve only ever said it to family members. You’re the first man I ever fell in love with and I’d hoped you would be the last.”

  “That’s all I want. I didn’t care whether I was your first, but I want to be your last.”

  Her heart softened and she lowered her arms to her side. “Don’t you want a wife right this second?”

  “I want you, Sofia, however I can have you. I’m not going to lie. I do want all those things, marriage and babies. But I don’t want any of that if I can’t have it with you.”

  Those sweet and perfect words sliced right through her in a tender ache.

  “When you say things like that it’s hard to stay mad at you.” She took a step toward him. This cowboy was her whole heart. She’d never be happy without him at her side. “Boone, I never wanted to take a break from us. I think I just freaked out a little bit.”

  “Look, I’ll be patient and hope that someday you catch up to me. In the long run, I know we want the same things.” He smiled. “And I love you, green face and all.”

  Sofia blinked. She’d been so caught up in his words of love that she’d actually forgotten about the clay mask. She didn’t know if she should laugh or cry.

  She touched her face. “Oh, my Lord.”

  “C’mere, Mrs. Shrek, and let me kiss you.” He tossed his hat to the couch.

  Crazy with love and lust, Sofia jumped into his arms, and he caught her easily.

  Cradling his face, she kissed him hard and when she pulled back, his nose, cheeks and beard were slightly green. She ran a hand across his jaw, wiping some of the color away. She’d never let a man see her exfoliate before today, or shared her beauty secrets with him. But Boone had created a lot of firsts for her. And she looked forward with all her heart to many more firsts.