It's All About That Cowboy

by Carly Bloom

  The little girl put her hands on her hips. “I’m Hope.”

  Casey finally got a good look at her. She was probably ten or eleven years old and cute as a button. And she had the same infectious grin as Dalton Reed. She had Down syndrome.

  Casey smiled back.

  “My grandma used to live here,” Hope said.

  Casey rubbed his chin. Was she somehow local? Did he have the wrong room?

  He looked at the number on the door. It was 204. That was the room Zeke had sent him to. And besides, if this little cutie was local, he’d know it.

  “My, my, my,” a sultry voice said.

  Finally. An adult. Casey looked up to see a gorgeous woman with big blue eyes and hair to match staring over Hope’s head. He realized he’d seen her on television at least once or twice. “You must be Carmen,” he said.

  “Mmm-hmm,” Carmen said, looking him up and down with a little smirk that suggested he might need to have a talk with Miss Acosta about kissing and telling.

  He hoped she hadn’t left off the part where he’d made her toes curl.

  “And you must be Sheriff Long,” Carmen said.

  “You’re Sheriff Long?” Hope asked.

  “Uh-oh,” Carmen muttered. “Listen, Hope, he’s not—”

  “Sheriff Long is my daddy!”

  What the hell? Casey took a step back. The room began to spin a little.

  My grandma used to live here.

  Shit.

  “Uh, hold on a minute, cowboy,” Carmen said. Then she shouted, “Jessica!”

  Hope ran into the hall and wrapped her arms around Casey. Jess came to the door with her hair wrapped in a towel, her eyes wide, and her mouth hanging open.

  “Hope, come here,” she said, unwrapping the child from his legs.

  “No, no! Let me go!” Hope wailed. “He’s my daddy!”

  All the color had drained from Jess’s face as she held on to Hope. A man across the hall poked his head out the door. “Is everything okay?”

  “It’s fine,” Jessica said.

  The man looked to Casey, but Casey couldn’t talk.

  Nothing was fine.

  Hope’s little face was streaked with tears. This was his child? And he hadn’t even known about her?

  “Jess,” he said. His voice didn’t sound right. He felt like he was choking. “How could you?”

  He turned and stumbled down the hall, ran down the stairs, and didn’t stop running until he got to his truck. People shouted his name, asked if he was all right.

  But he barely heard them.

  He had to get somewhere to sort this all out. Somewhere private. A place where his own damn child wouldn’t see him freak out.

  Chapter Ten

  Jessica scanned the arena from the stands. The rodeo had officially begun over an hour ago. They’d gotten there early, in the hopes that Casey would too. But nobody had seen him. They’d already sat through the opening ceremony, the mutton bustin’—Dalton had placed third—and the women’s barrel racing event. The youth calf scramble was next, and then it was team roping.

  That was Casey’s event.

  Jessica twisted the hem of her T-shirt into a knot. Surely, Casey wouldn’t have gone and done something stupid? What if he’d drunk himself into a stupor? He’d been terribly upset, and Jessica had wanted to run after him. But he was an adult, and Hope was not.

  Hope had needed her more.

  And Casey shouldn’t have run away.

  Even so, her heart ached for him.

  She spotted JD’s white hat and stood up. “Stay here,” she said to Carmen and Hope.

  She worked her way down the bleachers, stopping every two seconds to say hi to someone because that’s how it was in Big Verde. She finally made her way to where JD stood by the fence, phone to his ear. Their eyes met and he shook his head.

  “Still not answering?” she asked.

  JD shoved his phone back in his pocket. “You want to tell me what got him so upset that he just took off the night before the rodeo?”

  Jessica scowled at him. “That’s what you’re worried about? The rodeo?”

  “Well, I’m sure as hell not worried he’s been kidnapped. He’s pissed or something is all.”

  He yanked on his white Stetson with a pointed look that said, At you.

  “We didn’t fight,” she said. “It was a misunderstanding, and he took off before I could explain everything to him.”

  “I don’t need to know the details. But, Jess, that man has never stopped pining for you. He’s lonely, but he functions. Sometimes he even manages to be happy. You can’t just come barging back into town and mess with people’s lives.”

  Is that what she’d done? She closed her eyes at the memory of the look on his face when Hope had blurted out that he was her father.

  She swallowed down a bit of bile, but then she said, “He’s never stopped pining for me? Really?”

  JD looked at the arena where the calf scramble had started. The crowd was cheering and going nuts for the kids participating, and Hope was probably having a blast. “Really,” he said. “So be careful with him.”

  Obviously, she had to tell Casey that Hope wasn’t his. But she wasn’t sure what would come after that. It wasn’t like she could make a life with a man who—

  She gasped, earning a quizzical look from JD beneath the brim of his hat. When had she started thinking about making a life with Casey?

  Exactly twelve years ago. And she’d never stopped.

  She was lonely, but she functioned. Sometimes she even managed to be happy. But she’d never stopped pining for Casey Long.

  Yes, they’d been kids. But there were plenty of old happy couples who’d started off as high school sweethearts. Maybe not many. But sometimes when you know, you just know.

  “Team roping is next,” JD said through a clenched jaw. “That asshole better show up.”

  Slowly, and with her eyes on the entrance gate, Jessica made her way back to Carmen and Hope.

  “Still not here?” Carmen asked.

  Jessica shook her head.

  “My fault?” Hope asked.

  She didn’t fully grasp what had happened. And even though they’d talked and talked and talked last night, Jessica wasn’t positive that Hope understood Casey wasn’t her dad.

  “None of this is your fault.”

  Hope smiled. “Can I ride a sheep?”

  Jessica sat down. “No, you’re too big.”

  “Can I ride a horse?”

  That could probably be arranged.

  * * *

  Casey pulled through the gate of the fairgrounds. He sure hoped he hadn’t missed his and JD’s event. JD would never forgive him.

  Well, he would, but it would be a miserable two weeks waiting for him to get around to it.

  He parked his pickup next to JD’s and looked at his face in the rearview mirror. He hadn’t shaved and there were bags beneath his eyes. Staying up all night will do that.

  A daughter. He had a daughter.

  It all made sense now. The Acostas had left because Jess had been pregnant. Eighteen years old with her whole life ahead of her, and he’d knocked her up. No wonder she’d called it game over last night when he hadn’t had a condom. She’d had her life ruined once already.

  He remembered the child’s sweet, perfect face.

  Not ruined. But definitely altered. Things had not gone the way Jessica and her mom had painstakingly planned.

  Hope. It was a beautiful name.

  There was an abandoned stone chapel on Harper’s Hill. It was technically private property; part of the twelve-thousand-acre Rancho Cañada Verde owned by the Kowalski family. But Gerome Kowalski didn’t mind that Casey went there from time to time, and that’s where he’d spent the night, trying to wrap his mind around this new reality.

  At first, he’d been angry. Angry at Jess for keeping his own child a secret from him. But then he’d tried to put himself in her shoes. She’d been a teenager, and her mom had been in
control. Had she really had a choice?

  What would he have done at eighteen? He liked to think he’d have stepped up to the plate. But the truth was, he didn’t know. Not for sure. This was why adults told teens they needed to be old enough to handle the consequences of sex. As a grown man, Casey knew this. He’d had that particular talk with more than one kid. But at eighteen…

  None of that mattered now. Jessica had come home, and she’d probably been trying to work up the nerve to tell him about Hope. She must have felt terrified, not knowing how he’d react.

  And he’d reacted horribly.

  But Hope had been so happy and thrilled to meet him. He’d seen nothing but joy in her face, and although he couldn’t see himself, he had a pretty good idea of what he’d looked like. And she didn’t need to see that.

  He’d collected himself at the stone chapel. Regained his composure. And he was ready to face Hope with a smile and open arms. He was her daddy, goddammit. And if the way his heart ached at the thought of Jess ever escaping his sight again was any indication, he still loved her mama.

  Yesterday he’d been Big Verde’s most available sheriff. Today, he had a family.

  They’d make this work. If Jess could even stand the sight of him after last night.

  He grabbed his hat off the seat and stuck it on his head just as his door was yanked open. JD grabbed him by the arm. “Jesus Christ, Casey! I don’t know where you’ve been or why you haven’t answered your phone, but we’re on in a few minutes. I got us pushed back as far as I could. Get your ass out of the truck.”

  JD gave a hard yank and Casey stumbled out of the truck, slamming the door behind him.

  “Why the hell are you wearing chaps?” JD asked.

  “What’s wrong with chaps?”

  “You look like an idiot.”

  The two of them started walking.

  “Are we saddled up?” Casey asked.

  “Of course we’re saddled up. And I warmed up Genevieve for you, but you need to get on that pony and ride around a bit. If we’ve even got time for that.”

  Casey glanced at the stands when they walked through the gate. He didn’t see Jessica, and that worried him. But surely she hadn’t gone back to Houston. Not after everything that had happened. Unless she was so disgusted by his behavior that she never wanted to see him again.

  “Get your mind off of that woman,” JD said. “I know you think team roping is a breeze compared to bull riding, but you can still get hurt.”

  JD was right. Casey had to get his head on straight.

  Fifteen minutes later he and Genevieve were in the box, looking at JD sitting atop Brazen on the other side of the chute. There was a young steer in the chute between them, raring to go. Casey’s adrenaline was pumping. This was practically the best part.

  He and JD had been partners for six years and friends and/or foes for damn near a lifetime. He wasn’t exactly sure what it was he did with his eyes to say ready, but JD saw it and gave a small, tight nod of his head.

  The gates opened, and they were off.

  JD was the header, and Casey rode heeler. They thundered across the arena with JD in the lead. He was on fire. He tossed the rope and it flew through the air, hooking the steer’s horns. Now it was Casey’s turn, as heeler, to go for the legs. The arena seemed to shrink as he honed in on the steer, rope held high in the air, and then it was gone. Flying.

  The steer kicked up, and the rope ensnared its legs with perfect timing. Effortlessly, Casey got the rope around the saddle horn in a perfect dally before he looked up. The arena came back into focus and there was Jessica, hanging on the fence, with Hope next to her.

  They waved, grinned, and shouted just as the rope went taut, jerking the horse. Distracted, Casey wasn’t ready, and in what seemed like slow motion, he fell off the horse.

  Fell. Off. The. Damn. Horse.

  He landed with a thud and saw stars. Got the breath knocked out of him, too.

  JD rode up next to him. Concern shone in his eyes, but only for a brief second. Then he started laughing. “I told you to get your mind off that woman. Are you sure you used to ride bulls?”

  “Ha-ha,” Casey wheezed. “Very funny.”

  It didn’t feel funny though. A sharp pain nearly gutted him when he inhaled. And when he went to stand up, he discovered he couldn’t. Goddammit.

  JD jumped down from his horse, concern back in his eyes. “Hey, bud. You okay?”

  No. He was not okay. But he would be. “It’s just my back.”

  Soon he was surrounded by people saying things like Don’t move and How many fingers am I holding up? Someone also mentioned ambulance.

  An EMT who looked maybe twelve years old called for a long backboard and a neck brace.

  Jesus. He just needed a few minutes to come out of this spasm…

  Suddenly Jessica was there. She dropped to her knees next to him and leaned over. “Casey, are you okay?”

  Her dark hair brushed his cheek. She smelled like sunshine and sounded like an angel and her eyes were wide with fright.

  “I’m fine,” he said, although for some reason, he was having trouble getting air in his lungs. “Where’s my daughter?”

  Jessica put a finger to his lips. “Shh…”

  “Where is—”

  “Casey, Hope’s not your daughter. Everything is fine.”

  Everything was fine?

  Everything was definitely not fine. Because that meant—

  He couldn’t finish the thought. “Jess, if she’s not my child, then whose is she?”

  Before he could get an answer, someone stuck a stupid oxygen mask over his face.

  Chapter Eleven

  Jess watched the ambulance leave. She hadn’t been able to answer Casey’s question, because the EMTs needed her out of the way. But Casey’s reaction to her thoughtless response, which she’d meant to be reassuring, answered any questions she’d had about him.

  When informed that he wasn’t the daddy of an eleven-year-old girl with Down syndrome whom he’d never met before, the emotion that had shown on his face was disappointment. Maybe even grief.

  Casey Long was a special kind of man.

  JD had heard everything but was busy acting like he hadn’t. “He’ll be fine,” he said.

  “How do you know that? He could have a broken back or a punctured lung or a concussion or—”

  “He’s embarrassed is all. And he should be. The idiot fell off his damn horse.”

  Carmen and Hope joined them as the dust settled and everybody started going back about their business. “Is he okay?” Hope asked.

  JD took off his hat and held out his hand. “Howdy. I’m JD. And don’t you worry your pretty little head. He’ll be just fine. Sheriff Long probably needs some horseback riding lessons.”

  Oh no! Jessica held her breath. He’d said Sheriff Long.

  She looked at Hope, praying she wasn’t about to blurt out something that would no doubt end up on the front page of the Big Verde News the next day, but what she saw was a blushing eleven-year-old. Blushing!

  “I’m Hope,” she said, taking JD’s hand.

  Well, JD was very handsome. The two of them shook hands and simultaneously charmed the heck out of each other while Carmen touched up her lipstick.

  “You know,” JD said, “we have a place here in Big Verde called Hope House. Since it practically has your name on it, I think you should stop by and check it out before you leave. My sister teaches cooking classes there, and she has a little boy named Dalton.”

  “Cooking!” Hope said, clapping her hands.

  “She loves to cook,” Carmen said. “In fact, she’s one of the best chefs at La Casa Bleu.”

  That wasn’t quite true. Hope loved to be in the kitchen, but in a place like La Casa Bleu, the pace was frantic. She could never be in there during the chaotic dinner rush. However, she loved repetitive tasks and was a stickler for details. The pastry chef adored her, and nobody could put a cherry on top like Hope.

  “I
knew it!” JD said. “You’re Carmen Foraccio, aren’t you?”

  “Guilty as charged,” Carmen said. “And I assume you went to school with Jessica?”

  “High school heartthrob,” Jessica said.

  Carmen fluttered her eyelashes. “No doubt.”

  “Man, I love your show,” JD sputtered, taking off his hat as a sign of respect. “Gosh, I watch it all the time.”

  It was weird to think of JD watching cooking shows, and even weirder to see him acting starstruck. Although, if the blush on Carmen’s cheeks was any indication, she was equally dazzled.

  “Should we go to the hospital?” Jessica asked. Because hello! Casey was hurt!

  “It would really embarrass him,” JD said. “So, sure, let’s go.”

  Jessica hated to drag Hope away from the rodeo. She’d been having so much fun up until the time Casey fell off his horse. “Carmen, do you guys want to stay here? I’m sure I can catch a ride with JD.”

  Two cowboys walked up. The pockets on their shirts said RANCHO CAÑADA VERDE. These were real working cowboys, as Rancho Cañada Verde was one of the few cattle ranches in Texas that still managed cattle on horseback. Its cowboys had been sweeping the rodeo without even trying.

  “JD, we feel honored to have been here to witness Casey riding a horse for the very first time,” one of them said.

  Both cowboys laughed and then followed it up with a high five. They looked nearly identical. They had to be twins.

  “Shut up, guys. He just had some kind of—”

  “Spasm? Conniption fit?” the other cowboy said, with a smirk that bordered on full-out grin.

  “Ladies,” JD said, “these irreverent jerks are Beau and Bryce Montgomery.”

  Both cowboys removed their hats. “Ah,” one of them said, gazing at the three of them with his blue eyes.

  “We get it now,” said the other.

  “Pardon?” JD asked.

  “It was a woman.”

  “Yep.”

  One brother looked at the other. “The question is…”

  “Which woman?”

  Jessica’s cheeks grew warm, no matter how hard she willed them not to. Beau or Bryce—she had no idea which one—winked at her. “Bingo.”