by Becky McGraw
The more he read, the more regret filled him. He’d have more money, probably enough to buy out that damned contract for Jess, if he hadn’t quit when he had, because he’d gone out on the top of his game. Quitting when he was the number one ranked saddle bronc rider on the circuit, was a bitter pill to swallow…but the doctors had scared him.
An ad in the middle of the magazine caught his eye, and he read through it. There was a PRCA charity rodeo for pro riders in Dallas coming up in a couple of weeks. The entry was five thousand dollars, but the purse for the saddle bronc competition was over a hundred thousand. He could come up with the entry, and his card was still active, he hadn’t officially canceled it, even though he’d technically retired. Winning that event sure would solve a lot of problems, but it could create a lot too…if he had an accident. But he wasn’t borrowing that trouble by thinking about it.
Reading to the bottom of the page, Wade saw the entry deadline was in two days. He had two days to come up with the entry fee, his credit card had room…he didn’t even need to consider the risk, it was worth it to him to be able to get Jess off the hook with Ray Turner and that damned record company.
There was no doubt in his mind, he could win the competition, Wade never doubted his ability in the arena. He was that damned good…or had been…but he shoved the thought of being a has been out of his head and rounded up his confidence. He wasn’t a ‘has been’, he was still a force to be reckoned with on the back of a bronco.
He knew if Jess found out about his back, she’d give him hell, so he wasn’t going to tell her. Although most of the other cowboys on the circuit knew about his injury and sketchy prognosis, nobody here knew. He didn’t tell Luke when he’d hired him, because if he had, he was afraid he wouldn’t hire him. He didn’t tell Sabrina, because she would’ve told Luke. Wade had to do this, for Jess and for Angel, and to make sure that bastard was out of their lives for good. When he went to town later, he’d call and register.
Excitement filled him at the prospect of riding again, no matter that this was an all or nothing thing for him, and it could have long-lasting repercussions. Wade was all in…just like he always was when he rode.
Thursday night, Wade had kept Angel, while Jess went to work at the bar, and they’d had a nice night, just cuddling on the couch watching a rodeo event on satellite. Wade was scoping out what the competition was likely to look like next weekend. He was a little nervous, because some of the new guys looked pretty damned good, one in particular, Cam Jessup.
That was one he was going to have to watch out for…maybe the guy wouldn’t enter, but he didn’t hold out much hope there. The purse was too big, for the top names on the circuit to pass up. They’d be in Dallas, and they would be there to win, just like he planned to be. He hadn’t told Jess yet that he’d entered, because he wasn’t sure how she was going to react to it. It didn’t matter, now…he was entered, and he was going. He was going to tell her soon…he just had to find the right moment, so it went down easier.
Angel was snuggled into his neck sleeping, and he kissed her hair, then flicked the off button on the remote, and laid her down beside him on the sofa. He put his hand on her belly, then laid back against the sofa and dozed off. The squeaky hinges on the screen door woke him up, right before the door opened and Jess stepped inside, looking tired, but happy.
“Hey, sugar…” she said quietly then eased the door closed.
“Ya’ll have a good night?” he asked with a yawn, and stretched.
“It was great…we brought the house down,” she said smugly, then walked over and ran her hand over Angel’s head, before she leaned down and gave him a kiss. “How was Angel?”
“A perfect angel,” he told her with a soft smile. “We watched the rodeo together…she’s a cowgirl in training.”
“I should’ve known you’d be trying to give her rodeo fever…that crap is dangerous, Wade…let’s try to make her a singer, instead,” she told him with a chuckle, “The only danger there is running after good looking cowboys in high heels.”
Wade snorted, then told her hotly, “I better be the only cowboy you’re running after…and as for her, those cowboys will be running from my shotgun.”
Angel squirmed beside him, and he rubbed her belly, then leaned up to give Jess another quick kiss, “Bedtime for all of us…I have a surprise for you,” he said then picked Angel up and put her to his shoulder, before he stood.
“I love your surprises,” Jess purred then put her arms around his waist and grabbed his butt.
“Stop, you’re gonna make me drop the baby,” he said gruffly then kissed the top of her head.
“You better put her down then, because I plan on doing a lot more, cowboy,” she warned him with a grin, but stepped back.
Wade leaned down to give her one more kiss then headed for Angel’s bedroom. When he opened the door and flipped on the light, Jess gasped. He had taken down the double bed and stored it in the barn, and now there was a pink princess bed he’d bought in Henrietta as the centerpiece in the room. There was also a changing table, dresser and pink armoire.
“I didn’t have time to paint, but the walls are going to be a disgusting shade of pink soon too,” he told Jess with a chuckle. When she didn’t say anything, Wade turned around to look at her, thinking she must not like it.
Silent tears tracked down her cheeks, and her lips wobbled, then she finally said, “It’s beautiful, Wade…Angel is so damned lucky you’re her daddy.”
“No, I’m lucky she’s my little girl,” he told her equally choked up, as he walked to the bed and gently laid her on the white eyelet comforter set, then twisted the knob on the mobile with the little circle of sheep attached to the bed rail. Soft music filled the room and Angel stared at it with sleepy eyes, then closed them and smiled.
Wade tiptoed to the light switch and shut it off, then grabbed Jess’s hand and pulled her out into the hall and shut the door. “I want to talk to you for a few minutes, you awake enough for that?” he asked her quietly.
“I can think of a lot I’d rather do, but sure…” she told him then walked with him back into the living room to sit on the sofa. “What’s on your mind?”
Wade decided the best way to break it to her was a head on assault, so he said bluntly, “I entered in a rodeo competition next weekend in Dallas.”
“Oh yeah? For fun?” she asked with a smile.
“No, for a hundred thousand dollar purse, if I win…but it’ll be fun too, I hope.”
“But you haven’t ridden like that in almost a year, right? I thought you were retired?”
“Retired is a relative term, I haven’t officially given up my pro card, and this is a charity rodeo, not a circuit competition, although it’s sanctioned by the PRCA.”
Suspicion filled her green eyes and she asked him, “Why are you doing this, Wade? I thought you were done with the rodeo…is this about the contract?”
“If I win it will be, because I’m going to buy it out, and buy back the rights to your songs,” he told her gruffly, then added, “You shouldn’t have done that, darlin’. I’ve got to fix this…it’s all my fault.”
She shoved up off the couch and faced him angrily, “I told you to leave it alone, Wade. I did what I wanted to do with my songs, and my career. I don’t need you to bail me out! Especially putting yourself back in a situation where you could get hurt! You quit for a reason, because you were too old to hang with those green teenagers who were just going pro. You’re not any younger than you were nine months ago when you quit!”
Wade groaned, because she didn’t know the half of it. If she found out about his injury, she’d really give him hell. Taking the offensive, so she didn’t have time to ask questions, he asked her darkly, “You calling me an old man, sugar?”
“No, I’m not calling you old, I’m telling you that you’re gonna break your fricking neck pretending you’re a teenager, and I need your ass around.”
“Let me show you just what this old man can do
, darlin’,” he said in a low sensual tone then yanked her onto his lap and covered her mouth with his.
As a distraction, it worked for him, he thought, as she moaned then slid her hands up his chest and put her arms around his neck. He deepened the kiss, and then stood up and walked with her down the hall.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The closer it got to the weekend and the competition, the more Jess pouted. It was in two days, and she was pretty morose when he’d left her this morning. She didn’t want him to ride this weekend, and she’d made that plain to him, but he wasn’t going to be deterred.
He was going to try to cheer her up, though and take her mind off of it. He rode Titan into the barn, and unsaddled and groomed him, then put him in the stall with some feed and hay. Wade had been up early this morning, and checked on the herd, then sent the hands out to fix some fence that he’d seen leaning.
It was lunch time, and he thought taking Jess and Angel to lunch at the Blue Bird would help her mood. He also wanted to ask her about the books she had from when Ray Turner was managing the band. The accountant he had used in Dallas when he’d been with the rodeo was good, and he’d talked to him and asked if he could look them over and see if anything jumped out at him.
If they could get some leverage against that bastard, it would help the cause. Jess said she didn’t have proof he’d cooked the books, but there had to be something somewhere to incriminate him. Although Ray Turner being a criminal didn’t surprise Wade, the guy didn’t strike him as overly intelligent, and he’d bet there was a trail to his crimes in those books somewhere.
Jess told him what went down at the bar had been orchestrated by Ray, he’d planned the whole scene. That made Wade even more determined to see him go down. The asshole had used Wade and his past to get the upper hand with Jess, to control her, and that made him madder than hell, but it worried him too.
According to Jess, Ray Turner had been basically stalking her on and off, since she’d broken it off with him three years ago. Now, it looked like he’d stepped up his game. To know that the asshole had the balls to get his ass kicked to accomplish his plan, spoke to his level of desperation and greediness.
“Hey, darlin’, you in here?” he yelled when he walked into the bunkhouse. When he walked in the living he smiled, because she was sitting on the sofa, barefoot in her bra and panties, with an old straw hat on her head, strumming her guitar, and writing.
“I don’t think I’m hungry for food anymore,” he said with a growl, and walked over to the couch, then leaned down to kiss her hungrily.
“The sight of me make you lose your appetite?” she asked with a chuckle, then set down her guitar.
“No it makes me hungry from something other than food,” he told her gruffly, then sat down beside her and his stomach growled, which caused her to laugh. He grinned and conceded, “Well, maybe lunch first…then dessert.” He pulled her up on his lap and kissed her again, then asked, “You feel like going to the Blue Bird? I thought we’d go show off Angel, and see Sabrina.”
He hadn’t seen Sabrina in a while, and wanted to see Will too. Supposedly, she had her office at the Blue Bird set up for Will to say with her there during the day, while she worked. Cole told him she’d replaced her big hulking desk, with a smaller corner one and set up a portable baby bed for him.
“Sounds good…think I need to change?” she asked him with a saucy grin. Writing always seemed to relax her, so he was glad she’d been doing that while he was out, so she was smiling again.
“Not on my account, but I’ll probably get in another scrabble before we get back if you don’t…” he warned her with a grin.
“Oh, hell no,” she said then shot up off of his lap, then told him, “Let me go get dressed…be right back. Wanna get Angel up?”
“I’m on it,” he told her then followed her down the hall.
When he walked into Angel’s room, his heart clenched, because Angel was already awake and cooing to herself like she was singing. She had probably heard Jess in there playing. He walked up to the bed and lifted her out and she waved her arms and hit him in the cheek, then he grabbed her fingers in his mouth, and she giggled. Her beautiful green eyes were filled with excitement at seeing him, and she gave him a toothless smile, which took his breath away.
“I’m taking my two best girls to lunch, you wanna go to lunch with daddy, sugar plum?” Angel gurgled then drooled down her chin, and he laughed and wiped it away with his thumb. Wade carried her to the closet and pulled out a yellow sundress, then took her to the changing table, and changed her diaper and dressed her.
Jess walked in behind him and picked up a yellow and red polka dot bow then pulled her hair up in a little tuft on her head and clamped it there. “Daddy did a good job, didn’t he, sweetie. He’s the best daddy, isn’t he?” Jess asked her and Wade swallowed hard on the emotion that clogged his throat.
“I love you, Jess…” he told her then put an arm around her waist and hugged her to him.
She looked at him and smiled, then said “We love daddy too, don’t we, dumplin’? He’s the handsomest daddy in the world, isn’t he?” she asked Angel and she cooed, then Jess laughed. “See she thinks so too…let’s go eat, I’m starving.”
Wade nodded, then picked up Angel and grabbed the car seat as they went through the living room, and out the door. When they got to the Blue Bird, it was packed, and there wasn’t a table available, and he groaned, but then he saw Karlie and Gabe at a big table toward the back and headed over there. “Hey ya’ll…got room for us?” Wade asked then sat Angel’s car set by a chair and pulled it out for Jess.”
“Yep, we took this big one, because it was the only one open, but it looks like that worked out just fine!” Karlie said then waved him to the other seat.
“Thanks,” Wade said then sat down beside Jess, and looked around the cafe. “Sabrina’s doing good…looks like she’s gonna have to add more tables soon,” he said with a chuckle. For a former detective, she’d sure charmed this town with her home cooking.
“Yeah, I know…the menu is awesome now. The new stuff she added is fantastic. I love the daily specials, but they’re starting to show up on my hips,” Karlie said with a laugh.
“I happen to like your hips, sweetness,” Gabe growled, then hugged her and kissed her hair.
Karlie turned her bright blue eyes on him and tilted her head then asked, “So I hear you’re riding this weekend in Dallas?”
Wade jerked back in surprise, then asked her, “How’d you hear that?” He hadn’t told anyone, and he didn’t think Jess had either.
“I entered the team roping event with Katie…couldn’t pass up the purse…I saw your name on the saddle bronc roster,” she told him then her smile faded, “What about your back, Wade…aren’t you worried?”
Wade’s eyebrows shot up and his gaze darted to Jess then pinned Karlie, silently pleading with her to drop it. He’d forgotten about her being in the rodeo circuit too, and that she had probably heard about the injury that ended his career. “It’s fine…couldn’t pass up the purse either,” he told her then tried to deflect the situation, so he said, “So the dynamic duo rides again, huh?
Karlie grinned and said, “The Wild Child and the Mild Child are gonna tear it up…they better look out!”
Gabe groaned, then said, “I haven’t ever had a chance to see them in action, so I’m looking forward to it. Maybe we could sit and cringe together, Jess,” he said with a chuckle.
“We’ll get ya’ll tickets in the family section, so you can see the action up close and cheer us on, won’t we Wade?” Karlie said brightly.
He felt Jess’s eyes burning the side of his face, and he knew he was in deep shit, she hadn’t missed what Karlie said. “Yeah, we’ll get them great tickets…Jess hasn’t seen me ride before either…and I can show her and Angel off to the guys.”