by Becky McGraw
“An old cowboy is never done…just waiting on the next opportunity…you know that old timer.” he said with a chuckle that echoed hollowly in his chest.
“Well, glad you took this opportunity, it’s good to see you again, man,” he said then slapped Wade on the shoulder. “Whatcha drinking, let me buy you another one. Maybe you’ll have a hangover and I’ll have a chance tomorrow,” he told him with a laugh.
“Even hungover, I’ll stomp your ass, you know it…but hey, I’ll take that beer,” Wade said with a grin.
Chuck waved at the bartender and held up five fingers, and the guy nodded, then he asked Wade, “You doing bareback too?”
“Nah, just saddle bronc…I’m not stupid. Leave that for the young ‘uns…their bones are greener,” he told him.
“I went by the arena earlier to look at the stock…looks like some good ones, so we should have good rides tomorrow. Lot of big names here too, did you look at the roster”
“Yeah, only one I’m worried about is Cam…” Wade told him seriously.
They talked and laughed for hours, rehashing old times, and old rides, and Wade was starting to feel better. He wasn’t sure if it was from the beers he stopped counting two hours ago, or the company, but he hadn’t even thought about Jess in about thirty minutes…so he was doing good.
An hour or so ago, a group of cowgirls from the circuit came into the bar and joined their group, so it was pretty rowdy now. One of them he knew, a little too well, and she had pulled a chair up by him, and was getting a little touchy feely. Although he was flattered, and it soothed his ego, he wasn’t interested…at all.
She wasn’t the tall blond country singer who had ground his heart up and spit it out in a sausage casing. He didn’t have enough energy though to tell her to back off, so he just sat there smiling, biding his time, enjoying his beer, until it was time for him to head upstairs, and spend a sleepless night thinking about Jess…missing her and Angel.
The woman beside him evidently decided to make her message a little clearer to him, because she slid her hand onto his thigh, pretty damned close to ground zero, then leaned over and put her lips over his, kissing him like she meant it. Between the beers and her direct onslaught, his brain seized up and he didn’t move, just sat there and let her kiss him, but when her hand moved to his fly, he put his hand over hers and pulled back.
“Let’s go upstairs,” she invited in a whisper near his ear, then nipped his ear lobe.
“He’s not going anywhere with you, so get your damned hands off of him,” an angry, husky female voice said over his shoulder. “He’s coming upstairs, with me and his daughter.” When the woman just gave Jess a nasty look, she drawled in feral tone, “Find yourself another bedmate, cowgirl, don’t make me go crazy on your ass.”
Everyone at the table stopped talking and swung their eyes to Jess, who was standing behind him with her hands on her hips, looking like an avenging angel, while she stared down the cowgirl who had been feeling him up.
Two or three of them said together, “Daughter?”
Wade shook his head and his face turned red, then he confirmed, “Yeah, I have a daughter,” before he pushed back in his chair and stood up. “See ya’ll tomorrow, guys,” he said then grabbed Jess’s arm and dragged her toward the entrance of the bar. He noticed she still had on that damned dress, and he felt eyes burning his back as they left the bar.
“You need to put some fucking clothes on,” he grated then dragged her through the lobby. “What the hell are you doing here anyway?” he asked then looked around and added sarcastically, “Where’s Beau? You run him off already?”
“I’m here, because we need to talk, and I want to watch you ride tomorrow. As for Beau, I think he and Jazzie have gone to get some supper somewhere. They took Angel with them.”
“Fine, talk,” he told her then dragged her down on a sofa in the lobby. “Make it quick, I have an early morning tomorrow,” he told her nastily. He wasn’t in a very charitable mood right now, and the faster he got away from Jess Sparks, the better. Her lower lip trembled and he felt like an ass, but then shored up his heart and shouted, “Talk!”
Her cat-like green eyes filled up like buckets and then she said, “I’m so damned sorry, Wade.”
“Is that it?” he asked shoving up to his feet. He didn’t want her tears or her apology, he wanted her to understand him. “I’ve heard about my limit on sorries, Jess…after a while they lose their effectiveness,” he grated staring down at her, his fists clenched at his sides.
She stood up, then wobbled on her feet, and grabbed his arm. “No! Sit down, please, there’s more…” she begged.
Huffing out a frustrated breath, Wade sat back down and so did she, then she turned to face him and said, “I love you, and don’t want to lose you…I know why you decided to ride in this thing, and that you’re doing it for us. Thank you.”
“You sure didn’t act like that yesterday…or tonight.” he told her gruffly. “You wrote me off, and didn’t want to listen to me…why should I listen now?”
“I know, and I’m sorry…I was scared, still am, but I’m here, because I love you. Karlie explained the measures you were taking to make sure you don’t get hurt…and it made me feel better.”
Wade looked back at her and growled, “I would have done that, if you’d have given me a chance, instead of throwing that ultimatum at me.”
“No more ultimatums, sugar…I promise. I’m with you regardless of how stupid I think you’re being…and I hope you feel the same about me, because I’m stupid a helluva lot more than you are,” she said with a watery chuckle.
Relief and wariness warred inside of Wade and he took deep breaths trying to figure out which would win, and if he believed her. Then there was the issue of Beau Bowman, “What about Beau?”
“Beau who?” she asked with a soft smile, then told him, “Did you see Ray there tonight?”
Wade shook his head trying to get the connection, then asked her, “Yeah, I saw the asshole, what about him?”
“You weren’t there, and he made me sing the new songs, because he had another company man there with him, so I was paying him back by singing them to Beau like I was. Beau was a good sport and I knew he was safe, that’s why I picked him.”
“He’s not safe, sugar…I see the way he looks at you, even though he’s a gentleman, and my friend.” Even though he knew Beau wouldn’t act on his attraction to Jess, it was there nonetheless. Wade was a man and he knew when a man was interested in a woman…his woman.
“He’s hooked on Jazzie, Wade, not me…you’re seeing things that aren’t there, sugar.”
“Bullshit, but whatever you say, Jess…” Wade shook his head not believing how blind she was.
“I’m sorry for hurting you, baby. Will you forgive me?” she asked him in a trembling voice, then put her hand on his thigh.
Wade looked into her eyes, and knew that he’d never get over his love for her, ever. The decision wasn’t his to make, his heart had already decided for him. “Yeah, as long as you keep your promise…”
“I will,” she said firmly, then told him, “Angel and I need you in one piece, Wade…will you make me a promise?” His eyebrows raised and he nodded, then she asked him, “Will you promise that you’ll be careful tomorrow?”
“I’m always careful when I ride, Jess, but that’s not a guarantee I won’t get hurt,” he told her seriously, then explained, “Riding fifteen-hundred pounds of unpredictable bucking horse, takes some things out of your control. I just need to know you’re not going to freak out if something does happen.”
“I can’t promise you that…but I promise to be there if something does happen.”
He huffed out a shuddering breath then pulled her onto his lap, and closed his mouth over hers kissing her tenderly. After a minute, he pulled back and told her, “Fair enough…I’m not looking for trouble tomorrow, darlin’, but if it finds me, you being there is enough.”
She nodded, then he kissed her
again, longer this time, before he told her with a grin, “Let’s go upstairs and make up right, sugar,” then he took her hand and pulled her up, before he dropped his arm around her shoulders and walked with her to the elevator.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Wade was behind the chutes, fastening the buckle on his chaps, and getting his gear ready for his ride in a few minutes. He’d lucked up on his pull earlier and got one of the best bucking horses in the lot, one he’d ridden before and gotten a good score. That meant the odds of him having a good ride, and moving on to the next round were good. All he had to do was make sure he was under the reins, and kept his feet up high on the horse. Something that was second nature to him, after sixteen years as a professional rider.
After he got his chaps on, he checked his saddle and reins, then did some stretches to loosen up then shook out his arms good. The stretches were hard wearing the stiff back brace he had on, as was riding fluidly, but he’d decided to wear it after all, because he’d promised Jess he’d be careful, and that was part of it. Wade felt so much better, since they’d made up, a lot less uptight, and his head was in the right place, which mean he could focus on what he needed to be focusing on.
“Hey, old man…you take your vitamins this mornin’? Cocky twenty-one year old Cam Jessup walked up to him and drawled.
“You change your diaper for the ride? You’ll probably need a fresh one,” Wade shot back then gave him a cocky grin.
“Think I’ll just go get a kiss from that good-looking girlfriend of yours for luck. Bet she’s a hot piece, maybe she’d like someone who can still get it up. She’s a little young for you don’t you think old man?” he flipped back and Wade’s blood pressure shot off the scale.
He grabbed the kid up by the collar, and his face paled, but then he shoved Wade back and puffed his chest out, before two other cowboys came and held them apart. “Save it for the ride, ya’ll,” the guy who had Wade’s arm told him.
Wade shook them off, then picked up his saddle and stalked off, trying to walk off some of the adrenaline and anger that coursed through him. That smug, greenhorn bastard was about to be schooled, and Wade was going to be his teacher. He dropped his saddle near the chute, then walked up the alley between the stands and the chutes, and looked around until he saw Jess, Jazzie, Beau and Angel sitting in the front row of the family section. He strode down the walkway to the stands, then climbed up and leaned over to pull a surprised Jess to him, and he put his mouth over hers, then kissed her silly.
When he pulled back, Jess asked him breathlessly, “Wow…what was that for?”
“Because you’re mine dammit, and don’t you forget it,” he grated possessively, then added, “And I love you.”
Leaning over further, he kissed Angel, who was sitting on Jazzie’s lap, on the cheek and said, “That goes for you too,” then grinned at her and she cooed and waved her hands in excitement.
When he stood back up, Jess walked up to him, and put her arms around his neck, and put her lips to his then kissed him fiercely enough, he was surprised there wasn’t steam coming out the collar of his shirt, because there was definitely a fire going on in his pants. She only pulled back when hoots and hollers started behind them from the cowboys gathered around the pens.
She looked up and waved, then threw them a sexy grin, which caused more whooping, before she looked back at him then leaned near his ear and asked, “Where the hell have you been hiding those chaps, sugar? The make me hot…bring ‘em home.”
Wade groaned, then hissed quietly, “Thanks a lot, darlin’…how the hell am I supposed to ride now?” he asked and looked down at the front of his jeans, and she just laughed, then kissed his cheek and stepped back.
“Go knock ‘em dead, cowboy, your cheering section is right here,” Jess told him then sat back in her seat and crossed her long legs, which made his problem worse. With a shake of his head, he climbed back down and walked toward the chutes.
“Well, that was hot,” Jazzie fanned herself, while she bounced Angel on her knee. “A rodeo and a side show, who woulda thunk it?”
Jess felt blood rush to her face and she fanned herself too, then told her friend, “I can’t help it, those chaps he has on do things for me…now I know why women appreciate rodeos,” she told her friend then laughed. She was worried, but she felt light and happy inside again. Things were good with her and Wade again, and she was determined to keep them that way. He seemed to be in the right place mentally too, so everything was good. As long as he doesn’t get hurt, a voice in the back of her mind whispered.
Refusing to borrow that trouble, or worry, she pushed the thought out of her head, and pasted on a bright smile, because she was determined that was all he was going to see on her face. She watched the other competitors come out of the chute and immediately start spurring the horse they were riding above the shoulders to make it buck more evidently. Some of them barely cleared the opening, before the horse was up in the air, and Jess held her breath watching them.
When a couple of the horses shoved the riders into the railing, and they hit hard, Jess cringed imaging it was Wade, how that must hurt. Then when they fell off after the buzzer sounded, they hit the dirt hard and had to avoid being trampled by the horse. A few of the men had been grazed by those lethal looking hooves. This was definitely not a sport for the weak of heart, she decided. No wonder a lot of them had helmets on, and braces of one kind or another, or white tape on their bodies.
She had no idea how the scoring worked, but the ones who’d managed to stay on the bucking horses, until the buzzer sounded, got scored, most of them in the seventies and eighties on what she imagined was a hundred point scale. After a lot of cowboys had made their rides, she started to wonder when it would be Wade’s turn to ride, wanting to get it over with, so maybe once he rode and didn’t get hurt this first time, she’d be able to get rid of the ball of nerves in her stomach.
Beau leaned over Jazzie when they announced some guy named Jessup was coming up to ride next, and he told her, “This is Wade’s biggest competition,” he told her then added, “Young guy, Rookie of the Year last year, and damned good.”
Jess swallowed hard then leaned up to put her forearms on the rail, and pay closer attention to the man who was in the chute, getting on an antsy horse. The horse was like a caged cat, going down on its haunches, then rearing up and slamming him against the side rail, until finally they got him under control, and the guy slid into position then grabbed the thick rope reins, and raised his hand and wiggled it.
The cowboys holding the gate flung it open and the huge reddish colored horse shot out in a big arcing jump, with the man’s feet almost on his neck, his toes pointed outward. She held her breath when the horse’s front end hit the ground, and he kicked out in back, almost throwing the man over his head. When the straight bucking didn’t work, the horse spun in circles trying to throw him off, and the guy twisted at the waist to keep his balance and position on the horse.
He kept drawing his feet back then spurring the horse again in rhythm with the up and down movement. It seemed like eight minutes, but eight seconds later, the buzzer sounded and the guy quit spurring the horse, then jumped down and landed on his feet, then ran toward the railing waving his hat at the crowd.
The crowd went wild cheering, and Jess didn’t know what was going on, but when she saw the score of ninety flash up on the board ,she knew it must’ve been a good ride and a good score. Her stomach churned a little, thinking if Wade had to do better than that guy, he was going to be on a horse bucking a lot more than that one had.
When she heard Wade’s name called over the loud speaker, her stomach churned more, and she rested her chin on her arms and leaned a little farther over the rail to watch him get on his horse. The horse he was going to ride was jet black, and looked like a bad ass as it snorted and showed its teeth as they tried to get him settled so Wade could get on his back. Wade sat on the corner of the pen waiting, and watching, and she sucked in a breath when the horse re
ared and almost fell back on him.