Andra was always beautiful, but with the kind of confidence that practically invited you to stare?
She was stunning.
He’d been gritting his teeth all day against the other cowboys whistling at her, but as long as she was safely on her mare’s back, Andra just laughed and waved at them. Under that tiara-spangled Stetson, she was a whole new woman. One he wanted and didn’t recognize all at once.
Right now, she and her father were circling their horses in the narrow on-deck area behind the roping chute. The team in line before them shot out into the arena, hot on the heels of a sprinting calf, but he didn’t even follow long enough to see if they caught the head.
“You stare any harder, your eyes are going to fall out of your head.” Stacia took a swig out of a bottle of Coors Light, then propped her crossed arms one fence rail lower than his.
“You know drinking cheap beer gives you hairy palms, right?” LJ pulled his gaze away from the warm-up area.
Stacia smirked. “Not so fast as other things do.” She poked him with one sharp elbow. “Congratulations, by the way.”
“Second place.” He hadn’t competed in steer wrestling in a long time. A week wasn’t long enough to bring him up to speed, even for local rodeo standards. He winked. “I didn’t write home about it, but I did send a text message.”
She snorted and took another swig of beer, the sequins on her shirt catching the sun and daggering light straight into his eyes. Today, it was a longhorn bull stitched onto her tank top. “I don’t care if you got eighth as long as you came in ahead of Curt. Now I can remind him all year long that he’s getting old, and I can get more work out of him.”
“Hey, if you were using me for your own ends, you oughta cut me in. It’s only right.”
She pursed her lips. “Hmm, what do you need? Considering his time came in two slots behind yours, I bet I can razz him into doing most of your chores.”
“Let me save it up for a hangover day.”
Stacia tipped her beer to him. “Smart man.”
LJ looked out into the arena, tucking his smile down deep where she wouldn’t notice it. He’d been working on making friends around the ranch for weeks without any luck. When they all gathered to watch baseball games on Curt’s flat screen, he heard the cheering and laughter from farther down the row of employee housing, and he’d usually head up to Andra’s so he didn’t have to think about why no one had asked him along.
Today was the first day they’d seemed to loosen up around him. Something about dusting Curt off after he rolled in the dirt with a calf, fixing a busted clip on Annie’s rein right before she needed to do a hot lap with a flag. Here, they were all behind the grandstands together.
He shrugged his shirt a little straighter on his shoulders. He’d said goodbye to all his friends back home in exchange for the chance at a different life out west. Still, the ranch would feel a lot more like home if people were comfortable enough to give him a hard time. If he knew he could have a barbecue and anybody but Andra would show up.
The crowd tittered with laughter at a joke that came through the speakers, and Stacia rolled her eyes. “What do you think of this announcer?”
“He’s . . . different. Reminds me of a guy in a lawn chair on your front porch, telling stories about everybody he’s known for way too long.”
“Nailed it.” Stacia laughed. “Lucky for you, you’re an out-of-towner so it’s all new. The rest of us have heard the same stories every year since we were trying to ride a sheep in exchange for a half-melted Popsicle.”
LJ’s smile had a hard time making it up to full size. “Yeah. Lucky me.”
“I can’t believe he’s held off until this late in the day to tell his favorite one about Andra. Usually he tells it twice before I hit the bottom of my first beer.”
“Yeah?” He tipped his head toward her, trying not to catch the glare off her sequined tank top. “Which one’s that?”
“You’ll see.”
Despite Stacia’s certainty, it took another five riders before the announcer got to the Andra story, and LJ was ready to excuse himself to get back to work when he finally heard her name.
“We’ve got a real treat for you folks today . . . ” The announcer chuckled, his voice wincingly loud out of the speaker above LJ’s head. “The first member of our next roping team is our former Miss Teen Rodeo Wild Falls and also former Miss Rodeo Wild Falls: the lovely Cassandra Lawler.”
“Wait. I bet it’s coming now,” Stacia said.
Andra trotted her palomino into the arena, waving to the crowd.
“I have to tell you folks, I still remember the day when this little lady nearly forfeited her chance at the Miss Teen Rodeo Wild Falls crown. She got in . . . well, we’ll call it a bit of a disagreement with one of the other contestants about the girl’s enthusiastic use of spurs.”
Andra glanced up at the announcer’s booth and shook her head. Bill rode into the ring, calling something to his daughter and chuckling when she stuck her tongue out at him. LJ leaned in closer to the fence, watching her face while he listened.
“Little Cassie Lawler, all of sixteen fiery years old, dropped her saddle right in the dirt. She got rid of her bridle, vaulted back onto her horse, and rode the whole horsemanship pattern at liberty.” The announcer chuckled. “The judges didn’t know what to think. First, they disqualified her. After some discussion, though, they decided the greater display of horsemanship outweighed the points she lost on congeniality, and she went home with the crown.”
Whistles erupted from the crowd, and LJ laughed. “Of course she did.”
Stacia propped one of her motorcycle-booted feet on the bottom rail. “Girl could always ride. She and Jason used to push each other to do all kinds of crazy stuff—racing all over the ranch blindfolded, seeing who could jump the highest fence bareback. Might as well have been competing for who could break the most bones, because that’s how it ended up. But he stopped challenging her after she came home from college, and she never calls him out anymore.”
“Jason? Really? He seems kind of quiet.”
“Yeah, with most people, but not with Andra and me.” She tapped her bottle against the fence. “I guess they’re both quiet these days. As teenagers, they were a little nuts, but it was kind of fun to referee their bets.”
He glanced down at her, not sure what to make of the tone of her voice. “Do you ride?”
“Sure, who doesn’t?” She smiled up at him. “I prefer something with a bit of a growl to its RPMs, though. Horses are too much trouble when you can swap out for an engine that comes standard equipped with common sense.”
“Today, we get the pleasure of a father and daughter team, with Bill Lawler himself shooting for the heels. And if that old salt misses them, I give every single one of you permission to stand up and boo as loud as you can.” The announcer laughed straight into the microphone. “Aren’t you ready yet, Bill?” he asked as the ranch owner and his daughter got their lariats adjusted, swinging them to test the length. “Do you need a minute to do some of that New Age yoga?”
Stacia shook her head. “God, he’s embarrassing. We’re never going to get a decent-sized rodeo around here with that yahoo running the show.”
LJ snickered. “I think he’s kind of funny.”
She blinked. “Really? After the way he introduced you?”
His fingers tapped restlessly against the fence. When he rode into the arena, the announcer had informed everyone he was the first “Negro” cowboy to grace the Wild Falls Rodeo. His back had gone stiff so fast his horse had spooked. But he was trying not to lose his temper every time somebody said something ignorant.
He attempted to keep his face blank and only glanced over at Stacia. “Considering the next time he talked about me, he called me ‘African American’ three times in one sentence, I figured somebody had a little chat with him.”
She took a drink of her beer. “No idea what you mean.”
He shifted his weight, his elbows grinding into the fence as his arms tightened. She meant well. Funny how that didn’t help when all he wanted was to be introduced by his name and home state, like all the other cowboys.
LJ swallowed and tried to shake it off. Getting mad was only going to make him stand out even more. He looked over at the roping chutes, his eyes searching for black hair and a golden shimmering shirt.
Stacia said something else, but he missed it as Andra backed Gracie into the corner of the starting box, the mare’s hindquarters tucked tight against the pads on the fence. Bill’s Roman-nosed sorrel fidgeted, his hooves dancing in place. In contrast, Andra’s palomino mare stood alert, her ears pricked straight forward and all the motion in the world poised in her stillness. Andra swapped glances with her dad and then nodded to the guy operating the calf chute.
The calf leaped free, and Gracie bolted out of the starting box, her huge strides spraying arena dirt out behind her. LJ shifted to his other foot, and that fast, it was over.
Andra’s loop dropped over the calf’s head, Gracie whipped left in midstride, and Bill’s lariat was already sailing through the air as Andra turned the calf just so. His rope snapped taut on both the calf’s rear legs before LJ could complete a blink.
Then Andra and Bill slowed down a touch, both taking an extra second to adjust their horses to gently catch the calf between the tension of their two ropes without yanking.
“Holy jumping jalapeño!” the announcer yelped. “I think we’ve got ourselves a new arena record! I should have known, folks. I should have known that you do not dare a Lawler unless you are ready to come in last. Well, I still remember the time Bill and I were boys and we both had our eye on the same girl for the senior prom. I bet she’s in the crowd tonight. Can anybody see Sheila Peterson? Sheila Peterson, friends, she—oh, there she is! Just as pretty as high school, folks, and she welcomed her first grandchild into the world last week.”
“The time, Russ! Tell us the time already,” Stacia hollered. She dropped her forehead against the fence. “I’m sorry, LJ. You’re probably mentally packing the U-Haul to move away from this little hick town, aren’t you?”
He chuckled and pushed off the fence, one eye on the exit gate closest to where Andra was gathering her rope up. “I’m already cooking up the start to the stories he’ll be telling about me in a year or two. If I get too wild, I might have to take that favor you owe me in the form of a bond out of the county jail in the morning. For now, though, I’d better get ready to beat Curt in tie-down roping.”
“Beat Jason, too, and I’ll go raise some hell along with you,” she called after him.
He tipped his hat to her, his eyes already wandering toward the arena. Andra rode toward the exit, her hat brim angled down but not quite hiding the smile tugging at her lips. He wanted to pull her off that gorgeous mare into a hug and tease her until he kicked that smile all the way loose. What he should do was go and get his borrowed horse ready.
She wasn’t his girlfriend. She didn’t seem like she was in a place for a serious relationship, and she wasn’t the kind of woman he felt “just casual” about. Besides, he was still the out-of-towner trying to earn his way into the inner circle of the Lawler Ranch. But if there was one thing he’d learned from growing up in the cliquish neighborhoods of New Orleans, it was that you don’t start to belong without acting like you already do.
LJ headed for the arena.
* * *
• • •
Energy sizzled up through Andra’s legs and burst out through her mare’s jigging trot as they left the rodeo arena. A dozen horses of all different colors waited while their riders unrolled cuffed chaps and adjusted their saddles, or stacked their lariats over and over again, trying to get the loops to lie smoothly.
In the chaos of the waiting area, Andra caught sight of a pale gray hat and the slash of a familiar, brilliant smile beneath it. Gracie’s nose turned that way before Andra fully made the decision.
“Hey, hey, Rodeo Queen.” LJ grinned. “What was that pretty little rope trick you just pulled?”
She rolled her eyes. “I knew once you saw these freaking glitter chaps, you’d never stop calling me that. I was nineteen, and I loved dressing up and fast horses, all right? Besides, Dad thought it would be good advertising for the ranch.”
“Uh-huh. And what was the excuse for the teen tiara?” He arched an eyebrow, struggling to hold back a smile.
“Same thing. Only three years more naive.”
LJ lost the battle against his smile. “I bet.” He came closer and laid a hand on Gracie’s neck. The horse blew out a breath and finally stopped dancing. “How about that time, huh? You and your daddy make a hell of a team.”
He smelled like baked potatoes and melted butter, a strangely sweet combination that had her leaning a little closer before she stopped herself.
“Dad and I have worked a couple of steers together.” She tipped her chin at him. “What horse did Jason give you for tie-down roping?”
“King Al, I think he called him.”
“King’s Smoky Allure?” Andra frowned. What was her brother thinking? That gelding wasn’t ready yet, even for a local rodeo. He kept going sideways instead of backing up to keep the rope taut when the cowboy jumped off to tie the calf. “Never mind that. Take my horse.” She swung down, her leg narrowly missing a cowboy who rode by while still buttoning his shirt, his reins hanging loose over his horse’s neck.
“You sure?” LJ blinked. “Figured I’d have to sign over the title to my truck and my mama’s house for enough collateral to touch an animal that well-bred.”
“Al’s nice enough, but Gracie will do everything but put your boots on for you. Which might be good, since you were working with the colts when you should have been practicing. Besides, I think she likes you.” Andra passed over the reins to her mare, who had her head contentedly drooping while LJ scratched underneath her bridle straps. “Do you want me to swap out her saddle real quick?”
“Oh, I think I can manage a saddle switch without any help.” He winked and flexed his arm until his biceps strained the cotton of his shirt. “But if you’re worried, you can take a feel, make sure you think I can handle that pony of yours.”
She shoved him away, snickering. “You never miss an opportunity to show off those arms, do you?”
“Of course I don’t. You know how many push-ups I had to do for these biceps? Besides, they always make you smile . . .” His dark eyes twinkled, and he held his arm up farther as she tried to smother a laugh. She knew better. The more she giggled, the more he hammed it up. Sure enough, he picked up one of her hands, rubbing it dramatically up and down his arm. “Oh yeah, give it a feel. You still worried I can’t lift that bitty little saddle?”
A throat cleared. Loudly.
Andra’s grin began to fade as soon as she turned to see her dad standing next to his horse with every muscle in his face locked tight.
“LJ. I believe you have work to see to elsewhere.”
LJ straightened up. “Mr. Lawler, we were just—”
“Now.”
Andra’s stomach dropped, an instinctive reaction to that voice she’d heard every time she’d been in trouble since she was born.
LJ’s hands clenched on Gracie’s reins. “Sir, I don’t mean any disrespect, but your daughter and I were only joking around. If she were uncomfortable, she’d have told me to knock it off.”
Her eyes widened. She had thought her dad was mad that LJ was chatting instead of working, but obviously this was something more.
“I require my employees to follow my directions.” Dad planted his boots a little wider. “You want to keep this job past today, son, you won’t make me tell you again.”
“If it had to do with the job, I’d already be gone. But if it has
to do with Andra, that’s her call.” He looked to her.
She forced a smile, trying not to glance around to see who was watching. “It’s okay, LJ, really. Just go get ready.” This wasn’t his problem, and the longer he stood here, the worse it made the mottled heat that burned up her neck and toward her cheeks.
He jerked a nod—to her, not her father—and walked away, his strides stiff and so long her horse had to break into a trot to catch up.
As soon as he was out of earshot, Andra spun around. “What the hell was that, Dad? He was kidding—he didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Don’t be naive, Andra,” he snapped. “He meant every filthy word.” Behind him, his gelding stomped a foot. Dad took a step closer, lowering his voice enough that the clinking spurs and conversation of the waiting area kept their conversation private. “This is exactly why I didn’t want to hire a young man onto the ranch. They look at you and start wanting all sorts of things you can’t give them.”
“You were worried I was giving him the wrong idea.” Her jaw dropped and cold slammed through her whole body. “You know, damn you, you know I refused to dance with Gavin at that party. Did you think I was being a tease then, too?”
He wouldn’t be the first to say it. After a whole childhood of jeans and riding boots, she used to love dressing up. The night of the party her dress had an asymmetrical hem slashed across the muscles of her thighs, paired with sky-high stilettos. When she told Gavin she didn’t want to dance, he gave her this incredulous up-and-down look like yes was the only answer she was allowed to give. So she told him off, in front of all his friends.
Saliva pooled thickly in her mouth. She remembered putting aside her second beer later that night without finishing it, because she felt a little woozy. She remembered looking for her friend, because she wanted to go home. She remembered waking up cuffed to a bed in Gavin’s tiny rented house.
Unbreak Me Page 6