Betting on Hope

by Debra Clopton

  He followed the fresh tracks toward the pond and, sure enough, there he found her. She had tied Stardust to a tree and stood beside the pond. Her long blonde hair glistened in the soft morning sunlight as she stared into the distance.

  It wasn’t even nine o’clock yet and they’d already had a full day.

  “So, busy morning, huh?”

  She spun. “Tru.” She came to him, and he folded her in his arms. It was getting harder and harder not to hold her.

  “I was worried you were going to get into trouble. And that it would be my fault. I should have known that a person’s past always catches up to them.”

  He lifted her chin with his finger, and the worry for him that he saw in those marvelous green eyes of hers almost undid him. “If a man can’t take care of his girl, then he’s not much of a man. That goes for a dad too. If a dad can’t be there for his family, then he’s not much of a dad. I’m sorry for you on that front. But not sorry that I got to be the one who helped fix the situation for you.” It had hit him that she’d trusted him enough to come ask for his help.

  It was an honor he wouldn’t ever forget.

  She looked up at him and he kissed her gently. There was no hesitation in her response—sweet torture like nothing he’d ever experienced.

  “What did the sheriff say?” she asked, pulling away and placing a few feet of space between them.

  “They found a billfold of stolen credit cards and are looking into them. He’s in trouble and it’s out of your hands.” Even if she didn’t press charges, her dad was going back to prison for breaking his parole and the new charges that would be brought against him. “And he said he’ll want to get some information from you about the robbery you told me about, but that he doesn’t see you having any legal problems with that—the statute of limitations being what it is and you not being aware of what was happening—he’ll still need you to come in and make a statement.”

  She nodded, relief rushing her like a linebacker, but not wiping away all the emotions she was feeling. “Whatever he needs.”

  Tru hated the pain he saw in her eyes.

  “Maggie, I can’t believe you’ve lived with this secret all these years. With your attitude and what you’ve accomplished—you are an inspiration. This story is going to come out, you won’t be able to stop it. But I believe you should break it. Talk to Amanda about it. She’ll know how to help you do that. And I can almost guarantee it’s going to have the complete opposite effect on people than the one you’ve been fearing. People—the ones who count—are going to find you more of an inspiration. More of a voice of hope than ever before and rather than expose what you consider your lack of credentials it’s going to give you credibility.”

  “I don’t know. I wish. I love my column. If I didn’t love it so much, I would never have agreed to come here. But I couldn’t just sit back and watch it die without trying to keep it alive.”

  He believed that. Without hesitating, he made a decision to let Maggie in on his story. “We both agreed to this because we wanted to keep something we love alive.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You trusted me with your secret, I think I should trust you with mine.”

  Maggie needed this, and he did too, but he was doing it for her.

  He picked up a handful of small rocks and threw one into the pond, thinking. He glanced at her. She had to be overwhelmed from the emotional experience with Jenna yesterday. And then her dad today.

  “I think you need to know your dad isn’t the only one who sold out to the worthless side. My dad was a piece of work too.” He was harsh, but that was just the way it was. He told her then of the deceit and of how his father had signed away everything Pops had worked for.

  “So you’re saying if your dad hadn’t died in that plane crash, y’all would have lost the ranch and not even known it until it was over?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying. He’d taken loans out we had no idea about and first liens, second liens—they came from everywhere. If we hadn’t had a great lawyer, we would have lost it all. Everything Pops worked his whole life to build up.”

  She looked stunned as she processed what he’d confided in her. “I’m so sorry that happened to you and your brothers. And poor Pops. I’m so glad he had y’all to step in for him.”

  “You know, as bad as I hate the dementia, I can be thankful that he didn’t have to know that his last living son had signed away the ranch he loved.”

  “Sadly, I understand what you’re saying.”

  He tossed another rock then turned to her. “Listen. It’s been an intense couple of days. We’re taking the day off from practice. If you want to ride, then do it, but just relax and enjoy it. Or go do whatever you want but I think you’ve been through an emotional roller coaster and need a break. I don’t know if you were planning to go see Jenna, but this will give you time for whatever you need to do. I’ll go with you to see Jake tomorrow if you want. And then we’ll get down to some hard work. I’ve got you entered in an amateur competition in two weeks.”

  “Two weeks?”

  “You’ve got this,” Tru assured her.

  “Right now I don’t feel like I have anything.”

  It took everything he had not to tell her that she had him. He’d kissed her earlier, and he knew that wasn’t right. He had nothing to offer her except his love and support. And he knew that wasn’t enough.

  He completely understood why Jenna had made the choice she’d made. If he was as strong as the kid, then he’d keep his heart locked away and he’d let Maggie go.

  Jenna stared out the window feeling numb. Empty.

  She’d crept down the hall earlier and watched as her baby had been taken from the hospital by her new family. They’d come by and thanked her and told her she was welcome to be a part of Hope’s life, but Jenna was torn. Could she handle seeing Hope and leaving her over and over and over again? And was that fair to anyone?

  Now, Jenna wasn’t sure what her next step was. Where would she go?

  Maybe she could find a job in Wishing Springs.

  A tap sounded on her door and Maggie came in. Jenna hadn’t been sure Maggie would ever speak to her again. Her aching heart jumped in her chest seeing Maggie’s smile.

  Jenna hated to admit how badly she needed a smile. Would she ever be able to smile again?

  “Can I come in?”

  Jenna nodded.

  “I hear you’re going back to the home today?”

  “For a little while. Until I move to a women’s shelter they’ve helped me find.”

  “Well, I came to offer you a ride, if that’s okay.”

  Jenna nodded.

  “And I wanted to talk to you about some options on the way.”

  “What options?”

  “Well, I have a small apartment in the Houston area. And there’s a second bedroom. I would love it if you’d come and stay there. You can go back to school and you’re welcome to stay as long as you want. Rent free. I want my home to be your home.”

  Jenna blinked back tears. “Why would you do that for me?”

  Maggie sat down on the chair across from the one Jenna was sitting in. “Because I’m your friend, Jenna. And friends help friends out. My friend Amanda helped me in this way.”

  “But I know you think I made the wrong decision about my baby.”

  Maggie looked sad. “I realized I couldn’t make that choice for you. But I could support your choice. It was a choice of life for your baby and that’s what matters. You did good, Jenna. And I want to help you start a new life. That’s what Amanda did for me once and I want to do that for you. Please, at least consider it.”

  Jenna took a shuddering breath. “I thought you might not want to be my friend after what I did.”

  “You and I need to have a long talk, sometime. What do you say?”

  Jenna nodded. It was all she could do.

  “Whew, you have been busy since you’ve been down there, Mags. And that cowboy of yours
sounds like a keeper. I can’t wait to finally meet him.”

  “He’s not my cowboy.” It had been two tough weeks of training since she’d tried to convince Jenna not to give Hope up for adoption. Jenna’s decision to go ahead with the adoption plan had been hard on Maggie but she was managing and planned to be there for Jenna.

  “Whatever. I’ll see myself at the end of the week. Like we discussed last week when you called to drop all of your ‘secret past’ on me,” she said, emphasizing secret past. “We’re meeting y’all in Brenham for the event, then we’ll head back to the ranch for the interviews. And I’m not believing a word of this denial about Tru—I’ll be ready to hear all about what’s not going on when I get there,” Amanda said with a laugh. “’Bye now.”

  Maggie groaned as the phone went dead. The idea of the competition wasn’t anywhere near as scary as it had been in the beginning. She wasn’t sure if it was because she had learned so much or that she’d had so much happen in the last few weeks that nothing fazed her anymore. She and Amanda would work her past into the interview, thus getting it out in the open. She’d been a little miffed about not knowing sooner, but that was just because she cared for Maggie so much.

  And that was why she was so interested in what was going on between Maggie and Tru. But how was Maggie supposed to tell her friend what was going on when she didn’t know herself? Tru had been the perfect teacher. Yet he had just pulled back as he’d done before and she wasn’t sure what was going on.

  All she knew was that when the competition was over she was finished here. And the idea of leaving was as hard as all the other things that had gone on.

  Tru had withdrawn emotionally. As if he’d gotten too close to her after going after her dad and then telling her about his own father. And maybe because she’d been through so much in such a short time, she’d also retreated from him. She’d thought of him only as a ladies’ man for so long that it was hard to realize that this kind champion was the man she’d come here to meet.

  Driving to the stable for practice, she wondered where along the way she had fallen in love with him—because she knew she had. The truth was, there were so many different moments that she couldn’t place a finger on a specific one. Maybe it was watching him with his Pops. Or his patience with her in the arena. Or helping her with Jenna. Or when he’d gone after her dad to take up for her for the first time in her life.

  There were too many for Maggie to pinpoint, but she knew without a doubt that she loved him.

  And she wasn’t sure what to do about it.

  Other than tell him . . .

  27

  Maggie drove back to the barn the next morning with mixed emotions. Her time here was almost over. She would be leaving soon. Leaving this wonderful ranch, this wonderful town . . . and Tru.

  The thought of not being near Tru any longer was the hardest thing she’d faced since arriving—and Maggie had faced some of her toughest times during this bet.

  Tru hadn’t held her since the day he’d beat her father up. Not the most romantic of times, but he had held her then, and she almost wanted to thank her dad for giving her the opportunity to be in Tru’s arms again. She missed him now.

  Fresh alfalfa hay and feed had an invigorating scent to her, one she would miss.

  Tru was in the arena already on his horse—looking better than should have been legal this early in the morning.

  “Mornin’,” he said, but he didn’t dismount. He’d been distant and it was killing her. “You ready to work? We need to make you as set for tomorrow as possible.”

  “Sure,” she said, trying to act as nonchalant as he was, then mounted up and the riding began.

  It went on like that for over two hours and Tru maintained his distance.

  Maggie fought a feeling of letdown that it had all been strictly business.

  “You’re going to do good, Maggie. There will be a lot of press here, I hope you realize. It won’t just be Wake Up with Amanda.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah, I got the alert from my agent this morning. Of course we’ve already anticipated this, but Frank, my agent, found out from his sources that more reporters than Amanda will be at the competition. And,” he paused, “I hate to tell you but some of the trashier magazines will be here too. Your dad would have had his audience if he wasn’t sitting behind bars right now.”

  “I guess he would have been thrilled,” Maggie said, still hurt that her father would be the kind of man that he was. She should be upset knowing that the tabloids would be at the competition but at the moment all she could really think about was that she and Tru were acting like strangers, like they’d been in the beginning.

  Only they weren’t.

  It took every ounce of willpower Tru had to distance himself from Maggie. He’d fought it for the last two weeks, but it was almost impossible to keep his feelings locked up.

  Especially now, seeing the hurt in her eyes.

  He was acting as if she meant nothing to him, simply because if he gave an inch, he’d pull her into his arms and tell her he loved her. But that would be a mistake.

  If he loved her he would do exactly what he was doing.

  “Are you mad at me, Tru?”

  Tru grimaced, closed his eyes briefly, and took a second to get his head on straight before meeting her questioning gaze. Mad at her? Not hardly.

  “I’m not mad at you, Maggie. Why would you ask that?” He held his boots firmly to the spot, when all he wanted was to close the distance between them and show her exactly how not mad he was.

  “Then why are you keeping your distance?”

  “I’m not.”

  She stalked right up to him. “You are full of bull, Mr. Monahan.” Her sweet mouth was firmly drawn into a frown.

  “Now, Maggie, hold on.”

  “Do not try to tell me I’m imagining this. A woman knows. I just can’t let it go on without knowing what I’ve done wrong.”

  “You’ve done nothing wrong, Maggie. This between us will just never work.” There, he’d said it. He’d gotten it out there. It was going to be the easiest thing for her. Well, the easiest thing would have been if he’d kept his distance in the first place. But he hadn’t done that.

  She stared at him as if she didn’t know him.

  “Maggie, I’m not the man for you.”

  Her forehead crinkled above startled green eyes. “What if I said you were?”

  He groaned. “I’m not—”

  “Tru, I love you.”

  His heart felt like it would explode. She loved him. How was a man supposed to bear looking the woman he loved in the eye and not telling her the truth?

  “I shouldn’t have been kissing you. I should have kept my distance. I led you on. This is my fault.”

  “Why are you doing this?” Maggie stared at him as if he were a stranger.

  And that was good. “Tomorrow you’re going to compete, and to be honest, you have a good chance of placing high in this amateur competition. Then we’ll give the interview. And after that I’ll be back on the road hitting it hard with competitions. I’m not the settling down kind of guy right now, Maggie. You’re looking for someone I’m not. I need my freedom on the road.”

  Hurt filled her eyes. “I see.” Her words were quiet.

  He nodded. “It’s best you know that now. I like you a lot. You’re a good woman, Maggie. The best. But I’ve just realized I led you on when I shouldn’t have.”

  Unable to look at her any longer, he turned and strode out of the barn, got into his truck, and left. It was about the lowest thing he’d ever done. Well, selfishly loving on Maggie when he knew nothing could come of it was the worst. That was unforgivable on his part.

  28

  “Don’t be nervous, Mags.”

  Maggie sat on the floor, with letters all around her and her computer open to a full mailbox. Her column had grown immensely since the bet began. There were letters about drug-addicted children, letters about spouses cheating on readers, lette
rs from readers who were lonely and brokenhearted. And that was just the tip of the iceberg.

  “I’m trying not to be.” That was the truth. Ever since her catastrophic failure of a discussion with Tru that afternoon, she’d been a mess. Numbness gripped her.

  “Good,” said Amanda. “You’ve done a great job making the newspaper’s readership want to know more about the men of Wishing Springs and the town itself and not just about the bet and the competition. I called to give you the last details. After the event, I want to have lunch at the Bull Barn, but we’ll have time to talk without the cameras on the whole time. They’ll follow us around some of the time and then we’ll shoot the interview with you and Tru and then the footage of you riding.”

  “Okay,” Maggie said, unenthusiastically. She was living a nightmare. Really, how much worse could it get? She’d just told a man she loved him and he’d basically told her to get lost. And now, she was supposed to show up and spend the day with him like they were best buds.

  “So, see, it’s going to be a piece of cake. Now, I have to ask again what’s the real scoop on the two of you? Don’t deny it like you did before—how’s the romance going?”

  Maggie hung her head and stared at her orange toes. “No romance, Amanda.”

  “He kissed you, Mags, you told me that and now you’re all clammed up. That says something is going on.”

  “It’s a bad connection. There is no romance.”

  Not anymore, anyway.

  She wasn’t sure what had gotten into her, today. She’d been able to see the conversation wasn’t going to go the way she wanted it to and yet she’d still blurted out that she loved him. How dim was that? She could have at least saved herself the humiliation and kept her mouth shut. But no. Her heart of hearts had pushed the words forward, wanting so badly for him to return her sentiments. But . . . what had he said? That he needed to be free on the road.

  What was even more bizarre than him saying such a thing was the fact that she did not believe him.

  Tru had lied to her. After she’d finally started trusting him completely, he’d lied.