A Bull Rider to Depend On

by Jeannie Watt

  Her jaw muscles tightened at the thought of being an object of pity.

  But this crazy feeling dancing around inside her wasn’t one-sided and was not the result of pity—she was certain of that. She was also dead certain that this crazy feeling was dangerous. Beyond dangerous, because it could blow her peaceful existence to smithereens. Tyler was attractive—in a way his twin was not—and if she could do it with an iron-clad guarantee of no consequences now or ever, she wouldn’t mind getting closer to him, playing with fire.

  But consequences and bad circumstances had been coming at her over the past couple of years, and she was not going to tempt fate. Nope.

  She and Tyler were business partners and nothing more, and she needed to make certain that he understood that...and she needed to make certain her errant hormones were aware.

  The rain increased in intensity, running down her vinyl coat, soaking into her jeans, clinging to the ends of her eyelashes, but she couldn’t bring herself to move. Tyler was almost to her when she finally heard his footsteps in the wet grass over the sound of the rain and turned to see him sloshing across the pasture.

  He stopped a few feet in front of her. “Is something wrong?”

  Nothing. Everything.

  “It’s Mason’s birthday.”

  There was a slight shift in his expression, but he said nothing as he reached out to take her arm and start her moving toward the house. His hand slid down over the sleeve of her damp coat, and his warm fingers laced with hers. “Do you get some great joy out of getting soaked to the skin?”

  “The rain makes me aware.”

  “Of what?” he asked without slowing his steps.

  “Being alive.” She felt his grip tighten on her fingers before it loosened again.

  They ducked under the porch cover, and as soon as they were out of the weather, Tyler let go of her hand and brushed the water off his lower face. “I was worried about you. I didn’t know it was Mason’s birthday.”

  “I felt like I had to acknowledge,” she murmured. “He was my husband.”

  “And left you in a bad situation.” Her eyes flashed to his face, and Tyler said, “He was my friend, but it’s true, Skye.”

  She folded her arms over her chest, pushing the damp sweatshirt beneath her raincoat into her bare skin, which in turn made her shiver. “Here’s the truth, Tyler—I’m still dealing with stuff. And until I’m done...” She had no idea how to finish the sentence, no idea how to tell him that as attractive as she found him, she was not hooking up with a bull rider—not even on a temporary basis—so she shrugged.

  “Deal away, Skye. Just don’t paint me as the bad guy.”

  “I’m not.” To her surprise, she meant it. She no longer saw Tyler as a bad guy...but she did see him as dangerous, which might be worse in some ways. “You’re my business partner.”

  My dangerous business partner.

  She cleared her throat before tackling the hard part. “Which means that we should probably act like partners, instead of manhandling one another.”

  “Manhandling?”

  “Okay. Maybe that was a stretch.” The rain started to pound on the porch roof, and small rivulets were running down the driveway. “No more kissing.”

  “Because...”

  She pushed her wet hood back. Her hair was damp around the edges, sticking uncomfortably to her face. “It makes for an uneasy partnership.”

  And would continue to make for an uneasy partnership for long as she was who she was and Tyler was who he was.

  “I think we need to keep an open mind, Skye.”

  The intensity of his expression made her insides tumble. “I don’t think that’s wise. I’m not ready to jump into anything. Especially not...with a friend of Mason’s. We can’t be...attracted.”

  His eyebrows lifted. “I don’t think we have much of a choice.”

  Skye swallowed as an odd emotion stirred somewhere inside her as she tried to explain. “Since Mason died, I don’t feel like I’ve had much of a choice in anything. I do have a choice here. I choose peace of mind.” A gust of wind blasted over them, bringing the rain with it. “We should get out of the weather.”

  His mouth opened, as if to argue, then closed again. “Agreed.”

  He waited for a moment, as if wondering if she was going to invite him into her house. She couldn’t do it. “I’ll see you later.”

  He stepped back, teetering for a moment on the edge of the porch. Skye reached for him, but he got his balance before she could touch him and she dropped her hands. He forced a smile. “You can’t hurt a bull rider.”

  She begged to differ, but kept the thought to herself.

  * * *

  DON’T PUSH THINGS.

  It was so hard not to. Tyler had spent his life pushing boundaries, but he wanted to get back out onto the road, so he was doing his best to stop doing whatever it was he was doing when his injuries started hurting instead of pushing through it. Not easy to do when he’d always pushed through the pain, but this was the first time he was looking at surgery, or maybe not finishing a season, so he needed to change his mind-set.

  Again, no easy task, but Skye was helping. She was downright strict about what he could and could not do on her roof—even if technically it was their roof. Tyler had let her call the shots when she was around, and they finished the final side of the last roof that morning, before the rain.

  Twilight was setting in by the time he left Skye’s porch and headed for his trailer through the rain, still battling frustration. Mason had left a mess behind him, and Tyler was suffering the consequences.

  Reality really sucked at times.

  Yet another long evening stretched ahead of him, and he thought about calling his twin as he headed up the mucky path to his trailer. Instead he decided to head to town and see who was at the Shamrock. It was Friday night and there should be action there—any action was better than hanging in his trailer alone.

  He showered in the tiny shower stall, wondering as he always did how a guy with some size on him would manage in such a small place. Not a worry of his. His body was about as lean as it could be. After he toweled off, he found a clean, albeit somewhat wrinkled shirt and decent jeans, and, since he was going out in public, he put on his good boots with the teal green uppers. Then he pulled his pant legs down over the boots so that no one could see the tops. It was the way things worked in his world. He knew about the green teal leather, and anyone who got him out of his pants would know about them.

  He smiled grimly as he shrugged into a canvas vest. No one would be seeing his boots tonight. He wasn’t in the mood for something quick and meaningless. Hadn’t been for a while now.

  The Shamrock was hopping when he got there. It didn’t take him long to locate his bull-riding buddies—Cody, Trace Delaney and his cousin, Blaine. Even Jasper Hennessey was there, but he set his hat on his head as Tyler approached the group.

  “Just leaving,” he said, clapping Tyler on the good shoulder. “Do some howling for me tonight, okay?”

  “You could stay and do your own.”

  Jasper gave his head a shake. “I don’t get the same thrill out of it as I used to. I’m only here because the kids dragged me.”

  The “kids” were all well over legal age, with Cody being the youngest. Tyler smiled and wished Jasper a good night, then pulled out a chair.

  “You should have seen Trace today,” Cody said with a laugh. “Landed face-first in a pile of—” He abruptly stopped when Trace raised a finger in a mock warning.

  “Sounds entertaining.”

  “When are you heading back out on the road?” Tyler asked Trace after ordering two pitchers of beer from the server who cruised by.

  “Annie and I leave day after tomorrow. She wanted to travel a little before I settle.”

 
“Settle?” Tyler asked.

  “It’s my last season,” Trace said. No one else at the table seemed surprised at the announcement.

  “No kidding.”

  “Embracing my new life,” he said. “I’m going to work for Jasper. Won’t pay that much, but I’ll be home at night.”

  “Congrats, man.”

  Tyler went on to ask Trace about his shoulder surgery, since he was looking at nearly the same operation, then after hearing the cold hard facts, he settled in for some drinking. Trace left not long after they finished their conversation, leaving him with Blaine and Cody.

  The two bull riders kept the beer coming, but Tyler drank slowly, seemingly one to their two. Cody and Blaine both had family within walking distance of the Shamrock, while he would be sleeping in his truck if he didn’t watch himself.

  Cody was getting downright funny as he described the latest goings-on at the practice pen and gossiped about his fellow bull riders’ love lives. Tyler made a mental note to keep his mouth quiet around Cody in the future and was still smiling at the kid’s story about Jasper’s wife coming to the practice pen and telling him off for not doing the laundry on “his” day when he became aware of someone coming to a stop close to his chair. He looked up, straight into Paige Andrews’s very green eyes. He’d seen her and her friend Tiffani Crenshaw when he’d first come in and had been glad that their table was on the opposite side of the room.

  “Hello, Tyler.”

  “Paige.” He tipped his hat back as Cody’s chair scraped across the floor before he excused himself with a polite nod at Paige.

  Tyler felt very much like telling the kid to come back, even if it meant being ribbed later, but the kid was already long gone, and Blaine was nowhere in sight, either.

  Paige settled in the chair that Cody had just vacated. “How long will you be home?”

  “A couple of weeks.”

  “And, obviously, home is Skye Larkin’s ranch?”

  He worked up an easy smile. “It is. We’re partners in the ranch.”

  Paige’s eyebrows rose. “How did that come about?”

  Tyler leaned his elbows on the table. “Through a string of circumstances.” He glanced down at his clasped hands for a moment, then back up at Paige, meeting her gaze dead on. Her mouth, which tilted up naturally at the corners, tilted even more.

  “Tiffani has to leave soon. Why don’t you join me for the rest of the evening?”

  “Because I don’t think that’s a very good idea.” If she wanted company, there were any number of guys in the bar who would be happy to oblige. She was pretty and polished and had an air of cool confidence that was extremely sexy. The problem was that she had a very hard time taking no for an answer, and that had ultimately been the answer Tyler had given her six months ago. It wasn’t an answer she liked.

  Paige gave a measured shrug. “Maybe at some point in the future, then.” She smiled at him as if it were only a matter of time until he came around to her way of thinking and gracefully rose to her feet. He thought about telling her that there wouldn’t be a future time—that they’d dated and it hadn’t worked—but kept his mouth shut.

  Yes, they’d had some fun, but she wanted too much control—of everything. Tyler didn’t mind compromise, but he wasn’t interested in being managed...although he had to admit to kind of liking it when Skye managed him.

  Paige sauntered back across the room to the table she shared with Tiffani, who’d been watching with interest, and then the two women picked up their purses and headed for the door. Tyler let out a long breath just as Cody came back to reclaim his chair.

  “She’s hot.”

  “Ask her out,” Tyler suggested as he poured them both more beer.

  Cody shook his head. “I know my limitations, man. That woman would eat me alive. Besides... I kind of like Angie.”

  Probably because they both enjoyed passing along good gossip. Tyler just smiled and lifted his drink in a salute before promising himself to watch his mouth around his friend. Cody was bad enough on his own, but if he passed things on to Angie with her connections to the beauty shop and café...watch out.

  * * *

  SKYE JERKED AWAKE as Tyler’s pickup drove past her window, and then she settled back against her pillow, heart pounding. Not since Mason had been alive had someone driven in during the early morning hours.

  She exhaled deeply and closed her eyes again.

  No use. She was awake, but it was close to the time her alarm was set to go off. Since the bars closed at one o’clock, she could only imagine where he’d been until now.

  You do not want to know.

  Although a small part of her did. She wanted to know if he’d been doing what she’d been thinking about, then in turn wondered why such a thought made her feel jealous. She got out of bed and went into the bathroom, where she turned on the shower. She took her time making coffee, reading the news on her phone as she ate toast with jam and drank two cups of coffee. A normal morning...except that she kept wondering about Tyler.

  When she let herself out of her house, she was surprised to see Tyler sitting on the steps of the granary, drinking a cup of coffee in the watery morning sun. She set her purse in her car, then crossed the driveway.

  “Decided not to sleep?”

  “I slept,” he said.

  “When?”

  “After the bar closed. I climbed into my truck and got a whopping four hours.” He took a drink of coffee. “I don’t drive after drinking. No good ever comes of that.”

  “You’re sober now?”

  “Wasn’t that drunk to begin with.”

  “Your eyes are red.”

  “Lack of sleep?” She shook her head and started for her car, but Tyler caught up with her before she’d gone more than a couple of steps. “Stop thinking the worst of me, Skye.”

  “I don’t.” The denial was automatic and not quite true. She did think the worst of him, and as time passed she was becoming convinced that she did it as self-protection mechanism.

  “Yeah. You do.” He pushed up the brim of his ball cap. “If you let me use your horse, I’ll ride the summer pasture perimeter today.”

  “That sounds good,” she said stiffly, even though she’d been looking forward to the ride. It had been a while since she’d been out. Life had kind of beat up on her for a while, and she’d pushed small things like riding and knitting to the side.

  “Easier than borrowing a horse from the neighbor.”

  “Totally.” She gave him a quick apologetic smile. “I have to get going.”

  “Come out with me tonight.”

  Skye stopped so fast that she almost left divots in the gravel at her feet. “What?” she asked, startled and half-convinced she’d misunderstood.

  “I said, ‘Come out with me.’”

  “Like...out?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Not like a...date?”

  “Maybe.”

  She tilted her chin. “Weren’t you listening yesterday when we talked?”

  “It’ll be a business date.”

  She frowned at him, wondering if he was messing with her, but he seemed totally sincere. “Where are we going on our business date?”

  “The Shamrock.”

  “So it’s a drinking business date.”

  “Kind of the Montana version of the three-martini lunch.”

  “I thought that was two-martini.”

  “We go big or go home here.”

  “No.”

  “Mason is gone, Skye. I’m here. I agree that it’s not good practice between business partners, but we haven’t exactly had a smooth business relationship thus far, have we?”

  “Uh...no.”

  He smiled at her. Not the cocky bull rider smile, but the one that
she’d seen only a handful of times when he let down his guard—as he was now. “Then we don’t have much to muck up, do we?”

  She hated a logical argument that made it all the easier to get herself into trouble. Skye kicked the gravel at her feet. “I should say no.”

  “But you aren’t.”

  She gave a snort as she met his eyes. “Yes.”

  He cocked his head and asked cautiously, “Yes, you are saying no? Or yes, you’re saying yes?”

  “Ty...” It was the first time she’d ever used the shortened version of his name, and it felt oddly intimate coming off her tongue.

  “Skye...” The rhyme made it possible for him to exactly mimic her tone. His expression became serious. “How long has it been since you went out and had fun, Skye?”

  “You mean like cut-loose fun?”

  “Yes.”

  “Believe it or not, I haven’t felt like having that kind of fun. Life kind of smacked it out of me.”

  “Then we need to get you up to speed again.”

  “And you think you’re the guy to do that?”

  He gave her the cocky smile. “Kind of sure.” Despite the attitude, she could see a trace of uncertainty in his expression. “Trust me, Skye.”

  Trust him. Oddly, at a gut level, she did. And it was time for a change in her life. Time to move on. She’d never expected Tyler Hayward to be the guy to help her out there, but why not?

  “Fine. I’ll have a business date with you—not a cut-loose date. We’ll discuss our partnership and our goals for the future.”

  “Pick you up at seven?”

  Chapter Twelve

  What did one wear on a business date? Which really wasn’t a business date, but she was pretending it was, and Tyler was playing along. That right there told her that Tyler Hayward wasn’t the guy she’d thought he was.

  Skye mentally flipped through her closet, which hadn’t seen anything new in well over a year. What would she have worn if she and Mason had been going out to the Shamrock? As opposed to what would she wear when she went out as a single woman for the first time?