A Bull Rider to Depend On

by Jeannie Watt

  “What was that about?” Skye asked as Tyler looped an arm around her shoulders.

  “I told her we weren’t going to use her services.” He gave her a look. “She might be good at what she does, but too much potential for complications.”

  “Must be rough being irresistible.”

  “A burden,” he agreed. As he steered them toward the table where the bull riders sat, Skye slowed her steps. “Is something wrong?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “What does that mean?”

  She shifted her position so that she was facing him. The uneasy feeling had yet to abate, and she decided that maybe an answer or two was in order. “Do you know of any secret thing that could happen to me...again?”

  “What?”

  “When you were in the parking lot with Paige, Angie whispered something to Cody about not wanting that thing to happen to me again.”

  Tyler’s gaze instantly jerked over to the bull riders’ table, and she saw Cody give a small shrug. The knot in her stomach tightened. There was something she didn’t know. Paige. Tyler. The “thing.”

  Her lips parted as a wild idea struck her. Crazy thought. It couldn’t be.

  “What don’t I know?” she demanded.

  His expression clouded, and she could see that he was fighting to find a response—one that she would find palatable.

  “Tyler...explain this to me.”

  The look he gave her was both dark and pained. He shook his head. “It would be better if we just went home.”

  “Better for whom?”

  He didn’t answer. Skye glanced behind them, saw the three bull riders and Angie staring at them as if waiting for the aftermath of the events just set into motion. She looked back at Tyler, her stomach so tight that it was all she could do to hold nausea at bay as her theory continued to form.

  It couldn’t be.

  “Tell me,” she repeated.

  He looked past her. “Not here.” Tyler reached down to take her hand and interlace his fingers with hers. “Let’s go.”

  Skye stood frozen for a moment and then nodded. They walked to his truck, and as always, Tyler opened the door for her. She climbed in but could see by Tyler’s set expression that he wasn’t about to discuss anything until they got back to the ranch.

  It was not a long drive home, but tonight it felt never-ending. Angie hadn’t been talking gambling. If she had, Tyler would have told her back in the parking lot.

  By the time Tyler parked next to the barn, Skye’s heart was beating as if she’d just run a couple of fast miles. He turned off the ignition and shifted in the seat so that he was half facing her.

  “Yes or no, Tyler...did Mason cheat on me?” His mouth was a hard flat line that gave no sign of budging. “Tell me.”

  “Yes.”

  Arrow to the heart.

  She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t talk. Couldn’t cry. She was...frozen.

  She never suspected. Never, ever, ever. And how stupid did that make her?

  “Skye.”

  She blinked at Tyler. “Who knows?” she asked lowly. “Does everyone know?”

  “No.”

  “How did you know?”

  “Because he wasn’t that good at sneaking around.”

  “So...anyone who was on the circuit with him...” She swallowed, unable to finish the sentence.

  Tyler stretched his arm along the seat, let his fingertips brush her shoulder, but she jerked away from his touch. “Grady, Trace and Cody are the only people in Gavin who know.”

  “And that explains Angie.”

  “Cody must have told her.”

  Skye closed her eyes, drew in a painful breath. This was close to how she’d felt when the sheriff’s deputy had come to her house eighteen months ago with the unthinkable news about her husband. Very, very close.

  “I know you’re hurting.”

  Her eyes came open. “You have no concept. My entire relationship with my dead husband was a lie.”

  “Not all of it.”

  “Oh yeah? What part was real? The part where I trusted him? The part where I thought he had integrity?”

  Tyler had no answer to that. She could see that he wanted to touch her, and she hoped beyond hope that he didn’t. If he did, she would shatter. As it was, her skin seemed to burn and her throat was closing, but tears...there were no tears. Mason deserved no tears.

  “He—”

  “Do not tell me that he loved me.” Skye clamped her teeth together then, so tightly that it seemed a miracle that they didn’t crack and break.

  “Let me stay with you, Skye.”

  She stared at him. Company? Now? No freaking way. She reached for the door handle and jerked it open. “No.”

  He flattened his mouth again, as if afraid that words she didn’t want to hear were somehow going to escape. She shut the door and marched around the front of the truck and up the walk to her house. Once inside she snapped on the porch light but didn’t bother with the interior light. Darkness. It was crowding her soul, so why not welcome it? Revel in it.

  She sank down onto the sofa and sat, numbly staring across the room as her eyes adjusted to minimal light.

  Her husband, her trusted husband, had lied to her.

  And Tyler had, too. And...so had everyone else who knew and didn’t tell her. How stupid had she looked? The supportive wife who managed the ranch. Did extra duty so that her husband could follow his dreams.

  She gathered a pillow to her middle, squeezed it hard, then threw it across the room, jumping a mile when a light rap sounded on the door. Without pausing to think, Skye jumped to her feet, crossed the room and yanked the door open.

  “What?” she demanded.

  “I don’t have to go tomorrow.”

  She gaped at him through the semidarkness. “Why would I want you to stay?”

  His chin jerked as if she’d just struck him. She couldn’t help that. “Skye—”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Because there was no reason to tell you. Nothing could be changed or fixed. How would knowing have helped anything?” He took a step closer. “How is it helping now?”

  “I’ll tell you how it’s helping,” Skye said. “It’s helping me understand that I can’t trust my own instincts. That I don’t know what I think I do. And that things that seem right can be very, very wrong.”

  He lifted his hands, as if to pull her into his embrace, and she took a step back. “Don’t touch me.”

  “All right.”

  “I want...no, I need...to be alone.”

  “I understand.”

  “And I want the ranch to myself. When you come back on break, we’ll talk. But tomorrow... I don’t want to see you before you leave.”

  “Right.” There was a clip to his voice now, as if he was also getting angry.

  “I’m going to bed.” She took hold of the door, and Tyler was wise enough to simply step back and allow her to close it.

  Once the door was shut, Skye waited until she heard Tyler’s boots head down the porch steps. That was when she felt the liquid fire running down her cheeks, dripping onto her chest.

  Tears ran like rain, and she did nothing to stop the flow. She was a mess. Her life was a mess.

  How was she ever supposed to trust herself or anyone else again?

  Chapter Fourteen

  Tyler paced through his trailer, unable to sleep. Skye’s kitchen lights had come on not long after she’d shut the door on him and had yet to go off. What was she doing?

  It was killing him to have to hang back and let her deal with Mason’s betrayal on her own, even though logic told him that was the only way she could deal. What he hadn’t expected was that she would lash out at him.
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  How was he supposed to head out on tour with things like they were? But he had to go. She needed time. He needed to make some money. She said they’d talk when he got back, and he was going to hold her to that, even though he hated the thought of her dealing with this alone.

  Why couldn’t Angie—and Cody—have kept their mouths shut? He was having a hard time tamping down his anger. Neither of them meant Skye any harm, but...

  Tyler finally fell asleep sprawled on his small sofa sometime after 2:00 a.m. When he woke up, it was daylight and Skye’s truck was gone. He shoved his feet into his boots and headed outside. The animals were fed, and the gray cat was sunning himself near the barn. He went back to his trailer and sat on the step. He didn’t have to leave to catch his flight to Portland until after Skye got home from shift, and he was waiting until the last possible moment. Yeah, she wanted to be left alone, but he had a few things he wanted to say before heading out on the road.

  Things he had to say.

  He loaded his truck, checked everything on the ranch he could think to check, paced his trailer. Waited.

  When Skye’s usual arrival time came and went, he paced more. It was close to the time when he had to leave to catch his flight in Butte when he called the diner and asked what time Skye had left.

  She’d left two hours before her shift was over. Chloe had covered for her. Tyler hung up, his gut tense with worry, when he heard the sound of her truck. He grabbed his keys and headed to the door. If the traffic was with him, he might still make the flight. Skye was getting out of the truck when he came out the door.

  “Why are you still here?” she asked.

  “I was worried about you.” She looked sideways as if it pained her to hear that answer. He crossed the distance between them. “Nothing has changed between us, Skye.”

  Her eyes narrowed as if she couldn’t believe he’d either said that or believed it.

  “Things have changed with me, Tyler.”

  “How so?”

  “Have you ever been betrayed?”

  “I didn’t betray you.”

  She gave him a look that clearly said she wasn’t so certain about that before saying, “That wasn’t the question.”

  Fine. He’d answer the question. “Not in a big way.”

  Skye pushed her hands into her pockets, the way she did when she was stressed. “If you ever had been, you’d understand that it makes you question everything.”

  “You don’t need to question me, Skye.”

  “I don’t know that.”

  He took a couple of paces closer, stopping when she gave him a warning look. “You do know that. I love you.”

  Her chin jerked up. “Don’t.”

  But he did. He came forward and put his hands on her stiff shoulders. If anything, they stiffened even more. He hung on anyway, bringing his face closer to hers as he said, “I. Love. You. I understand that you don’t want to hear it, but you need to know it before I leave.” He let go of her and took a step back.

  “Mason said he loved me, too. You saw how that turned out.”

  Anger flashed, catching him off guard. He sucked in a breath before saying in a deadly voice, “Don’t ever put me in the same class as Mason. I did not make him gamble, I did not make him cheat and I’m in no way like him.” He looked away, then brought his gaze back to clash with hers. Yeah, she was hurting. Lashing out. Well, he was starting to smart a little, too. “For the record, I hate that you would lump us together.”

  “Mason lied to me, you lied to me—” He started to cut her off, but she raised a finger in a warning gesture. “By omission, but it still feels like betrayal.”

  “So what now?”

  “Things go back to the way they used to be. When our lives were very much separate.”

  “And you didn’t have to take any risks?”

  “If you were me, would you take risks?” Before he could answer, she said, “Risks are not working for me. I want my nice, solitary life where no one slips a knife between my ribs when I’m not looking.”

  “And just like that, we’re done?”

  “No, Tyler. We’re not done. We’re business partners.”

  “And that’s all?”

  She gave a nod, and her voice was crisp and cold as she said, “Do not ask for more.”

  * * *

  TYLER CAUGHT THE tour in New Mexico, where he had an okay ride. The bull he’d drawn wasn’t the meanest bucker in the bunch, and even though he’d ridden for eight, his score didn’t put him in the money. His shoulder had held up, though, so he was glad he’d followed doctor’s orders and taken the time off—at least in the sense of having healed his body. As far as his personal life went, well, that was about as screwed up as it could get.

  Should he have told Skye about Mason?

  Why inflict pain when it wasn’t necessary? Why destroy memories and the illusion of trust? He might have been wrong, but it still killed him to think of Skye’s expression, which was freeze-framed into his brain, when she’d figured out what Angie had meant. What had been the chances of Skye ever finding out? Before the Founders Day celebration, before Cody had taken up with Angie, he would have said close to zero.

  After Albuquerque, he caught a ride with another bull rider, Caiden Craig—aka CC—first to Phoenix, then to Bakersfield. Both of those rides were good, and he earned some money in Bakersfield. The next leg started in Denver, moved on to Salt Lake City, then Billings and Spokane, but he had three days before Denver—enough time to fly home, get his truck and drive down. He’d promised CC rides between these legs, so he’d have company he wasn’t certain he wanted. It all depended on his reception when he went back to the ranch.

  It’d been difficult staying in radio silence over the past two weeks, thus giving Skye time to work through issues. And maybe time to miss him? A guy could only hope.

  And he did hope...even while a small part of him said that it was going to take her a long time to trust anyone again.

  He had time. He was her business partner.

  Tyler’s flight landed in Butte at 11:30 p.m. He tossed his duffel into the back of his truck, paid the parking ransom and started driving to Gavin. His plan was simple—get some sleep and whenever Skye was available, they’d discuss the ranch—the safe topic. The last thing he expected was for the lights in her house to be blazing when he drove down the long driveway in the early hours of the morning. When he parked, he saw her pull the curtain back and then drop it again.

  Let it be.

  He headed past her house and around the bunkhouse to his trailer, stopping when he heard the distinctive sound of her screen door shutting and her footsteps on the porch. Turning back around, he met her at the corner of the bunkhouse.

  “I didn’t expect you back,” she said in a low voice. “Not yet anyway.”

  “I wanted to drive to Denver.”

  “Ah.” She hugged her arms around herself.

  “What are you doing up so late?”

  For a moment he thought she wasn’t going to answer, but since it was past 2:00 a.m. and she was still fully dressed, she must have figured she had to give some kind of explanation. “I was cleaning.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s what I do when I can’t sleep.”

  His lips parted, and he wanted to reach for her. Pull her into his arms and make everything all right—or as right as he could. Skye read his face, took a step back, hugging her arms around herself more tightly.

  “How long are you home?”

  “I take off on Wednesday.” The day after tomorrow. “Is everything okay here?”

  “Yeah. Good. I got the chicken house built.”

  “Can’t wait to see it.” He hesitated, the duffel growing heavier in his hand. “Can we talk tomorrow before I have to go?”

 
She let out a soft sigh. “I’m off tomorrow. We can talk. About the ranch.”

  He glanced up at the starry sky. Things were no better than when he’d left. Maybe now that she’d had time to stew, they were even worse. “Understood.”

  She turned, but before she made it around the corner, he said, “I am not the enemy, Skye.”

  He had no idea whether she’d heard him or not.

  * * *

  SKYE AWOKE TO a buzzing text message. Feeling as if she’d gotten a whopping thirty seconds of sleep, she grabbed her phone, noted the time to be 10:30 a.m. and then flopped back against the pillows, bringing the phone with her to read the text. She sat up a little when she saw that it was from Tyler.

  Have to take off early for unexpected promo event.

  Maybe she had heard a knocking on her door a while back. She thought for a moment, then texted back.

  Meet in half an hour?

  Sure.

  Skye threw back the covers and went to the bathroom to start the shower, then headed to the kitchen to make a new pot of coffee. The one that had been simmering since five thirty, her normal wake-up time, would probably not be all that drinkable. She checked the clock again before she went back to the bathroom. When was the last time she’d overslept?

  She showered quickly, dried her hair, then twisted it into a knot on the back of her head before dressing in jeans and an oversize baseball jersey. No one could accuse her of trying to look attractive today, but when she answered the knock on her door ten minutes later, she could see that it didn’t matter what she wore. Tyler’s gaze zeroed in on her face.

  “When do you have to leave?” she asked.

  “In about an hour. It’s for a local television appearance in Denver. I’m getting interviewed before the event.”

  “Ah.” Skye poured coffee and set two cups on the table, but neither of them sat down. It became obvious after a few seconds that she needn’t have poured. She folded her arms and leaned back against the counter. “You did well, I see.”