Andy and Santos were there to take care of her horses and gear. Pretty soon a couple of her competitors crowded around to congratulate her. Suddenly Nikki’s gaze met Toly’s. Her heart was in her eyes. For a moment it was as if everyone else had disappeared while they communed their joy in silence.
He took a step closer to her. “Are you ready to head for the victory celebration? It’s your night.”
“Yours, too,” she said. “I watched you out in front and doubt anyone can beat you two now.”
It meant everything to know she’d been there when she could have watched on one of the screens. Naturally he wanted to win the overall championship, but he wanted that same prize for her too. It had become of vital importance to him. He felt euphoric. “Come on. Let’s go collect our gold buckles.”
Mills said nothing as the three of them made their way out of the center to the car. Nikki climbed in the backseat. “Toby Keith is performing tonight, guys. I hope he sings ‘I Wanna Talk about Me.’ It’s my favorite. Hilarious!”
On the way to the South Point, Toly sang the lines of the song with her pretty much off-key. How funny that he knew all the words too! It was such a unique song and both of them were laughing by the time they reached the hotel and went inside. The crowd went crazy over all the rodeo winners, and then came the entertainment.
Toby sang the song Nikki loved as part of his set. Throughout the number Toly kept looking at Nikki, who smiled back several times. It was a night he would treasure forever and knew the reason why. He was desperately in love with Nikki Dobson, the woman who was here while they shared this magical night together.
Before they decided to leave, Toly checked the text messages his family had sent him. On the way back to the RV park, he conveyed their congratulations to Mills and Nikki.
He was aware his friends didn’t have their parents to revel in the excitement. But the lack of animation on Mills’s face told him his partner was thinking about Denise. There wasn’t a damn thing Toly could do about that, much as he wanted to.
Once he’d parked the car he looked at Nikki, knowing she would be leaving for the hotel. The three of them got out with their buckles and walked her to her car. With Mills there, Toly couldn’t tell her all the things on his mind.
“Drive safely,” he said. “Dinner in my rig tomorrow.”
“I’ll be on time.”
Those words helped him keep his sanity until he could be alone. After she drove away, he turned to Mills. “We did good work tonight.”
“Yep.”
Just yep?
“See you in the morning.” Without trying to talk to him further, Toly entered his rig. He would wait until Nikki got back to her hotel, and then he’d call her. But once inside, his phone rang. It was Lyle.
“Toly? You’ve received several thousand emails I’ve been trying to keep up with, including three more from Amanda Fleming. She’s staying at the Excalibur Hotel and hopes you’ll call her there.”
He let out a sound of frustration because he’d forgotten about her. “Message received. I’ll take care of it.” They chatted for a moment before he hung up and called her hotel. To his dismay she answered the phone when the operator put his call through.
“At last!” she exclaimed. “I’ve been dying to talk to you. I was beginning to wonder if you ever saw my emails.”
“Hi, Amanda. I’m flattered that you would keep trying to get through to me.”
“I came all this way to watch you perform. Is there a night we can get together?”
He had to make a quick decision. “Tell you what. I don’t have any nights open, but if it’s convenient, I’ll come over to your hotel in the morning and meet you in the coffee shop. It’ll have to be early because my day is full. Shall we say eight thirty?”
“You’re really that busy?” The disappointment in her voice was palpable.
“Afraid so. Tomorrow morning is the only free time I’ll have while I’m in Las Vegas.” He ought to tell her the truth now, but after taking her out for dinner a month ago following his rodeo event, he felt he had to explain in person.
“Okay, I’ll look for you in the morning.”
“Good. I’ll see you then.” He rang off and phoned Mills who answered on the third ring.
“What’s up?”
Toly explained about Amanda and Lyle’s phone call. “Do you want to drive me into town in the morning? I plan to tell her I’m not interested, and won’t be longer than a half hour. Then we can head over to the center. Or I can come back for you.”
Quiet reigned. “What time?”
“I told her I’d meet her in the coffee shop at eight thirty.”
“I’ll drive you.”
“Thanks. See you in the morning.”
Toly hung up.
He could hear all the things Mills hadn’t said. Like, why in the hell did you have to pick on my sister for your latest conquest? The situation between Toly and his roping partner was growing more tense all the time.
Wymon’s advice to act natural and be himself wasn’t winning any points. At this juncture he knew Nikki had to be aware of her brother’s attitude toward him. The time for talking to her about Mills’s negative feelings was coming soon. This couldn’t go on.
* * *
NIKKI HAD JUST gotten dressed in jeans and a blouse when her cell phone rang. It was Mills. Curious why he’d be calling her at eight thirty on Saturday morning, she picked up. “Hi! What’s going on with my brother?”
“Want a little company?”
She blinked. “Always. Where are you?”
“On my way to your room.”
“You’re kidding! I’ll put the coffee on.”
She hung up and opened the door for him before she fixed them their brew. A minute later he walked in and gave her a hug. They sat down in her little sitting room with their mugs. “To what do I owe the pleasure of your company this early in the morning?”
“I thought I’d hang out with my sister while I’m waiting for Toly.” Her heart thumped harder just hearing his name.
“Why didn’t he come with you?”
Her brother took a long swallow. “He’s at the Excalibur having breakfast with a woman he met at the Omaha rodeo. I expect he’ll call when he’s ready for me to pick him up. I have no clue how long he’ll be, if you know what I mean. In the meantime there’s no point in waiting for him. Why don’t you and I head on over to the center. It’ll save you having to bring your own car while we exercise the horses.”
Nikki almost choked on her coffee. Toly was with someone else at this time of morning? Had he spent the night with her? Pain darted through her so real she felt as if she’d been thrown from her horse and trampled by its hooves.
“Good idea.” She forced a smile to hide the hurt. “Are you excited for tonight? I know I am. But I’m wondering which horse I should ride. What do you think?”
He smiled back, something she hadn’t seen for a while. “Which one of your three horses will get their feelings hurt the most if you choose the other?”
She chuckled. “I might have known you’d say something like that. I guess I’ll have to have a talk with them when we get over to the center and see which of them begs me the most.”
Laughter broke from her brother. She hadn’t heard that sound for quite a while. Nikki swallowed the last of her coffee. “Turn on the TV if you want while I finish getting ready.”
While she was in the bathroom she heard his phone ring. Was it Toly, the cowboy her brother had told her charmed all the ladies on the circuit? The Sapphire Cowboy who’d crept into Nikki’s heart without her even realizing it?
Had he told the woman he’d been with all night that she took his breath away? Of course he had, and probably too many other things she couldn’t bear to think about. The hurt went too deep
.
You have to gird up your loins, her dad used to say when he had a tough task ahead of him. That’s what Nikki intended to do.
She put on lipstick and pulled her hair back in a long ponytail. Once she’d fastened it with an elastic, she was ready to face the pain of the day. She ought to be used to it by now because any real happiness didn’t last long.
After putting on her cowboy hat, she walked into the sitting room with her purse, pretending she hadn’t heard his phone ring. “I’m ready. If Toly should need a ride later, he can reach you at the center, right? Let’s go.”
Mills turned off the TV. His smile had disappeared. “Actually he did call and is ready to drive with us now.”
“Great.” She hadn’t expected that to happen. They left the hotel for his car. She climbed in the back. “Before we go by for him, do we have time to go to a drive-through for a quickie breakfast?”
“Sure. I’m hungry too.”
After they’d made that stop, they pulled up in front of the Excalibur. Nikki was just finishing her burrito when Toly walked up to the car and got in. “Thanks for picking me up.”
Mills nodded and they took off.
Toly turned and looked over his shoulder at Nikki who smiled at him.
“We would have brought you breakfast, but I understand you already had it with a girlfriend this morning. Have you been holding out on us?” she teased.
“Not at all,” he came back, totally composed. “When we were in Omaha a month ago, we stayed one night at a hotel while I was having the rig serviced. A woman who worked at the hotel and had been to the rodeo asked me to join her for dinner there after our event. I shouldn’t have accepted because I wasn’t interested and never expected to see her again.”
“I couldn’t figure out why you did.”
Nikki flinched at Mills’s comment.
“Because she pushed and I decided to be nice. But it proved to be a mistake. Lyle informed me that she’d sent a lot of emails to our website. I didn’t do anything about them until he said she was in Las Vegas. I was surprised to learn she was staying at the Excalibur.
“Lyle actually phoned me about it last night after I’d gone to my rig because she’d sent a bunch more and was becoming a nuisance. So I called the hotel and told her I’d meet her this morning for breakfast because it was all the time I could spare. Mills drove me over there. Once I sat down, I explained that I wasn’t interested in a relationship with her, wished her well and left.”
Nikki believed him and the relief of knowing the truth made her positively giddy. She couldn’t help but wonder why her brother had led her to believe there might be something more to it, leaving it vague. That wasn’t nice and it bothered her a lot.
To support Toly she said, “I’ve had a few guys send too many emails to my blog in the past. You try not to offend anyone, but when they go too far, you have to do something about it. Hey, Mills? Remember that guy from Idaho who turned up at our ranch to see me?”
“Yes,” he muttered.
“I don’t know how he dared seek me out. Thank goodness Dad was there to threaten him with a lawsuit and a shotgun.”
Toly’s eyes danced as they studied her features. “Did it work?”
“I’ll say.”
“I wish I’d met your parents.”
Her eyes smarted. “So do I.”
Mills pulled around the back of the center and got out. He shut his door hard enough that she noticed. When she could get her brother alone, she was going to have a big talk with him. Denise or no Denise, his surliness couldn’t be allowed to continue.
Toly walked Nikki inside. On the way to the stalls he grabbed her swinging ponytail and gave it a little tug. She flashed him a sideway glance. Anytime he touched her, she trembled.
“Forgive me. I couldn’t resist.”
“That I believe. You must have been a rascal when you were little.”
His low laugh excited her as they moved to the stalls to put their horses through the paces.
An hour later Nikki dismounted Sassy and hugged her around the neck. “I’m going to ride you tonight and this time we’ll get it right.” As she was giving all three horses a treat, the guys came by for her and they walked back to the car.
“Mills? Drop me off at the hotel so I can change and get my car.” They climbed inside and took off.
“We’re having barbecued ribs tonight,” Toly reminded her.
Tonight. She couldn’t wait. “Those are my favorite. On the way to the RV park I’ll pick up the makings for a yummy spinach salad and meet you guys at the rig later.”
Toly flashed her a grin. “You and Popeye.”
She’d forgotten about Popeye, the famous sailor man cartoon character who ate spinach to make himself strong. “It won’t hurt to pack a little iron if we’re going to win tonight, right?”
“Amen to that.”
But Mills didn’t say a word. That did it! She intended to confront him point-blank. He was beyond obnoxious.
A few minutes later he pulled up in front of her hotel. Toly got out and opened the rear door for her.
She thanked him. “See you guys around three.”
“I’ll be waiting,” Toly murmured in an aside.
Her pulse was still racing as she hurried inside to get showered and changed for tonight’s event.
Before long she drove her car to the supermarket for the needed ingredients, then headed for the RV park. But instead of going directly to Toly’s rig, she walked to the other rig and unlocked the door, calling out to Mills from the entrance.
She could hear his radio playing. Not wanting to walk in on him unannounced when he wasn’t expecting her, she phoned him. Pretty soon he answered. “Nikki?”
“Hi. I guess you couldn’t hear me come in the rig. Are you decent?”
“Yes.”
“We need to talk.” She hung up and walked into the kitchen.
Her attractive brother had showered and wandered in wearing a T-shirt and sweats. “What’s wrong?”
Nikki sat back in the chair and looked up at him. “Something has been wrong since Denise broke up with you. I’ve understood that pain, but a new element has been added to the mix that has turned you into someone I don’t recognize. Your resentment of Toly since our arrival in Las Vegas has stunned me.”
He wouldn’t look at her. “What do you mean?”
“You know exactly what I’m saying. You’ve shown your dislike of him in a dozen ways. This morning you purposely led me to believe Toly had a girlfriend and might have stayed overnight with her. That was dishonest and cruel, both to him and to me. What has Toly ever done to you to make you behave this way?”
His head reared back and his eyes glittered. “So it’s true. You’ve fallen in love with him.”
It was truth time. “Even if I have, he knows nothing about it.”
“The hell he doesn’t! You’re like all the other women who can’t resist the great Toly Clayton. I thought you were different.”
She studied him for a minute. “When did your hero worship of him turn to jealousy?”
His hands curled around the chair back. “I’m not jealous. I just don’t want to watch him trample over your heart until he gets what he wants and then moves on.”
Nikki couldn’t believe what she was hearing and jumped to her feet. “Is that what he does? Do you have proof that he’s a womanizer who has destroyed lives? He’s incredibly attractive, so it’s understandable the groupies can’t leave him alone, but I’ve never heard anything like that about him, except from you.”
Her brother had no comeback. She didn’t think so.
“I know there are some cowboys on the rodeo circuit who have developed bad reputations. We girls are aware of the ones to avoid while we’re traveling around. To date, Toly
’s name has never been mentioned except in glowing terms. When he apologized to me that night at the MGM Grand, he admitted that he liked the girls when he first started doing rodeo. But his brother’s advice made him wise up fast.”
She took a deep breath. “I think you need to analyze what’s going on inside of you and decide if you’re going to let this anger against Toly rob you of a championship. I love you, Mills, but I don’t like what has happened to you. Unless you know Toly has a past prison record or a mistress I don’t know about, then I don’t want to see you act this way again!” She had the impression he was frightened about something. But what?
Nikki got out of there before she said too much. She had to stop at her car for the groceries before entering Toly’s rig. The aroma of the ribs filled the air, making her mouth water.
“Toly?”
“I’ll be with you in a minute,” he called out from the rear. “Make yourself at home.”
It was beginning to feel like she lived there. With Toly in the next room, all was right with her world. She washed her hands and got busy putting the salad together. While she was tossing it with the special avocado dressing, she felt a pair of strong male hands grip her waist from behind and give her a squeeze. A gasp escaped her lips and she almost melted on the spot.
“Sorry if I startled you,” he whispered into her hair. Nikki could tell he’d just come from the shower. “I couldn’t resist. You have no idea how wonderful you smell.”
She could say the same thing to him. What would he do if she turned around and threw her arms around his neck? But before she acted on the impulse, they heard a noise and Mills walked into the kitchen.
Nikki quickly put the salad on the table while Toly took the ribs out of the oven and placed them on the table. That’s when she saw him reach for a smaller pan on the lower rack. “You made corn bread? Before Finals are over, you’re going to spoil us all rotten.”
“That’s the idea. I, for one, don’t want any of this to end.” They sat down at the set table and started to eat.
Neither did Nikki who could only marvel over the food. “I have to amend my judgment of your cooking skills. I don’t know how I could have accused you of only knowing how to make coffee when it’s clear you could open your own restaurant.”
Roping Her Christmas Cowboy Page 8