Reaching for his hand, she wove her fingers with his as the plane landed with a bone-jarring thump of rubber on tarmac.
“Good to be home?” she asked.
He gave her a quizzical look. “I never left. My home’s wherever you are, sweetheart. You know that.”
It wasn’t the first time he’d expressed the sentiment, but it still made her want to crawl into his lap and show him how much she loved him.
She’d gotten so lucky when she came looking for her teen crush and stumbled across this man instead. So, so lucky.
Not only was he extensively easy on the eye, but he’d also put his life on hold for her and followed her back to Australia seven months ago. He’d waited to get the final results on his eye tests before joining her—a full recovery, something she gave thanks for every day—and there’d been some initial angst over the management of the ranch until Helen had pointed out that Tanner was on the road nine months of the year with the tour, anyway. The fact that he’d be in Australia instead of risking his life on the back of a bull wouldn’t make any difference to her and Johnny, she’d claimed. When Tanner had pointed out that he’d spent every tour break home on the ranch, pitching in, Helen had waved him off as though he was talking nonsense.
The truth was, Helen and Johnny had taken on a substantial burden to ensure she and Tanner could be together, and Evie planned on making it up to them somehow now they were home.
Once Tanner had landed in Australia, she’d introduced him to her family and they’d moved into a small apartment just off campus. While she studied and crammed for exams, he’d made sure she was fed and clothed in between completing a couple of animal husbandry and business subjects at the university himself.
He’d also engaged a Current Creek architect to draw up plans for another five guest cabins. The drawings had bounced back and forth between himself, the architect, Helen and Johnny for several months before being submitted for planning approval. As of last month, the County had officially signed them off, and in the next few days the next phase in Tanner’s business plan was going to kick off as they broke ground on the new cabins.
It was going to be exciting and challenging, but Evie had no doubt Tanner was up to it.
For the first few months they’d been in Australia together, she’d been worried that once the novelty wore off he’d be bored and restless. After all, for nine years he’d ridden monster bulls and lived on a steady diet of dopamine and adrenalin. He wouldn’t be human if the loss of that hadn’t affected him in some way. His whole life had changed, literally overnight.
But to her surprise, he’d adapted easily to his new life. He’d thrown himself into his studies and leapt at the chance to drive out to Forrester’s Landing any time her studies allowed, getting his fix of big sky time while rubbing shoulders with her family. He’d become something of a celebrity around campus—a real American cowboy!—and she’d caught a couple of her female classmates snapping surreptitious pics of his jean-clad butt on more than one occasion.
After a few months, she’d gathered the courage to ask him if he missed his old life. They’d been lying in bed, still damp and warm after making each other wild, and he’d considered her question for a brief moment before answering.
“I miss the challenge. Sometimes I miss the guys. But I don’t miss the life. And I wouldn’t go back, even if I could.”
“Why not?” she asked.
“Because I’ve got you now. I’ve got too many reasons to live to risk dying every time I sit on a bull.” He’d looked a little surprised as he said it. Then he’d laughed. “Look at that—seems like I finally grew up.”
Now, he leaned across and dropped a kiss on her lips.
“Gonna get a little crazy for the next little while,” he said. “Having the construction going on, you getting your qualifications certified.”
She shrugged. “We can handle it. We always do.”
He smiled at her. “Yeah, we do, don’t we?”
Their relationship had been forged in crisis from the very start. Not the best way to fall in love, maybe, but they knew where they stood and that they had each other’s backs. Everything else flowed easily from that.
The seat belt light went off, and they unbuckled and collected their carry-on luggage. Then Tanner held out his hand.
Placing her hand in his, she let him lead her from the plane and into their next big adventure.
The End
The American Extreme Bull Riders Tour
If you enjoyed Tanner, you’ll love the rest of the American Extreme Bull Riders Tour!
Book 1: Tanner by Sarah Mayberry
View the entire series here!
Book 2: Chase by Barbara Dunlop
Buy now!
Book 3: Casey by Kelly Hunter
Buy now!
Book 4: Cody by Megan Crane
Buy now!
Book 5: Troy by Amy Andrews
Coming Soon
Book 6: Kane by Sinclair Jayne
Coming Soon
Book 7: Austin by Jeannie Watt
Coming Soon
Book 8: Gage by Katherine Garbera
Coming Soon
Enjoy an Exclusive Excerpt from
Chase
Barbara Dunlop
Book 2 in the American Extreme Bull Riders Tour
Copyright © 2017
Chase Garrett stared at his best friend’s pickup truck parked in front of Chase’s fiancée’s yellow clapboard bungalow in the wheatgrass covered foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Patrick’s black V-8 dually wouldn’t have been an unusual sight—he and Laura-Leigh had known each other since the third grade. But it was four a.m. and the house was full dark.
Chase supposed Patrick might have tied one on last night and decided against driving home. Not that the dirt roads of the Twin River Valley were diligently patrolled for tipsy cowboys. But it was a possibility.
Thing was, Chase had been away the past two weeks. He was home early and all set to surprise Laura-Leigh with news she’d been waiting for, a decision that would make her very happy.
He stepped from his pickup, firmly shutting the door, adamantly refusing to keep the noise level low. Sneaking up to the house would mean allowing for the unacceptable. It would mean he was suspicious. He wasn’t. There was a perfectly acceptable explanation for Patrick’s presence.
He thumped his boot heels on the wooden porch. If anything, he was louder than usual.
“Laura-Leigh?” he called out as he opened the front door. “Honey? I’m back.”
There was a thud and a shuffle beyond her bedroom door.
The sofa was empty and the door to the small guest room stood open.
Chase flipped on the overhead light. Its beam showed him a neatly made bed in the guest room, its champagne-colored bedspread wrinkle free, pillows untouched, the green plaid, wool blanket folded in its usual spot at the foot of the bed.
Frantic whispers sounded behind the bedroom door. Two voices, one a woman’s and one a man’s.
He thought about leaving. Then he thought about doubling up his fists. In the end, he folded his arms across his chest and waited, letting the outrage pulse its way through his brain as he struggled to come to terms with the appalling reality.
The bedroom door opened a crack.
“Chase?” Laura-Leigh’s whisper was paper dry.
She appeared in her white thigh-length nightgown. It was worn flannel, the lace on the scooped neck frayed in two places. It wasn’t what a woman wore for her first time with a man. This had happened before.
Her cheeks were flushed and her brown eyes were wide with obvious fear. And she drew the door tightly closed behind her. As if Chase would be too stupid to notice she had a man in her bed.
“You’re early,” she said, her back pressed flat against the door.
“His pickup’s in the driveway,” Chase said.
The color drained from her face.
The door opened behind her and she staggered back a small st
ep.
Patrick wasn’t going to leave her to face Chase alone. Normally, Chase would give the man points for that. But there was nothing normal about this. Laura-Leigh was pregnant with Chase’s baby, and their wedding date was less than a month away.
“I should take your head off,” he growled at Patrick.
“You can try,” Patrick responded.
Chase clamped his fists by his side and took a step forward. His best friend might have had his back in barroom brawls from Calgary to Denver, but Chase was going to pulverize him all the same.
“Chase, no!” Laura-Leigh cried.
“You’re defending him?” Chase asked her in astonishment.
“I can handle him,” Patrick told her.
Chase had expected an abject apology from Laura-Leigh. He’d expected her to throw herself into his arms and beg his forgiveness for her indiscretion. He wouldn’t have forgiven her. What man could do that? But he had expected her to try.
“It’s not Patrick’s fault,” she cried. “It just sort of—”
“Don’t you dare tell me it just happened. Betraying your fiancé doesn’t just happen.”
“Chase, man.” Patrick stepped out from behind Laura-Leigh, one hand outstretched.
“You want to go at it?” Chase asked.
He was ready for a fight. He was more than ready. He felt like he was seeing his best friend clearly for the first time. And he hated what he saw.
“We didn’t mean for you to find out this way,” Patrick said.
“You didn’t mean for me to find out at all.” Of that, Chase was sure. “What kind of degenerate are you? We’re engaged. She’s pregnant with my child.”
Patrick and Laura-Leigh exchanged a guilty look.
Reality slammed into Chase’s skull with the force of a cinderblock.
“No!” he roared, and he lunged at Patrick.
Patrick took the first punch without defending himself.
But then he struck back. Whether it was reflex, or whether he realized that Chase was actually going to kill him, Chase couldn’t be sure. But he tasted blood from a cut lip, and he threw another punch, this one connecting with Patrick’s solar plexus.
Patrick hunched over, but had it in him to return an uppercut, which sent Chase sprawling.
“Stop!” Laura-Leigh screamed. “Stop it, both of you!”
Patrick hesitated, while Chase regrouped. He wasn’t stopping, no way, no how. Patrick deserved everything Chase was set to dish out.
But Laura-Leigh stepped in front of Patrick again, and Chase instantly pulled himself up short.
“You’re going to hide behind her?” he shouted at Patrick.
“This is getting us nowhere,” Patrick said.
“You son-of-a-bitch.”
“We tried to fight it,” Patrick said. “We tried like hell to fight it, man.”
“Obviously,” Chase drawled, his mouth curling into a sneer. “You tried so hard, you got her pregnant.”
He could feel his world slipping away. He’d just sold his spread in Lethbridge. He was coming back to his hometown full time to raise his child on his family’s land. It was what Laura-Leigh wanted, and it was what he thought she deserved.
“I thought the baby was yours,” Laura-Leigh said to Chase.
“Do you have any idea how awful that sounds?” Chase asked.
“I did a test,” she said. “Last week. And…” Her voice trailed away.
“It could have been either of ours?” Chase glared at Patrick. “What’s the matter with you? What is the matter with you?”
“I didn’t know what to do,” Patrick said, looking guilty but defiant at the same time.
Chase leaned forward. “Let me give you a tip for the future. When in doubt, you don’t screw your best friend’s fiancée.”
Since it was either go through Laura-Leigh to get to Patrick or leave, Chase turned on his heel.
He marched out of the house, slammed his way into his pickup, rammed the gas pedal, and snaked down the driveway in a hail of dust and flying stones.
He made one stop on his way out of town, at the little house where he’d grown up and lived part-time for the past five years. There was only one thing he wanted there, only one thing he needed—an unopened letter from the AEBR, the American Extreme Bull Riders Tour.
He didn’t have to open it to know what it was. It was an invitation to join the bull-riding circuit. And on the circuit was exactly where he was going. His spread in Lethbridge belonged to someone else now. And the Twin River Valley would never be his home again.
Chase was leaving, and he wasn’t coming back.
Find out what happens next in Chase…
Buy now!
More books by Sarah Mayberry
Almost a Bride
The Great Wedding Giveaway series
Buy now!
Make-Believe Wedding
The Great Wedding Giveaway series
Buy now!
Bound to the Bachelor
The Bachelor Auction series
Buy now!
His Christmas Gift
Buy now!
Keep Up with your Favorite Authors and their New Releases
For the latest news from Tule Publishing authors, sign up for our newsletter here or check out our website at TulePublishing.com
Stay social! For new release updates, behind-the-scenes sneak peeks, and reader giveaways:
Like us on
Follow us on
Follow us on
See you online!
About the Author
Sarah Mayberry is the award winning, best selling author of more than 30 books. She lives by the bay in Melbourne with her husband and a small, furry Cavoodle called Max. When she isn’t writing romance, Sarah writes scripts for television as well as working on other film and TV projects. She loves to cook, knows she should tend to her garden more, and considers curling up with a good book the height of luxury.
Visit her website at www.sarahmayberry.com
*
For all the latest news from Tule Publishing, visit our website at TulePublishing.com and sign up for our newsletter here!
Tanner (American Extreme Bull Riders Tour Book 1) Page 22