A Cowboy's Claim

by Marin Thomas

  “You and Slingshot ready?”

  Vic stood behind the barrier gate that blocked off one side of the alley. He wasn’t smiling—he never did—but his eyes glinted with warmth. Ten days had passed since she last saw him in Wyoming, and not an hour had gone by that he hadn’t crossed her mind—sometimes more than once or twice. Dare she hope that he’d thought of her, too?

  “I’m ready.” She smiled, her heart pumping faster. “But it’s always a crapshoot with my horse.”

  “Did you make a practice run?”

  She shook her head. Would he think she was nuts for giving up her time slot earlier in the day? She hadn’t wanted to take the chance that Slingshot would injure himself or throw her and knock her out of the competition this afternoon. “We’re trying something different.”

  He didn’t comment on her decision, which she appreciated, since she’d already questioned it herself. “You’ve had a good run so far this month.” Who cared if Vic knew she stalked his schedule?

  “I’ve been lucky.”

  Lucky her fanny. Pure talent had pushed Vic upward in the standings. “You ready to bust your bronc tonight?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” He winked.

  Holy smokes, was Vic flirting with her? Another barrel racer’s name was announced and the rider took off down the alley. Tanya was next.

  “Good luck.” Vic tipped his hat and disappeared.

  Tanya pushed the cowboy out of her head and hoisted herself onto Slingshot’s back. He stamped his hooves and she patted his neck. “C’mon, big guy. Show Vic what you can do.”

  “Up next is Tanya McGee from Longmont, Colorado. She and Slingshot need to beat sixteen seconds to take over first place.”

  Tanya would be happy with twenty-five seconds if Slingshot behaved. The arena attendant signaled and she tapped her boot heels. Then Slingshot raced down the alley and burst through the electronic eye that triggered the timer. They headed straight for the first barrel on the right. With one hand on the saddle horn, she sank deep in her seat, using the reins to guide him. She squeezed his flanks, holding her inside leg securely against his girth, giving him a focal point for the turn. Slingshot executed the turn perfectly and raced in the opposite direction toward the second barrel. She felt him ready himself a second too early and she held on when her leg scraped the barrel, which thankfully remained upright.

  To complete the cloverleaf pattern, she and Slingshot raced through the middle toward the rear of the arena, opposite the entrance. Slingshot was going too fast to make the turn and Tanya pulled back on the reins, signaling him to slow up, but the stubborn gelding ignored her and took out the barrel before returning to the alley at an impressive speed.

  “Well, folks, if Slingshot hadn’t hit that barrel he’d have clocked a time good enough for second place. Too bad a five-second penalty puts Tanya McGee and Slingshot dead last. Better luck next time, cowgirl!”

  Tanya hopped off Slingshot. “Good boy.” She patted his shoulder, but he jerked his head away as if he knew they’d lost. Okay, fine. Be a jerk. She walked him outside the arena past the livestock pens until he cooled down. Then she hitched him to the back of her trailer next to his water and feed. “You rest while I watch Vic.”

  Tanya had four days to make it to the Rockin’ Horse Ranch in Moriarty, New Mexico, for the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association barrel-racing event. If Slingshot didn’t place in the top three, Mason had warned Tanya, he’d no longer fund her rodeo expenses. She either returned to the farm with Slingshot or paid her own way on the circuit.

  With her meager savings, Tanya might be able to compete through the end of July. If Slingshot turned around by then, maybe Mason would give the horse a third chance and pay the cost of their entry fees, gas and lodging for another month or two. She bought a diet cola, found a seat in the shaded section of the grandstand and waited for the saddle-bronc event to begin.

  “Darcy, are you going to the Muggy Rim after the rodeo?”

  Tanya eavesdropped on the three buckle bunnies sitting two rows below her. They were a walking advertisement for rodeo bling—rhinestone-studded blouses, belts and boots. Their fake fingernails glittered and even the blush on their cheeks sparkled. When they sat side by side, none of them stood out from the other. What did Beau see in these female zirconias? Didn’t the women realize they were being used? No real cowboy would bring home all that glitz to meet his mama.

  “I don’t know,” Darcy said.

  “If Beau Billings is going, I’m for sure gonna be there.” The only brunette in the group spoke.

  “Beau is so over you, Sasha. Move on to another cowboy,” a dark blonde with purple eye shadow said. “Right, Darcy?”

  “You two can fight over Beau,” Darcy said. “I want Victor Vicario. I love a mysterious man.”

  “He scares me,” Sasha said. “He never smiles, huh, Heather?”

  “Nope and I’ve always wondered how he got that scar on his face,” Heather said.

  Darcy fluffed her platinum-blond curls. “There’s nothing I like better than a challenge.”

  Sasha’s laugh grated on Tanya’s nerves. “If anyone can get Vic’s attention, you can, Darcy. I bet you get him into bed on the first try.”

  Tanya’s stomach churned with jealousy and she bit the inside of her cheek to keep from warning the woman away from Victor.

  “Folks, it looks like we’re ready to kick off the saddle-bronc competition. We’ve got a handful of top-notch contenders this afternoon. The first cowboy up is Victor Vicario. Vicario is coming out of the gate on Sidewinder, a two-time national champion bronc.”

  Tanya ignored the giggles and shouts of the buckle bunnies and focused on Vic as he prepared for his ride. He straddled the bronc and adjusted his grip. Then he looked up into the stands and Tanya sucked in a quick breath. Was he searching for her?

  “Oh my God,” Darcy said. “He’s looking right at me.” She waved a poster with her name and phone number in black and pink glitter.

  Vic dropped his head, then nodded and the gate swung open. Sidewinder spun wildly, but Vic rode the bronc like a walk in the park. Man and beast danced and sparred to the cheers of the fans. When the buzzer sounded, Vic hung on until he saw an opening and then launched himself at the ground. He hit the dirt, rolled twice and popped to his feet. The crowd went crazy.

  “Scar or no scar, he can ride me anytime, any place,” Darcy said.

  Tanya left the bleachers before she said something to the women that she’d regret. She made her way to the cowboy ready area, her eyes peeled for Vic.

  “You looking for me?”

  She turned and smiled. “As a matter of fact, I am.”

  His glance skipped across her face before he locked gazes with her.

  “Nice ride,” she said.

  “Thanks.”

  An awkward silence settled between them before she asked, “Do you have plans after the rodeo?”

  “I ride at eight o’clock in Vernal tonight.”

  The town was three hours north, and it was only one-thirty in the afternoon. Vic had time to eat before he hit the road. “Want to grab a burger at the Muggy Rim?” If Darcy and her friends saw Vic with Tanya, maybe they’d leave him alone and focus on another unsuspecting cowboy.

  “Sure.” The tense set of his shoulders relaxed and Tanya read it as a signal that Vic wanted to spend time with her.

  “I need to turn Slingshot loose in the corral before we leave. I’ll meet you in the parking lot in ten minutes.” Tanya hurried off to take care of her horse, telling herself that the only reason she’d suggested the Muggy Rim was that the bar was close by and not because she wanted to prevent Darcy from sneaking off to a motel room for an afternoon quickie with Vic.

  * * *

  VIC TURNED HIS pickup into the gravel lot of the Muggy Rim and parked nea
r the front entrance. The rodeo was still in full swing and the majority of the cowboys and fans wouldn’t arrive until after the bull-riding event.

  “Have you been here before?” Vic asked, the question breaking the silence that had accompanied them during the five-minute ride into Nephi.

  “Once,” she said. “What about you?”

  “A few times. Their burgers are good.” He got out of the truck and shut the door, then took a deep breath, hoping the fresh air would clear the lingering scent of Tanya’s perfume from his head. The earthy aroma made him think of dark corners, slow music and naked bodies pressing together.

  Whoa. This wasn’t a date—even though he found her attractive and wouldn’t mind getting to know her better. The only reason he’d sought Tanya out at the rodeo was that he was lonely. He’d been lonely a long, long time—by his choice—and he couldn’t say for sure what it was about her that had drawn him into the open. No matter, nothing could come of his interest in her, because he couldn’t afford any distractions this season. He had too much riding on the line.

  He opened the saloon door, and a gust of wind lifted Tanya’s hair off her shoulders, the long strands brushing his chest as she stepped past him. A wave of lust gripped his stomach. He’d inhale a burger and then hit the road before he did something stupid like ask her to dance.

  “I don’t know about you,” she said, “but I’m starving.” She led the way to a table near the dance floor.

  “What can I get you folks to drink?” A waitress wearing a black T-shirt with Muggy Rim printed in white letters across the front stopped at their table.

  “I’ll take an iced tea,” Tanya said.

  “Make mine a sweet tea.” He’d need the sugar to keep going the rest of the day.

  “If you know what you want to eat, I’ll put your order in before I get your drinks.”

  “Sure,” Tanya said. “Cheeseburger, hold the onions.”

  “Fries?” the waitress asked. Tanya shook her head.

  “I’ll have a double cheeseburger with everything. And fries.”

  “Comin’ right up.”

  Someone dropped a quarter in the jukebox and a Miranda Lambert song came on. Tanya glanced toward the dance floor, but Vic pretended interest in the baseball game televised on the TV behind the bar.

  “I wish I had just a little bit of that winning streak you’re running on,” she said.

  “All winning streaks come to an end eventually.” He hoped his streak ended after winning a buckle in Vegas later this year.

  “So...” She peeked at him from beneath light brown lashes.

  Alarm bells went off inside his head, and the cushioned seat beneath his backside turned to cement.

  “Are you seeing anyone?” Her cheeks flushed pink.

  “No one steady.” No one period. He didn’t want to give Tanya the idea that he was open to a relationship, but he was curious. “You?”

  She shook her head. “Who’s got time, right?” A shadow covered her blue eyes. Then she blinked and it disappeared.

  “Is your ex making it tough for you to date?” He wasn’t an expert on relationships, but he was a guy and he knew firsthand that guys could be jerks.

  “Not in the way you mean.” She opened her mouth to explain, but the waitress appeared with their drinks.

  “Food should be up in ten minutes.”

  Against his better judgment, Vic prompted Tanya to confide in him. “I’m a good listener if you want someone to unload on.”

  “I don’t want to bore you with the details.”

  “Nothing about you is boring.” Damn. Like an inexperienced poker player, he’d just shown his hand. Tanya was too easy to talk to and he hadn’t had a meaningful conversation with anyone in months. Each day he spoke to numerous people—convenience-store clerks, rodeo personnel and waitresses—but they were just words.

  “Beau said he’d always dreamed of marrying the girl next door.” She sipped her tea. “Then after I caught him cheating—which I later came to find out was actually the fourth buckle bunny he’d slept with behind my back—he admitted that I wasn’t exciting enough for him.” She snorted.

  Holy hell. Beau Billings was a bigger fool than Vic first believed. Tanya McGee didn’t have a buckle bunny body, but that didn’t make her any less hot in Vic’s eyes. “His loss.”

  “Thanks.” She blew out a soft sigh. “Beau’s a sore loser. At first he tried to talk me out of filing for a divorce, insisting we should start a family. That being a father would keep him grounded.”

  Family. The word made Vic nauseated. His only brother died years ago, killed by police during an armed robbery. Vic’s older sister by one year had committed suicide after she was raped by a gangbanger and discovered she was pregnant. His younger sister by ten years had gotten pregnant at seventeen and ended up in jail for prostitution, leaving his mother with custody of her only grandson. “Do you want kids?”

  “Not with Beau, that’s for sure.” Her gaze softened. “But yes, someday I’d like to have a family of my own.”

  Vic didn’t care to talk about family—he hadn’t had a good experience with his. “I thought Slingshot might come through for you this afternoon. That horse can run.”

  “I’m not crazy for thinking Slingshot has it in him to win, right?”

  “Maybe after a year of competition he’ll get his legs under him.”

  “I wish I had that long,” she said.

  “What do you mean?”

  Tanya nodded to the waitress heading their way with the food. After they were left alone, she said, “If I don’t win in New Mexico, my stepfather’s pulling his support. But I’m not ready to give up on Slingshot yet.”

  “Then keep competing.” He bit into his burger, taking a small bite so his chewing wouldn’t distort his face, not that Tanya ever stared at his scar—it was as if she couldn’t see the puckered flesh dissecting his cheek.

  “Easy for you to say when you place in the money at every event.” She waved a hand before her face. “I’m not throwing in the towel yet. I have enough in savings to last through the end of the month if we don’t win next time.”

  “What did you do between your divorce and returning to the circuit?”

  “I train Mason’s Appaloosas.” She snuck one of his fries and dipped it into the circle of ketchup he’d poured on his plate. “I consider myself a good trainer, but every technique I’ve tried with Slingshot has backfired.” She swallowed another bite, then said, “I worry that it’s me. That Slingshot doesn’t want me riding him.”

  “Why do you think that?”

  “He’s the first horse I’ve competed on that someone else worked with first.” A tiny wrinkle appeared between her eyebrows. “Maybe he’s still attached to his previous trainer.”

  Vic checked his cell phone. He still had plenty of time to get to the Dinosaur Roundup Rodeo. “Where in New Mexico are you and Slingshot headed?”

  “Moriarty for the WPRA barrel-racing event. What’s next after Vernal for you?”

  “Steamboat Springs, Colorado, tomorrow afternoon, then Laramie, Wyoming, that night.”

  “July’s a busy rodeo month, but what do you normally do between competitions the rest of the year?”

  “Rest.” Vic used to spend time with Riley and Maria Fitzgerald at the Juan Alvarez Ranch for Boys in New Mexico, but when they hired Cruz as a wrangler after he got out of prison, Vic hadn’t had the guts to visit. Instead he hid out in cheap motel rooms and surfed the web or read the stash of books he carried on the road with him.

  The bar was filling up. If he left now, he could catch a catnap in his truck before his next ride.

  “Vic?”

  He swung his gaze to Tanya.

  “Ask me.” She tilted her head toward the dance floor.

  He s
houldn’t.

  She smiled. “It’s just a dance.”

  What could it hurt? One dance and then he’d leave. He stood and held out his hand. Her fingers slid across his palm and he fought the urge to hold her prisoner and never let her go. He found an open spot on the floor and Tanya snuggled close as if they were regular dance partners—make that lovers.

  He placed his hand against her lower back and she pressed her palm to his chest. The floor was too crowded to move more than a few inches in any direction, so they stood in place, their hips swaying...bumping and oh man. Tanya’s warm body and soft curves put his willpower to the test. If he closed his eyes he could imagine they were alone in a dark room instead of standing in a crowd of sweaty bodies.

  “It’s been forever since I’ve danced.” Tanya’s confession ignited a slow burn inside him. He tightened his arms around her. She felt small and vulnerable, which made it all the more impressive that she could handle a horse like Slingshot.

  “Have you ever been married, Vic?”

  “No, ma’am.”

  “Never came close?”

  “Nope.”

  Her fingertip touched his cheek and he jumped inside. “Is it because of the scar?” She leaned back and looked him in the eye.

  He admired Tanya for asking such a direct question. “I’ve never given much thought to the future.” Marriage had never been on his radar. Since he’d been nineteen he’d had one goal—winning a national title. He couldn’t move forward with his life until he put the past behind him.

  “Mind if I cut in?” a feminine voice interrupted them.

  Tanya stiffened in Vic’s arms a second before she smashed her breasts against his chest. The feel of her sent a rush of blood straight to his crotch. Then she bumped her pelvis—intentionally—against his erection before acknowledging the interruption.

  “I’m Darcy.” The buxom blonde batted her butterfly lashes.

  Vic opened his mouth to decline Darcy’s offer, but Tanya beat him to it. “No can do, Darcy.” Tanya’s fingers bit into his arm. “We were just leaving.” She stared at him. “Right, Vic?”