Cowboys Don't Ride Unicorns

by Tara Lain

  “I’ll have it later this week.” He nodded. “I promise.” He glanced toward his wife. She still appeared shell-shocked.

  Finally, Laurie turned to Grove. He crossed his arms. “You don’t love me. You never have. I’m an ornament to you, sold by my mother. If I said I’d come back, you’d go back to cheating in a week. In fact, I doubt you’ve ever stopped.”

  Grove glanced at the floor. “I offered to marry you. Did that worthless cowboy do that?”

  Laurie stared at Grove’s face and started to laugh.

  Grove’s head snapped up. “What’s so fucking funny?”

  “You are. You want to win so badly, you’ll even marry me to do it.”

  His mother whimpered. “Laurie, you should marry Grove. He’s a good man, and he’ll see you have a comfortable life.”

  He glanced at his mother. “Comfort. Is that what life is supposed to be about? Choosing the pleasant over the good? Accepting affection instead of struggling for love? Funny. I guess I believed that, didn’t I?”

  Laurie faced Grove again. “You’re a perfectly good man, Grove. I appreciate what you’ve done for me and even the faith you’ve had in me, but this isn’t about cowboys or weddings or buying me presents. This is my life, and it’s about time I lived it”—he scanned the group—“instead of everyone else.” He looked across the room. “Come up with a way to pay me the money you promised. I need it before the end of the week.”

  Trying not to limp, he walked straight out the front door and headed for the corner where he could get a cab. He glanced at the overcast San Francisco sky. Great exit line, Belmont, but it doesn’t change a damned thing.

  OKAY. I give. Danny stopped walking, snagged the phone from his pocket, and dialed.

  “Hey, Danny.”

  “Hi.”

  “Everything okay?”

  “No.”

  “Where are you?”

  “Somewhere in San Francisco.”

  “Good. So’s Manolo.”

  “What?”

  “I sent him to the city on errands—just in case.”

  Danny leaned against the side of a building. “I don’t know how to thank you.”

  “Good. Don’t. Look at the street signs and tell me where you are.”

  Danny looked up. He read off the unfamiliar names.

  “Do you see a coffee shop?”

  He peered around. “Uh, yeah. On the other corner.”

  “What’s it called?”

  “Jimmy Jack’s.”

  “Go there, order intravenous coffee, and wait for Manolo.”

  Danny shook his head. “Thanks for accommodating the idiocy of your employees.”

  “I got the T-shirt that says Stupid for Love, buddy. See you in a few hours.”

  Ignoring the L word, Danny staggered toward the sign that said Jimmy Jack’s.

  After he’d drunk two cups of lightly creamed coffee, Manolo walked in, looking better than Christmas. He crossed his arms and shook his head slowly. “Chico, you look like forty miles of ugly road.”

  Danny smirked. “Feel like I fell off a freeway overpass—”

  “Onto a gravel truck—”

  “That’s going to Fresno.”

  They both laughed as Danny tossed money on the table and refused Manolo’s offer of assistance in walking to the van. Five minutes later he was buckled in and leaning on the headrest as Manolo maneuvered them into the flow of traffic on the freeway.

  THE NEXT thing he knew, Manolo was nudging him.

  “Hey, cowboy, you’re too big to carry. Wake up. We’re home.”

  He raised his head and was instantly sorry. His neck felt like it might have decided to grow sideways out of his shoulders. “Ow.” He stared out the windshield at the ranch house, and Manolo stood beside him, holding the car door open.

  “Sorry, son. You fell asleep, and there was nothing I could do to get you more comfortable and drive at the same time.”

  “’S okay. Thanks. I apologize for being no company.”

  “Never saw a man needed sleep more. I’d ask what you’ve been doing, but I know Rand and Kai want to hear too, so let’s go report in.”

  Not his number one most anticipated conversation. He dragged his butt into the ranch house. Kai came from the kitchen with hot chocolate. Okay, that made it all worth it.

  Rand sauntered in and sat next to Kai. The four of them all blew on their hot chocolate together. Finally Rand said, “So?”

  Danny leaned on his knees, staring in his cup. “I took second place in the bull ride. Made some money. Got jumped by this three-hundred-pound guy and my father. Laurie Belmont saved me. We both ended up in the hospital, but you know that already.” He sipped the sweet, warm drink. Sweet and warm. Like Laurie, if you added a whole lot of cayenne. “Anyway, I went to San Francisco to get my money back from Laurie’s dad. We found out that it’s not that simple. I guess the mother’s suing the guy who’s trying to buy the company and using Grove as the lawyer, and Grove really wants Laurie back and offered to marry him and—” He swallowed so hard it hurt all the way into his chest. “So I didn’t hang around to get the check, but I imagine they’ll send it to me eventually. Or maybe not until after the sale closes. I don’t know….” He set the mug aside. Sometimes even comfort food wasn’t comforting.

  Kai’s dark brows almost touched over his nose. “Thing is, Danny, Mr. Banks got another offer on the property.”

  If he’d had a moment of doubt about wanting that land, it dissolved in an ocean of pure loss. “Oh.”

  “The other buyer’s offering thirty percent down. Banks says he’d rather sell it to you, but you’d have to come up with the twenty thousand in two weeks.”

  “Jesus.” His pulse beat in his throat. “I won almost four thousand. I can ride in Sacramento this weekend and someplace else next week. If I can win, I’d have twelve thousand or so. But the rest?” He shook his head.

  Rand leaned forward. “We’ll sell Star Sight.”

  Danny’s mouth fell open. “Fuck no!”

  “One of the Stars would fetch the highest price.”

  Kai looked at Rand. “We might get a second on the ranch.”

  Danny popped up so fast he almost knocked over his mug. “No. I’ll find a way. You do enough for me every day.”

  Rand frowned. “You can’t ride, Danny. You can barely walk.”

  Danny tried for rakish in his smile. “Just don’t tell the bulls.” He headed out the door. Got to call Maury.

  Hobbling toward the bunkhouse, he raised the phone to his ear, and it rang. He jumped and glanced at the screen. Oh wow. Laurie. His finger crept toward the Answer button—and stopped.

  What will he say? That he’ll get the money somehow. That Grove will give it to him and he’ll give it to me. Fuck that. I don’t want money from Grove, and I don’t want to be the cause of Laurie’s owing him anything.

  He pulled the brim of his Resistol lower. After they married, Grove’s money would be Laurie’s money too. Anything Laurie gave to Danny would come from Grove.

  Fuck. The back of a bull never looked so good.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  DANNY WALKED slowly toward the arena, trying to look cool instead of injured. He’d met with the PBRA guys the day before. Should have gotten an Oscar or at least a Golden Globe. Harve was damned skeptical. The doc said Danny was borderline but okay to ride. That was due to a whole lot of “No, it don’t hurts” when it did. Of course, a fuckload lot more than his body hurt, but bulls can’t break your heart.

  He stepped inside the exhibitor entrance carrying his gear, and a guard looked at his ID. Two cowboys walked past. One nodded. “Boone.”

  Danny nodded back. His tense stomach felt like it’d eaten his belt buckle. He hated this feeling. Any man who rode a bull was wise to be cautious and a little nervous before he got on. That was lifesaving. This was different. When he’d been a kid, he assumed he’d win. After that he wanted to but didn’t care. Now he felt desperate. Desperation and bull
riding added up to suicide.

  “Danny, over here.” Maury waved from a round table of riders all waiting for the event to get underway. Danny walked over. Don’t limp. Maury stood and extended his hand. “Hey, man, good to see you. How you feeling?”

  “Been better, but well enough.” He smiled and sat in an empty chair.

  One of the cowboys, Lorenzo, huffed. “Well enough to kick our asses, I expect.” Then he grinned. “Glad you’re okay, Danny. What happened exactly?”

  “I got jumped by a couple of guys about as big as bulls, and they did some damage.”

  “What the fuck? Where were you?”

  “In the arena in Vegas. I went to the head and they followed me.”

  “Jesus, how’d you stay alive?”

  “A guy came along and intervened, then two more men showed up. Finally the cops came, but I was in the hospital for a day and a half.”

  “Shit, man, with assholes like that, who needs bulls?”

  Danny nodded.

  Maury gave him a sideways glance. He’d probably heard more about it from Harve, but he didn’t say anything.

  They all shot the breeze for a few minutes. Weirdly, the banter with a bunch of bull riders should have relaxed him, but he kept getting antsier. When two of the men started arm wrestling, Maury leaned over. “You feelin’ okay to ride, Danny?”

  “Yeah. Doc gave me a clean bill.”

  “You sure? Maybe another week off would be good.”

  Danny mustered a grin. “Getting rid of the competition?”

  “No.” He snorted. “Well, yeah, but I don’t think you should ride when you’re hurt.”

  “I’m okay. Really.” He stared at his hands.

  Lots of noise coming from the arena now, cheering and yelling. Maury nodded. “You’ll be up soon.”

  Lorenzo asked, “What bull did you draw, Danny?”

  Danny released a slow exhale. “Scorpion.”

  “No way. Who has bad enough luck to draw Scorpion twice in a month?”

  “That would be me.”

  Maury mumbled, “Shit.”

  Danny nodded. “Yeah. Bull—shit.”

  Okay, here goes. He stood and grabbed his gear.

  Maury gripped his arm. “I really think you oughta reconsider—”

  Danny heard an intake of breath from Lorenzo, who sat on Maury’s right. Danny glanced at the man’s face. He stared past Danny looking like he’d seen—what? In fact, all the guys were staring.

  Danny followed their line of sight. Holy shit.

  There stood Laurie between Danny and the bull chutes. Black shiny boots, skintight black jeans tucked in, a black turtleneck jersey, and the pink mane hanging on his shoulders. Shining in the middle of his chest was the unicorn charm. Half angel, half dominatrix.

  Danny glanced at the men around the table, who’d all turned to stone. Clearly no man in the arena had ever seen anything quite like Laurie. Hell, who had?

  “Uh, hi, Laurie. For a guy who hates rodeos, you sure show up at a lot of them. How’d you get here?”

  “Drove.”

  “No, I mean why’d you come here?”

  “You wouldn’t return my fucking calls.”

  “I didn’t think there was anything to say.” He flicked his eyes toward the cowboys who all stared like this was their own soap opera.

  Laurie held out a slip of paper. Danny stepped forward and took it. A cashier’s check for eighteen thousand dollars.

  “Your dad sold the business?”

  “It’s in progress.”

  A young cowboy rushed up. “Danny. You need to get in the chute.”

  Laurie said, “No!”

  The guy looked at him like he was crazy. “Come on, Danny.”

  Laurie put his hands on his hips. “Danny Boone, you’re not getting on that fucking bull. You’re not healed. It’s too dangerous. You don’t need the money anymore.”

  Somebody said, “Who the hell is this guy?”

  A voice whispered, “Looks like a fag to me.”

  Maury’s voice came from behind him. “Shut the fuck up if you want to keep on living!” Then he said, “Listen to him, Danny. You need to pay attention to the people who care about you.”

  Laurie glanced at Maury and nodded, then looked back at Danny.

  Danny just swallowed. Cared about him? Maybe. But it didn’t change shit. He cleared his throat. “Why didn’t you just mail the money?”

  “Because I called the ranch and heard about this fucking suicide mission, and I wasn’t going to let you do it without a fight.”

  The young cowboy pulled on Danny’s arm. “Come on.”

  Laurie stared, narrow-eyed.

  Danny yanked his arm back. “So you drove here just to stop me?”

  “Yes. And to give you the money so you’d know you don’t have to be crazy.”

  He gritted his teeth. “I don’t want Grove’s fucking money.”

  Laurie scowled. “How do you figure this is his money?”

  “Community property.” He spit the words out.

  The crease between Laurie’s brows deepened. “I’m not marrying Grove.”

  “Since when?”

  “Since ever. If you hadn’t run off like an adolescent martyr, you’d have heard me turn him down.”

  “Danny! You gotta come now.” The kid looked frantically over his shoulder.

  Danny stared at that beautiful face. The L word. L—for Laurie. I don’t get to have him—but that doesn’t mean I can’t love him. And if he loved Laurie, he couldn’t hurt him. “Tell ’em I’m sorry, I have to scratch. Still injured.”

  “You sure, Danny?”

  “Yeah.”

  The kid ran off and behind him, he heard Maury release his breath.

  Danny crossed his arms over his heart. “What would you have done if I’d decided to ride? Jump on my back and beat me with a metal hammer?” He showed some teeth.

  “I’ve got the hammer in my boot.”

  Danny forced a grin. “Thanks for the money.”

  “It means you can buy your land, right?”

  “Yeah. This plus what I won last week will cover the down payment.”

  “Good.” His beautiful face looked sad.

  “How’s your business?”

  “It’s promising.”

  “Good.” Danny gazed at Laurie. “Rock, meet hard place.”

  Laurie walked the few steps between them. For a second, Danny shifted and peered at the cowboys staring raptly at them. Do I care? Oh, fuck no. He took the final step forward and Laurie’s lips met his, gently, briefly, and sadly.

  He pulled back and their eyes clung for a moment. What was the old saying? Loving Laurie and losing him was better than never loving him at all.

  Suddenly Lorenzo’s voice broke the silence. “Hey, who the hell are you?”

  Laurie gave him a sloe-eyed glance. “I’m the guy who saved Danny’s life—twice.” He turned on his booted heel and walked toward the arena door.

  Somebody behind Danny said, “Shee-it.”

  DANNY SLOWLY dragged the currycomb down Star Sight’s side. Soothing—for him. He hoped it was for the horse too. A twitch in his pocket made him grab for his phone. Shit. Just a text from the garage saying his truck parts were in. He flipped to his e-mail and stared—like he had fifty previous times. Lots of messages, none of which said Laurie Belmont.

  Blowing out a stream of air got a look from the horse, and he went back to combing. “Sorry.”

  “Uncle Danny!” Aliki flew through the stable door at his usual speed. Fast.

  “Hey, Aliki.”

  “Can I help?”

  “Sure. Grab a comb and go to work on the other side.”

  He did, peering around at Danny from time to time. “You sure got all the horses looking good, Uncle Danny.”

  “Thanks.”

  A brief pause.

  “Daddy says you ought to sleep more and spend less time with the horses.”

  Danny grinned tightly. If he
wanted to know what was going on, he only had to listen to Aliki.

  Star Sight nickered, maybe from the enthusiastic combing being administered by Aliki.

  “Uncle Danny?”

  “Hmmm?”

  “When’s Laurie coming back?”

  Damn. Aliki might as well have kicked him in the chest. His unwritten rule over the last three weeks was that he could brood over Laurie’s lack of communication, but nobody else better bring it up. The adults got the memo. He ran a hand over Star’s lovely side. “Uh, I don’t think he’s coming back.”

  That cute face surrounded by inky black hair popped under Star’s belly. “What?” He marched around the horse and stood in front of Danny. “That’s a crock!”

  Truer words never spoken. “Yeah, well, those are the facts.”

  “But he’s your friend. He really cares about you. Why wouldn’t he come see you?”

  It hurt too much to answer, so he shrugged.

  “You should go see him.” He smiled. “I’ll come with you.”

  He stopped combing and rested his head against Star’s flank.

  “I think you really want to see him, Danny.”

  He flipped his head to the side so he could see Aliki and heard Star’s heart through the hair. “The thing is, Laurie has his business and his family in San Francisco, and I have my work and my land here in Chico. We have two different lives.” He pushed away from Star. “I really like Laurie, so just getting to see him for a day is hard.”

  Aliki frowned. “Isn’t it better than nothing?”

  “Well, I kind of thought so, but I haven’t heard a word from Laurie. I texted him and tried to call him a couple of times, but no answer. So I’m guessing he maybe has other, uh, friends he’s hanging out with.”

  “You mean like he has a different boyfriend.”

  He smiled and nodded. “Right.”

  Aliki mulled that a minute. “I don’t think so. I mean he had that rich guy with the fancy car and he still liked you best.”

  “You think so?”