“Boot warmers. I put them in while we were skiing, so they’d be warm when we got back.”
Blythe looked at Renie and they both giggled.
“Oh God,” Jace groaned. “What now?”
“Cowboys,” they answered in unison, before they started giggling again.
***
Blythe looked around for Tucker when they got back, but didn’t see him. And she definitely wasn’t about to ask where he was.
“Call your brother,” Jace’s mom said a few minutes later. “It’s time he came back.”
“Where is he?” Blythe asked him.
“Out wandering,” Jace answered. “He’s not big on holidays. He usually disappears for most of the day.”
“Why?”
It wasn’t something Jace wanted to talk about, especially to Blythe. “I’ll tell you later,” he answered. Even though he had no intention of doing so.
***
Tucker saw the text from Jace, but wasn’t ready to go back to the house. He supposed he should. If he stayed out here any longer, he might not ever go back to the house, and then instead of escaping everyone’s attention, it would be spotlighted on him.
He closed his sketchbook, but took one last look before he did. He almost didn’t recognize the woman he’d spent the last half hour drawing. She didn’t look like the woman he’d started to draw; she’d morphed into someone else. Someone who looked more like Blythe than her.
God, he hated holidays, but this one more than most. When he woke this morning, it wasn’t the first thing he thought of. No, he thought about Blythe instead, and how it felt to hold her the night before.
When he’d gone upstairs to find she wasn’t there, that she and Jace left and no one knew where they were, his thoughts turned inward. Back to her. Back to that night. He’d gone out on the porch to be alone, and then Jace came back, briefly, and told him they were going skiing.
He asked if he was okay. What the hell? Did he need to ask? Of course he wasn’t okay. He knew Jace felt it. This wasn’t something Tucker could bury deep enough for Jace not to feel it. There wasn’t a deep, deep enough for this.
Mama’s gonna send dad lookin for you, Jace texted.
Headed back, Tucker answered.
***
Blythe didn’t need to turn and look when Tucker walked in. She knew he had. She could feel him. Jace reached over and covered her hand with his, as though he felt her reaction. Her cheeks burned when she looked up at him. What was it about these two men? It was as though there was a current running through the three of them, a connection.
She felt it with Tucker last night. It wasn’t as though they didn’t need to speak; it was more that they shouldn’t. What passed between them was more than words could communicate.
She felt the same way with Jace today. And now that Tucker was back, she felt it with both of them. She wasn’t sure she liked it.
He brushed against her when he walked past. She felt the heat of it spread throughout her body, in an instant. She looked up at him, but he didn’t look back at her. Jace watched the whole thing; she didn’t need to look at him to know it.
“Dinner,” Liv announced, and they made their way to the table. Blythe felt more as though she was floating than walking, she wasn’t sure her feet even touched the ground. Jace pulled a chair out for her, and sat to her right. She gasped when Tucker sat in the chair on her left. It wasn’t him sitting there, it was the feeling that spread over her when he did, that made her lose her breath.
Jace put his hand on hers again, the hand that was resting on her lap. But she didn’t look at him; she looked at Tucker instead. He looked different. His eyes were dark. Instead of green, they looked brown. His face was tight, like it was the day before, when they first met. She’d seen his darkness then, and now it was back.
“Hi,” she said softly.
He turned to look at her, but didn’t answer. Instead he brushed her cheek with the back of his hand. When he did, she took her hand away from Jace.
Blythe pushed the food around on her plate; she wasn’t hungry. She looked across the table at her dad, who questioned her with his eyes. She shrugged her shoulders.
With so many people and conversations flying around the long table, she didn’t feel the need to talk. Even if she had, she wouldn’t have known what to say. Jace and Tucker were quiet too, but she could feel them on either side of her.
The truth was she was uncomfortable; she wanted to leave the table. Even worse, she wanted to leave Crested Butte and go home, and escape the heat emanating from these two men.
Jace put his arm across the back of her chair, and when he did, Tucker glared at him. It didn’t deter him. Instead of moving his arm away, he reached further and laid his hand possessively on her shoulder.
She wanted to shrug it away. She didn’t want him touching her. She didn’t want Tucker to touch her either.
Tucker looked at her plate. “Not hungry?” Those were the first words he’d spoken since he sat down at the table.
“I’m not,” she murmured.
“Me either,” she thought she heard him say, but he had cleaned his plate.
It was as though the three of them were frozen in silence—trapped in an air pocket of stifling tension.
When her dad looked at the three of them and said, “Jeez, look at the three of you. What happened, did somebody die?” The already overpowering tension spread around the table. He laughed, but it was too late, the words were already out there.
Tucker mumbled, “excuse me,” and left the table.
“What?” asked Mark. “I was joking.”
“It’s okay,” said Carol, Jace and Tucker’s mom, who was sitting next to Mark. She patted his hand as she said it.
“What do you mean? Somebody did die?”
“Mark, drop it,” said Paige, giving her husband a stern look.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“Stop,” Paige said again.
“Who’s ready for pie?” asked Liv. “Anybody?” She looked around the table trying to draw attention away from Mark, who wasn’t doing a very good job recovering his gaff.
Blythe got up to look for Tucker. She hadn’t seen where he’d gone. She went downstairs, but he wasn’t down there. When she turned to go back upstairs, Jace stood in front of her.
“He’s gone.”
“What do you mean he’s gone? Where did he go?”
“I’m not sure. He took the truck.”
“What happened Jace?”
Jace rubbed his hands over his face. “Blythe, I…it’s a long story. One I’d rather not get into right now.”
Blythe didn’t know what to think. There was an ache in her chest that she couldn’t put a name to. Dread mixed with sorrow, was as close as she could get.
***
Before Thanksgiving, Renie had talked Ben and the rest of the guys in CB Rice into playing at the Goat that night. The bar, owned by the Rice family, was an institution on the main drag in Crested Butte, Elk Avenue.
With Tucker gone, the mood was subdued.
Her dad sat in on a couple songs, and when he wasn’t, he danced with Blythe. She loved to dance with her dad; it was something they’d done since she was a little girl.
“My turn,” said Jace, tapping her father on the shoulder. Mark stepped aside, and Jace wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her in close to him. He rested his cheek against her hair and breathed in the scent of her.
“I’m sorry about today.”
“Why are you sorry?”
“Tucker…”
“Again, why are you sorry? Tucker was the one who disappeared without so much as a goodbye.”
He didn’t know what to say. He understood how Tucker was feeling, more than he wanted to. The guilt began to creep in again.
“Jace, are you okay?”
He knew she could feel the tension that was slowly spreading throughout his body. He’d hoped holding her would stop it from happening this time.
> “Yeah, I’m okay.”
She pulled back so she could look in his eyes. He didn’t want her to look in his eyes. Not tonight.
“Let me hold you Blythe.” He wrapped his arm around her waist a little tighter. Her breath caught, he felt it as much as he heard it.
“It must be bad, whatever it is.”
He couldn’t answer her, but yes, it was bad.
The rest of the band took a break, but Ben stayed where he was, just him and his guitar. Every word he sang cut into Jace’s heart. It was as if Ben knew what had happened, but he knew that wasn’t possible. Nobody knew, but him. Not even Tucker.
So don’t fall in love, there’s just too much to lose
If you’re given the choice, then I beg you to choose
To walk away, walk away, don’t let her get you.
I can’t bear to see the same happen to you.
Please, don’t be sad now, I really believe,
She was the greatest thing that ever happened to me.
Chapter 5
It was January before Blythe heard from Jace again. She still hadn’t heard from Tucker.
Jace rode back to Aspen with his parents the day after Thanksgiving. When they said goodbye, it was friendly, cordial, but lacking the heat that had been between them before Tucker disappeared.
Renie asked her about it, but Blythe told her Jace hadn’t wanted to talk about it.
The Cochrans spent Christmas in Monument. Liv and Ben brought his sons over with them Christmas night, so they could spend the morning with their mother and her husband.
She and her parents spent the day quietly. Blythe’s older sisters were both married to Air Force officers. Brooke, the oldest was in Germany with her husband, Tom. Blythe’s other sister, Bree, was the one she was closest to. She was in Northern California. Her husband, Zack, had been deployed, and was in Afghanistan. Paige and Mark wanted her to come and spend Christmas with them, but Bree told them there was a chance Zack would make it home for Christmas, and if he did, she wanted to be there.
Billy and Renie were at the ranch in Black Forest, but Blythe hadn’t wanted to intrude on their time together. They saw each other between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Then, Billy took Renie and Willow back to Crested Butte.
Blythe didn’t recognize the phone number when the call came in. She considered letting it go to voice mail, but changed her mind. There was a chance, however remote, that it was Tucker, and if it was, she doubted he’d leave a message. And then she’d wonder if it had been him calling.
“Hey, it’s Jace,” he said when she answered.
“Oh. Hi. How are you?”
“I’m good. How ’bout you?”
“I’m good. Um…how’s Tucker?”
Jace hesitated long enough that Blythe thought she’d made a mistake by asking. “He’s back in Europe. I think he might be somewhere in France at this point, or back in Spain.”
“Oh.”
More silence.
“I’m calling because I’m going to the stock show, with Billy of all people,” he laughed. “I wanted to see if we could get together while I’m in town.”
“Um, sure.”
Jace told her they would be in Denver for six days. Maybe longer, depending on what happened at the show.
“What do you mean?”
“Well…you’re not going to believe this, but Billy is my trainer.”
“For what?”
“Saddle bronc riding.”
“Huh?”
“I’m riding saddle broncs.”
“I heard you the first time. Why?”
“Kind of a long story.”
“Have you always done this?”
“No, I used to ride bulls.” he answered. “Listen, I’ll explain later. I’ve got to run now, but I want to see you Blythe. Can I call you in a couple days?”
“Uh sure. Of course. Bye Jace.”
***
Jace hadn’t told anybody of his plans to get back into bull riding. He intended to tell Tucker, but his brother was gone when they got back from Crested Butte.
“Be in touch,” was basically all Tuck said. Jace knew better than to ask more than that.
Instead, he called Billy Patterson.
“You goin’ back on the circuit?” he asked him.
“Thinkin’ about it, even if only to officially announce my retirement. Why do you ask? You hopin’ I’ll leave Renie here alone or somethin’?”
Jace laughed. “No, nothing like that. It’s more that I’m thinkin’ of goin’ out myself.”
“For what?”
“Bulls.”
“Huh? Since when are you a bull rider?”
“You don’t know much about me, do ya?”
“Can’t say I ever wanted to. Still don’t.”
Jace told Billy that his dad had been a bull rider and his grandfather had been too. Jace toured on the circuit at the same time Billy had. He wasn’t as competitive on bulls as Billy was on broncs, so their paths never crossed.
When Jace tore his ACL skiing, he figured his bull-riding career was over. He hadn’t told anyone, but he’d been riding practice bulls for about a year. He also rode bareback as often as he could, getting his muscles to grip and release, without relying on a rope or spurs.
“You know what I don’t get,” Billy said after listening to him talk for a while.
“What’s that?”
“Why bulls? Why not broncs?”
“I don’t know. I never thought about broncs.”
“My dad was a bull rider too. He retired before I came along. I didn’t get on broncs on purpose, at least not with competin’ in mind. Had a couple rough ones to break, and my dad saw somethin’ in the way I road ’em. He said I was a natural.
“You’ve ridden all your life, haven’t ya?” He didn’t wait for Jace to answer. “You’re ridin’ now, a flat-back horse I’d guess, if you’re workin’ your muscles for bulls. But what do I know?”
“You think I should try it—that’s what you’re sayin’.”
“Why the hell not?”
Jace spent most of December in Crested Butte. Ben Rice and his brothers were talking about getting into stock contracting, so they set up a practice area on the ranch where he and Billy trained most every day.
The only time he went home was for Christmas. He rented a studio apartment near the ski area, and no one, other than Billy and Renie knew he was there.
Once he got in the saddle, he never talked about going back to bulls.
He wasn’t sure he’d be ready to compete in Denver. Jace would be Billy’s travel partner, part of his crew for this rodeo. Billy was serious about his retirement and this would be the beginning of his last season. Going to the National Western would give the two some time out on the road together, working and practicing.
When Jace told Renie he and Billy would be traveling together, she didn’t believe him.
“But, he never travels with anybody.”
“I don’t know what to tell you darlin’. It was his idea, not mine.”
“Huh,” she answered, still looking perplexed.
***
“Isn’t it weird?” Blythe asked Renie when she told her what had been going on for the past few weeks.
“It was at first, but now it isn’t. They’re a lot alike. They still bicker all the time, if I didn’t know better, I’d think they hated each other. But whatever, it works for them.”
“Is Jace any good?”
“Better than he thinks. That’s why Billy wants him to go to the stock show. Jace may be a full-time bronc rider a lot sooner than he thinks.”
“I can’t wait to see you.” Blythe meant it. The whole thing with Tucker had thrown her. She wished there was someone willing to tell her what his story was, but other than Jace, she didn’t know anyone who knew any more than she did. She’d asked Renie to ask Ben, but he had no idea, and wasn’t willing to ask his aunt and uncle about it.
“Is Jace staying at the ranch in Black For
est with you during the stock show?”
“Yeah, there’s plenty of room, so it would be silly for him to stay anywhere else. I don’t know why he doesn’t stay with Ben and my mom in Crested Butte. He says he likes his privacy.”
“I bet,” laughed Blythe. She doubted Jace spent much time alone with his privacy.
“Hey, what’s going on with you and school? Are you goin’ back?”
“Yep, so I’ll be around a lot more, at least on the weekends. It’s going to be so hard to be away from Willow, but I only have a year left. I’m going to try to accelerate it if I can. I’ve stopped and started so many times. Plus Billy said they’d stay in Fort Collins with me as much as they could, during the week.”
Blythe didn’t know much about Billy’s financial situation, but it had always been clear the Pattersons had plenty of money. Other than working on the ranch and traveling to rodeos, she’d never known Billy to do anything else. Renie said something about investments they had in oil somewhere up north. Blythe wasn’t paying much attention when Renie told her.
Obviously he had enough money to buy Liv’s ranch, a big and very nice house in Crested Butte, and rent a place in Fort Collins.
Blythe didn’t have the luxury of a flush bank account. Her parents had been patient with her, but she could tell it was wearing thin. Her mother started suggesting different programs she could look into. So far she’d given her brochures on becoming a home health-care aide, a dental technician, and a computer programmer. None appealed to her. She’d hated the nursing program she’d been in enough to quit. Any job in a medically-related field was out as far as she was concerned. And sitting in front of a computer writing code sounded like the most boring thing she could imagine.
She’d been working at the tea house in downtown Monument since right before Christmas. Tom and Diane, who owned it, were such nice people, as were everyone else who worked there. She enjoyed it, despite her mother’s nagging that she wasn’t being sufficiently challenged.
Now that Renie was going to finish her degree, Blythe knew her mother’s pressure would intensify.
And Then You Kiss (Crested Butte Cowboys Series Book 3) Page 5