Right as her mom finished speaking, Jason lifted an arm and waved to the crowd. But Sloane could tell from the slowness of his movements that he was in pain.
When the coverage cut to a commercial for pickup trucks, Sloane felt as if she was going to be ill. Her mom squeezed her hand again, drawing her attention.
“Honey, you need to go to him.”
Sloane shook her head, even though she wanted nothing more than to run straight to Jason and beg him to forgive her for ruining the best thing that had ever happened to her.
“I can’t. I just brought Brent home.”
“And he’ll be fine with us.”
“I don’t want him to feel as if I’m abandoning him.”
“He’ll understand you’ll be back, and we’ll keep him busy and safe.”
Sloane stood and paced to the side of the room. “It’s too expensive to travel.”
“I have a ton of unused frequent flier miles you’re welcome to use,” Arden said.
“And we’ll all chip in for the rest of the expenses,” Neil added.
Sloane scanned the faces of her family and realized once again just how lucky she was that she’d been adopted into the Hartley clan.
“Why are you all doing this?”
“Because we love you, and you love that boy,” her father said. “Pretty damn sure he loves you, too.”
How could her dad possibly know that?
“He does,” Angel said. “He told me so.”
Sloane stared in disbelief at her sister. “He told you? He never said that to me.”
“I told him to hold off because you weren’t ready to hear it.”
Sloane started to speak but Angel stopped her.
“You had to be ready to reciprocate, and you weren’t ready. Now you are.”
They all seemed so sure. Could she let down her guard enough to trust they were right?
“Okay.”
She was going to Vegas.
Chapter Seventeen
Jason’s face hurt as if the Devil had lanced him with his pitchfork. But at least he still had his eye. If that steer’s horn had hit him a fraction higher, he might not have been so lucky.
He popped a couple of ibuprofen while dreading the idea of jumping off a horse and wrestling another steer. But he didn’t have a choice. He could grit through the pain, and then hang it up knowing that he’d done his best, however this week turned out.
When he arrived at the arena, he received a couple of friendly pats on the back from fellow competitors, a few comments about how lucky he’d been and some best wishes for that night’s competition. This was it, the final night. The time he received tonight would determine where he ended up. No pressure or anything.
As they often did, his thoughts went to Sloane. He missed her and wished that she could be here on his big night.
Angel had texted him good luck from the entire family, but he doubted Sloane knew about the message. He didn’t think she wished him ill, might even still be rooting for him to win—but from a safe distance. If things went his way tonight, he’d have what he needed when he went back to Blue Falls to tell Sloane he loved her and that from now on he’d be there for her whenever she needed him, if she’d give him the chance.
But now wasn’t the time to think about that big step in his life. There was one that needed to come before it, and it was going to require the ride of his life. He scanned the arena, how it was filling up. Someone wildly gesturing with her arms drew his attention, and his heart nearly stopped. He blinked a couple of times, thinking he was seeing things that weren’t there. But she was still standing by the boards, still waving to get his attention.
Sloane.
He climbed and leaped over the gate and headed straight for her. When he got close, he stopped a few feet short, still not quite trusting his eyes.
“Hey,” she said, sounding nervous.
“How are you here?”
“One airplane flight and a harrowing taxi ride through Vegas traffic.”
“Why?”
She swallowed visibly, then pointed toward the bandage on his face. “I saw it happen, and I’ve never been so scared in my life.”
“I’m okay. You didn’t have to come all the way out here.”
“Yes, I did.” She took a couple of steps toward him. “I had to tell you how I feel, ask you to forgive me for being a fool.”
“That sounds a lot like what I was going to say when I came back to ask you to give me another chance.”
The change in her expression gave him hope, so he said what had been aching to come out for a while. But he’d needed to say it in person, and now here she stood right in front of him.
“I love you, Sloane. I know you were told that before and were done wrong, but I swear to you I’ll never leave again.”
She smiled and her eyes took on a new glow, but he also still detected a touch of sadness.
“I love you, too, but please don’t promise that. You’ll have to leave to compete, and I understand—”
He closed the rest of the distance between them and dropped his mouth to hers. He’d startled her, but it only took a breath for her to sink into the kiss and wrap her arms around his neck. Somewhere beyond the bubble of happiness enveloping him, he heard a few appreciative whistles.
He broke the kiss but still held her close.
“This is my last rodeo. I’m retiring after tonight.”
“You are? Wait, you don’t have to do that on my account.”
“It’s for me, too. I don’t feel the same passion for it anymore. There are other things I want more.” He dropped a light kiss on her lips. “And you, Sloane Hartley, are at the top of that list...if you’ll have me.”
“Well, it would have been stupid for me to come all this way just to say no.”
“True. But I do have one more ride, and I’m feeling pretty good about it now.”
In fact, as he walked back toward the end of the arena, he felt as if he was ten feet tall and walking on air.
* * *
SLOANE WATCHED JASON walk away, wanting to run after him and tell him not to ride. The memory of seeing him injured on TV would not let her rest, and she thought watching him ride live might make her ill. But he had to get through only one more ride, and then he was done. She still couldn’t believe it. Even with no idea what the future might hold for them, excitement danced through her at the possibilities.
“Sloane?”
She turned at the sound of her name to see a lovely woman who seemed somehow familiar. Then it clicked.
“Shannon?”
The other woman smiled. “I hoped that was you. Otherwise, I was going to be really confused why my brother was kissing a random woman in front of an arena full of people.”
Sloane’s face heated. “I...I wasn’t expecting that.”
Shannon laughed. “He’s been saving up. Come on, sit with us. There are two seats next to us that no one has claimed all week.”
Us? Oh, Lord, she was about to meet Jason’s family. The family who’d just seen them kissing as if they’d been somewhere private.
All the world’s butterflies seemed to have suddenly migrated to her stomach as she accompanied Shannon up the steps. She picked out Jason’s mom when they were still several steps away. The huge smile was a dead giveaway.
“You must be Sloane,” the older woman said as they reached her.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Mrs. Till pulled Sloane into a big hug as if she’d known her all her life. Shannon introduced her father, husband and children, Jason’s twin niece and nephew.
“I’ve heard a lot about you all.” Sloane really wanted to sit down before her legs failed her.
“And we’ve heard about you,” Mrs. Till said i
n that way that told Sloane she approved.
Sloane was surprised by how relieved she felt. And as she finally sat and began getting to know Jason’s family, she relaxed gradually. By the time the rodeo started, she no longer felt nervous. At least not about Jason’s family. His ride was another story. Thank goodness steer wrestling was the second event. If Jason were a bull rider, the last event on the schedule, she didn’t think she could bear it.
Jason’s dad must have sensed her anxiety because he gripped her hand in support. She smiled at the older man, thinking that this was what Jason would look like in a couple of decades. She sure hoped she was there beside him as they aged.
She made it through the bareback event, then what felt like countless steer wrestlers before it was finally Jason’s turn. As Jason and his hazer got into position, she gripped Mr. Till’s hand even harder.
“Don’t worry. He’s got this,” his dad said. “It’s his year.”
She hoped he was right, but it didn’t allow her stomach to relax one iota. All the buildup to something that barely lasted the blink of an eye. The nod, the steer breaking the barrier, Jason and his hazer racing forward, Jason leaning out of the saddle and grabbing those dangerous horns and wrestling the steer to its side—it all happened so fast. When Jason threw his hands up in the air, the announcer said, “Ladies and gentleman, you just witnessed a world-record time!”
Sloane jumped to her feet screaming and cheering along with the rest of the arena. Happiness for Jason flooded her, but it wasn’t over yet. There were still two more riders to go. Her nervousness returned full force. Jason was so close to achieving his dream. He just couldn’t have it snatched away now.
The next rider’s time put him in fifth place. As the final rider backed into the chute, Sloane felt as if everyone in the arena was holding a collective breath. The guy’s time was fast, but not fast enough.
Jason had won. He was the new world champion.
Sloane jumped up and down and proceeded to hug the entire Till family. They were still celebrating when suddenly Jason was there, too. He must have raced to her side, and he wasted no time kissing her.
“You did it,” she said when he pulled away. “You achieved your dream.”
“Which means you’ll be achieving yours, too.”
She grinned at him. “Thinking highly of yourself again, I see.”
“Not me. This win comes with a nice check, plenty for you to fund camps for the foreseeable future.”
She was so stunned she didn’t know what to say. When she finally found her voice, she said, “You can’t do that. It’s your money.”
“To do with as I please. And it pleases me to help the woman I love give a lot of kids who deserve it a little time away.”
Tears pooled in her eyes. “I love you.”
“Love you more,” he said with the same grin he’d given her outside the arena in Blue Falls that first night.
Finally, she believed they’d have a lifetime of arguing over who loved the other more. That was the type of argument she could live with.
* * * * *
If you loved this book, look for more in
Trish Milburn’s BLUE FALLS, TEXAS series:
HOME ON THE RANCH
A RANCHER TO LOVE
THE COWBOY TAKES A WIFE
IN THE RANCHER’S ARMS
THE RANCHER’S SURPRISE BABY
Available now from Harlequin Western Romance!
Keep reading for an excerpt from WINNING THE RANCHER’S HEART by Pamela Britton.
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Winning the Rancher’s Heart
by Pamela Britton
Chapter One
“Is this it?” T.J. asked, his left elbow brushing her own as her son wiggled on the old Ford’s front bench seat.
Naomi Jones stared at the sign hanging above the dirt road, clenching her palms against the sweat that formed.
Dark Horse Ranch.
“Yes.” She sighed. “This is it.”
“It doesn’t look like much of a ranch,” said her other child from her shotgun position. Samantha sounded about as enthusiastic as a dental patient about to undergo a root canal, but these days her teenage daughter didn’t sound enthusiastic about anything.
She had a point, though, Naomi admitted, but she knew from experience you couldn’t see much of the place from the road. Just a bunch of valley oaks dotting the acreage and the needle-straight line of a road, one that headed toward some low-lying foothills not too far in the distance. It was dusk and the sun had just started to set behind the hills. The dew point had risen and it released the scent of herbs in the air.
New life, new beginnings, she reminded herself.
Goodness knows she’d made a mess of the old one. Not at first. At first it had been heaven on earth. But then Trevor had died and everything had changed, and not for the better. These days Samantha was either a perfect princess or perfectly horrible. It was clear she needed to rein her in. And T.J. Poor T.J. had been bullied since his first day of elementary school. She hoped like heck the move would help.
Here we go.
Her old truck rattled forward. Someone had hit her pickup in the back and taken off without leaving a note. She didn’t have the money to fix it, so duct tape held parts of the bumper together. She should probably have it fixed before it flew off on the freeway or something, but that was what this move to California was all about, too. A good-paying job. A place to live—for free. And, once she sold her home in Georgia, money in the bank.
“Wow,” T.J. said.
She’d been so deep in thought she hardly noticed their surroundings. She looked up at her son’s gasp of amazement and spotted it. Beyond the oak trees, nestled into a craggy hillside, stood a house. A very big house.
“I know, right?” she said, guiding the old truck toward the redwood-and-glass monstrosity. It should look out of place in the middle of the country and yet the home seemed to have sprouted from the very rocks it sat upon. She’d watched enough shows about architecture on television to know it’d been designed by a naturalist, someone who wanted it to look indigenous to the landscape, and had probably cost a small fortune.
“Is that where we’re going to live?” T.J. asked with a tone of reverence.
She glanced at Samantha to gauge her reaction, but as usual, he
r thirteen-year-old had her head buried in her phone. Then again, in her present frame of mind, they could probably pull up to Buckingham Palace and Sam would pretend indifference.
“We’re actually living around the left side. In the maid’s quarters.”
Sam snorted. Her daughter hated her new job title: housekeeper. One of many things Sam had given her grief about when she’d learned they were moving.
“Can we go inside?” T.J. asked. He pushed his thick-framed glasses up on his nose.
“Not the big house,” Naomi said, smiling when she spotted the way his red hair stuck up on one side. They’d had the window down at one point. “We need to settle Janus into his new digs.”
She glanced in the rearview mirror. The Belgian Malinois must be lying down because Naomi couldn’t see his head between the bars of the plastic crate.
“He’s going to love it here,” T.J. said, wiggling on his seat.
At least one of them was happy with the move, although they weren’t completely free of Georgia just yet. She still needed to go back and arrange for all their furniture and belongings to be stored and/or sold. And she’d have to move some of it out west, which meant another long drive.
“I thought you said there would be horses,” Sam grumbled as they pulled up in front of their new home.
“They’re here.” Somewhere. According to the owner’s sister, Lauren Danners, they’d built the horse facility out back. Lauren had been the one to hire her because her brother, Jaxton Stone, was always out of town. Hooves for Heroes was a therapy center for soldiers with PTSD, although she’d never seen it. A state-of-the-art facility. New, she’d been told. Very expensive.
She pulled up to housekeeper’s entrance on the left side of the main house. Slipping out of the truck, she tucked her cell phone in her back pocket and took a deep breath of the chamomile-scented air. It had rained recently; that was the reason for the moisture in the air. She could smell the earth and the wild oats that grew between the trees. The moisture had settled on the granite stones that ringed the base of the house, turning them a dark rose color. A door had been placed in the middle of the wall—an ornate maple door with a fan-shaped paned window set into the top of it. Narrow windows sat on either side of that door, a small deck with redwood steps leading to the entrance. She wanted to buy some plants for the railings when she had some extra money.
Her Texas Rodeo Cowboy Page 18