I was about to get back on the road when my phone rang. I looked down at the face of it, hoping it was Lexi. For a second, I hoped that she had changed her mind about leaving me or letting me quit, either way I’d be with her. It was my dad, instead. I hadn’t talked to him since that night he’d said all of those terrible things and kicked me out. I wondered what he could possibly want with me and I debated not answering it at all.
Curiosity got the better of me, and I pressed accept, put the phone to my ear, and said, “Hi, Dad.”
“Mark. I was just calling to see where you were and make sure that you’re still amongst the living.” Was I supposed to take this to mean that he does care for me, at least a little bit? Or maybe he was just worried he would have to cover the funeral expenses.
“I’m in Florida. I’m headed to Mississippi. I’ll be on the road for a couple of days and then I have a rodeo on Saturday.”
“Is Lexi with you?”
I didn’t see any reason to get into this with him so I simply said, “Not right now.”
“Have you seen Lydia?”
“Not since Fourth of July. Dad, I don’t want to be rude, but I need to get on the road. What is all of this about?”
“Nothing, like I said…I wanted to make sure you were alive. Bye, Mark.”
“Bye, Dad.” After I disconnected the call, I sat there staring at the phone for a while. What was that about? Was he really trying to reach out to me? I was more confused than ever. Maybe he does have a conscience after all, and it was gnawing at him.
The ride in Mississippi went good. I walked away with an eighty-five and eight thousand dollars. I was on the road again after that for another two days to Arizona. I did talk to Lexi every day and we Skyped when we had time, but I missed her and my mind wasn’t completely where it should be. That was never more apparent then when that chute opened in Tucson.
As soon as we came out, the bull I was riding, an eighteen hundred pound brute by the name of Tornado, began to kick and rear. It was the first time since my injury that I tried using my right hand. My hand started to slip and I clamped down tighter. I didn’t know then how long I had stayed on – I found out later it was only five seconds. He tossed me over his head into the metal bars of the arena and then he came at me with his hooves. I tried to make myself as small as I could as I saw them coming at me. When they made contact with my side, all I could think was that this was it – my career is over. He reared up again and my angels in clown make-up were there to save me. They got him distracted and out of the arena before he could finish me off. I was left with some sore, bruised ribs and an even more bruised ego, but I knew that I had to get my head straight or I wouldn’t be able to finish out this tour. I’d been mulling something over in my head for days now. I needed to just do it. I called Lydia to ask for her help.
“Hello, Mark. Are you okay?” That was how she answered the phone. She was the most genuinely nice person I knew. It was no wonder that she had raised such an amazing daughter.
“I’m okay, Lydia. How are you?”
“I’m doing well. Lexi’s not here right now.”
“I know. I wanted to talk to you. I wondered if you could do me a favor…well, favors.”
“Of course, if I can. What do you need?”
“Can you make dinner tomorrow night and make sure that Lexi can be there?”
“I can do that. Are you going to tell me why?”
“I will be in town by five tomorrow evening. I have something I need to ask your daughter.”
Lydia was silent for a few seconds and then I heard her suck in a breath and say, “Oh, Mark! Yes, of course. I’ll make sure she’s here.”
“Thank you.” Lydia and I discussed the details, and she was practically giddy when we hung up. She made me smile and feel more confident about what I planned on doing. I put the phone away, tightened the abdominal binder I was wearing for the pain, and left my hotel room…I had some shopping to do.
CHAPTER SEVEN
LEXI
I sat on the bed in my room while I had my Skype session with Mark. He seemed really happy, yet he told me he had a terrible ride at the rodeo in Tucson. I thought that was weird and I wondered if he’d hit his head or something and forgot how important this all was to him.
“So why was it so terrible?”
“I got thrown over his head into the metal gate. He decided then that he wanted to crush me with his hooves.”
“Oh my goodness! Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. My ribs and ego are a little bit bruised, but otherwise okay.”
“Did he get you? Did he step on you? Did you go get an x-ray?” My heart instantly began to race.
“No, baby, he didn’t step on me. I’m just sore from hitting the gate. I had the trainer feel them, they’re not broken. I’m fine.”
“They could be fractured. You should have had an x-ray. Are you sure he didn’t step on you? You wouldn’t lie to me, would you?”
“Never!” he grinned. Even through the computer, I melted. I still wasn’t sure he was telling the absolute truth, but at least I could see that he still had his handsome head on his shoulders. “Guess what?” he said, suddenly.
“What?”
“My dad called me this morning.”
“He did? What did he say?”
“It was weird. He said he was calling to make sure I was still alive. Then he asked if you were with me and if I’d seen Lydia. When I asked him what he’d actually called for he just re-iterated that he wanted to find out if I was alive and pretty much hung up.”
“It sounds like the regrets are starting to eat at him. What are you going to do?”
“Nothing at this point,” he said. “I think after all the years I spent trying to please him, at the very least, he should give me an apology for the way he treated us. When he does that, then maybe I’ll be ready to talk.”
I nodded. “I agree. He owes you a huge apology.”
“And you and Lydia…”
“True, but I don’t think Mom really wants his apology and I could totally do without it myself. I have what I want…you.”
He smiled again and said, “Thank you, baby. Just promise me that you’ll forgive me in advance if I lose my mind someday and reach out to him, okay? I’m not thinking about it now, but I did answer and I didn’t hang up when he called, so who knows?”
“I know the feeling, remember?” It’s something we all do, or at least think about, I guess. All of us with crappy parents, anyways. “I’m sure you will reach out to him, eventually. You have a good heart.”
“I don’t want to talk about him anymore right now,” he said. “Let’s talk about my favorite subject: you. How was your first week of school?”
“It was hectic. I had to sit in on a few classes to get them and scramble to find the right books, but I talked to a counselor and I did decide on a major.”
“Cool, what did you decide on?”
“Sports medicine,” I answered. I had watched so many cowboys get injured and admired the medical staff at the rodeos so much, that I thought it might be interesting and fun to be one of them. It would also give me a reason to travel the rodeo circuit, too, if Mark decided to keep going. There would be a lot of other things I could do, as well, if I decided not to do that. I could be a trainer for just about any sport, team or otherwise.
“Wow, that’s awesome!” He was so genuinely supportive, it’s no wonder I love him.
“I think so,” I said with a smile. “I’m happy to finally decide on something. I’ll have to add another semester on at the end. But, I think in the long run it will be worth it.”
“As long as you’re doing something that makes you happy,” Mark said.
“I’ve had a shining example of that,” I told him with a grin. “So give me some good news. When will you be home?”
“Soon. I will see you soon.” That was a little evasive. Before I could ask him about it he said, “I have to get going now, babe, and get on the road t
o Utah. I’ll call you as soon as I can. I love you.”
“I love you, too.” Weird.
The next day, my mother was acting really strange, too. I actually wondered if Rob called her like he had Mark. She asked me four times that morning if I would be home for dinner. Each time I told her I would, she would say, “Good. I’m making all your favorites, so please make sure you get here.”
“Okay, what’s the occasion?”
“No occasion. Can’t a mother make her daughter’s favorites without there being an occasion?”
“Of course. I just don’t want you going out of your way for me. I can just as easily eat on campus before I come home…”
“Don’t you dare! Please promise me you won’t eat and you’ll be home by five.”
“I promise, but you’re being weird.”
“Can’t a mother be weird?” I laughed.
“Mine sure can,” I told her. She laughed, too, but I was pretty sure she was up to something. “Mom, did Rob call you?”
She furrowed her brow. “No. Why? Did he call you?”
“No, thank goodness. I don’t think I’m his favorite person any longer. He called Mark yesterday.”
“He did? What did he have to say for himself? Did he apologize at least?”
“No. Mark thinks maybe the guilt is getting to him a little. He said he wanted to make sure Mark was still ‘amongst the living.’”
“Maybe he has a conscience, after all,” Mom said.
“I suppose anything is possible,” I told her with a grin. “I have to get going. I love you.”
School that day was long. I had two classes in the morning and two labs in the afternoon. The time seemed to drag by in my afternoon classes, even though we were so busy that I was going to take most of my homework with me. I was go glad when my last class finally ended at four-thirty – I was wiped out. Samantha texted earlier in the day to see if I wanted to go out tonight, but I’d turned her down because I’d promised Mom I’d be home. Now I was glad I’d had Mom as an excuse, I don’t think I could do the club scene tonight.
When I opened the door to the apartment, I was surprised to see that it was dark inside. I flipped on the light switch and called out, “Mom?” She didn’t answer, and I didn’t smell anything cooking. That was weird since she’d insisted I come home for dinner. With a tickle in my belly, I walked a little bit further inside. “Mom?” Still, no answer. I stepped into the living room off the foyer and saw a note with my name on it propped up on the table. I picked it up, unfolded it and read:
“Lexi, I’m sorry, but I had to go out. I left your dinner in the microwave. Please eat. I love you, Mom.”
“Really, Mom?” I was starting to wonder if she’d gone senile in her old age. She was the one who insisted I come right home today. With a sigh, I dropped my backpack and went into the kitchen. I was curious about what she made for dinner, so I went over and popped the microwave open. There was a covered plate inside. I took the plate out and lifted off the lid…and stared at it for a good fifteen seconds before my mind registered what it was seeing. There was nothing on the plate except for a white velvet box and a tiny envelope. “What the hell?” The envelope had my name on it. I picked that up and opened it first. I recognized Mark’s handwriting.
Lexi: There is something magic in your eyes. I saw it the first day that I met you. I didn’t know what it was then…I didn’t understand it. The way that I felt was so wrapped up at first in who I thought you were. This was never supposed to happen and I never planned for it to. But you can’t deny the magic, whether it makes sense or not. It’s beautiful and it’s mysterious and it’s still there in your eyes every time I look into them. It’s the magic I want to see and feel for the rest of my life. It quickens my heart and makes me realize what I was actually working towards my entire life and just didn’t know it. I’m a cowboy and I love what I do, but what I do is not who I am any longer. Who I am now is the man who loves you and hopes that you might consent to wearing this ring that promises someday we’ll have a long future together filled with warmth and laughter and even some little cowboys and cowgirls runnin’ around. I love you, Lexie.-Mark
My eyes were so blurred with tears that I could hardly see as I flipped open the box. Sitting inside, nestled against red velvet, was the most beautiful ring I had ever seen. It was white gold with a sapphire and diamond setting. I was different than any ring I had ever seen and I thought it was so fitting because Mark and I started out in such a “different” way. As I stood there crying in the kitchen, I just assumed that Mark and Mom had set this up together…I assumed he sent her the ring and the note and she left it for me to find. I did wonder why he didn’t wait until he was home to do it himself, but I was touched nonetheless. I headed into my bedroom to get my laptop and call him on Skype. I needed to see his beautiful face when I said, “Yes.” When I stepped from the kitchen back into the living room, I stopped dead in my tracks. Mark was there, dressed in his cowboy finest, on bended knee with a bouquet of red roses in his hand. “Oh my God!” The tears started again and before he could say a word, I tackled him back onto the carpet. I kissed his face all over. “Yes! Yes! Yes! I will wear your ring, I’ll be your wife, and I’ll have your babies…” He was laughing, pinned underneath me, still holding the roses. I finally calmed down enough to take them out of his hand. “They’re beautiful. My ring is beautiful. I love you!”
He pushed himself up with his arms and took the roses out of my hand. He set them aside on the coffee table. Then he took the ring out of my hand and said, “May I?” I nodded, the tears freely flowing from my eyes now. He took the ring out of the box and slid it onto the ring finger of my left hand. Mom must have helped him with that, too…it fit perfectly. She was getting sneaky in her old age. When I was younger, she couldn’t be trusted with a secret to save her own life.
“It’s beautiful,” I said, looking down at it in awe.
He cupped my chin and tipped my face up to his and said, “You’re beautiful, and you know what I noticed?”
“That my mascara doesn’t run when I cry?”
He laughed. “That, too…but I noticed that you didn’t ask me how we would manage a marriage and my rodeo career.”
I realized that he was right. So far today, that hadn’t crossed my mind, but I suddenly knew why. “I don’t care,” I told him. “I honestly don’t care. As long as we can both do what makes us happy and be together as much as we can, I think we can work it out. I understand now why women do it. They do it because the men they love so much love it. It makes them happy. It makes you happy and whatever does that is the life I want to live. I love you so much!” He grinned at me like that was what he was hoping to hear, but then he shocked me by saying,
“I love hearing you say that, but before I came home I’d already decided. Las Vegas is going to be my last ride, win or lose.”
I wasn’t sure how to feel about that. I wanted to be ecstatic because I worried about him constantly and I missed him desperately when he was gone, but was that selfish of me? I was trying so hard to grow up and be the unselfish adult that I wanted to be. I wanted to be like Mom and make sacrifices for people I loved for a change, instead of the other way around.
Mark loved rodeo so much. “Are you sure about this, baby? I don’t want you to do that for me. I want you to do what makes you happy. I’ve had time to figure things out since I said I would never live like that. Never say never…you know?”
He took my hands and said, “When I used to think about having a family and doing rodeo, I thought that I could do it. But, that was when that family was just an illusion. Now it has a face, and I love the person behind that face so much that I want to be there with them to discover life. I want to be there when my babies are born and take their first steps, I want all of that so much more than I want to ride another bull. I do have one request before we start that family, though.”
I was crying again and I could hardly speak. Finally I said, “What’s that?”
“I want you and me to travel and see some of this beautiful world we live in together first.”
I couldn’t imagine anything better. He opened his arms, and I folded in to them. Any thoughts of how differently the worlds we came from were completely dissipated.
CHAPTER EIGHT
MARK
We sat right there on the living room floor for a long time, just holding each other as the sun went down and the apartment darkened around us. Finally, Lexi pulled back and said, “Where’s my mom?”
“She said to tell you that she’d be spending the night with her cousin Cara. I think she wanted to give us this night. She made dinner and left it in the refrigerator and told me all we needed to do was heat it up.”
“She helped you set this all up?”
I nodded. “And at the last minute.”
“She’s amazing.”
“Yes, she is. That explains why her daughter is amazing, as well. Are you hungry?”
“Not for food,” she said with a grin. My kind of answer. She shocked me then by reaching out and grabbing the waist of my jeans. She pulled me towards her and pressed her lips to mine as she ran her fingers along the length of my growing erection. I arched into her touch, nothing felt better.
“Maybe we should go to bed,” I said in a breathless voice. “Lydia said she wouldn’t be back tonight, but just in case.” She was licking my neck. My brain was quickly turning to mush.
“I don’t want to go to bed,” she whispered next to my ear.
“You don’t?”
“No. I was thinking…the bathroom.”
Confused, I said, “What?”
“I want to see us make love.” Dear God, she’s going to kill me. She stood up and reached her hand out to me. I took it and let her lead me down the hall, through her room and into the big bathroom it was connected to. There was a floor-to-ceiling mirror on one wall and the counter sat across from that. She stood in front of the counter, facing the mirror and as I watched, she stripped off all of her clothes. Damn! She’s so hot. When she finished stripping, I was still standing there with my mouth wide open. “Are you going to join me?” she asked with a giggle.
Ride Me Cowboy #5 (The Cowboy Romance Series - Book #5) Page 4