Memories were flooding her mind like a slideshow of their first conversations about horses, life, and where they were going. JT bit his bottom lip as he leaned against a fence. He’d never made an advance on her until she let him know she wanted one. Even now he was keeping his distance... now if she could just stop herself from wanting to run to him and know if there was any chance he could still kiss her into oblivion.
Letting out a cleansing breath, she excused herself.
“I need to find my camera man.” She gave Danny a hug. “It was good to see you again, hope I get an exclusive later this weekend.”
“Whoo... hoo I’s gonna be famous.” Danny fell into his clown ways and slapped his knee.
When Betsy found Ron he was talking to an old bull fighter she knew. Okay, so maybe this wasn’t so bad.
“You’re not afraid of Yankee, Jeff?” She asked as she approached.
“Well, damn girl, this guy said his reporter was a cutie from Texas. If I’d known it was you I would have cleaned up more.”
Jeff’s scruffy salt and pepper beard wasn’t a fake out. She was sure he probably hadn’t shaved since a week before the tour started in April. He was just hitting fifty and prior to being a bull fighter he’d been a bull rider. Luckily for her his short stocky build had him almost eye to eye with her.
“I highly doubt that, you’re still wearin’ that old baseball cap.”
Ron raised an eyebrow then pointed to his lips, their secret way of saying “your accent is getting thick”.
“It’s lucky,” he said as he pulled it off and rolled the brim tight.
“It’s toxic is what it is. How’d you end up here?”
“This rodeo’s now number two to PBR.”
“Really, wow.”
“They locked Yankee in two years ago to an exclusive with his owner. Before that the poor boy was bucking every weekend and sometimes a few days a week.”
“You willing to be my tour guide since I don’t know anybody any more?”
“There’s a few of us around, Danny, Clint, Sunshine and...” Jeff pulled up short and gave her a look that said the name he wouldn’t. “Well there’s a bunch of us oldies but goodies around.”
“I ran into Danny and well... others.” She turned to Ron. “By the way Ron, Cole’s here.”
“Don’t look at me,” he replied and held his hands up.
“Who’s Cole?” Jeff asked.
“A guy who’s a breath away from a stalker conviction.”
“Someone hassling you?” Jeff’s voice conveyed his concern.
“Not really, local ballplayer—”
“Who’s a good guy and just wants one date,” Ron finished.
“Judas,” Betsy growled.
“No, but I want to ask your buddy a question.” Ron turned to Jeff. “When she was in Texas did she ever relax?”
“She’s always been focused.” Jeff ran his hand over his beard in contemplation. “I know she liked to ride if she got a chance.”
“Did she date?”
“Um...” Jeff turned his head to the side. “Not so much.”
“See, told you.”
“What about this boyfriend she said she had?”
“I don’t rehash the past with strangers.” Jeff arched his brow to Ron, then gave Betsy an evil grin. “Especially when the past is about to smack someone right on her ass.”
*****
“Did my eyes deceive me or was Betsy Flynn being molested by Danny?” Sunshine asked as JT began buttoning up his shirt.
Sunshine sat on a few bales of hay with his journal out. He didn’t look up, instead just kept sketching a border around his latest poem. His white blond hair was shaggy and showed a perfect line around his skull from his hat. He was lankier than most of the riders, but it didn’t seem to hurt his stats.
“He was just saying hi to her.”
“I also noted that she didn’t seem to like you.”
“It’s amazing how you got all that without looking up.”
Sunshine lifted his head and the cool blue of his eyes had more smile to them than his thin lips.
“Betsy Flynn was within a mile of me. Trust that I looked up. She’s not that gangly girl from Dell City anymore.” Sunshine smirked. “If you wouldn’t have ran her away from the whole damn sport I would have—”
“Nothing,” JT warned as he pulled his calf’s hide gloves on. “You wouldn’t have done a damn thing.”
“Only ‘cuz you’re my friend, but friend, you have one last rodeo to win that girl’s heart. I could tell she didn’t expect to see you here, but I also saw she was fighting the urge to hog tie you.”
“Is your mind ever out of the gutter?”
“Is yours?” he laughed. “I was going to say that she was ready to tie you to a post and horse whip you.”
“Whatever man.”
“The way young cowboys forget to hold the reins. It makes one wonder what takes the focus from their brains. We wish we could warn them of the dangers up ahead. But they wouldn’t listen for they feel the road they’re taken has never seen tread. Was it the way her hair blew in the wind? Or the subtle sweet smell of her skin? The flash of her eyes? Her full hips or freckled chin? We may never know what goes on in his head. He thinks he holds the cards, but she will always win.”
“That from your rhyming stage?”
“Looks like I wrote it about six years ago,” Sunshine said as his thumb stroked the top of the page. “Hmm... wonder what inspired that?”
“Alcohol.”
“Nope, my best friend being dumb struck by the only woman who would actually be happy with a farmer.”
“She’s a big time reporter now. No time for me. She’s with one of the biggest names in baseball.”
“Betsy? With a ballplayer?”
“His first contract was probably more than I’ll make in a lifetime.”
“That tall kid with Danny?” Sunshine asked as he looked into the ring. “Damn, he looks young, then again she did date you.”
“I’m two years younger than her,” JT said as he leaned against the gate and sized up the competition. “He’s gotta be close to ten.”
“She’s gone to the city and became a cougar.”
“Reflections on the last stop?”
“Yeah, that lady in Minot was probably a mistake.”
“Ya think?”
JT watched as Danny talked up Cole who stood over six-foot with arms the size of tree limbs. He had his shirt sleeves pushed up and they seemed to strain against his entire body. JT looked down at his flat stomach, which although it sported a six pack, wasn’t bulging, just firm. Maybe that’s why Betsy liked the ballplayer. Big, muscular, wealthy... right, but JT had something Cole didn’t. History. As much as Betsy would fight it, he would always be her first love and he knew what she wanted better than any man alive.
Because he’d failed to give it to her.
Chapter Three
“How does this thing work?” Ron asked Betsy as she looked at the day’s baseball scores.
Even though she was on location she still was responsible to report on all the sports of the day, not just rodeo. She inputted the early scores into the computer so the producers could put it up on the screen when she cut. With five night games she’d have to have her tablet out and up for the latest updates before she went on air.
Rule number one when she got home. Buy a cabin.
“Tonight’s opening ceremonies and first round of competition. It’ll be the same each night except there won’t be the big opening. I think there’s a concert tomorrow night.”
“What do you want shots of?”
“We’ll catch a few riders,” she said. “This one, Sunshine Parker will probably last the eight seconds.”
“You know him.”
“Yes,” she growled. “Yes I do.”
“Is he the ex?” Ron asked with an arched brow.
“No, he’s his boyfriend.”
Betsy went back to her tablet and cont
inued to transfer the scores.
“Wait a second,” Ron said. “You can’t make a statement like that then go back to work with out explaining it. Your ex-boyfriend left you for a man?”
Betsy set down her work and crossed her arms.
“No, he chose his friend’s career over a life with me.”
“Who is he? I’ll kick his ass.”
“Don’t bother. I’m over him.”
“That why you’re so open to Cole?”
“That’s why I’m not dating boys. I learned my lesson. Howard understands, why can’t you?”
“Cole’s a good guy.”
“And in ten years when he wants a serious relationship he can call me. Until then I don’t have time to invest in a relationship that’s going nowhere.”
“You have no idea where anything could go because you don’t want to take a chance.”
“I took a chance coming up here and learning a new language.”
“You spoke English.”
“I spoke Texan and you speak... somethin’ all together different.”
“It worked out.”
“I guess.” Betsy went back to checking box scores and then making notes in her notebook off the program. Ron took off to take some candid shots of the horses and bulls being loaded into the holding pens.
“Excuse me Miss...” an all too familiar voice called from behind her. “Miss Betsy.”
“Go away, Sunshine,” she replied as she tucked a loose hair behind her ear without turning to verify it was him.
“Come on Bets, you ain’t seen me in almost five years.”
“Try again in five more.”
“It’s not my fault.”
Betsy turned and glared at someone she’d come to trust. Someone she’d loved like a brother because he’d basically been JT’s brother on the road.
“No, it’s his and I’m not in the mood to deal with either of you this weekend so if you wouldn’t mind falling off the back of a horse for me so I don’t have to interview you as a winner, I’d appreciate it.”
“You planning on breathing or just snapping.”
“I think we both know I haven’t begun to snap.”
“He’s been miserable.”
“I’m sure, all those girls on the road and late nights drinking are hard on a man. That excuse might have worked twenty years ago when there wasn’t a thousand and one social networks.”
“You think he doesn’t follow you too?”
Betsy glared at Sunshine.
“I sent the press releases to your boss.”
“You!” She stood and shoved Sunshine. “I’m stuck in ninety degree heat with a thousand degree humidity dodging cow pies left and right because of you.”
“Now Bets—”
“Don’t Bets me. You... you... ugh, why would you do that? Did you think to ask if maybe I was crushed when he left? No, you didn’t. You were too busy only thinking of yourself and your career.”
“Hey now, I never asked him to choose me over you.”
“You know how loyal he is. No one needed to ask.” Betsy just wished he’d shown her some of that same loyalty.
“Give him five minutes.”
“I ain’t givin’ him five seconds. Jesus, Sunshine, the last thing I want is to get sucked into his world and this stupid circuit sending him God knows where.”
“You ran too.”
“I ran because it was too painful to stay. He just ran.”
Betsy snapped her laptop shut, shoved it in her backpack, slung it over her shoulder, and went in search of Ron.
*****
JT needed to get his head on straight. It had been years since Betsy had seen him ride. Not being a competitor he liked that she rarely watched them. Betsy always focused on him and how he swooped in to save the cowboys getting tossed around.
“Hey cowboy,” the dark haired woman called.
“Hey yourself.” Sunshine’s lips curled up as he leaned on the old wooden fence that surrounded the fairgrounds.
“Not you.” She smiled and looked directly at JT. “You.”
Her smile was magical, especially when her blue eyes sparkled in the afternoon sun.
“What’s your name? You didn’t tell me when we were talking earlier.”
“JT Long and you are?”
“Betsy.” She placed her hands on her hips and her index fingers locked around her belt loops. “Flynn, I’m gonna be covering this event for KTXT.”
“Then you’ll want my name,” Sunshine interjected, breaking her gaze from JT’s eyes.
“Why is that?”
“Because he’s just a pick-up man, I’m the show.”
“You a bull rider?”
“Bareback,” Sunshine growled and JT had to hold in a laugh.
“Never been interested. Seems dangerous for no real reward.”
“Then you’ve never known the enjoyment of nothing between you and something powerful.”
“I guess that’s why I’m interested in JT, cowboy, and not you.”
JT had been a pick-up man since he started with the rodeo. His mother had told him she didn’t mind him being on the circuit, but she couldn’t take the idea of him being in danger every day. Plus it had never been in his nature to be a risk taker; he liked to be the hero and pick-up men were just that. They rode up along side the bucking horses and gave the riders a place to safely dismount, then wrangled the bucking horses back into the chute. It still gave him the rush and a steady paycheck unlike the competitors that were at the mercy of an animal and their own skill set.
Curling his fingers around the reins the arthritis burned from every joint. He knew he had to stop riding hard. Caring for horses shouldn’t aggravate the early symptoms, but five more years gripping the reins as he tears around the tight turns was going to give him the body of a seventy-year-old.
The burning lessened as his adrenaline began to pump. Danny had worked up the crowd. With the first rider geeking himself up in this chute JT kept his eyes locked on the release of the latch.
His spine tingled. Every sound was blocked out except for that latch. With a click any pain in his joints disappeared as if he’d been given an injection of a miracle drug.
The seconds ticked away and the rider stayed on. The buzz of the eight second clock sent the signal straight to his heels that jabbed into Smash’s side. Tearing off across the area JT took the right while Clint took the left. The rider wrapped his arms around JT’s neck and JT wrapped his left arm around the rider’s waist. Slowing Smash down he angled for the edge of the arena and the rider slid to the ground and waved when his feet touched the earth.
JT’s heart rate slowed when the rider got to the gate by the chutes. He turned Smash to help corral the bronco that had stopped bucking. When Clint and he returned to their spot at the edge of the grounds he let out a sigh.
“You good now?” Clint asked.
“Yes.” JT scanned the holding area to see if Betsy was there. She wasn’t, but that didn’t change the fact he needed to be focused.
“Why is it?” Clint began. “That you have to pop your cherry every damn rodeo before you become calm?”
“Why is it you don’t,” JT retorted.
“Because stress isn’t going to help me get a rider.”
“I’m the opposite.”
Danny finished announcing the next rider, then JT pulled in again. His mind wandered the stadium seats until he saw her. Betsy was hanging half over the edge of the gate in the rear. Her dark hair was kissed by the sunset as it shone. With a glimmer she turned her head toward him and the buzzer went off.
Shit!
He’d missed the whole ride and Clint was already along side the bronco that was still bucking as if it had just been released.
JT quickly kicked Smash and began circling his lasso at his side. The bronc kicked its back legs as it completed a three-quarter turn that ended in him facing down the animal. The rider still held on as he eyed Clint to figure out a way to jump off the beast. The
bronc solved the problem and the rider flipped off its left haunch. With a thud the rider crashed to the dirt and JT lassoed the wild horse around the neck and reared back on Smash.
With a jerk the bronc tried to pull JT, but he pulled in tight as Clint threw a second lasso and pulled back again. The bull fighters had surrounded the thrown cowboy and helped him to his feet. Dusted off he walked to the gate and gave a wave to the crowd. Clint and JT led the bronc back to the chutes.
JT trotted over to the thrown rider and motioned him over, “You okay Ty?”
“Yeah JT, my hand got tangled in the rope.”
The smidge of guilt dissipated from JT. He’d never gotten distracted like that when he and Betsy had been dating. Then again back then he knew she was watching him. She’d worried about his safety and that he was okay. Now she probably worried about that damn baseball player of hers. JT was about to scan the crowd again when he heard Sunshine’s name.
“Sunshine Parker all the way from New Mexico,” Jerry the other MC called. “Let’s cheer him on as he rides Satan’s Sire.”
JT steeled himself again as the click alerted him to the release. Sunshine’s hat stayed on for three seconds before flying to the ground. The gray bronco’s legs kicked at least five feet in the air before it rocked back down. Sunshine’s body twisted and turned, but he kept his left arm up to balance. Fear tore through JT when Sunshine’s head came inches from the bronc’s haunches.
Righting himself, Sunshine was able to pull himself back up as the buzzer blew and JT tore off to help his friend. Coming up beside the horse, Clint helped in guiding as Sunshine jumped to JT and then slid when safely away from the horse.
“Thanks JT,” he said as JT helped lead the horse back in the chutes.
JT circled back around to Sunshine.
“You good?”
“Thanks for focusing on me and not Bets.”
“You caught that huh?”
Sunshine raised his eyebrow and refitted his hat to his head. Everyone working caught it. Now JT worried Betsy had seen too. She knew his job and what was involved. Shit! Shit! Shit!
JT stayed focused through the rest of the barebacks. The ten minutes of shuffling horses to move on to the next showing of saddled broncs found JT resting his forearms on the horn of his saddle.
Red Hot and BOOM! A Sizzling Hot Collection of Stories from the Red Hot Authors Page 48