The Rodeo Star's Return (Sapphire Springs Book 1)

by Angie Campbell

  Well, if she thought he was just going to give up that easily, she would soon learn she was wrong. He skidded to a stop and, stormed up to Mary Ellen’s front door. Before he could even raise his hand to pound on it, Mary Ellen flung it open and crossed her arms over her chest. She just stood there staring at him, waiting.

  “I know you are probably irritated at Brock, for God only knows what reason, but don’t take it out on me, please,” he pleaded. “I have not cheated on her. There’s no way in the world I would ever do that.”

  “Oh, I don’t doubt that,” she grouched at him. “That’s not why I’m irritated at you.”

  “I haven’t done anything for you to be irritated at me,” he huffed, throwing his hands up.

  “Really?” she glared. “Are you sure about that?”

  “Mary Ellen, would you, please, just get to the point.”

  “You’re an idiot, Tyler Wentworth.”

  “Mary Ellen!”

  “You haven’t touched her in over two weeks.”

  “She told you about that?” he asked, flushing scarlet.

  “Of course,” she snorted. “I am one of her best friends. Why wouldn’t she tell me?”

  Tyler sighed. “I was afraid I had moved to fast. I didn’t exactly give her a chance to stop me. I was waiting to see how she reacted. She was really jumpy the next morning. If I got within ten feet of her, she started shaking.”

  Mary Ellen sighed, starting to feel a little sorry for the guy. “Tyler, the whole thing with the towel was staged.”

  “What?”

  “After your mom asked if she could keep the baby for the night, she called Jessie for a little seduction advice. She was afraid it wasn’t going to work. Well, that was until the towel actually slipped to the floor on its own.”

  Tyler groaned, not sure whether to be embarrassed, or elated. He decided to be elated for now. He could do embarrassed later. “Can I, please, have my wife?” he pleaded, his desperation coming out. “I promise, I’ll straighten this out, if you’ll just let me see her.”

  “I don’t know. I don’t think it’s going to be that easy.”

  “Will you just let me try, please?”

  “Fine. She’s in the kitchen, crying her eyes out,” she gave him a stern look. “If she doesn’t stop crying fast enough, I’m calling my brothers. They’ve always looked at her like another sister. Get my meaning?”

  “Mary Ellen, I promise, I’ll fix this. Just let me see her, please.”

  “Alright,” she sighed, stepping back out of his way. “Don’t make this worse.” She shook her head. “Of course, I’m not sure how you could.”

  “Thank you,” he said, darting through the door before she changed her mind. Never having been in the house, he made a guess and stepped through the door on the left, and found Lucy sitting at the kitchen table, tears streaming down her face.

  He dropped to his knees beside her, placing his hands on the arm of the dining room chair. “Baby, I’ve never cheated on you.”

  “What are you doing here?” she sniffled, looking up at the door to the living room, hoping to find Mary Ellen there. “How did you get in here?”

  “Where else would I be? This is where you are? And Mary Ellen let me in. I didn’t break the door down.”

  “Where’s the baby?” she snapped, trying to push him back, like she was planning on standing.

  “Calm down. Your mother has her,” he said, gently pushing her back in the chair. “She is in perfectly, capable hands.”

  “You went to my parent’s house?”

  “Yeah, that’s where I thought I’d find you.”

  “I told her not to tell you.”

  “She wasn’t going to at first, but your dad was on my side,” he sighed. “It seems they had a similar tiff not too long after they married.”

  “My father didn’t cheat on my mother. I’m not sure I can say the same for you,” she managed to say, just before bursting into tears, yet again.

  He stood up, pulling her up with him. When he picked her up in his arms and started for the living room, she jerked back up straight. “Tyler, put me down.”

  “Nope, you’re going home with me. Where you belong.”

  “I don’t want to go anywhere with you,” she huffed, trying to wiggle out of his arms.

  He tightened his grip and kept going. When he got to the front door, Mary Ellen tried to stop him. “Tyler, I can’t let you do this.”

  “Mary Ellen, she’s not going to listen to a thing I say until I can calm her down,” he growled. “So, unless you want to loan me your bedroom for the next two or three hours, get out of my way.” Lucy gasped and buried her face in the side of his neck, her cheeks heating up.

  “Tyler, that was way more than I needed to know,” Mary Ellen grouched, ramming her hands on her hips

  “You’re the one standing in my way.”

  Mary Ellen flung the door open and stepped back out of his way. “Fine, but you only get one chance at this, then I’m calling Josh,” she threatened before he cleared the doorway.

  *******

  When Tyler finally made it in the door with Lucy, and had it locked behind him, he slid her slowly down his body, till her feet touched the floor. She gasped, clutching her hands in his shirt. “What are you trying to do to me?”

  He chose not to answer. He just buried his hands in her hair and pulled her head back. He started at her earlobe and slowly made his way around to her mouth. She tried to push him away, but she didn’t have the strength, or really the desire to.”

  “Tyler, please, stop. I can’t handle you cheating on me.”

  “I’ve never cheated on you. I never will cheat on you. I love you. I always have.”

  That gave her a burst of strength and she managed to push him back, anger sparking in her eyes. “Don’t you dare lie to me.”

  “I’m not lying.”

  “Sure, you’re not,” she huffed, turning to walk off.

  He grabbed her arm, pulling her back toward him. “Would you, please, just finally tell me why you always seem like you are so angry with me?”

  “Like you don’t know.”

  “No, I really don’t know.”

  “You’re trying to tell me you don’t remember the note?”

  “What note?”

  “The note.”

  “I don’t remember any note.”

  “In the eighth grade.”

  “Is this a note you were supposed to have wrote, or I was supposed to have wrote?”

  “I wrote it,” she snapped.

  “Who to?”

  “You.”

  “If I’d have gotten a note from you, I would have remembered.”

  “Great. I not only had to live through the humiliation the first time, but I’m going to have to live through it again.”

  “Humiliation? I would never have humiliated you.”

  “Of course, you would.”

  “What are you talking?”

  “The love note I wrote you in the eighth grade.”

  “If you had written me a love note in the eighth grade, or any other time for that matter, I wouldn’t have forgotten.”

  “You didn’t even have the decency to reject me to my face.”

  “Now I know for a fact I don’t know what you are talking about. I would never have rejected you.”

  “You apparently showed Brandy Drake my note. You two had a really good laugh about it, before you asked her to tell me there was no way you’d ever be with me.”

  He threw his head back with a sigh, before looking her in the eyes. “I would have thought you would have realized she was lying by now. You know now she never liked you,” he huffed. “I have not seen a love note from you. Not then. Not ever.”

  “She said there was no way you would be with some chubby science nerd whose parents were nothing more than a waitress and a truck driver. She told me you had said I would never amount to anything better. You said I was white trash.”

  “I would never
, ever call you white trash. And I don’t care what your parents do for a living. I have nothing but respect for them. I always have. They are wonderful people. Most of all, I always knew you could accomplish anything you wanted. You are one of the smartest people I know. I’d hate to have to live on the difference between you and James. He’s the only one that comes close to your level of intelligence. I’ve been in love with you since the first day of the eighth grade when I looked up and saw you sitting across the room, staring right back at me. In all the years I spent away from here, I never could get you out of my head. Not even for a minute.”

  A sob ripped from her chest, nearly dropping her to her knees. He wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her up against his chest. “Hey, now. Don’t cry.”

  “All she’s ever done is try to keep us apart, and I believed her. At the time, I thought she was my friend. I guess I just couldn’t change my mind set. We’ve missed so many years because I trusted the wrong person.”

  “Hey, you say that like we’re old and gray. We have plenty of years left to go.”

  “You don’t know that. It could all end tomorrow.”

  “Everybody faces that truth. For myself, I intend to live my life the best way I know how, and let God take care of the rest.”

  “I’m going to rip her bald,” she snarled her attitude suddenly changing. “She shouldn’t mess with people like that.”

  “You should just feel sorry for her.”

  “Feel sorry for her? Why would you say that?”

  “Because, she acts the way she does out of jealousy.”

  “Jealousy?”

  “Yeah. Confront her, if you must. Just don’t let your anger lead you.”

  Chapter 16 – Sunday, July 14

  Tyler rolled to his back, doing his best to extract himself from Lucy without waking her. He felt after last night, the gentlemanly thing to do would be to let her sleep in late. He looked over at the clock with a frown, wondering what had woke him. It was just fifteen after seven. It wasn’t long before he heard a bang on the front door. It sounded like someone was trying to knock the thing down.

  He groaned, and rolled out of bed, picking his jeans up off the floor where he’d dropped them last night. “Who could be here this early on a Sunday?”

  He stepped into his jeans, feeling a moment of panic when he thought it might be Lucy’s parents about Montana. He glanced at the phone and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw there were no missed calls. “They would have called first, before driving over here if there was an emergency,” he mumbled to himself, fastening his jeans, and heading toward the bedroom door.

  When he heard the door bang again, he picked up his pace, not wanting them to wake his beautiful wife.

  He threw the door open, and snapped, “What? This better be important for you to drag me out of bed, where I was, very happily wrapped around my sexy, little wife.”

  The words had flown out of his mouth before he even registered who was standing at the door. When he finally did, he got a questioning look, and rubbed a hand over his eyes. “Josh Edwards?”

  “Where’s she at?”

  “Where’s who at?”

  “Your wife, Lucy. Who else?” the other man snarled.

  “I just got through telling you, she’s in bed. Where I would, very much, like to still be,” he snarled back. “Why do you want to know where my wife is?”

  Josh pushed him back, and motioned for one of the men standing behind him to go down the hall. “Go find her.”

  Tyler was momentarily stunned enough to ask, “Is that little Rickie? Wasn’t he like twelve when I left for the rodeo?”

  “Shut up,” Josh snapped, pushing him farther back, listening for the voices down the hall.

  Tyler growled, pushing back at him. “Look, Josh, I don’t appreciate being dragged out of my bed early, on a Sunday morning. I had other plans. Why are you looking for my wife?”

  “Mary Ellen said you had her in tears last night,” the other man snarled. “If she’s still in tears this morning, she’s going with me.”

  Tyler took a step forward, snarling in the other man’s face. “Josh, I don’t normally have a problem with you, but right now, I’m coming close to putting my fist in your face. You are not taking my wife, anywhere.”

  “That depends on her,” the other man said, poking him in the chest. “And don’t start something you may not be able to finish on your own.”

  “Are you threatening to gang up on me,” he said, jabbing him back. “That seems a little out of character for you.”

  “I won’t need help, Wentworth,” he hissed, stepping even closer to Tyler. “If she’s still crying, you’re in trouble.”

  “She’s not crying, and you and your brothers need to get out of here.”

  “I’m not leaving here until I talk to her,” Josh growled, slamming both his open palms into Tyler’s chest to push him back.

  “Joshua Edwards, you keep your hands off my husband,” Lucy said, crossing her arms over her chest, and giving him a stern look.

  “Hey, Lucy,” Josh said, turning toward her. “Mary Ellen said he had you crying last night. Are you okay?”

  “Josh, I’m fine. We’ve worked out our problems,” she said, walking over to wrap her arms around Tyler’s waist, effectively placing herself between the two men. He wrapped his arms around her, and kissed her on the forehead, holding her close.

  “Worked your problems out?” He gave her a questioning look. “What do you mean? What exactly was your problems? Mary Ellen didn’t say anything beyond you were crying?”

  “I didn’t realize how much he really loves me,” she said, smiling up at her husband. Then she sighed and looked back at Josh. “I thought he was cheating on me.”

  Josh snorted and shook his head. “Only a fool would cheat on a woman like you.”

  Tyler smiled and nodded his head in agreement. “And no matter what else I might be, I’m no fool. I will never cheat on you.”

  “I know that now,” she sighed. “I just had my doubts for a while.”

  Josh nodded his head and took a step back. “As long as everything is okay, now.”

  “Josh,” she frowned in thought. “I appreciate your concern, but I have a feeling you were thinking something else was going on.”

  He blushed and dropped his eyes to the floor, before looking back up at Tyler, then back at Lucy. “Like I said, Mary Ellen didn’t tell me much.”

  Lucy’s frown deepened. “Did you think he was hitting me?”

  “Honestly, I didn’t know what I’d find when I got here,” he shrugged. “While I didn’t think it was likely, I wasn’t ruling it out. Sometimes, it can be hard to know for sure.”

  “If it weren’t for what you said about not thinking it was likely, I might have gotten mad for you thinking something like that,” Tyler cringed. “Besides the fact that I could never bring myself to hit a woman, not even Montana’s mother. Let me tell you, that woman could use a good spanking. And I especially could never do anything to hurt Lucy. But you know my mother. She would kill me if she thought I was hurting Lucy.” Tyler just shivered, and pulled Lucy tighter to his chest.

  Josh chuckled. “Yeah, I guess I should have thought of that one. I can see her chasing you through the yard with a broom, trying to beat you with it.”

  “I would be lucky if she used something so non-lethal,” Tyler cringed again, and shook himself to try to rid himself of the images.

  “Well, sorry to disturb your Sunday morning,” Josh grimaced with embarrassment. “We’ll be going now.”

  “Yeah, have a good one.” Tyler grinned. “We’re going back to bed,” he added, as he started pulling a blushing Lucy back down the hall.

  Chapter 17 – Saturday, August 10

  “Well, if it isn’t the new Mrs. Wentworth,” came from behind her in false cheeriness. A false cheeriness she finally noticed for the first time. Lucy stopped and turned back to watch the little blonde sashay her way up the aisle.

&n
bsp; “Yes, that’s my name now,” she said, feeling far more tranquil than she would have thought possible. “Did you need something, Brandy?”

  Brandy gave her a careless shrug, as if it was just an afterthought. “You know, it’s never going to work, don’t you?”

  Lucy knew exactly what the woman was getting at, but decided to play along. “What’s not going to work?”

  “This little marriage of yours and Tyler’s,” she said, stepping closer to whisper as if sharing a confidence.

  “What makes you think that?”

  Brandy gave her a false look of sympathy, and raised her hand like she was going to pat her on the shoulder. When Lucy stepped back to evade her touch, she gave a soft sigh, but only after barely covering a scowl. “He’ll eventually get tired of playing house.”

  “Playing house?” Lucy asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Yes, Dear,” she sighed again. This time with even more false concern. “Tyler’s a roamer, and when he gets tired of playing house with you, he’s going to start playing around on you. Men like Tyler always need variety.”

  “You really expect me to believe that, don’t you?”

  “Hey, I’m just trying to warn you. I’d hate to see you get hurt.”

  “I’m not going to get hurt, but you might, if you try to come between me and my husband again.”

  “Well, what’s that supposed to me?” Brandy snapped before regaining control of her mask of concern.

  “I know you lied about the note back in the eighth grade.”

  “What note?” she asked, sounding alarmed.

  “You know what note.”

  “You mean that silly, little love note?” she shrugged. “I hardly think that matters now.”

  “It wasn’t silly to me, Brandy.”

  “Whatever,” she smirked, finally dropping the act. “It’s not going to change a thing, when he eventually gets bored.”