She loved with passion. In her inexperienced zeal, she gave as good as she got.
If she were to ever give over completely to passion 100 percent, if she were to ever fall in love, that man would be one hell of a lucky guy.
Once Maxine Porter started loving she would never stop.
She had her head screwed on right.
Last night, he’d thought it a onetime affair. He’d thought he was doing it for her, but no. From the start, even while she’d confounded him, he’d wanted her.
Last night had been for him as much as for her.
It had been a beginning.
In blissful ignorance, he had missed how right it was.
It should have been the beginning of more and more happiness to come.
But he’d screwed up.
He hadn’t realized the pure, perfect bliss of spending time with Max, and that one night would never be enough.
He’d given her a night of loving and she had given him awareness, a crack in his carefree shell to a depth of feeling he’d never known before and a burgeoning love that he had just killed because he’d been careless.
He’d dealt with her heart with a cavalier disregard for all that he had been giving, but also taking.
He hadn’t known.
Now Dusty would never be part of a loving future they should have been starting with last night’s brilliant lovemaking.
Not sex. Lovemaking.
He’d never experienced lovemaking before.
It had been life-changing.
* * *
After the first week, Dusty gave up trying to find Max and Josh, as did Marvin and the revival committee.
He worked tirelessly on the rodeo, driven by a need to prove, for Max’s sake, that she had been right all along.
He worked to prove not only himself wrong, but also Marvin, the ladies and everyone in town.
Too late, only after the cowboys and all the city boys had arrived and started practicing and people started to get excited about the whole unlikely venture, did Dusty realize that Max had really been onto something big.
A polo match in a Western rodeo was about as unique as unique could be.
Buzz about it popped up all over the place. It intrigued the public. Nadine interviewed both the rodeo riders and the polo players.
Local TV programs interviewed Dusty.
The ladies thought his good looks and charm made him the perfect spokesperson, but he agreed to the interviews only so he could sing Maxine Porter’s praises.
He could have found no bigger way to screw up with her than to betray her, and left himself with no possibility of salvation. But he had to try.
Their one night together haunted him and kept him awake at night.
For the first time in his life, he craved another night with her—more moonlight, starlight, chocolate, lime coolers and fun. More pickup truck sex. More loving of Max’s body and spirit.
More getting to know her.
He filled his days with practice for the rodeo and the polo match, but also with running Max’s ranch.
At night he fell into bed exhausted, but inconsolable. He ached for Max. He lay awake staring at the ceiling.
He wanted her to come home to a viable business and successful rodeo.
Aw, hell, he just wanted her to come home.
* * *
Charlie took Max shopping.
Max hated shopping, especially for clothes.
“I don’t have any money,” she said. Her four hundred dollars had to last until she could find a job. Then she had to find a place for them to live and a sitter for Josh since school was still out.
At the moment, her son was out on the range, up in the saddle in front of Dusty’s father. They’d taken to each other like horses to hay.
Max chewed on her thumbnail.
For the hundredth time, Charlie gently pulled her hand away from her mouth.
“We’re going shopping and you are going to enjoy it,” Charlie said, tone implacable. “Dusty’s father and I will cover the costs.”
“Oh, but you can’t.”
“Oh, but I can and I will.”
In the week since Max had arrived, she had learned how useless it was arguing with Charlene. Charlie got what she wanted, mainly because she read Max better than anyone ever had.
She tapped into Max’s secret longings.
Now that Max had spare time on her hands without the constant, grinding stress of running the ranch and worrying about finances, she recognized all that she had missed over the years. Even after she realized the fair had already started at home in Rodeo, she barely gave it a second thought.
Dusty had given her a taste of adolescence.
Charlie was giving her a taste of female adulthood spent with a friend.
They drove to the nearest town with a spa for a day of pampering.
They bought Max new clothes, still the jeans and shirts that she favored, yeah, but prettier than the stuff she usually wore for mucking out stables.
She got her hair cut while Charlie hovered giving instructions.
The hairstylist streamlined what had been a hack job on Max’s part, and suddenly Max had big eyes and high cheekbones.
They both got manicures.
Max balked.
Charlie insisted.
Charlie won.
Max enjoyed.
They drank margaritas with lunch, and Charlie limited Max to only two. Max loved that she cared enough to set limits.
She loved that Charlie treated her like a daughter.
Charlie cared for her.
Charlie kept her safe.
Max sat in the passenger seat of Charlie’s little car on the drive back to the ranch, a mild contented buzz mellowing her into happiness.
Or as much happiness as she could feel given that she wasn’t on her own ranch, in her own home, sleeping in her own bed.
Charlie’s house might be beautiful and the people warm and friendly, but everywhere Max turned she saw photographs of Dusty and heard stories of his childhood and his rodeo career.
That night, wrapped in a plush bathrobe sitting in front of a roaring fire in the Lincolns’ big family room, Charlie answered her phone.
Max shamelessly eavesdropped on the private conversation, wrapped in a plush bathrobe of her own. She admired her pink toenails.
For a long time, Charlie just listened before starting to intersperse comments.
“No...Yes. I know you’re sad and don’t know what to do. I know you miss her...That much, huh?...Yes, I do feel bad for you, honey. I wish I could help you, but I can’t.”
After Charlie disconnected, Max asked, “Dusty?”
Charlie nodded. “He’s missing you. Are you sure you don’t want him to know you’re here? Are you sure you don’t want to talk to him?”
Max shook her head. “No. Don’t tell him.”
Charlie turned to her husband and said, “Would you mind leaving us alone for a while?”
Big, masculine, handsome Angus said, “Sure thing, honey,” and left the room.
Of Max, she asked, “Are you ready to tell me what happened with my son?”
“Oh, Charlie,” Max, embarrassed and chagrined and humiliated, said, “I’ve been as dumb as every other woman in the state.”
“How so?”
“I fell in love with your son.”
Charlie sat back with a smile on her lips. “Well, of course, you did. But you’re not talking about infatuation like all of those other women, are you? You’re talking about a deep love.”
Max nodded.
“You might as well tell me all about it,” Charlie said.
And Max did.
Half an hour later, Charlie said, “You do know it isn’t one-sided, right?”
Ma
x stared at her, afraid to believe what she implied.
“He’s in love with you, too,” Charlie continued. “I’ve never heard Dusty so upset about a woman. He’s worried about you to the depths of his soul. He’s frightened that you’re all alone somewhere without support.”
Max lifted a finger to her lips to bite her nail, but caught sight of the pretty pink enamel on the nail and lowered her hand to her lap. “Do you think I should talk to him? Should I tell him how much I love him?”
“Hell, no,” Charlie said with a deep laugh. “Let him stew awhile longer.”
So Max did.
Cradled in the oasis of the Lincoln ranch, she rested for the first time in two decades, and grew into a strong sense of herself and her value.
* * *
In the days leading up to the opening of the fair and rodeo, Dusty struggled to be his normal self.
Dusty had given away a piece of himself to Max and he wanted it back.
That piece of nonsense didn’t rate a second thought, especially since he didn’t understand what he meant.
Throughout the arrival of the rodeo riders and their horses, through the many exhausting and exhilarating polo practices on the field preparing for the match at the back of the fairgrounds, he tried to stay focused on the job he’d come here to do. And despite the fun of watching city slickers try to learn Western events, and cowboys and cowgirls learning polo—all through the exciting hubbub of the first week and a half of the fair—Dusty struggled to hold it all together.
Day after day for two weeks, he worked from six in the morning until midnight, and he did it all for Max.
He’d taken her trust and had betrayed it.
He had also taken any bit of enjoyment she might have received from the success of the rodeo.
This had been her baby, not his.
He did the work now, only because he couldn’t find her, but he planned to give her all of the credit.
Up until the night before the polo match, he fooled himself into thinking that he could walk away from this town—and from Max—scot-free. He thought that once the fair and rodeo were done, he could leave here and be the same carefree footloose man he had always been.
Lying awake the night before the match, he no longer hid from the truth.
He missed Max with an ache that left him breathless.
He’d fallen in love with her.
Chapter 12
Dusty stepped out onto Marvin’s porch early on Saturday morning and breathed deeply of fresh clear air.
A good day had dawned for a polo match. A great day.
If only Max were here, it would be more than great. It would be perfect.
He loaded up most of the items he would need for the day.
Marvin had driven the ponies and horses over already.
Dusty had just picked up the last saddle to load into the back of his truck when he heard someone enter the stable.
He stepped into the aisle and stopped cold.
Max.
She stood silhouetted against the sunlight streaming into the yard. She seemed slimmer.
Changes in her registered right away. The clothes she wore actually fit her. They weren’t much different from her old clothes, except that they were new, and they fit. And she had a pretty body.
But he knew that already.
He knew her body.
He knew her.
He understood her now.
Dropping the saddle, he stalked the length of the aisle, not stopping until he hauled her into his arms and kissed the daylights out of her.
She didn’t respond.
He didn’t stop.
In slow degrees, his lips urged hers to open beneath the tender onslaught of his mouth.
She gave in and he lifted her into his arms, against his chest, trying to take her inside of him to carry in his heart forever.
When he came up for air, he slid her down his body and cradled her face between his hands. “Don’t leave again.”
She stared with wide, searching eyes. He hoped she could see how much he loved her.
“Don’t ever leave me again,” he repeated.
She nodded, but whispered, “We need to talk.”
“Later.”
He kissed her again until a gaggle of women’s voices interrupted.
“Max! Vy saw you drive through town. We piled into her car and got here as fast as we could.”
“My God, Max. You’re home.”
“Forgive us. We love you.”
“We’re so sorry.”
Dusty lifted his head and ordered, “Leave.”
He kissed Max again, but those pesky women’s voices wouldn’t stop.
“Leave,” he roared and there was silence.
To the women, Max said, “We’ll talk later,” and picked up where he’d left off kissing her.
He heard whispering and shushing and receding footsteps and a car engine driving out of the laneway. They had the stable to themselves. It was his and hers. Theirs.
Taking Max’s hand, he pulled her to the stairs to the hayloft and urged her up with a hand on her bottom.
He followed her up.
Once there, he made love to her, undressing her as though she were a rare treasure.
She undressed him, too, with wonder in her eyes that he knew was reflected in his own gaze on her.
He was never letting her go again.
Afterward, they lay sated in each other’s arms and Dusty had found his home.
“I can’t lose you again,” Dusty said while he feathered fingers down her spine. “I love you.”
“I know.”
He rose up onto one elbow and looked down at her. “Yeah? How?”
“Your mom told me.”
Dusty laughed. “She knows me well. She’s right.”
They started to make love a second time, but then Dusty jumped up to raid Josh’s stash of potato chips.
“I want to make love and you want to eat chips?” Max sounded so put out that Dusty laughed.
“It’s the way I want to eat them that you’ll like.” He opened a bag of barbecue chips and crushed a handful of them over her breasts.
Moments later, he had licked and tickled and kissed and eaten so many chips off Max’s body she squirmed with delight.
Both of their cell phones intruded, over and over, with people calling to get them to the fair, no doubt.
Dusty sighed and sat up. He swiped salt from his chin.
“We’d better go,” he said, “but we’re finishing this tonight.”
They dressed.
“I like that lacy pink bra,” Dusty said. “Sure beats the old athletic sport ones.”
He had trouble taking his eyes off Max. He’d almost lost her and couldn’t believe she’d come back. To him. Not to the rodeo, but here to the ranch, to him.
They drove to the fair in Dusty’s truck and parked with the other competitors’ vehicles.
Grabbing Max’s hand, Dusty rushed to the grounds on which the polo match would take place. A huge crowd waited. The stands were packed.
Dusty turned to Max with a grin. “You were right. They’re here on curiosity alone, but wait until they watch the match. It’ll thrill them.”
He kissed her. “You made this possible.”
Max frowned and scratched her chest. She reached inside her shirt and pulled something out of her bra. A potato chip.
Dusty laughed and took it from her. He popped it into his mouth then leaned forward and kissed Max. When he pulled back, her eyes were wide and the chip was in her mouth.
She chewed, swallowed and laughed. “Oh, Dusty, I do love you.”
“Max, I got so many tricks to show you it’ll take a lifetime to go through them all.”
“Dusty?”
“Yeah?”
“I have a lifetime to give.”
He stilled. “Seriously? ’Cause I do, too.”
Someone called Dusty’s name and she sounded anxious and angry.
Vy came running. “Get to your team right now. Sam is having a fit waiting. Everyone’s waiting. It’s time for the match to start.”
Dusty grinned at Max and said, “Wish me luck.”
He ran to the ponies. A minute later, he mounted up with a heart more full than it had ever been, shouted, “Yeehaw!” and the match officially started.
* * *
Vy enveloped Max in a hug.
“I’m so sorry, Max,” she whispered, voice husky and emotional. “We’re sorry. All of us. Betraying you is the worst thing I’ve ever done in my life.”
With reserves of anger that still bothered her, Max tried to resist Vy, but couldn’t. This was her good friend. And Vy realized her mistake and how huge it had been.
Max pulled back and said, “It’s okay. We’ll get past this.”
Vy’s violet eyes filled with hope. “Promise?”
“I promise. Friendship is always worth working on.”
“Good. I don’t want to ever lose your friendship again.”
A cheer went up from the crowd.
“Come on,” Max said, filled with joy. “I don’t want to miss the game.”
Hand in hand, Max and Vy ran to the special spot cordoned off for the organizers and watched one of the most fun, farcical and exciting events that had ever happened on the Rodeo Fairgrounds.
It captivated and entertained and did everything Max had hoped it would.
At the end of the match, the crowd wandered away happy and buzzing.
Max heard more than one person say things along the lines of “I didn’t think I’d like that, but now I’m hoping they’ll do it again next year.”
The woman’s friend replied, “Maybe next year the cowboys will win.”
The first woman said, “The city boys didn’t do too well in the barrel racing yesterday.”
The second lady said, “It sure was fun to watch,” and they walked away laughing.
Vy smiled at Max. “You were right.”
“Yeah,” Max said. “Vindication is sweet.”
Home on the Ranch: Montana Rodeo Star Page 19