Tyler

by Jennifer Ashley

  What would Tyler do when he saw her there? Give her a polite nod? Ignore her completely? Jess had made it clear she wasn’t searching for anyone to take care of her, but he’d looked offended when she’d said it. She wouldn’t mind being friends with Tyler, but she didn’t think he was a man who wanted to be best friends with a woman. She had a feeling that with Tyler it would be all or nothing. She’d told him it would be nothing, so why would he be happy to see her?

  Her throat was tight as she and Dominic, with Mrs. Alvarez behind them, pushed their way down toward the ring, and finally dropped into the seats by the rail. Two men on horseback were rushing around the ring, riding counter to each other, barely missing each other as they passed.

  The box was raised from the arena floor enough that they could look over the ring’s rail and positioned so they could see every corner. Jess’s heart skipped a beat as one of the cowboys rode past, inches from her, the horse’s hooves thudding in the dirt. But she realized at once the rider wasn’t Tyler.

  The announcer confirmed it, blaring over the pulsing music, “Let’s give a big Texas welcome to Adam Campbell!”

  The crowd cheered as Adam stood in his stirrups and waved, his black duster coat and bandana around his neck flowing as he galloped toward the center of the ring. The moment he passed the center point he threw himself off his horse—then caught himself by the saddle horn before he reached the ground. He hung on to the horse’s side for several strides, feet straight out in front of him, before he flowed back up into the saddle.

  “Cool!” Dominic cried. “Mom, did you see that?”

  Adam continued around the ring while the announcer listed a long string of movies Adam had performed in, to Dominic’s delight. He and Jess had seen most of them.

  “Sorry ladies, he’s taken,” the announcer felt the need to say. “Now let’s give a big Texas welcome to his brother Grant!”

  Grant Campbell suddenly swung around in his saddle until he was riding backwards, waving both hands at the audience. Dominic snapped a picture with Jess’s phone as Grant rode by. Grant saw Jess, recognized her, and saluted her before he was gone.

  Grant somehow flipped himself around to face forward again, and then he and Adam rode in complicated patterns around each other, while the announcer reeled off Grant’s riding awards and the movies and television shows he’d been in.

  Grant and Adam did a few tricks, vaulting onto and off their horses, jumping from one horse to the other at the same time, or standing up on the saddles before dropping back down. It was breathtaking and scary, but they landed each time without slipping, their movements seemingly effortless.

  The crowd and Dominic loved it, but Jess impatiently scanned the gates at either end of the ring. Was Tyler out there somewhere? Would he even be in the show today, considering how hurt he’d gotten last night?

  It shouldn’t matter, she told herself. Jess had come today to let Dominic have some fun. That was all. Mrs. Alvarez was enjoying it too, clapping and poking Jessica from time to time to say, “How did they do that? Oh, honey, this is fun!”

  The music’s rollicking beat abruptly took on a darker tone, and the announcer said worriedly, “Uh-oh, boys, looks like trouble heading your way.”

  The gates at both ends of the arena opened. Through one came a single cowboy, riding low in the saddle, his bandana up to his eyeballs and his black hat pulled down. He crossed his hands and thrust them under his coat to draw out two pistols, which he aimed at Adam and Grant.

  Adam and Grant instantly broke apart from where they rode together, each racing to opposite ends of the ring. The new cowboy chased Adam, but Jess could see as he went by, close enough for her to touch, that he wasn’t Tyler. It was Carter, with his flash of hazel eyes in a hard face, looking meaner than any real Wild West villain probably ever did.

  Dominic loved him, snapping pics as Carter rode by. Jess strained to see who, if anyone, would come through the other gate.

  Carter raced past the open gate, not even glancing at it. The instant he was clear, two more horses burst in, running close together, with a lone rider balancing on top of them, one foot on each saddle. His bandana covered his face, and his hat was black, and his long duster coat rippled behind him.

  The new cowboy twirled two six-guns that sparkled under the arena lights. Without missing a beat, he rode both his horses at his older brothers, ready to shoot them out of their saddles.

  Chapter Seven

  Jess knew the man was Tyler, knew it without a doubt. He had the agile awareness Jess had seen in him at the bar, in tune with every molecule of air around him.

  She remembered how he’d dropped and rolled when the fight had started, eluding his attackers, beating a few down so swiftly they were on the ground before they realized they’d been hit.

  Tyler rode straight at his brothers, moving with both horses as though he never noticed their uneven rhythm. Grant pulled out his prop gun and shot at Tyler, the boom of the pistol making Jess jump.

  Tyler dropped between the two horses instantly, but instead of falling he, as Adam had, grabbed the saddle of one horse and hung off its side. The second horse shielded him from his brothers’ shots, Tyler sandwiched between the beasts, the horses running in step without crushing him.

  But any second, Tyler could fall and be trampled, or the horses could run into each other, breaking his bones. Jess found her hand going to her mouth, her worry escalating. He’d been hurt last night …

  Tyler brought his feet down, using the contact with the ground to send him up into the saddle of the darker horse. Somehow, his pistols had become holstered, because he slid them out again, riding hard at Adam, shooting.

  Adam ducked and dodged while the crowd oohed. The gunfight looked very real, except miraculously, no bullets touched the horses or the brothers, and the horses didn’t try to bolt.

  The announcer kept up a running commentary about Carter and Tyler, the “bad guys” though he called them the “Sutherland Boys.” He told the audience all about the horrible deeds they’d done, the homesteads they’d burned, the women they’d stolen, the men they’d robbed and killed. All part of the show, but Tyler and especially Carter looked the part. Tyler shook his fist or shot his gun every time the announcer revealed some of his villainy, to the delight of the crowd.

  Dominic ate it up. “Which one did you meet, Mom? Which one’s Tyler?” Jess pointed him out, and Dominic said, “Cool!” and clicked photos of him.

  The four men rode around one another, dodging bullets and each other by jumping off horses and springing back on, exchanging mounts, or grabbing the second horse Tyler had brought in and doing acrobatics on it. The horses were amazingly docile but kept up their pace with spirit.

  While all the brothers seemed to defy gravity, Tyler had a lightness that went beyond that. He’d cartwheel over a horse on one hand, land precisely on his feet, and be out of the way of another running horse in the next instant.

  Jess bit back a scream as Tyler dove off a horse, right in front of Grant’s oncoming mount. He rolled away from the horse’s hooves a second before he would have been trampled. Instead of lying there, catching his breath, Tyler sprang to his feet, vaulted onto the back of Adam’s horse as it skimmed past, and started fighting Adam in the saddle.

  Music escalated as the show wound to its climax, a thumping beat that caught Jess and pulsed under her skin. Adam managed to push Tyler off his horse, Tyler landing in time to catch the saddle of one of his own horses and land on its back. The prop guns blazed, smoke filling the air. Carter at last was down, lying forward, limp, on his horse’s neck as the animal raced around the ring.

  The two “good guys” closed in on Tyler. Jess held her breath as Tyler wove in and out between them, ducked behind his own horse, jumping onto his second horse, and finally rising to balance on both horses at once again. Tyler’s feet were steady as his horses ran at Adam and Grant.

  It was his last stand. Adam and Grant rode straight for Tyler, a bizarre game of chi
cken on horseback. Just before they met, Tyler’s horses split apart under him. Jessica gasped as Tyler went down, but at the last minute, he pulled himself up onto one horse, resting easily in the saddle.

  This allowed Grant to shoot him point blank. Tyler threw up his arms as blood burst out of his back and smeared itself on his chest. Jess found herself on her feet, a cry escaping her throat. The blood looked all too real. She squeezed the rail until her knuckles ached.

  Tyler collapsed, throwing his arms out dramatically as he fell backward onto his horse’s rump. He lay there, staring up at the arena’s ceiling as the horse went around. Finally, Tyler slid all the way off the horse and landed in an unmoving heap on the arena floor.

  Grant blew smoke from his pistol, twirled it on his thumb, and thrust it into his holster, raising his fist at the crowd as they cheered.

  “And that was the end of the Sutherland Boys,” the announcer said in triumph.

  Jess did not like how still Tyler lay in the dirt. The cooling system sent a breeze wafting down that stirred the dust and tails of Tyler’s coat. She remembered how he’d lain in the parking lot while Elijah’s men beat and kicked him, remembered her fear for his life. Elijah had kicked him pretty hard—if Tyler had been bleeding internally since then …

  Grant glanced Tyler’s way, his grin vanishing in a frown of concern. He rode to Tyler and dismounted. Jess watched, her hand frozen on the rail, her breath aching in her lungs. Dominic had quieted, and the crowd wound down to mutters.

  Adam wheeled his horse and trotted toward Tyler and Grant. Carter continued to play dead, lolling on his horse, which wove this way and that.

  Grant touched Tyler’s shoulder, and Adam bent from the saddle to watch.

  Quicker than thought, Tyler rocked forward on his hands and pushed off the ground to flip to his feet. He spun and delivered Grant a roundhouse punch on the jaw.

  Grant’s head snapped back, and he threw up his arms and went down. Carter suddenly came to life, rode at Adam and shot him out of the saddle. Adam landed hard to a collective “Oh” of the crowd.

  “Whoa there!” The announcer yelled. “I told you those Sutherland Boys were mean ones. Someone needs to stop them!”

  The someones turned out to be small children on ponies. They raced in from the far gate, about a dozen boys and girls, who surrounded Carter and Tyler, their adorable ponies hemming them in. The audience laughed and cheered.

  Carter and Tyler ended up on their knees, surrendering to the kids. Adam and Grant rose and made their way over, encouraging the crowd to applaud their rescuers.

  “A big hand for the courageous Dallas Pony Riders!” While the arena went crazy, the announcer continued that the Dallas Pony Riders was a charitable organization for underprivileged kids, supported by large donations from the Circle C Ranch in Riverbend, Texas.

  The kids waved and rode out again. The brothers lined up in the middle of the ring and took their bows to screams and whoops—the happy screams were mostly female ones. Jess didn’t blame the ladies for going crazy for the four hot cowboys as they bowed with lithe ease. If they could move like that on horseback, the ladies must be speculating, what would they be like in bed?

  Jess knew, at least in Tyler’s case, and the knowledge was a nugget of warmth in her heart.

  The brothers broke apart, each catching a horse. They swung aboard and rode around the ring once more, doing various acrobatics along the way.

  Tyler headed for Jess. Jessica couldn’t move, pinned in place by blue eyes over his bandana as Tyler homed in on her. The dark horse he rode strode smoothly, as though it hadn’t been galloping constantly for the better part of an hour.

  Tyler turned the horse at the last minute and halted against the rail. His dusty jeans and boots were at Jess’s eye level, his foot firmly in the stirrup.

  Staying in character, Tyler pushed back his black hat with the tip of his pistol, and said, “Ma’am.”

  Jess tried to answer but nothing would come out of her dry mouth. She stood there like a fool while Dominic raised her phone and snapped a picture of Tyler, the fake blood still wet on his shirt.

  Tyler shifted his gaze to Dominic, tugged down his bandana to reveal his handsome face, and winked at him. Tyler’s bruises had faded, only a purpling around his jaw and left eye to say he’d been hurt the night before.

  Tyler took off his hat, flipped it down his arm, and set it gently on Dominic’s head. Jess dimly felt Mrs. Alvarez come up beside her, saw the interested crowd craning to look. Jess’s world narrowed to Tyler smiling at her son then turning to wink at her.

  His grin widened as Jess flushed. Without a word, Tyler swung his horse around and raced after his brothers, who were disappearing out of the gate, Carter leading the extra horse. Tyler waved behind him to more cheering, then he rode out the gate and was gone.

  The music eased down to a distant thumping, and the crowd, released, started to drift away, either leaving for the day or taking a break before the next event. Jess remained at the rail, frozen in place from the dazzling smile Tyler had sent her.

  He hadn’t worn the look of a man bored with a woman because he’d gotten what he wanted, or annoyed that she’d pushed him away. He looked more like … Well, Jess wasn’t sure what. She also wasn’t certain what to do now.

  Before she could suggest they go home, Dominic said, “Can I meet him? Come on, Mom, please?”

  Mrs. Alvarez was clearing their seats, picking up the miniature motorcycles Dominic insisted on carrying around with him and Jess’s purse. Jess expected her to gently but firmly quash Dominic’s hopes, but Mrs. Alvarez said briskly, “I don’t see why not. You need to be careful around the horses—both of you.”

  Jess stopped herself saying, “Yes, ma’am.” Dominic nodded, holding Tyler’s big hat on his head as though fearing someone would take it from him.

  Jess rescued her phone and let Mrs. Alvarez shepherd them out of the box and into the flow of people leaving the stands.

  They made their way to the end of the indoor arena where Tyler had ridden out of the gate, and went outside, but Jess didn’t know where he would go after that. The corrals and stables for the horses and cattle were separate from the arena, and she imagined no one would let people randomly walk among the animals.

  The problem was solved when she spied Tyler lounging at a temporary fence that separated the arena from the parking area for horse trailers and RVs. Whether he waited for her specifically, Jess couldn’t tell. He was signing autographs and posing for pictures with kids and excited young women.

  One woman insisted her friend take a picture of her kissing Tyler’s cheek. Tyler agreed, the knockout smile he gave both women tearing a hole in Jessica’s heart.

  Why do I care? Jess wondered, irritated with herself. We’re not dating, engaged, married, or in any kind of relationship at all. We were two people passing in the night.

  Even so, something burned in her chest as the woman’s friend turned to Jess as she approached and said, “Hey, will you take a picture of both of us with him?”

  Tyler’s face reddened, but the showman in him didn’t fade. Jess awkwardly took the woman’s phone while the two ladies rose on tiptoe on either side of Tyler, their lips on his cheeks. Tyler’s face went redder still, but he draped his arms around their shoulders and flashed a smile for the camera.

  Jess clicked the photo then another for good measure. She calmly handed the phone back to the woman, nodding when both ladies thanked her.

  If Jess had slightly jerked the phone on both pictures, and they came out blurry, that couldn’t be helped. Her hand shook like that sometimes.

  The ladies strolled away, moving slowly, as though hoping Tyler would call them back. But they couldn’t compete with Dominic, who ran straight to Tyler, questions tumbling from his lips.

  “Can I take a picture with you? How do you fall off like that and not get hurt? Do you want your hat back?” The last was said with a falter.

  Tyler bent down to Dominic’s
height. “The hat’s yours, son. Come over here and let your mom take a picture of us.”

  Jess’s hand shook again as she raised her phone, but this time, she did her best to still it. Tyler crouched next to her son and they both beamed at the camera. Dominic had never looked so happy.

  Tyler straightened up when the photo was done. He focused his blue eyes on Jess, not flicking his gaze away in spite of Mrs. Alvarez hovering behind her.

  “Our next show isn’t until tonight,” he said. “We’re going to grab lunch once the horses are taken care of. Want to come?”

  They were magic words to Dominic. Dominic didn’t answer, but he squeezed his fists tight and mouthed, Please, Mom?

  “Go to lunch where?” Mrs. Alvarez asked. “Dominic’s not going to a cowboy dive or a rundown greasy spoon.”

  Tyler’s nod was respectful. “No, ma’am. It’s a local barbecue place. Lanny D’s. We always go there when we’re in Dallas.”

  “Oh, Mom, I love Lanny D’s!” Dominic had been there once, for a friend’s birthday party.

  “That sounds all right,” Mrs. Alvarez said. “We’ll meet you there.”

  Jess and Tyler exchanged glances, Tyler’s eyes holding amusement.

  “All right then,” he said. “Meet you in an hour. You’re Mrs. Alvarez, I take it?”

  “I am indeed.” Mrs. Alvarez bent Tyler a severe look. “We will see you later.”

  Tyler’s lips twitched, but he only nodded and held out his hand to shake Dominic’s. Jessica then ushered the excited Dominic, who was keeping the hat steady, after Mrs. Alvarez, turning back toward Tyler.

  She realized, as she sent him a good-bye smile, that Dominic and Mrs. Alvarez had done all the talking during their encounter. Jess and Tyler hadn’t exchanged a word.

  * * *

  Tyler was the last to reach the restaurant. Buster had decided to be a pain in the ass, kicking up a fuss—literally—to being tied, groomed, fed, watered, whatever. He was such a fucking prima donna. On every trip one brother was given the responsibility of Buster, and this time, Tyler had drawn the short straw.