Looking for Trouble
by Becky McGraw
Country singer, Jess Sparks, is finally watching her star rise, after shedding the weight of a thieving manager and boyfriend three years ago. Jess has worked her butt off since to recover from it, and it's finally paying off, because she's on the verge of signing a big recording contract.Someone from Bowie, Texas calls and asks her to sing at a wedding reception, and she agrees to do it as a final hoorah. While she's performing, Jess notices a good looking cowboy in the crowd staring her down and can't take her eyes off of him either. Her best friend, and band mate, thinks Jess needs to loosen up and have some fun, so she issues a dare that Jess can't refuse...make him her 'Angel' for the night.Back in Dallas, Jess discovers that her fun pays off a little too well, when the stick with the pink plus sign tells her she's a member of the elite 'less than two percent club' they warn about on the back of condom boxes. She's pregnant, and doesn't have a clue what the cowboy's name is, because honey, baby or sugar worked just fine for them that night.After the baby is born, she gets another call from the client in Bowie for an encore performance at the couple's one-year anniversary party. Although Jess is hesitant to accept, because she's scared she'll run into the cowboy again, who would do nothing but complicate her life, she accepts, because she needs the money.Once she gets to Bowie, Jess realizes her luck is still running--in the wrong direction. Not only is the cowboy there, he's the manager of the ranch, and she's going to be seeing a lot of him, because she and the band get stuck there. Although she didn't intend on telling him about her little angel, he finds out, and wants to be a daddy. After Jess gets to know him better, she discovers she wants the sexy cowboy to be a lot more than that.Professional rodeo rider, Wade Roberts never expected his career to end with a fall from a wild horse he pulled in his last rodeo, but that's exactly what happened. Luck was on his side though, when he found out the manager of the Double B Ranch in Bowie, Texas was retiring, and they hired him as a replacement.When the beautiful country singer he'd had one night of wild passion with a year ago after a wedding, shows up at the ranch to play a command performance for the anniversary party, Wade is surprised. She was supposed to be in the big leagues now, so he wonders what she's doing back in Bowie. When Jess Sparks gives him the cold shoulder, Wade is confused, because to his knowledge, they'd both been blown away by their time together, and had been on the same page the next morning, when they parted without exchanging phone numbers.The reason for her attitude becomes clear to Wade though, when he sees a car seat and toys in the back of the van she arrived in. He has a daughter, and Jess doesn't want him to be a part of her life. That's not okay with Wade, and he is determined to convince the beautiful songbird, that he will be a part of his daughter's life and take care of them both.Fate appears to give him time to convince her, when Jess gets hurt and the band's van burns up, but then her ex-boyfriend shows up in town, representing a record company that wants to sign her. Now, if she wants a contract, she's going to have to deal with the man who robbed her blind, while he managed her career. Then her ex incites Wade into a fight at the bar, which lands him in jail. Using the charges against Wade as leverage, the guy coerces Jess into signing with him to get Wade out of his legal trouble.Determined to make up for the mess he'd made, and get Jess out of the contract, Wade enters a charity rodeo competition, with a big purse, because he knows he can win it, even though it might change his life forever, if he gets injured again.Wade isn't looking for trouble, but if he wants to keep the two angels in his life permanently, he knows he's going to have to face a hell of a lot of it to make that happen.