The Bull Rider Meets His Match

“What do you do in the afternoons?”

“Rebuild the garage, practice at Hennessey’s place.” He turned to face her as she dug the keys out of her pocket. “You should come see me practice sometime.”

Her gaze jerked up, and then she laughed. “I’m not one of your buckle bunnies.”

“Didn’t say you were.” But the way that his eyes drifted down to her lips made unexpected heat unfurl inside of her. What the heck?

She cocked her head and asked coolly, “Then why would you want me to watch you practice?”

“Since my sister works for you, it seemed like a way to make peace.”

“Me watching you?”

He smiled a little, the cockiness back. “Hey, I didn’t think you’d accept if I asked you out for a drink, so this seemed like the next best thing. You can watch me get smeared into the dirt.”

Lex smiled in spite of herself.

“I thought you’d like that,” Grady said with an easy grin, and once again she felt the prickles of awareness, the pooling of heat in her midsection. Crazy.

And he knew she was reacting to him. She could see it in the way he was smiling at her.

“How about we agree to make peace?” she asked, wondering if she moved closer if he might try to kiss her. The signals were there, and she couldn’t help speculating as to his motivation. She had to believe it was a power thing—payback for meddling in his life—and that was exactly why he wouldn’t be kissing her tonight.

“Have it your way,” he said with a smile. He patted the hood of her truck. “But if you ever reconsider that smeared-in-the-dirt thing, I’m there every afternoon from five to seven.”

Chapter Four (#ulink_500ab934-adcc-5146-bf52-c9b191375947)

It was exactly five thirty when Lex parked at the end of a line of trucks at Hennessey’s, but she didn’t get out of her rig immediately. A few guys had glanced her way as she drove by, but now they were once again focused on the small arena. The arena she was in no hurry to see.

She figured she’d give the boys some time to warm up. Yes. Maybe she’d purposely miss watching Grady’s ride. The important thing was that she was there, showing him that she wasn’t afraid to take him up on what had essentially been a dare.

A dare that was costing her.

Did he know that? Was that why he’d asked her here? Because he knew it would be a very, very difficult thing for her to show up at bull-riding practice?

She hadn’t been anywhere near a rodeo or practice arena since her dad died. The heart attack could have happened anywhere, but it had happened in the middle of an arena and the sight of her dad collapsing in the dirt a few yards away from the cowboy he’d just saved was burned into her brain. After losing him, she’d had no reason to go to rodeos. No desire to go. In fact, she didn’t even like hearing about them, which was difficult, since many of her friends were competitors.

Maybe it was time to see what she was capable of. Two years had passed. She’d grieved... Yes, she could do this.

Maybe.

Darn it, she was sweating. And her hands felt as if they might be on the verge of shaking.

Taking a deep breath, she pushed open the door and stepped out, gathered her strength, walked toward the arena. The first thing that struck her was the well-remembered scent of sweaty animals, manure and dirt. The gate opened on the far side of the arena as she approached, and she heard the familiar sounds of heavy hooves hitting dirt, the grunts of the bull as he did his best to dislodge the predator on his back. Lex stopped. For a moment it was too much. She, who never ran, almost turned and walked straight back to her truck.

“Alexa! Lex!”

One of the Hayward twins—Jess, maybe?—hailed her from where he stood leaning on the fence. Her heart squeezed a little at the sight of him. Her dad had coached Jess and Ty when they first started riding in high school, and she’d often come along with him to Hennessey’s to watch.

“Hey...” Lex waited until she got a little closer and saw the small scar on his chin to say “...Ty.” She leaned on the fence next to him, watched as a red-haired guy she didn’t know picked himself up out of the dirt. The bull, who knew his job, was already on his way out the gate. She took one more deep breath, told herself to relax. Now.

“Are you here to give pointers?” Ty asked.

“I guess I am,” she lied as she caught sight of Grady at the chute. No way was she confessing she was there because of him. He looked up, caught her staring at him and touched his beat-up straw hat with two fingers. Lex’s mouth automatically tightened at the cocky gesture, but she worked it into a wry smirk of acknowledgment.

“I guess Grady’s doing the Mr. Mom thing,” Ty said.

“I’m sure he’s good at it,” Lex replied absently. He had the mentality of a kid, so he probably got along great with Annie’s twins.

“Not from what I hear.” Ty craned his neck as Grady’s bull half-reared in the chute.

“Rank one,” Lex said, settling her forearms on the sun-warmed rail. Her heart was beating faster, but she could do this. So what if she felt like puking?

“Hennessey got some new bulls in a couple days ago. This is one of them.”

Grady was talking to some kids who were hanging close to him, no doubt explaining something he was hoping to demonstrate. He gestured at the bull a couple of times, then climbed on. He took the rope, carefully closed his glove around it and pounded his fist so that the rosin beat into the leather.

Lex’s heart seemed to creep up into her throat as she watched the familiar routine. That damned glove had better come free. The rope had better not twist around it, hanging him up—

The glove came free.

Within seconds of Grady giving the signal and the gate swinging open, he was sitting in the dirt. Lex pressed the back of her hand against her mouth to keep the laughter that had bubbled up from escaping. It was pure relief, nothing to do with Grady getting smeared in the dirt, as he’d predicted. She’d just watched her first bull ride after her father’s heart attack and survived. Her heart was still beating too hard, and her stomach was still tight but she’d make it without puking or turning away. And now her nemesis was picking himself up and beating his hat on his leg to shake off the dust.

“Huh,” Ty said from beside her.

“Happens to the best of them,” Lex said, glad that the urge to laugh was, for the most part, gone. Grady’s balance had been off the instant the bull reared out of the chute, something that probably didn’t happen to him often. It was a fluke that it’d happened while she was there. No—more than a fluke. It was a gift. She hadn’t had to watch too much of a buck, and now she could leave, pride fully intact.

Grady walked back to where the high school kids were waiting and spent several minutes talking to them. The kids listened earnestly as the next bull was loaded in the chute, then laughed as Grady made a broad gesture and nodded at the next guy up. As the bull rider climbed over the rails, Grady started walking toward Lex and Ty. Lex pushed off the fence and met him halfway.

“Well, you made good on your promise.”

“Man of my word,” Grady said. Lex wanted to argue with that but realized she couldn’t. He’d always been straight with Danielle.

“You know,” Lex said as she started walking in the general direction of her truck, taking slow, deliberate steps so it wouldn’t appear as if she were in a hurry. “I could give you some pointers.”

Pure bull, because there was no way she was hanging around. She’d survived one ride but had no desire to push matters. All she wanted to do, now that she’d proven her point, was to get in her truck and drive away.

“I know what happened.”

She smiled at him, noting that his gaze held on her lips a little too long. “And that was?”

“I screwed up.”

She laughed in spite of herself. “You did.”

He gestured to her truck. “You’re pulling out already?”

She turned and leaned back against the warm metal of the bed. “I’ve seen what I came for.”