The sense of déjà vu was so strong it made David’s head spin. Once again, he stood behind the bucking chutes in Cody, Wyoming, television lights glaring in his eyes and a woman holding a microphone in front of his face. Except Laura had dark hair, not blond, and since she was happily married to the current world-champion steer wrestler, there wasn’t much chance she’d be hitting on David.
She smiled up at him. “Thanks for taking the time to chat with us, David. I know you’ve got reporters beating down your door to hear Muddy’s story. What’s it like having him back?”
“It’s…incredible.” David grinned, still awed by the 180-degree turn his life had taken.
“No doubt. This thing has gone viral. You’re all over the internet, you’ve been interviewed by Sports Illustrated and national news outlets, and now I hear you’ve been approached by one of the late-night talk shows.”
“It’s pretty wild.” Not that he had any intention of flying off to California, but it was amazing to even be asked.
“Well, the story has everything, right? Drama, human interest.” Laura’s eyes sparked with mischief. “Even romance?”
David felt his face going hot, but his grin widened. “Yeah. All that.”
And while David fumbled and flustered at all the attention, Kylan took it in stride, like it was no more than his due. David had watched in amazement as the kid skated through interview after interview, unfazed. Open, honest, funny as hell, up to and including his issues with fetal alcohol syndrome.
“Are you sure you wanted to talk about that?” David had asked after the first time Kylan mentioned it.
Kylan had shrugged. “Maybe it’ll help if people see a guy like me being something besides a pain in the ass.”
Just like that, the kid would pop up and say something that made David have to clear his throat and change the subject. “Since when are you not a pain? You don’t have to tell every single reporter about Muddy throwing me down out at Rusty’s place.”
“But they get such a kick out of it.”
“I only did it to make you feel better.”
Kylan had given him a wide, cheesy grin. “It worked.”
David had cuffed him on the shoulder but laughed. He would’ve been thrilled if Kylan could do all the interviews, including this one in Cody. Behind the bucking chutes, metal rang on metal as gates slammed, with the usual semicontrolled chaos of bulls snorting and riders slapping themselves around to get pumped up as if their bodies didn’t take enough abuse out in the arena. Must be a roughstock thing.
“Obviously, Muddy is still as good as when he disappeared,” Laura said to David. “Seems like every rodeo, the two of you get a little better.”
“We’re getting our rhythm back,” David agreed. “I haven’t been drawing the best calves, but we’ve won money anyway because Muddy can make a marginal calf better.”
“And how does he feel about all this attention?”
David laughed. “He figures if all these people are gonna be hanging around, they should at least bring grain.”
She laughed, too, because she knew Muddy. “Well, I’ll let you go. I’m sure you’ve got places to be.”
“Yeah. I’m up in Greeley tomorrow.” He flashed a sheepish smile. “Plus, we want to get out of town before the fireworks.”
Laura laughed again and then put out her hand to shake his. “Congratulations, David, and best of luck. You deserve it.”
“Thank you.” He hustled away, not to escape, but because he’d left Kylan looking after Muddy and they were all starving. They’d slid into Cody with only minutes to spare, making the run down from morning slack at the Livingston rodeo where he and Muddy were sitting second when they left. Add a third place finish here in Cody, and it made for a damn good day.
He found Kylan where he’d left him, but instead of Muddy, the kid was holding on to a palomino while the current world leader in the barrel racing stripped splint boots off its back legs. She straightened, strapped the boots onto her saddle, and then retrieved the reins, planting a kiss on Kylan’s cheek. “Thanks, sugar. See you in Greeley.”
David waited until she was a few paces away before he said, “A little old for you, don’t you think?”
“She thinks I’m cute,” Kylan said matter-of-factly. “Sort of like a puppy.”
David snorted. “She should try feeding you. More like a Saint Bernard.”
Kylan pulled Muddy’s reins loose from the fence rail. As they turned to leave, Muddy reached out and tried to nip another horse on the butt. Kylan jerked on the reins. “Don’t be a butthead.”
Muddy gave a mighty shove with his nose, knocking Kylan sideways.
David couldn’t help but laugh. If Muddy had any traumatic memories of his last visit to Cody, he hid them well. He was his obnoxious, glorious self, mane to tail. Kylan scowled at him and started toward the trailer. David slung the strap of his rope can over his shoulder and followed.
As usual, the tail of Kylan’s shirt had come loose, and despite all of David’s efforts, the brim of his cowboy hat stuck up higher on one side than the other. Honest to God, there was just something about the shape of the kid’s head. There was no spiffing him up. Between Kylan’s shambles and David’s tendency to look like a back-alley thug on the lam from the law, they’d probably scared the crap out of a few late-night truck-stop clerks in the past ten days as they raced across five states to hit thirteen rodeos.
“Speaking of feeding me…I s’pose we can’t eat until after you talk to Mary,” Kylan grumbled.
“I’ll keep it short.”
“Yeah, sure.” Kylan gave a long-suffering sigh. “You guys are pathetic.”
Yep, they were. David had spent more hours on the phone in the last two-and-a-half weeks than in the four years previous all totaled. He and Mary talked about everything, large and small, from world peace to how to persuade Kylan to cut his hair so it didn’t do the scarecrow thing. They hadn’t found a workable solution for either.
It should have felt familiar, lying awake in the dark, the phone propped on his pillow with the sounds of yet another carnival roaring nearby, but everything with Mary was different. More real. More immediate. David’s conversations with Emily had been woven through with dreams and schemes, always looking forward to the future, a bright and shiny someday. He and Mary were fellow warriors who’d survived their separate battles and learned the value of living for now.
“Be nice to get to your place tomorrow night,” Kylan said. “Me and Frosty need to rope some calves.”
“You’ll get all you want for four days.”
Not that they’d been lacking, except for these past few days, while David had hauled hard and fast to as many of the Cowboy Christmas rodeos as he could. Thanks to Muddy’s sudden fame, people lined up to offer them places to stay and to rope everywhere they went. With the extra practice, Frosty’s tolerance, and David’s coaching, Kylan had improved by leaps and bounds. He might never be a threat on the pro level, but with hard work and the right horse, he could do okay at the amateur and All-Indian rodeos.
One thing about Kylan, he was used to having to work for what he wanted.
Several of those same kind souls had also volunteered horses for Kylan to practice his shoeing skills on. The kid had already learned enough to be able to trim a horse on his own, as long as it had reasonably normal feet. By the time Kylan went home, he’d be ready to start doing some work for Galen and some of the other ranchers.
Of course, that depended on when exactly Kylan did go home.
“How’d you talk Starr into changing her mind about coming to nationals?” David asked.
“I told her she had to quit worrying so much about what other girls are puttin’ on my Facebook page, ’cause you and I aren’t those kind of guys.” Kylan steered Muddy around a pair of rodeo queens and through the gate to contestant parking. Then he smirked at David. “Bet you won’t mind seeing Mary, either.”
Mind? Hah. David had tried his damnedest to persuade her to come down early, but she had more curriculum-planning meetings, plus next week was the big Indian Days celebration in Browning, and she’d volunteered to help with the kids’ rodeo and that pie auction. “I can’t wait.”
“That’s good,” Kylan said, as they skirted one last trailer to get to David’s rig. “’Cause she’s standin’ right there.”
David’s head jerked around, and his heart leapt like a rabbit scared up out of the brush. Holy crap. Mary stood beside his pickup, sparkling like sunshine in a white sleeveless blouse and skinny jeans with rhinestones on the pockets, her hair ruffled by the breeze. She lifted a hand in greeting, her smile a little uncertain.
David dropped his rope can with a thunk, took four long strides, and scooped her up. The kiss was even better than what he’d relived a million times since he’d left her. Sweeter and deeper for every minute of conversation they’d shared in the meantime. When he finally came up for air, she gave a breathless laugh and twined her arms around his neck.
“I guess this means you’re happy to see me.”
“You think?” He spun her around in a circle, spooking Muddy, who glared at them in annoyance. “I can’t believe you’re here. It must be a ten-hour drive.”
“Nine,” Mary corrected.
David glanced around, looking for her pickup. “How’d you get here?”
“Galen and Cissy. They’re still over at the arena, watching the bull riding. Galen said if he was gonna come this far for a rodeo, he intended to see the whole damn thing.”
David set her on her feet, tracing a thumb over the softness beneath her jaw, feeling the kerthump of her pulse. “You saw me rope?”
“Yes.” Her smile lit up every last shadowy corner of his soul. “You were awesome. Both of you,” she added, with a smile for Muddy, too.
He rolled his eyes and yanked at the reins.
“Yeah, yeah,” Kylan said, leading him on back to tie up beside Frosty.
David looked from Mary to Kylan. “How long have you known about this?”
“A couple days,” Kylan said.
“And you never once let on?”
Kylan tossed him a triumphant smile as he slid Muddy’s bridle off and replaced it with a halter. “Pretty sly, huh?”
“I made him swear secrecy,” Mary added. “I wanted to surprise you.”
“Well, you got the job done. But we’ve only got a few hours before we have to leave for Greeley.”
And those hours weren’t near enough. Kylan would have to go eat with his aunt and uncle, so David could have Mary all to himself.
Mary tucked her chin, slanting a look at him from under her lashes. “Um, yeah, about that… I thought maybe I could ride along. If you don’t mind.”
“Mind?” David all but shouted. “Why would I?”
“You’re going home to the ranch tomorrow.” Uncertainty flickered in her eyes again. “I don’t want to butt in.”
David set his hands on her shoulders to give her a slight shake. “Don’t be dumb. My family can’t wait to meet you. And I can’t wait to introduce you.”
“Are you sure?”
“Very. Except for my sister. You stay away from her.”
Mary blinked, frowning. “Don’t you like her?”
“She’s okay, as sisters go, but if the two of you ever gang up on me, I’m toast.” David tapped a finger on the end of Mary’s nose, his grin impossible to squelch. “You said you couldn’t get away.”
Mary smiled. “My schedule got rearranged, thanks to my friends. Cissy took over my stuff during Indian Days, and Hilary insisted on filling in for me on the curriculum committee.”
“I knew I liked them.” And he was beginning to think he’d won Cissy over, too, though he wouldn’t take her approval for granted any time in the next, say, ten years.
David’s phone rang. He pulled it from the clip on his belt, saw his dad’s number, and took a moment to appreciate being able to answer with a smile on his face. “Hey, Dad. Checking up on me?”
“Of course. You know how your mother worries when you’re racin’ from one rodeo to the next, especially in the holiday traffic.”
“We made it fine. Sittin’ second at Livingston, third here in Cody. How’s it going down there?”
“Well, I’m afraid I have bad news.”
David’s breath caught. “What?”
“You won’t be able to rope when you get home.” His dad broke into a gleeful chuckle. “It’s pouring rain.”