Brandy fell asleep.
The truth sank in several hours later when her eyes finally popped open and she realized that it was almost five o’clock in the morning.
She’d fallen hard and fast, but he hadn’t.
Her gaze went to the empty stretch of sheets beside her. Obviously he’d been the one to beat a hasty retreat this time and now she was all by her lonesome.
All the better.
She needed to leave anyhow.
She certainly wasn’t going to lie there and wonder where in the world he’d run off to at five o’clock in the morning. Probably some early-morning training session. Or some powwow with his brother. Or maybe he was out helping Duff with something.
Not that she cared.
She rolled onto her right side and punched the pillow a few more times before snuggling back down. There. She was going to close her eyes and she wasn’t going to remember the happiness in his eyes when he’d opened the door to her. As if she’d just turned on the light after a long, dark night.
As if.
She sat up and climbed out of the bed. A few steps and she managed to retrieve her clothes. She pulled on everything and gathered up her purse.
“Can’t sleep?” The deep, husky timbre met her the minute she stepped outside the door and started down the stairs toward the dark rodeo arena.
She found Tyler standing in the shadows at the bottom. The sight of him wearing nothing but a pair of snug, faded jeans stalled her heart for a long moment. Soft denim molded to his lean hips and strong thighs, and cupped his crotch.
He had the hard, well-defined physique of a rough-and-tough bull rider. Broad shoulders. Muscular arms. Dark hair sprinkled his chest from nipple to nipple before narrowing into a thin line that bisected his six-pack abs and disappeared into the waistband of his jeans. Her gaze riveted on the hard bulge beneath his zipper for several fast, furious heartbeats before shifting north.
“Hungry?” he asked.
She swallowed. “You have no idea.”
“Me, too.” He glanced past her at the stairwell leading to the apartment. “I was thinking I could grab a shirt and we could go for pancakes or something.”
The mention of the word made her stomach grumble and he grinned.
“The diner is already open if you want some.” She didn’t miss the heat that simmered in the aqua depths of his eyes, which made her all the more confused as to why he’d stopped before the main event last night.
He obviously wanted her.
She could see it.
Feel it.
But then his gaze darkened and he stiffened, as if he’d just remembered some all-important fact.
“Just give me a few minutes.” He moved past her, up the stairs, and into the apartment while she stood there, her heart aching for something she couldn’t quite name.
Pancakes. Sex. Love. Luckily, he hauled open the door at that moment, a shirt stretched tight over his broad shoulders, and she didn’t have to think too hard about that last thought. Instead, her stomach grumbled again, helping her to hit rewind until the only thing on her brain was scarfing down some breakfast.
“Let’s go.” He took her hand and she followed him to his truck.
Half an hour later, they were seated across from each other at the diner, a stack of pancakes between them.
The first breakfast of many over the next few days as Monday loomed ahead of her like a black cloud.
* * *
“Looks like we’re early,” Tyler said as he pulled the truck to a stop outside the bus station early Monday morning and noted the empty seats inside. He glanced at his watch. “Looks like we’ve got an extra half hour.” He eyed his brother. “You hungry?”
Cooper shook his head and stared at the window.
“Thirsty?”
Another shake and his brother caught his stare. “I’m still not sure about this.”
“About what? Making something of yourself? That’s the one thing you should be one hundred percent sure of. You can do this, Cooper. I know you can. It won’t be easy, but nothing worthwhile ever is.”
Not bull riding.
Or falling in love.
The last thought struck and Brandy’s image danced in his head. But he didn’t see her stretched out on the bed in front of him. Not this time. Instead, he saw her sitting in the car that first night, her hands sticky with chocolate shake, a smile curving her full lips. And again at the diner, her mouth stuffed with pancakes, syrup dribbling down her chin. She was as beautiful out of bed as she was in it.
Breathtaking.
“You earned the scholarship. College is going to be a piece of cake.”
“But what if it’s not? What if I wind up right back here?”
And there it was. The fear that haunted his brother.
The same fear that haunted Tyler himself.
The notion that he would bust his ass in Cheyenne, that he would break an arm or a leg and wind up stuck back in Rebel, holed up in the two-bit trailer that held so many bad memories.
He was terrified to wind up back here, but he was even more afraid not to leave in the first place. To at least try.
To never know if maybe, just maybe he might have been something.
“So what if you do go off to college and fail? What if you wind up right back here? You’re no worse off than if you say to hell with it right now and just stay. At least if you go, there’s a chance at more. But there’s no chance if you don’t get on that bus, little brother. No chance in hell.”
“You really think I can do this?”
“I know you can, but even if you don’t, you’re still my brother and I’ll always love you.”
Just as he would still love Brandy whether she loved him back or not.
The truth vibrated through him. Yep, he loved her, all right. Not that it changed anything. He was still going. She was still staying.
That’s the way it had to be.
He wanted her to be happy, and if that meant her staying here, then he would let her when the time came.
He just wanted to know how she felt before then. To at least feel it for a little while.
Until Tyler packed his bags and left Rebel, Texas, for the last time.
Because no way was he coming back this time.
“You can do this,” he said again. “I know you can and so does she.” He motioned to the petite brunette sitting off to the side in the bus station, a small suitcase next to her. Erin stared around, her gaze searching and finding Cooper in that next instant. A smile touched her face and just like that, Cooper didn’t look quite as scared.
“She chewed me a new one last night when I told her I still hadn’t made up my mind.”
“Because she knows how important this is.”
“That, and she doesn’t want to do it alone.”
“So go and play the hero. Help her out. You can’t let her go off all by herself.”
“We did promise each other we would do this together.”
“A man’s only as good as his word.”
Cooper nodded and gathered up his duffel. “You’re right.” He reached for the door handle. “I still might fall on my ass.”
“It’s okay if you do,” Tyler told him and he realized in that instant, that it was. If Cooper failed miserably, Erin would still care about him.
And if Tyler himself failed?
Brandy would still care.
At least he thought so. But there was only one way to be sure.