She pulled a wayward strand of hair off her damp cheek and focused on what was really bothering her.
The vertigo.
“C’mon, Ash, spit it out. Why did you sign up?”
“I didn’t sign up,” she snapped, regretting it even as the words erupted from her lips.
“Ha! I was right.” He jerked the handlebars and again swooped back in her direction. “When the ladies announced they were adding this couples’ bike race to the spring festival, I told all the boys there was no way you’d be signing up for it. Of course, nobody disagreed with me.”
“What?” It was Ashby’s turn to twirl around to stare at him as he made the loop behind her. The world spun drunkenly, but she took a deep breath and let it settle down, while he continued as if he hadn’t noticed that her voice dripped with indignation.
“Yup. Imagine our surprise when you walked out there and got in the lineup.”
A knot formed in the pit of her stomach at Dan’s disheartening revelation. The cowboys hadn’t thought she would participate. They’d all automatically assumed she wouldn’t.
How could they presume such a thing? She’d moved to Mule Hollow almost a year ago specifically to find a husband. True, it wasn’t as if she was shouting it to the treetops. But this was a town that had advertised for wives for all the bachelors, so of course she’d expected that the cowboys knew any single girl moving in had hopes of marrying.
She swallowed, fighting to keep her expression neutral. She didn’t want Dan Dawson to have the satisfaction of knowing how deeply that remark hurt. There was absolutely no one who could want a baby more than she did. Want a warm, nurturing, lovable family. A family that would go on picnics together, that wouldn’t be afraid to get down in the grass and roll around if the notion struck. A family who would learn to ride bikes together…every last one of them. Of course, before she could ride bikes with her children, she was going to have to learn herself.
Ashby breathed through her nose and tried to regain her control. But it was hard, when all she could think about was that she was almost thirty years old. Thirty. That meant her biological clock was ticking on an accelerated timetable, and things were not looking good for the family she wanted so much.
How was a girl supposed to marry and have babies when the cowboys of Mule Hollow wouldn’t ask her out?
Except for him, Dan Dawson…a notorious flirt who asked everyone out. Her “friends” were definitely playing mud ball here. What could have possessed them to partner her up with him? It just didn’t make sense. They knew how much she wanted to settle down.
Sweat ran down her face and she pushed more hair off her sticky skin. Her mood deteriorated further as she watched Dan glide by again.
He made it look so easy.
Riding a bike, that is. As he got a little way ahead of her he let go and effortlessly pedaled down the yellow stripe, no hands.
Ashby walked faster. She would have jogged a little, except—well, there was that dizziness and the blister growing on her heel. And, well, she’d never been much of an athlete. Her mother hadn’t encouraged it when Ashby was growing up. She’d spent most of her days in frilly pastel dresses, sitting primly at one endless function after another. Ashby had learned to despise her blue blood long before she even knew what it was. She had actually forgotten until today that there had been a time when she’d really wanted to learn to ride a bicycle.
Dan circled back, and a picture of her as a child holding her nanny’s hand in Golden Gate Park watching other kids riding by flashed through her memory. She in her frills and patent leather Mary Janes.
“You know, Ashby, I could help you.”
She blinked hard and focused on the red ribbon off in the distance, signaling the route back toward town and the finish line of this five-mile nightmare.
“I’m almost afraid to ask what you mean,” she said. How long had they been out here? She checked her watch—just over an hour! It felt like days.
“I mean, I could help you find a husband.”
She almost tripped. “Excuse me?” Could this day get any worse?
“Hey, I’m good at reading people. I can usually tell what someone needs.”
She gave him the evil eye, clamping her mouth firmly shut. Why couldn’t a rabbit hole open up right then and there?
He shrugged. “I know what your problem is.”
That brought her up short. “My problem?” she said through gritted teeth.
He grinned, then winked.
Dan Dawson and winking was a lethal combination. He already looked better than any man alive had a right to. Add a wink…Ashby might be immune to Dan’s shallow charm, but she wasn’t dead.
She sucked in a couple of deep breaths as he pedaled slowly beside her.
“Ash, you know what I’m talking about. I have been trying to help you out for a year now. But how am I going to do that if you keep refusing to go out with me? You should give me points for persistence.”
“Hardly. Besides, how is going out with you supposed to help me? I’m looking for a man who wants to get married.” Going out with you would be a complete waste of time I don’t have, she almost said, but it sounded too harsh. Instead, she took a more diplomatic approach. “We both know that isn’t you.”
“But it would be fun.”
“And that is my point,” she huffed, dragging to a halt. “Why would I want to go out with you just to have fun?”
He stopped riding. “See, that right there. That is exactly what I’m talking about.”
She did not get this man.
“You need to loosen up, Ash. Live a little! You are never going to get a date if you don’t. Even a lonesome cowboy isn’t desperate enough to marry a gal so knotted up she can’t have a good time.”
“I…” Ashby swallowed hard, forcing herself to hold his gaze. “I can have a good time.”
He patted the handlebars, challenge in his eyes. “Show me.”
“No.” She refused to be goaded into trying something she would regret. Anyway, when she fell flat on her face, it would only add lack of balance to her apparently well-documented list of shortcomings.
No way. She resumed walking. Stalking, actually. Stalking wasn’t good. It made her far more aware of how much her feet were killing her. She was having to fight the urge to limp, and was afraid to think about the size of the blister that was building….
To her surprise, Dan hopped off the bike and started walking beside her, pushing it between them. “You are a puzzle, Ashby Templeton. Yes, indeedy, a real jigsaw.”
Ashby lifted her chin and didn’t take the bait.
“Does it get lonesome up there?”
She cut her eyes toward him. “Up where?”
“On that high horse you ride.”
“I don’t ri—” She glared at him.
“No use denying it.” He reached across the bike and pulled a piece of wet hair off her cheek.
To Ashby’s horror, her pulse went ballistic. She stepped away from him and the bad choices he represented. Their rejections because she wasn’t “good enough” still stung, but she had a major weakness for