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.”
“And that’s all you wanted to see?” Again his gaze dropped to her lips, and Lex started to get the very strong feeling that she was being hit on. By Grady.
It had to be a power play. There was no other explanation. He was trying to unnerve her. When she met his eyes, he smiled at her, his cheeks creasing in a way that no doubt made the buckle bunnies swoon. Even she felt like swooning a little. Grady had charisma. In spades. And right now she felt herself responding to that charisma, which would put him firmly in the driver’s seat as they dealt with each other.
Wasn’t going to happen.
Lex took her keys out of her pocket, jingled them in her hand as she debated. Then she raised her gaze, deliberately locking it with his. When the questioning frown started to draw his eyebrows together, she stepped closer and slid her free hand around the back of his neck, pushing her fingers into his hair in a smooth caress, smiling a little as she did so. He stilled and she could read the what the? in his expression. She loved it.
His skin was warm beneath her wrist. A little damp from the late-afternoon sun, a little dusty from the arena. She registered the sensations in a fraction of a second—registered, too, that she liked those things. Then she pulled his head down and kissed him.
Grady’s eyes widened as their lips met. Even though her movements had been slow and careful, she’d taken him by surprise and she made it a point to end the kiss before he got his equilibrium back. Which was no easy trick, because once she’d had a taste of him, incredibly, she wanted more. It was all