How a Cowboy Stole Her Heart / The Rancher's Dance: How a Cowboy Stole Her Heart / The Rancher's Dance. Allison Leigh

Calico’s neck as she let the mare walk to cool down. A year of inconsistent exercise had both of them out of shape, and she was toying with the idea of doing one more season before hanging up her rodeo hat for good. She had to have something other than the day-to-day running of the ranch. Maybe she just needed to do this one step at a time. Save what she could and build piece by piece.

      She sat tall in the saddle, looking at the barrels. Trouble was, as good as she was at racing, she’d never felt like the rodeo royalty type and another year of the circuit sounded exhausting. Somewhere along the way she’d lost her competitive edge. Or perhaps she’d spent so much energy fighting her cancer that she simply didn’t want to compete anymore. The last few days she’d been listless, unsettled. She told herself it had nothing to do with Clay but it did.

      He’d disappointed her.

      She had wanted him to proclaim that it didn’t matter. That her scars meant nothing. Not that it would have changed anything, but she’d wanted to hear him say it anyway. He hadn’t. She had been so right about stopping things before they truly got started. Now she just wished they could go back to the way things were before.