Page 63 of Cowboy Wolf's Secret Baby

Beth was dismayed to find that Taryn and Conner were the center of attention when she arrived. A large crowd had gathered around them. Her heart lurched when she heard what Kelly had done. If she hadn’t been caught, Taryn could have been badly hurt.

After the crowd had finally dispersed, Conner asked, “Why didn’t you want to press charges?”

“We would have had to go to file all the paperwork and go to court, which would end up taking more time than she would spend in jail. She’s been disgraced. Kelly is used to everyone, outside of the rodeo, looking up to her and putting her on a pedestal. Now, they are going to look down on her and she’s going to be nothing. That will hurt a lot more than jail.”

“True,” Conner said.

He pulled Beth and Taryn into a hug and suggested that they play a few games before the rodeo began.

Beth wished, with all of her heart, that the dread she felt and the danger that Anna spoke of had been thwarted when Kelly was caught putting burrs under Taryn’s saddle blanket. However, her gut told her that something worse, a lot worse, was yet to come.

22

Conner

“Is that your mother in the stands?” Conner asked.

Beth looked up and sighed. “Yes. I could ask her to leave, but she would refuse.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Conner said. “We’ll just be extra careful tonight.”

“There’s not a whole lot you can do to protect yourself if she possesses a bull or something.”

“I’ll be fine,” Conner said. “You know I can’t pull out of tonight’s events because I’m not going to give her the satisfaction of thinking that she scares me.”

Beth put her hand on his arm and said, “I know. I wouldn’t ask you to do that.”

They double-checked Taryn’s blanket to make sure they got all the burrs off. Pegasus told her that he didn’t feel anything when she threw the blanket and saddle on him.

“Have fun,” Conner said, as she rode off.

He checked his own saddle blanket, just to be safe. It was clean.

Conner was relieved when the evening’s events went off without a hitch. At the end of the night, he laughed to himself. How many shows had he seen where one of the characters was expecting to be pranked by one or more of the other characters and ended up pranking themselves because they were so paranoid? The other characters did nothing to him.

Taryn and Conner took care of their horses and then everyone went back to Beth’s house.

“I guess I may as well check out of the hotel,” Conner said. “I’ve been spending all my time here. If that’s okay with you, that is?”

“Of course, it’s okay,” Beth said.

“I’m pretty tired. Do you mind if I go to bed early?” Conner asked.

“I’ll read you a bedtime story,” Taryn said.

“That sounds like a plan to me,” Conner said.

He really was a lot more tired than he thought. Conner fell into a deep sleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow. He felt Beth coming to bed at some point. Conner smiled, pulled her into his arms, and went back to sleep.

She was still up and puttering around the kitchen before he made it out of bed.

After breakfast, Conner said, “I’m going to check out of the hotel and run some other errands. Beth, would you mind taking Taryn to check on Pegasus this morning?”

“Not at all,” Beth said.

Conner went to the rodeo grounds and made sure that Zephyr was okay. “What do you think about going into semi-retirement? You’ll end up like a pet, hanging out with Pegasus, getting spoiled instead of having to work hard for your supper.”

Zephyr neighed.

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