Page 92 of His Eighth Ride

“He told you that?”

“Right to my face.”

“And Bobbie Jo?” Daddy spoke in a soft voice now, and Tuck wasn’t sure if he should be irritated or grateful. He could talk about women; he’d never had a problem with it before.

“I just don’t know how to bridge the gap between us,” Tucker said. He stared toward the blinds, wishing he’d opened them to the farm beyond. “I came on way too strong in the beginning. I tried to pull back, but I think I did too much damage. She knew how much I liked her, and she never allowed herself to like me back.”

“I know, son.”

“And then, when she broke up with Lawson, I became this super-eager puppy. Again.” He closed his eyes and frowned. “I was really just trying to be nice by bringing her dinner. I totally didn’t expect her to kiss me.”

And it hadn’t even been a true kiss. It’d been an accident, and Tuck hated that his name was associated with that word in Bobbie Jo’s vocabulary at all.

An accident.

A mistake.

Both words she’d used in texts to him since. She’d run down the hall to her bedroom, and only her cabinmate, Hattie, had been allowed in. Tarr had rescued Tucker from rushing after her and making a bigger fool of himself, and nothing had been the same since.

She didn’t come eat with him in the shade of the seed shed. She’d gone home to Oklahoma for her birthday in January. Tuck hadn’t bought her a gift, because he simply didn’t know how to show up on her doorstep and hand it to her.

“It wasn’t even a real kiss,” he said. “Which I could understand if it was, if it was bad, if she regretted doing it the same day Lawson had broken up with her. Any of that.”

“She’s embarrassed too,” Daddy said.

“We’re adults,” Tucker said. “Why can’t we talk about it?”

“Maybe Hattie’s right,” he said. “And she’s recovering from the relationship with Lawson, and she doesn’t want to start something new too soon.”

“It’s been forever,” Tucker complained, feeling very much like a fourteen-year-old instead of the almost-twenty-eight-year-old he was.

Daddy chuckled. “It only feels like it.”

Tucker sighed out his frustration, wishing his unrest would go with it. “What would I do in Coral Canyon?”

“Any number of things,” Daddy said, which meant he didn’t have a specific answer. “Blaze and Jem Young run rodeo camps for kids, and they always need help. You can focus on your charity work for a few months without having to get up at dawn, move cattle and horses, or tend to fields and fences.”

“Yeah,” Tucker said. He could do any of those things. “I feel bad leaving Tarr here.”

“And is Tarr suffering there?” Daddy asked. “Seems to me he’s there by choice.”

“He’s in love with Hattie,” Tucker said with another sigh. “They’re still dating, even though she’s leaving to go back to college in the fall.”

“Maybe he’ll go with her.”

“Maybe.”

“We can call Uncle Ames and see if he needs help at the academy. He always seems to. You can work on finding another cowboy to manage in the rodeo. The Walker boys are real into that, and Cole seems to need a new manager every few years. Not sure where he’s at right now, but…we can find out.”

And by “we,” Daddy meant, “you.” Tucker could find out. He’d give him all the contact numbers, but Daddy would expect Tucker to put in the legwork. And honestly, he wouldn’t mind.

“Anything would be better than staying here,” he said.

“Then get your affairs in order, and come up to Coral Canyon. Momma and I would love to have you. The house is plenty big enough, and the bedrooms are always ready.”

That was Daddy-Speak for Momma wants you to come home. She’d love to have you—and so would I.

Tuck rolled onto his back. “So I just go talk to Hunter? Tell him I’m leaving?”

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