Page 96 of His Eighth Ride

He chuckled, the sound deep and rich and delicious. “Sounds like you can hear it then, not see it.”

“Tomato, tamahto,” she said, a flash of irritation stealing through her. “It might be better for both of us if you just tell me.”

“All right.” But Tuck didn’t blurt out the inner-most thoughts of his heart. He shifted in his seat. He gripped the steering wheel. He even adjusted the radio up and then turned it right back down.

“Bobbie Jo,” he said. “I’m really unhappy at the farm. It’s not where I want to be. I came there for Tarr, to help him heal, with the expectation that we’d rejoin the rodeo as soon as he was cleared to do so.”

“Yes,” she said, because she knew all of this.

“It’s been a year. Tarr’s been cleared for months. He doesn’t want to go back into the rodeo, and I don’t want to be at the farm. So….” He looked over to her, a death grip on the wheel and the truck barreling forward at sixty-five miles-per-hour. Without watching the road, he said, “So I’m leaving. I’m going to Coral Canyon for the summer. I’ll stay with my parents. I’ll make a new plan for my life from there.”

Bobbie Jo heard the words. She felt them punch the air right out of her lungs, leaving her gasping and desperate for a proper breath. She couldn’t look at him while she did that, so she quickly switched her gaze over to the side window.

“You’re leaving,” she whispered. This wasn’t a first date that would turn into a second. Part of her felt nothing but relief, but another part only wallowed in sadness, in regret. “When?”

“Next weekend,” he said. “Sunday morning.”

She whipped her attention back to him, fire blazing through her now. “Next weekend?”

“Yes.” He’d refocused on the road, and he didn’t look at her. “I gave my two-weeks notice last week, and I’ve been packing a few boxes every morning and every evening.” He faced his own side window for a moment. “Heck, I could probably leave tomorrow morning. It’s not like I own a whole bunch.”

“I just—wow.”

“Are you surprised?”

“Yes,” she said. “Yes, I’m surprised.”

“Why?” he asked. “You knew I didn’t want to work my family farm for my whole life. I manage rodeo careers. It’s what I’m good at. It’s what I love doing. I’d love to stay with Tarr, but he doesn’t want the career. So I’m gonna find someone else who needs a good manager, and I’m going to get back in the ring.”

Bobbie Jo started nodding about halfway through his mini-speech, her gaze stuck out the windshield at the landscape blurring by. “I know, Tucker,” she said quietly. “I’m sorry you’re not happy at the farm.”

“It’s not like you are either,” he said.

She gave him a glare. “I’m fine where I am.”

“Yeah, which is why you’ve been applying to jobs all over the city.”

“The reason I came here was to get a job.”

“You’ve been at the farm for over a year too.”

“It was….” Bobbie Jo choked on the words coming to mind. “Easy,” she said. “I’m familiar with the work there. It was convenient. It was comfortable.” And yes, Tuck had been there. She’d never said as much, but Tuck was a huge reason why Bobbie Jo had stayed at the farm. And now, it looked like they’d both been looking for other opportunities.

None of hers would take her to Wyoming, though, nor around the western US and Canada on the rodeo circuit.

“Easy, convenient, and comfortable,” Tuck said. “Why are you leaving, then?”

“Because no one grows in an easy, convenient, comfortable environment,” she said. “I feel stagnant. Stale. I’m not moving forward, and I’m not moving backward. I’m just…suspended in air, desperate for someone to pull me back to solid ground.”

Tuck reached over and threaded his fingers through hers. Oh, it felt so good to hold his hand. “I’d pull you back down, Bobbie Jo.”

What he didn’t say shouted through the cab of the truck: If you’d let me.

“I’m sure you would,” she whispered. More houses and buildings started dotting the highway, and they’d be at the restaurant very soon. “Listen, Tuck,” Bobbie Jo said. “I didn’t mean to kiss you that day. You know that, right?”

“Of course,” he said easily, like he hadn’t given her blunder a second thought. But she knew Tucker better than that.

“I just—I’ve felt so guilty, because I had just broken up with Lawson, and I wasn’t ready to start another relationship right away, and I didn’t want you to think I’d taken advantage of you.”

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