Page 3 of The Bull Rider & the Wedding Planner

She dropped to her knees next to Baxter who was holding his cheek and moaning as he lay flat on his back. Glaring up at Easton, she yelled, “You are completely out of control! What are you even doing here?”

“What am I doing?” Easton glowered at her. She’d never seen him glower before. “You’re cheating on the most perfect cowboy on earth with this metro loser?”

“I am not the one cheating, and he is not a loser,” she seethed. “Get out of here. I never want to see you again.”

Easton’s blue eyes reflected deep anguish.

She immediately felt guilty for her harsh words, but then thepicture of him kissing some redhead came forefront in her mind. How dare he stomp in here, mess up her hugely successful event, ruin the perfect bride and groom’s wedding, hit her boss, and accuseherof cheating?

“Don’t worry,” Easton said between clenched teeth, his arm muscles bulging as he clenched his fists too. “You never will.”

With that, he whirled and stormed through the gaping crowd. They parted like he had a communicable disease.

Cassie watched him go, her stomach churning and her heart sinking. Had Easton really cheated on her, hit her boss, and promised she’d never see him again?

It was surreal and too painful to deal with right now. She focused on Baxter, her hands trembling and bile clawing at her throat. She feared she’d throw up. Easton had no right to accuse her of cheating or punch her boss. But terror rolled through her. Easton also always stood by his word … except when he cheated on her. If he said she wouldn’t see him again, they were definitely through.

Anguish filled her so deeply her chest ached and it was impossible to catch a full breath.

She rubbed at her heart and looked around the stunned crowd.

Looking down at her boss, she murmured, “I am so sorry.”

“I’ll be all right.” He gave her a smooth smile. “Was that your boyfriend?”

“‘Was’ is the key word,” she said.

His smile grew. “Then the hit was worth it.”

Cassie didn’t agree with him. This whole night was a horrendous and unbelievable bad dream.

Had she really lost Easton?

Chapter

One

Easton Coleville strutteddown the very short Main Street of picture-perfect Coleville Montana the Monday after Thanksgiving. The sun was bright and the famed Montana ‘big sky’ was as blue as his own mesmerizing eyes. The air was crisp and titillating as his favorite cologne Goutal Nuit … some other words. He couldn’t pronounce the name; all he knew was his mint, citrus, and pine cologne combined with his handsome face and renowned charm made women ‘melt into his arms’.

Snow was already decorating the pine trees in the valley and the mountain tops. Christmas decorations were plastered on the few businesses and the light poles. His family had finished a raucous and happy reunion at the ranch all weekend and he’d spent the morning helping Mama get all the Christmas decorations out and lifting anything heavy into place for her. Thankfully Mama knew he was healed and didn’t beg him not to lift anything or get teary-eyed when she looked at his scars.

Montana and the Christmas season were bussin’. Thingsshould be gucci in his world, but Easton was as low as he’d been since the day Cassie had cheated on him, screamed at him for decking the loser she had cheated with, and told him to never come near her again.

Pretty darn low, that was for sure. Losing Cassie had happened six years ago and it still gouged at his stomach and made his heart throb with agony. Stupid, emotional garbage anyway. He was more than over her. Who needed the love of his life when he had a different woman chasing him every weekend? Nobody but Walker would ever know that he longed for Cassie. Her loss was like being slammed to the ground one second into a ride and a spear wound from a bull’s horn gouging through his flesh and internal organs. A wound that deep never healed.

Missing the PRCA finals at the NFR rodeo in Vegas this December because of his ‘head injury’ that was already healed, not to mention the ugly new decorations on his forehead marring his perfect face, was another form of torture.

He’d been at the top of his game; bull riding was his life and his identity. Now what did he have? Scars that might ruin his ‘game’ with all the women?

No. He still had his charm and his good looks. He’d heal and get back on those ugly bulls’ backs. He’d conquer the life-threatening ride and the bulls.

He’d keep a smile on his face, keep flirting with his flock of feminine admirers, and make this a fabulous Christmas season for his mama and his family. They’d gathered for Thanksgiving, but everyone except him, Clint, Walker, and Marci had left Coleville again by Sunday afternoon. The whole troop was coming home again for the ‘epic’ Christmas weddings of his brothers Miles and Clint to Eva Chevron and Lily Lillywhite onDecember twenty-first. Married on the shortest day of the year. He supposed it wasn’t bad planning on his brothers’ parts—lots of nighttime hours to snuggle with their new brides.

Easton growled low in his throat, an unfamiliar jealousy pinging through him. He wanted a bride of his own, but not just any bride would do. It had to be a woman who could make him forget about Cassie.

Would that ever happen for him? He’d given dating his A-game, dating women around the world as his travels with bull riding took him to rodeo after rodeo. He’d never found anyone who stirred him, made him laugh, made him feel alive, made him want to settle down and rock babies like Cassie had when he was young and dumb and thought the world was at their feet.

He’d even tried to move on with his new sister-in-law Marci… before she was his sister-in-law, of course. He’d been wrong thinking the hilarious author was his one. Marci was ideal for Walker, and he was happy for his twin, ecstatic even. Marci and Walker had eloped. Lucky brother anyway.

---