Page 1 of Roping Reba

CHAPTER 1

Reba

“Reeeba!”

My shoulders slumped as the voice of the one man I thoroughly hated rang through the arena, loud enough to set the horses shifting in their stalls. Though I was currently working at the community barn and arena up on Rawhide Ridge and wasn’t actually on the Ranch property itself, the last thing I’d expected when I’d accepted Mac’s offer to spend some time at Rawhide was to be face to face with Johnny… or as I liked to consider him, the devil himself

“Is that man calling to you?” a young girl training next to me asked as I secured the saddle on the horse I was working with.

“Yeah, just ignore it.”

“Reba! Don’t tell me you can’t hear me,” Johnny shouted again, but this time, the best sound in the world followed his bellow—the infectious laughter of a little boy who I adored more than anything. My chest softened even as my nerves tensed.

Jax.

I turned and held out my arms just in time for the boy to crash into me, giggling wildly.

“Ms. Reeeeba!” he yelled as I scooped him up and spun him in a circle, relishing the moment despite the irritation still prickling my skin.

How in the world a man who had to have been created from the devil’s spawn could make a little boy as perfect as Jax, I’d never know.

“What’s up, little man?”

“Papa said you were mad at him again.”

“Your papa is usually wrong about everything, but this time he got it right.”

Jax giggled, and I turned to grab a helmet, blatantly ignoring the towering presence behind me. Johnny stepped in closer, his heat pressing into my back. My pulse betrayed me, quickening against my will.

“You can’t ignore me forever, sweetheart,” Johnny murmured, his voice a slow, teasing drawl. “Didn’t work before. Won’t work now.”

I turned, a helmet for Jax in my hand, and met his gaze head-on. My body lit up against my better judgment, that damn cocky smirk of his stirring something deep and unwelcome.

“Try me.”

His eyes darkened, but before he could push further, I turned my back to him and secured the helmet on Jax’s head. “Wanna ride my horse with me, little man?”

Jax nodded so I set him back on his feet and turned to get a helmet for myself since I was riding with my little buddy, ignoring Johnny in the process.

“As I said, you can’t ignore me forever. It didn’t work before, it won’t work now.”

“And asIsaid, try me.”

Johnny crowded me and my body immediately jumped to life. The physical reaction to him was one of the million things I hated about him.

“What are you doing here, Johnny?”

“Keeping you from stealing my boy.”

“I mean at Rawhide.”

“I’m up looking at some horses. Mac wants to expand the ranch’s breeding program. He emailed you, didn’t you get it?”

“He told me Rooster had contacted him about some wild horses that had been saved from stampeding over a cliff, and that Jagger then took them in. However, it appears Mac failed to mention you were the one coming up.”

“I volunteered,” he said with a wink that made me want to smack him. “Heard you were up here, so I figured it would be a great time to see each other.”

“Sorry, I’m busy.” I lifted Jax onto Black Beauty, making sure he was settled, before swinging up behind him.

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