Page 36 of Saving Jared

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"The judges’s scores are in and it’s a solid eighty-three and a half for Dave Lawrence."

Willa rose from her bleacher seat amid the whoops, hollers, and smattering of applause from the crowd, then lifted herself up on her tiptoes. For a small-town rodeo, it sure did have a lot of people in attendance. She frowned over the heads of those in front of her, then had to stretch herself up even more to get a good look at the announcer. Jude was in good voice tonight.

The question was, why was it Jude’s voice and not Jared’s? He should be the one standing in the middle of the arena. But he wasn’t there. In fact, he wasn’t anywhere. She’d arrived at the rodeo in time to watch the bull riding competition about thirty minutes before and had yet to see him. It just wasn’t like him to not be in the thick of things.

She made her way to the end of her row, then patiently waited while people filed past and Jude’s voice reverberated through the loudspeakers.

"The score to beat is eighty-six and three quarters from Marty Vaughn. We have three more competitors who will give it their all to try, including six-time Florida state champion Eric Taggert. I can guarantee you, you won’t want to miss his ride on last year’s Bull of the Year, Fremont Farms’s Fire and Brimstone!"

She loved watching the youngest of her brothers compete, no matter how terrifying she found it. Every time Eric held onto one of those massive, bucking bulls, her heart nearly came out of her chest. And every time she couldn’t regret being there to witness the absolute mastery he held over the animal during those few seconds, then the joy on his face when his ride was over.

It was amazing.

She finally managed to scoot out and stayed with the jostling crowd moving down the grandstand stairs. Right now, Ben and Darin would be in the bucking chute prepping Eric for his turn, and she wanted to wave her good luck to him.

And maybe, just maybe, she’d catch sight of Jared.

It took a minute—she probably shouldn’t have gone up so high in the bleachers—but she finally got to the railing separating the crowd from the arena floor.

And where was Kinsley? She peered around the arena. Had everyone abandoned her? She said she’d—

There she is.

Her brows raised. Kinsley stood in one of the entryways to the arena floor smiling up at a tall, bearded man with dark brown hair who seemed to be crowding close to Kinsley and touching her—a lot. And it was hard to tell from a distance, but it looked like Kinsley might just be leaning into him. She squinted to make sure she was seeing things right.

"Woah."

Yep, Kinsley definitely had her hand holding onto the man’s belt as he leaned down and whispered something in her ear. Even from a distance Willa could see her friend’s quick intake of breath before she pressed against him and nodded.

Then off they went. Now wasn’t that interesting? And so unlike her friend.

"Just be careful," Willa whispered, watching them disappear into the crowd.

"I always try to be."

Willa grinned and turned to find…

"Emma." The tall, willowy, blond had her six-year-old daughter, Mathilda’s, hand held tight in hers. And it was a good thing. The little tow-headed girl nearly vibrated with excitement as her feet bounced up and down and her wide, excited eyes stared around the arena. "When did you guys get here?"

"About an hour ago," she said, smiling, before her indulgent glance dropped toward her daughter then back to Willa. "Mathilda wanted to pet some of the animals first."

"I liked the apacks. They were soft."

"Alpacas, sweetie. And, yes, they were…" Emma’s words trailed off as her gaze lifted and focused on the arena. Willa turned her head in the general direction she seemed to be looking.

Jude.

"Are you ever going to talk to him?"

"Hmm…" Emma’s distracted hazel gaze moved to hers. "Talk to who?" Her quick glance flicked toward the arena and then back to Willa, her freckled cheeks flushing. "Jude? I talk to him. All the time, in fact. He likes my lemon bars."

"Right, lemon bars."

"Next up, Eric Taggert! Get on your feet folks. You don’t want to miss this brave cowboy riding one of the biggest bulls in the state, weighing in at a whopping eighteen-hundred and seventeen pounds! Fire and Brimstone!"

"Hold on," Willa told Emma, then jumped up and down as she waved wildly at Eric sitting atop the bull inside the chute. On either side, Ben and Darin had their hands on him. From past experience, she knew they were checking the harness and making sure he was secure and had his protective vest on tight.

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