Page 8 of Rough Ride

I chuckled. “Apparently so.”

“He’s… a nice guy,” Johnny said, as if the admission was painful. “Persistent in everything he does, which can rub people the wrong way. But he won’t harass you. He’s a good guy.”

“I’m surprised to hear you say that,” I admitted.

Johnny blinked. “Why’s that?”

“You two seem to hate each other, yet the minute he walks away, you start defending him.”

He removed his hat and put it on the bar, then ran a hand through his blond hair. “I don’t hate Eli, and he doesn’t hateanyone,because he’s not that kind of guy. We have a professional rivalry. Sometimes it gets heated, because we compete in all the same events, but we respect each other.”

“Aww,” I said in a cheerful tone. “You’re frenemies!”

Johnny winced. “As much as I dislike that term, yes. We’re something like frenemies.”

“I’m still surprised to see you defend him after he left. You could have talked shit. I might’ve believed you.”

Johnny shrugged. “Eli’s as annoying as a pack of mules in heat, but he’s a good man. And I don’t talk about people behind their back.” He downed the rest of his beer, put his hat back on, and stood up. “The rodeo lasts all month. Maybe I’ll see you around, Sky Eyes. And Iwillget a bigger cheer during the opening ceremonies tomorrow.”

He tipped his hat and walked away. And just like with Eli, I couldn’t take my eyes off him until he was out of sight. I had met a lot of cowboys at the rodeo over the past few years. I’d heardevery line, ignored every advance. But those two, Johnny and Eli, seemed different. They stuck out among all the stereotypes for some reason. Even Sawyer, with his brooding, dangerous aura, was now firmly in my mind. Part of me couldn’t wait to see them all compete.

Maybe this rodeo will be different.

4

Johnny

This rodeo was going to be different.

I’d been on the rodeo circuit for a few years now, traveling between the big three in Houston, Fort Worth, and Denver. It had become mundane, in the way that all routines were mundane. I drove the trailer down to Houston, competed in that rodeo, then packed up all my gear and drove to Fort Worth to do it all over again. Then when that was done, it was back to Colorado forthatrodeo.

Drive, unpack, rodeo, pack up, drive. Sometimes I met women at the rodeo. Sometimes I took them out for a drink, and occasionally more than a drink. It all blended together.

But Sophie was anything but mundane.

From the moment I saw her standing outside my trailer, I was entranced by those light blue eyes. It was like they could see directly into my soul, warming me from the inside-out despite the cold January chill. And after she left, when Eli and I resumed our argument, I couldn’t bring myself to care about trailer space anymore. Sophie was the only thing my mind could focus on. She was a very attractive woman, with long legs that wentalltheway up, but it was her face that I kept seeing when I blinked my eyes. Perfectly heart-shaped, with pouty lips that were begging to be kissed.

She was handing out fliers for a local bar. I normally didn’t hit on women while they were at work. Only an asshole would pursue a woman who couldn’t walk away because she was doing her job. That was the kind of thing Eli did, blissfully unaware of the implications.

But Sophie? Goddamn, I couldn’t stop myself. As soon as I had finished unloading all my gear, I hot-tailed it straight over to Billy Bob’s, paying the cover charge without a second thought.

I didn’t intend to track Sophie down like a stalker, but the moment I walked through the front door, the woman she was with earlier—Liz—came running over to me and told me which bar I could find her at. “She’stotallyinto you,” Liz said happily. “She likes to play hard-to-get, but keep at it and you’ll wear her down.”

I could work with that. I knew all about playing hard-to-get. I preferred it to the direct approach. Less pressure on everyone that way.

And it was working… until Eli showed up.

I nursed my beer, traded joking insults with him, and then said my goodbye. “The rodeo lasts all month. Maybe I’ll see you around, Sky Eyes.”

It was a line, but it was agoodone. No pressure. Maybe we would see each other.

But as I walked away from the bar, every instinct in my body wasscreamingat me to turn back around and ask her out in earnest. To cast aside the hard-to-get game I was playing and just be direct, like Eli.

I made myself keep walking, though. I couldn’t win her over tonight no matter how hard I tried, but Icouldlose her tonight. I needed to be patient.

For those baby blue eyes that I could imagine drowning in? I could be patient.

Billy Bob’s was a massive place, with dozens of segmented areas that all kind of bled together. As soon as I left Sophie’s bar and rounded the corner into another area, I found Eli standing there on his phone.

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