Page 32 of Rough Ride

Sophie elbowed her in the ribs. “Dinner sounds great. I’m starving.”

For some reason, I had still expected her to reject me, even thoughshewas the one who invitedmeout after her shift. I shook off my surprise and said, “Great! First, I need to run back to my trailer and feed my dog. But I can meet you somewhere after that…?”

“I love dogs!” Sophie said. “What breed?”

“He’s a mutt, but I think he’s mostly Yellow Lab,” I said.

Sophie’s face brightened. “Can I come with you and meet him? I promise not to scrunch his face too much.”

I grinned. “Sure.”

Sophie said goodbye to Liz, then followed me back to my truck.

“I have to warn you, Dusty is mighty protective of me,” I said. “He might be stiff-tailed when he sniffs you out, but he’ll warm up after a few minutes.”

“I love it when dogs are jealous,” she said. “I used to have a Great Dane who would try to force his way between me and my boyfriend whenever we hugged. We had to exile him to the other room whenever we… got intimate.”

I grinned. “Oh yeah, I know all about sexiling. I have to sexile Dusty whenever I have a lady caller over.”

She chuckled to herself. “Sexile. I like that.”

As we drove back to the rodeo camp, I started to wonder about her intentions. Did she really want to meet Dusty, or was she making an excuse to come back to my trailer? I was pretty sure it was the former, but I was second-guessing myself now.

Eli was right about one thing: Sophie was special. She wasn’t the kind of woman you had a one-night stand with. That had been my intention when I first hit on her after she handed out fliers, but now? I felt like I had a big old crush on the woman. If she were a woman back home in Colorado, I would have definitely wanted to take it slow.

I was only in town for three weeks, though.

“I never get used to the smell here,” Sophie said as we hopped out of the truck next to my trailer at the rodeo camp. “Somehow it’s worse than theactualinterior of the rodeo.”

“I don’t smell a thing,” I said.

“The scent of animals and manure is probably permanently stuck to the inside of your nose,” she teased.

“You’re probably right.” I paused next to the trailer door. “Dusty isn’t aggressive, but like I said, he’s protective. Just givehim his space while he sniffs you and tries to decide what he thinks.”

I opened the door, and Dusty leaped out. He rubbed his head against my leg affectionately, then realized that I wasn’t alone. He whirled toward Sophie, tail stiff as he began sniffing her. I knew it would take a few minutes before he warmed up to her.

But then it was like a switch went off in his brain. Dusty’s tail wagged so fast it was a blur as he shoved his head between Sophie’s bare legs, all eighty pounds of him wriggling happily as he made a figure-eight between and around her legs.

“You had me fooled!” she said, crouching down to scratch both of his ears. “You made me think he was protective, but he’s a big sweetheart. Yes, you are! You’re just a big puppy!”

I removed my cowboy hat and scratched my head. I wasn’t pulling a prank on Sophie—Dustywasprotective. In fact, he rarely warmed up to women at all.

The dog glanced at me as if he could read my mind, then returned all of his attention to Sophie’s scratching fingernails, preening happily.

“I’m going to take him on a quick walk around the camp until he does his business,” I said, glancing down at her short shorts. “If you’re too cold, you can wait here…”

“And miss Dusty’s walk? Never.” She flashed me a smile, took the leash out of my hand, then clipped it onto his collar and took off down the pathway.

Grinning to myself, I jogged to catch up.

“Yeah, lots of good smells, huh?” she cooed at Dusty as we walked down the rows of trailer camp sites.

“He hates being on leash,” I explained. “Normally, he has free run of the entire ranch back home.”

“Is it your family ranch?” she asked.

I shook my head. “I’m just a ranch hand. Horseshoe Ranch is owned by another family—we’ve been working for them for three generations now. My dad was a ranch hand there, and his mom—my grandma—was a horse handler before that.”

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