Page 65 of Breaking the Cowboy's Rules

“I am fighting. For my family. For their future. It’s why the game has to work. Granddad has to be happy, safe and where he belongs. He needs to be surrounded by family, taken care of. He needs to know that the Ballantyne legacy will continue long after he and I are gone.”

“Bodhi,” she whispered. He made his death sound so…so…imminent.

“I don’t want to explain. I’ll explain after the Bash. I promise. Just stick with me through this weekend. Through this week and the rodeo and the Bash. Follow my lead, please, Nico. I need this. Haven’t you ever had anything you’d be willing to fight for? Do anything for? Sacrifice anything for?”

He was such a fierce warrior, standing here, giving her everything and yet nothing. Strong and vibrant and so alive on his land and yet he was planning for his death. She’d fought for her family. For what she thought was her legacy, but she’d fought blindly. She fought like a machine that had been programmed to fight. But when she’d realized what she had been protecting, she’d switched sides.

Betrayer.

And now there was a new fight. One she didn’t fully understand, but yet she knew she’d fight to the mat for Bodhi.

“Have you?” he demanded.

Nico nodded, not trusting her voice. She squeezed his hand and placed it over her heart.

“Yes,” she said firmly, feeling like she was back in court before a judge. Standing on Plum Hill before God. “Yes.”

*

“Yes,” Nico said,fingering the gold charm bracelet she’d been looking at for the past five minutes. “I’ll take it.”

She’d been saying that a lot lately. It’s like she’d taken the rules for improv and swallowed them whole along with a twenty-four-ounce energy drink and chased it all with a double shot of espresso and an IV of powerful steroids.

She’d spent so much of the week with Bodhi cleaning out the barn and a couple of other buildings for the party. She and Langston, who was playing the bride game with Bowen this week, helped decorate the barns and painted the inside of the cabin. They planted olive trees in pots that could later be put in a greenhouse and small potted evergreens that they wrapped with fairy lights. They’d also planted and arranged flowers in whiskey half-barrels and placed them strategically. She and Bodhi had hefted hay bales and covered them with decorative slip covers.

“Who needs a gym when there’s a ranch to run and party to organize?” she’d joked one night when they relaxed on the front porch of the farmhouse.

“You’ve been such a sport,” Bodhi had said, rubbing her feet until she’d nearly purred.

“It’s been fun,” Nico said, meaning it. “I get to spend time with you, boss people around, and Lang is funny.”

She liked being able to have her own vision and collaborate with Bodhi’s mom and aunts and Lang without someone taking everything over. She didn’t have to fight to get her voice heard. And she was productive.

And busy. Bodhi was creative about catching her alone and kissing her breathless. She and Bodhi had made love more this week than she had in her entire life.

Barn, check.

Oak savannah, check.

By the river, check.

Bodhi’s truck, check.

On a picnic table and a covered hay bale, check and check.

And finally, last night, in her sumptuous king-sized bed at the Graff.

And the list scrolled on. She didn’t want it to end and so she pretended that it wouldn’t.

She knew she had to hurry or she’d miss the start of the rodeo, but she couldn’t resist one last adoring touch of the bucking bronc charm. It would be a reminder of Bodhi. Her throat thickened and threatened to close with the emotion that had been close since last night when she’d gone to the fairgrounds with him to check on his horse, Cash, and to chat with a few other cowboys. The weekend had arrived. She and Bodhi had watched the parade this morning and heard Ben Ballantyne give one of the welcoming speeches.

Only the rodeo and steak dinner today and finals and the Bash tomorrow remained.

She stared at the charm, blinking back tears she’d told herself she wouldn’t shed.

“That’s fourteen-karat gold,” the shop assistant said. “So is the bronc charm and the others you’re looking at now. I have cheaper ones, like the ones you ordered for your rodeo keychain party favors,” she said kindly, perhaps mistaking Nico’s reverie.

“No, this is perfect,” she said. “I’d like the boot and the hat charms too. Could you put those on the bracelet for me today?”

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