Page 47 of His First Baby Rodeo

“Mac, you’ve just healed from a serious injury.”

“It’s only a broken arm. And I’m fine now.”

“But what if there’s another accident?” she asked him. “The next time could be a whole lot worse, you know. I don’t want to see something like that happen to you.”

He looked at her. “Is this you telling me that you want me to retire after all?”

“No!” she said. A look of frustration crossed her face. “Mac, you know that isn’t what this is about. I care about you. I just don’t want to see you rush back into this before you’re fully recovered, that’s all.

“Or maybe you don’t think I’m going to recover fully,” he said. “Maybe you’ve been secretly holding onto the idea that I won’t be able to make it back into a competitive state.”

She looked slapped. “I think you know that isn’t true,” she murmured. “And it kills me that you’d say it. Don’t youknowI want you to get back out there? I just want you to do it the right way.”

“Well, you’re not a rodeo expert,” he said. “You’re good on a horse, El, but you have no idea what it takes to be competitive in this world. You have no idea how hard it is to stay relevant.” He sighed. “Look, we were going to have to put an end to this whole thing pretty soon anyway.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m going on tour. I’ll hire someone else to run the ranch while I’m gone. You and I can be done.”

“Mac, I mean… I can still help with the ranch. And I’m sure you’ll be home on weekends…”

“This isn’t what I need,” he said brusquely. “I don’t need to be spending time regularly with someone who doesn’t support me.”

“Idosupport you.”

“You don’t support what I’m trying to do.”

He didn’t know if it was true or not. But he did know that the stricken look on her face was going to haunt him.

“I thought you and I understood each other so well,” she whispered.

“Yeah,” he said. “I thought that too. I thought you got how important this was for me. But that was just wishful thinking. We let ourselves get carried away, El, and we shouldn’t have. It was irresponsible on both our parts. Ending it now is the best thing we can do. You should go home to Oklahoma — or to Seattle, I guess, if that’s what you want to do.”

“So quickly?”

“I’ll be leaving for my tour in a week.”

She inhaled sharply, and he could see that he had hurt her. In spite of all his best intentions, he had caused her pain.

And the only consolation he could feel was that his own heart was breaking too.

He really had thought that El, of all people, understood how important this was. He’d thought she would find it in her to be happy for him in this moment.

But she was just like everyone else.

CHAPTER21

EL

“You have got to get off this couch,” Jeff told El.

She peered up at him. He was standing over her with his arms folded and a judgmental expression on his face. She sighed and turned her attention back to the television. “I told you,” she said. “I’m not feeling well, Jeff.”

“Yeah, well, you’ve beennot feeling wellsince you got back from Texas,” Jeff said. “Did something happen?”

El had no intention of confessing to her brother what had taken place between herself and Mac. He would be sympathetic, probably, but first he would insist on telling her that he had warned her this was going to happen and that next time she should listen to him. She couldn’t stand the idea of an I-told-you-so speech right now. She was miserable enough without having it rubbed in her face.

“What kind of thing?” she asked, pretending not to have any idea what Jeff might be talking about.

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