Chapter 3
three
Tarr drew a card, getting the exact thing he needed to go out. His heartbeat skipped at the six of spades he deftly slid between two other cards. He looked up, his gaze automatically meeting Tucker’s.
“Tarr,” his best friend warned. “Don’t you dare go out.”
Tarr couldn’t stop the grin as it spread across his face. “I can’t help it,” he said. “The cards are just being lucky tonight.”
“You have got to be kidding me.” Jane groaned as she threw her hand down. “How do you win every time?”
“It’s not every time.” Tarr’s eyes switched to Briar, who now sat at his side. She wore the cutest little frown between her eyes as she tried to peek over his forearm to see his hand. He automatically recoiled his cards into his chest.
“Are you cheatin’?” he asked.
“You’re gonna go out anyway,” Tuck said, and he threw his cards down too. “Just do it.”
Tarr chuckled as he laid out his hand, which ended the round. Technically, everyone had one more turn, all the way around to him again, but Tuck pushed his chair back and stood.
“You don’t want to finish?” Deacon asked.
“I’m not going to be able to go out,” Tuck said. “One card’s not going to make a difference.” He strode into the kitchen, where he opened the freezer and pulled out a container of ice cream.
They’d had a delicious turkey dinner followed by a movie, where Tarr had sat next to Briar on Hunter and Molly’s enormous couch, trying to formulate a way to hold her hand. For two solid hours, he’d thought about it. He’d shifted left, then right, hoping she’d somehow sink into his body.
He hadn’t been able to come up with anything, which was simply ridiculous. He’d had girlfriends before. Plenty of them. He’d never struggled to get a woman’s attention, but something about Briar had him walking, breathing, and living on eggshells.
When the movie ended, the party had come upstairs for the pie bar, where Hunt and his kids had served key lime pie, coconut cream, banana cream, and chocolate banana cream, in addition to the classic Thanksgiving pumpkin pie.
Now, they’d been playing card games for about an hour. And fine, Tarr had won every round, even the two where he hadn’t gone out first.
A yawn pulled through his chest, and Tarr looked over to Briar while Deacon took his turn. He leaned down, a preposterous amount of excitement parading through him when she migrated toward him too. “You almost ready to go, sweetheart?”
She kept her attention on her cards, studying them as if she’d never seen them before, but she nodded and looked up as Deacon played.
“That’s the best I can do,” he said grumpily. “You go out so fast, man.”
The game continued, with Ryder playing for Tuck, who ate mint chocolate chip ice cream right out of the container, and people playing as many cards as they could. Finally, Jane added up the scores.
“Tarr’s the winner, of course,” she said, and she grinned at him before turning to find her husband. “I think we’re gonna head out, Molly. We’ve got to get Clint home and in bed.”
“We’re gonna go too,” Tarr said, seizing onto Jane’s words. “I’ve got to get myself to bed.”
Molly stayed on the couch, but Hunter rose to come say goodbye to them as Deacon and Ryder started cleaning up the card game.
Tarr and Briar stayed at the table and helped too, and once he wouldn’t be leaving a mess for Hunter and Molly, Tarr got up from the table too.
“Leftovers, Tarr?” Jane picked up a ready-made container. “Briar? It’s turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, and green beans.” She nodded to a series of brown paper bags. “Bread in there.”
“Yeah, I’ll take one,” Tarr said, keeping the fact that he couldn’t reheat it in the RV to himself.
He could go over to the barn and use the microwave and break room there.
He and Tuck weren’t working again outside of keeping the animals fed until Monday, when Rosie Young would actually arrive in town.
Tarr had met her a few times, but Tuck had mostly been training with her down in Texas. But with the National Professional Rodeo finals in only another week and a half, they’d train at the Deerfield facility before heading to Vegas.
Tuck had gone over everything with Tarr at least five thousand times.
Where Rosie would stay. Which horses she could practice with before they brought out her professional horse.
They’d been cleaning up the barns and stables, revamping the facilities, and making sure everything was set for when Rosie walked through the door.
Tarr, followed by Briar, moved into the living room and leaned over to hug Molly, who remained on the couch. “Thanks so much for having us.”
She lifted up her eye mask at the sound of his voice. “I’m sorry I’m not the best hostess,” she said, and she looked utterly exhausted. “Thank you so much for coming.”
“You’re fine,” Tarr said, a slip of guilt for making her work so hard today. She’d suffered a concussion over the summer, and big events, loud noises, and go-go-going all the time caught up to her quickly. “We had a great time.”
He moved back, and Briar took his place, leaning down to hug Molly. “Thank you,” she said. “You’re a great cook, and I had an amazing time.”
“It’s so good to see you again, Briar,” Molly said, her voice filled with warmth. “You two drive safe now. It’s a long way across the city.”
It sure was, and Tarr got reminded that winter had definitely arrived in Colorado the moment he stepped outside. Full darkness consumed the sky, and one breath in told him not to do that too deeply, lest his lung walls might freeze together.
“Come on, honey.” He reached for Briar’s hand then, the movement natural, and hurried her along to the truck. The way his blood foamed in his veins had become his new normal whenever he got close to Briar, and with her slender fingers enveloped in his, Tarr definitely needed to hold her hand again.
Soon.
Once he’d helped her up into his big beast of a vehicle, and he’d catapulted himself behind the wheel, he glanced over to her. “I should’ve come out and started the truck. We’re gonna freeze for ten minutes.”
Briar gave him a half-smile and simply tucked her hands between her legs to keep them warm. “I doubt that,” she said. “This truck is so nice. I bet the heater doesn’t take long to get hot at all.”
“Yeah.” Tarr got them off the Hammond Family Farm and onto the two-lane highway that led away from Ivory Peaks and into the city.
He’d skirt north up toward Boulder and go around the top edge of Denver, a route he and Tuck had mapped as the shortest and quickest way back to their rodeo training facilities, which sat just northwest of the city.
“You seemed like you had a good time,” he said, hoping Briar would pick up the conversation from there.
“Yeah,” she said. “It was nice.”
He swallowed, pure fantasy running through his mind. Making a quick decision, he reached over and took Briar’s hand in his. He pulled it over to his chest as he leaned down, and he placed a tender kiss just on the inside of her wrist. “Thank you for coming with me.”
He dropped their hands to his thigh, and to his great surprise, she didn’t immediately pull away. In fact, she didn’t pull away at all.
Maybe Tarr didn’t need a huge elaborate plan in order to hold Briar’s hand and have her in his life. Maybe he just needed a little more courage to do what he wanted to do and take control of the situation.
He’d felt so out of control in his life since his injury, but as the radio warbled at a low volume, and Briar kept her hand in his, Tarr finally felt like he was back on top of the world.
Coming home with Tucker after the pause in his rodeo career had saved Tarr.
Literally. He still had the fondest memories of living in a simple cowboy cabin on Tuck’s family farm, and he’d fallen in love with the Rocky Mountains, the way the trees turned shades of fire in the autumn, went blank in the winter, and revived every spring.
He hadn’t wanted to go back on the rodeo circuit, but Tuck wasn’t one to sit still and do nothing.
He still had plenty of spunk and spark left inside him, and he loved the rodeo with his whole heart.
Fine, Bobbie Jo had taken all of that, and she cared for the goats and lambs Tuck had bought for her.
They’d only been on the farm for one season, and Bobbie Jo had met with Keith Whettstein and Deacon to get a plan ready for next year’s planting season. Tarr was sure she’d be able to get the farm right back to its former glory, and he glanced over to Briar.
She’d come with the farm for a year, and that meant they’d only have her for another month. Tarr didn’t involve himself in the business side of things, because he hadn’t bought the farm. Tucker had, and he’d sold four acres to Tarr for his cabin and land.
No matter what, Tarr didn’t get to decide to keep Briar on as their vet once the new year started. He wanted to ask her if she’d met with Tuck about renewing her contract or whatever she needed to do to stay in her house and on the farm.
But he didn’t want to complicate anything by starting a conversation, especially since he could never predict how it would turn out.
The question of a breakfast date with her teemed beneath his tongue, but Tarr had had so much practice holding back what he really wanted to say to Briar that he didn’t let it out.
They made the eighty-minute drive back to the Deerfield farm in silence, and Tarr finally cleared his throat as he walked Briar up her steps to the front door.
“So, I was thinking Yolks Up for breakfast,” he said. “I can do an online reservation and let you know what time I’ll be here to get you.”
He wasn’t asking about breakfast, but pure fear shot through him when Briar turned toward him, those gorgeous eyes—which could be so sharp—sinking into him. He swallowed, but otherwise didn’t move and managed to remain silent.
Enough time went by for Wiggins to circle at her feet and lay down, and Tarr definitely felt like the dog, as they were both at Briar’s mercy. Tarr was just about to say, “Please,” again when everything that Briar kept boxed tight inside her fell.
She put one palm on Tarr’s chest, smoothing down something imaginary there. If she had any idea what her touch did to him….
“All right, cowboy,” she said, and she looked up at him again. “But nothing too early, okay? I’m still kind of in a food coma from all that pie.”
Tarr chuckled and ducked his head, catching Briar’s hand as she let it fall from his chest. “Nothing too early,” he promised. “And you know, you didn’t have to try the coconut cream, the key lime, and the pumpkin.”
“Yes, I did,” Briar said, her smile wide and glorious. It painted light and joy through Tarr, and he wondered if she could feel herself smiling so beautifully. He hoped so, because he didn’t think Briar experienced much happiness in her life, and he yearned to give that to her.
With that, she squeezed his hand and then released it, moving the few steps to her door. She opened it and said, “Let’s go, Wiggy.”
Wiggins didn’t look at Tarr for permission. He simply trotted inside. Briar nodded at him again, and Tarr did the same, lifting his hand to tip his hat at her before she disappeared into the cabin and brought the door closed between them.
Tarr practically floated back to his truck, and he couldn’t remember the drive back to his RV at all. He whistled as he rotated his keys around his fingers and went up the steps and into his temporary dwelling.
The fact that it didn’t get any warmer now that he stood inside brought Tarr harshly back to reality.
He quickly moved over to the wood-burning stove that he’d installed last week, and though his hands shook, he couldn’t stop smiling as he built a fire that would hopefully keep him from freezing to death overnight.
“Please, dear God,” he begged. “I’ve got to make it through one more night, because I finally have a date with Briar in the morning.”