Chapter 2 #4
What the fuck is wrong with me? he asked himself. Thinking of kissing Shyanna was probably a really bad thing to do, the absolute last thing he should do. He was pretty sure that would never happen. And before he could stop himself, his thoughts went to Colleen.
He’d loved that woman so much. They’d met his junior year of college in South Carolina and been inseparable for years.
They’d dated forever. His parents loved her.
Her parents loved him. At twenty-eight and twenty-six, he’d proposed and she’d seemed over the moon.
They decided to wait until he turned thirty to marry.
She’d landed a great job with the hospital as a nurse anesthetist, and he and his Master’s degree had been hired at the university to teach agricultural sciences and coach their rodeo team.
Everything was perfect, from their jobs to their house to their future children, the ones they’d planned to have as soon as they’d been married a year.
Her parents had spent over ten thousand dollars on their wedding.
The cake alone was twenty-five hundred. The venue was booked, the dresses and tuxedos ordered, “save the date” cards were sent out followed by invitations, musicians were hired, a sit-down dinner planned and all the RSVPs with entrée preferences logged in, and his parents had arranged a honeymoon for them in Cancun.
The morning of the wedding, he’d called her to tell her good morning, he loved her, and he couldn’t wait to marry her at four o’clock that afternoon.
She hadn’t answered. Oh, yeah―they were getting their nails and hair done.
Her polish is probably wet, he told himself.
At noon, she still hadn’t replied to his message.
At two o’clock, her maid of honor called him and said they hadn’t seen her since lunch.
At four o’clock, he’d stood at the front of the church as the organist played, sure she’d just gotten busy with dressing and primping and lost track of time.
At four fifteen, Leo had thrown furtive glances at their parents well within Jensen’s line of sight.
At four twenty-five, both sets of parents left the sanctuary of the big Lutheran church.
And when they came back, both mothers were crying.
Jensen didn’t have to ask. He knew what that meant.
Unable to process what was happening, he’d allowed his dad to lead him away through the door that led to the choir loft.
There, in the choir rehearsal room amid music books and choir robes, his parents had to tell him the woman he’d planned spend the rest of his life with had taken the airline tickets, and she and a guy named Michael had changed the flight times and boarded a plane to Cancun.
He’d been stood up. Jilted. Left behind.
And his honeymoon was being enjoyed by another man.
The months following had been a blur. He’d moped for twenty-four hours.
Then a spurt of anger hit him, and he rented a large moving truck and started the process of boxing up everything she’d had anything to do with in the house and putting it in the truck.
As soon as it was all packed up, he sent it straight to her parents’ house.
He’d thought they would show up and beg him to give her another chance when she came back.
They did not.
In the end, it was revealed that she and Michael, who conveniently happened to be a doctor at the hospital, had been fooling around for at least six months and no one, not even her family or her maid of honor, had a clue. Everyone was stunned, hurt, and disappointed, but no one more so than Jensen.
And that was that. The university hadn’t called him for a week.
After all, half his colleagues had been at the wedding that never was, and they all knew what had happened.
In the meantime, his parents spent their time consoling him and talking with him about his future.
By the time the dean called him, he’d written a letter of resignation, had the house on the market, and had decided to rodeo full time.
Why not? There was nothing to hold him there.
Ten years. That’s how long he’d been at it, living in the trailer and driving from rodeo to rodeo.
Sure, he went home to South Carolina for holidays, but that was about it.
Every time he set foot in Forrestville, he saw someone he knew, and that was exactly what he wanted to avoid.
He knew people asked his mother constantly if he’d found someone, gotten married, and settled down, and he also knew it embarrassed her to tell them he hadn’t.
She and Michael had only lasted about eight months, and from what he heard, she was on husband number two.
Both husbands men she’d met after Michael.
From time to time he thought back, sure he’d missed the signs, but there were none.
His parents hadn’t seen it coming. Her parents hadn’t seen it coming.
No one had suspected anything. It just hit out of the blue and took them all by surprise.
No more surprises. That was Jensen’s take on the world.
Except for the unfortunate things that might happen during an event, he didn’t want any surprises, not even for birthdays or Christmas.
Oh, he’d been surprised by a few injuries, but that was about it, and those he expected from time to time.
Even when he was laid up with an injury, he didn’t go back to South Carolina.
He just followed the circuit, sometimes going to rodeos put on by other organizations just to check them out.
But Shyanna was a surprise, that was for sure.
The more he thought about her, the more beautiful he realized she was.
He’d gotten out of the habit of looking at women that way, but she was a looker.
How he’d missed that the first time he’d seen her, he wasn’t sure, but she was definitely worth a second look …
and a third, and a fourth, and then more.
Enough of that, he told himself and sat up.
He had laundry to do, and he had to get busy.
Once it was gathered up and in the basket, he carried it to the truck and drove the three miles to the nearest laundromat.
Several pickup trucks he’d seen at the arena were there, and he wondered who he’d see when he stepped in.