Chapter Nineteen #2
He wandered the grounds, aware but trying not to be, that he was constantly searching.
He’d spotted Emily fairly easily amid the crowd from up on the stage, but he hadn’t been able to find her since.
Maybe she wasn’t even here anymore. After all, it wasn’t like her job ended just because the rodeo was now on.
In fact, it had to be busier for her, with all the visitors in town.
He’d heard Nic mention this was the busiest day of the year for Last Stand PD because a lot of those out-of-towners, and a few of the locals, got a bit too rowdy.
And that’s what was really gnawing at him.
He was glad she had Lobo with her, for protection if nothing else.
He spotted Jackson over by the awning that covered the town kiosk, with all the flyers and schedules for the events that happened year-round here, from the huge Bluebonnet Festival in the spring, complete with parade, to today’s rodeo, then an Oktoberfest. And from what Nic had told him, Christmas in Last Stand was quite the wondrous experience.
He caught himself wondering as he headed that way, if he’d be around for any of those other events. He was enjoying the work he was doing here, and was glad to help Jackson out, he couldn’t help wondering if his friend really needed the assist or was just—again—helping out a friend.
Jackson was talking to a tall, powerfully built man in a gray, pearl-snap shirt and a dark gray cowboy hat. He looked familiar, although Tucker couldn’t put a name to him. But then he shifted slightly and a shaft of sunlight glinted off something metallic on his belt.
A badge.
And in that second he knew. This was Chief Highwater. Looking at him in person now, he did not disappoint. He looked every bit the hero he was. It wasn’t until it was too late, until Jackson had seen him and beckoned him over, that he remembered that other detail.
He was Emily’s boss.
Jackson introduced them, and Tucker was edgily trying to think of something to say when Shane Highwater said with a grin, “I owe you thanks.”
Tucker blinked. “What?”
“For saving me from having to do that speech thing. Yours was much better anyway.”
“Oh.” Tucker relaxed a little. “I got through it, at least.”
“After what you’ve been through, I’d think a little speech would be nothing. You quite impressed my wife.”
Tucker blinked. He hadn’t quite made that jump yet, either. “She was…easy to talk to.”
“She is that,” Highwater said, smiling like a man thoroughly and completely in love. Like Jackson smiled at Nic. And Logan smiled at Tris.
The kind of smile he’d never get. The kind he didn’t deserve.
He made an excuse about wanting to look around some more, and they let him leave.
It was a strange feeling, familiar yet different.
It had been a very long time since he’d been anywhere near a rodeo.
He didn’t want to be some has-been wandering around places where he’d once been a star.
He’d thought himself long past that, yet here he was, feeling…
tense. Almost like he had back when he’d been headed for the arena himself, yet not quite.
He couldn’t put a name to the difference, just that it was—
“Must be strange for you.”
He stopped dead as the voice came from just behind him. The voice he already knew so well. He turned his head, wondering how he hadn’t sensed her presence. Then realized that maybe he had, maybe that was the tension he’d been feeling.
“Emily,” he said, almost to himself.
She smiled at him. And suddenly his brain was rocketing off in weird directions, remembering his thoughts about certain smiles just moments ago. Because this looked…similar. Not like, exactly, but…like it could become one of those smiles.
He gave himself an inward shake as he realized she was speaking and he wasn’t hearing.
“—wouldn’t blame you if you’d never set foot at a rodeo again.”
“I…haven’t. But this was different somehow.”
Only then did he realize Lobo was sitting quietly at her feet, looking up at him. He leaned down to stroke the dog’s head. Then straightened to look at her, into those golden eyes. “Don’t think I could do that in L.A.”
“I hear their dogs are a little harder there.” A wry half-smile curved her mouth. That mouth, those lips… “I imagine they have to be.”
“Everything has to be.” The words were out before he even thought. And even he couldn’t deny he sounded a little harsh.
“And everyone?” she asked.
“Yes,” he admitted. And then something in those eyes, something warm, encouraging, not sympathetic—he hated being pitied—but empathetic made him add, “People are nicer here.”
Her smile was wide and pleased now. “Yes. We are. So you’d fit better here.”
He had to rein in his words, which wanted to respond rather fiercely to that. “If that was a compliment, I’ll take it.”
“It was.” She paused, as if she were having the same second thoughts about her words as he’d had. But then she went on. “One of many I could think of.”
It was like a kick in the gut. And now it was as if he’d forgotten how to think, how to be cautious. And before he could stop himself he was asking what was boiling up inside him.
“I know you’re working, but do you get a break? Like for lunch, or at least a lemonade or something? I hear the saloon here has some special stuff at a stand over by the burgers and stuff.”
That smile of hers became nothing short of brilliant now. “The peach lemonade? You haven’t tried that yet? Well we can’t let that go on.”
He found himself grinning back at her. All his misgivings, his doubts seemed to fall away. He’d asked her for a not-quite-date, and she’d reacted as if she’d been waiting her whole life to hear it.
She glanced at her watch. He was noticing the device seemed a bit heavy for her delicate wrist when she spoke again. “I need to make a circuit of the grounds, but in about an hour I can—uh-oh.”
He’d heard it too, the sound of a scuffle off to the left. It took him only a moment to spot the two teenagers rolling around in the dirt, throwing punches and kicks. And in that brief moment Emily and Lobo were already moving. Not away from the fight, but toward it.
He was suddenly frozen in place. This was how it happened.
This was how cops got hurt, or worse. Because it was their job to head into the danger, not away from it.
And a few minutes later, when she and Lobo had skillfully separated the two and calmed the situation, he felt just as frozen.
Because it easily could have gone the other way. And often did.
Something he knew better than most.