Unrivaled (Poplar Springs #6)

Chapter 1

ONE

JAKE

Ileaned against the arena rail, watching the final event in the Poplar Springs Charity Rodeo. The weekend rodeo brought in a huge crowd, but my eyes weren’t on the people. I was focused on the horses. The horses bred at my ranch had put in mixed performances.

The four and five-year-old horses had done well, but the younger ones had been less than stellar. Somehow, they seemed weaker in comparison to the stock from our ranch from before I’d taken over. Lacking. And I knew why.

“How’s it going?” Brian, my twin, came up beside me and balanced a basket of curly fries on the rail. His hands were loaded with a wrapped sandwich, a brownie, and a can of Coke.

“Hungry?” I commented with a nod at the food. “Or is some of that for me?”

“Touch my food, and I will arrest you again.” Brian shot me a look. “I’m a starving man.”

“If you’d relax a bit, you could have been eating all weekend.

” Every kind of barbeque and festival food imaginable had been available at the rodeo, but Brian tended to micromanage his duties as the town’s sheriff, so he had been too busy handling security concerns to stop for meals.

I’d watched him crisscrossing the grounds almost nonstop from the moment he arrived.

“Too much to do. It’ll be over soon, thankfully, and we can get back to some semblance of normal around here.” Brian stuffed three fries in his mouth.

“Did you actually watch any of the rodeo?”

Brian pulled the tab on the Coke and gulped down half of it before answering me. “I caught the events Cal was in and some of the juvenile events. Henry’s decided he wants to compete in barrel racing.”

Henry was our nephew—the son of our late brother, Luke, and his wife, Amy—while Cal was the rodeo headliner.

Coincidentally, when he’d arrived in town, we’d discovered, to our shock, that he was the half-brother Brian and I had never known we had.

Mom had kept that first pregnancy of hers from before she met our father a secret.

We still hadn’t talked about it as a family and I wasn’t sure we ever would.

“What’d Amy say?” I asked.

“Nothing to Henry, yet, but she did mumble something along the lines of ‘over my dead body,’” Brian said.

Brian took a bite of his barbeque pork sandwich. “Your stock’s done well,” he said and I let out an irritated grunt. Brian stared me down as he shoved another large piece of sandwich in his mouth.

“Not as well as I’d like,” I finally said once he stopped chewing so loud.

When the announcer called out the next rider, I turned my attention back to the adult barrel race finals.

The rider’s horse was sired by Twister, the black stallion owned by Julia Lett, a local veterinarian.

Twister was possibly the finest horse I had ever seen, and all of his offspring were buckle or ribbon winners in every rodeo they competed in.

Twister had put in a smoking performance himself earlier in the day in the bareback event, as had two other horses he’d sired.

I was suffering from a serious case of horse envy wrapped up in a deadly case of regrets.

“I need a new stallion,” I said, voicing my thoughts aloud.

“Always a good purchase,” Brian agreed as he continued eating. “Have you started the search?”

“No need. I’m going to buy Twister,” I said as I watched the clean lines of the horse’s progeny running through the barrels. “He’s the best stud in the area.”

“When’d you decide that?” Brian asked.

“About thirty seconds ago,” I said, knowing that snap judgment would annoy my brother, who thought everything through carefully and methodically. Growing up, I was always the hothead while Brian kept his cool. We’d gotten nicknamed “Fire and Ice” in school and the monickers fit.

“Is that a good idea? I don’t mean to get in your business. God knows I’ve got enough on my plate, but—”

“You mean with Caitlin in your house?” I couldn’t resist the dig.

When Brian’s ex-girlfriend returned to town for a waitressing job at Bite and Brew, she’d needed a place to stay for a few months when her original plans fell through, but I still couldn’t believe Brian had offered her his guest room. Talk about asking for trouble.

“I meant with my job as sheriff,” Brian said, giving me a back off look. “Leave Caitlin out of this.”

“Sure,” I responded agreeably before returning to the subject of the horse. “Twister’s the finest stallion I’ve seen in years.” The animal was nimble and smart, able to work flawlessly with his riders. His offspring seemed to have the same qualities.

“Don’t make a hasty decision,” Brian cautioned, without adding the words “like last time.” He didn’t need to say it.

I’d taken a wrong turn with the horses, and I needed to right it by getting back to my dad and brother’s original plan for the stables.

To do that, I needed a new stallion for stud.

The one I’d bought just weeks after the accident that killed Luke and our dad was not the kind of horse to sire champions.

“Twister’s getting a lot of buzz right now. That doesn’t make him perfect. Although I suppose Luke would have snapped him up based on reputation alone.”

“And Luke would have been right. I’m buying him.” Twister was going to rebuild Thorne Ranch’s stock.

“What if he’s not for sale?” Brian crinkled up the foil that his sandwich had been wrapped in. “You thought of that?”

“I’ll be persuasive.” I looked around and saw the doc leaning on the far side of the rail. Doctor Julia Letts—my neighbor and one of Poplar Springs’s large animal vets.

“What if you’re not the only one offering? What’s your plan then?” Brian asked.

“I’ll charm Doc Letts.” Easier said than done, I knew. Since returning to the area after vet school, she’d cared for my stock, and our interactions had been professional but not particularly warm.

Brian chuckled. “Good luck with that.” He looked over at the spectators beginning to make their way to the parking lot. “I gotta get back to work. See you around.”

As Brian headed off into the crowd, I found Julia again. She was headed for the horse paddocks. This was the perfect time to intercept her. I started after her, but got waylaid by friends twice, so by the time I reached the paddock area, Julia was preparing to load Twister into a horse trailer.

She wasn’t a tall woman, meaning that the sixteen-hand stallion dwarfed her, but she showed no signs of being intimidated.

I paused to take a good look at her. Her Western shirt and jeans were the same as always.

The same was true of the ponytail that just barely controlled her curly brown hair, but her face was more beautiful than I remembered.

Usually when I saw her, I was focused on a sick or injured animal, so I spent more time watching her hands—administering medicine, tending injuries—than her face.

But now, I trained my gaze on her and saw that she was gorgeous.

High cheekbones, soft pink lips, and delicately arched eyebrows.

She looked all too feminine as she rubbed her face against Twister’s muzzle.

How had I not seen that before? I thought back to high school.

Had she been pretty then? I didn’t remember—hadn’t paid attention.

We’d moved in different circles back then—I played sports while she’d been on the different academic teams, so it hadn’t mattered.

And it didn’t really matter now, either.

I wasn’t asking her for a date. I planned to buy her horse. That was all.

“In the trailer with you,” she cooed to the big horse. “I know it’s not your favorite, but it’s a short trip home, and then I’ll give you a treat.” The horse whinnied as if responding to her. It struck me as endearing, softening my view of her even further.

“Julia,” I said, coming up on the other side of the horse. “I wanted to catch you before you left.”

“Oh?” she said as her green eyes met mine. “Do you need something? I thought your horses got through the weekend without injury.”

“They did. That’s not what I wanted to talk with you about.”

“Then what?” She was studying me.

“Twister’s an impressive stallion.” Starting with a compliment seemed the right thing to do, and it was sincere.

“He is that.” She patted the horse. “I was just about to load him, and then I need to be on my way. He doesn’t like to be in the trailer long.”

“I can understand that.” I reached out and stroked the horse’s long, sinuous neck. He really was an amazing animal. “I don’t like to be confined either.”

“Who does?” she said, picking up the lead rope and starting to move the animal into the trailer. “What did you need, Jake?”

“I want to buy Twister,” I said, and she laughed. Okay, not the reaction I expected. She didn’t even pause as she went up the trailer’s ramp with the horse following. “I’m serious.”

“He’s not for sale.” Her voice was calm, but firm as she focused on her task.

I stayed outside the trailer while she secured Twister, waiting to regain her attention. In my head, I was running the numbers and arrived at a price that no sane person would turn down. I needed that horse. When she latched the trailer closed, she turned to me.

“You’re still here?” She wasn’t being rude exactly, but I could sense her annoyance.

“Yep. Here’s my offer.” I named my price, expecting her to shake my hand and seal the deal within seconds, but she shook her head instead.

“As I said, he’s not for sale.” She folded her arms across her chest.

“That’s more than a fair offer.” We both knew that, so why was she hesitating? Did I need to sweeten the deal in some way? I was willing to spend more if that was what it took. Twister would make all the difference to my breeding program.

“I’m not disagreeing with you about that,” she said, “but it doesn’t change the fact that Twister isn’t on the market.”

“I need a stud, fresh blood to improve my stock.” I went for straightforward honesty. “And he’s the best I’ve seen.”

Her pink lips formed into a lovely smile, and I thought she was softening toward me until she spoke again. “He is the best, and you do need a fresh bloodline, but that isn’t going to make me sell.”

I narrowed my eyes, gauging her. How resistant to selling was she? Or was she holding out for more money? I named an even more generous purchase price. I’d have to redirect money from the ranch’s cattle operation to cover the cost, but it would be worth it.

“Jake,” she said, “I’m flattered on Twister’s behalf, really I am, but you’re just going to have to fall in love with another horse. You can’t have this one.”

“I don’t give up easily,” I said. “I need him.” She had no idea how important this was to me, to the ranch. I needed this, to get the operation back to what it used to be. Back to what it should be.

“Thanks for the warning, but neither do I.” A breeze caught a strand of long curly hair and brushed it across her face.

She quickly tucked it behind her ear. “The price is generous, but the stud fees I can charge over the coming years for Twister will far exceed your offer. So you see, it’s nothing personal, just business. ”

It was very personal to me. There was nothing that mattered more to me than improving my stock.

“I want to keep talking about this,” I said, not giving up.

She shook her head. “You can talk all you want, Jake Thorne, but don’t be too stubborn to listen to what I say. I’ll see you later.” She walked away from me and got in her truck.

I watched her drive away. Twister’s black tail swished over the trailer’s gate as if the horse was waving a final goodbye to me, but I wasn’t defeated. I’d try again. I was stubborn as she’d said, but that had usually gotten me what I wanted, and I figured it would this time as well.

I turned to walk back toward the arena, thinking about Twister’s owner as much as I was the horse.