Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Travis
The Calgary Stampede is one of the biggest rodeos in North America. More importantly, it’s the biggest rodeo close to home, which means there are huge bragging rights for the winner.
And I plan on being that winner in the finals today.
I just need to get my head in the game.
“Hey, buddy. You ready for this?” Rex slaps my back, joining me in the barns where I’m trying—and failing—to focus. None of my usual techniques are working.
I’ve spent years developing a routine that puts me in the zone, blocks out any outside noise, and allows me to focus completely on the bronc I’m about to mount.
It always works.
Except for today.
“Fuck!” I kick a bucket, spilling water all over the barn floor with a clang.
“No,” I tell him. “I’m not fucking ready for this.
I’m not fucking ready for tomorrow. I’m not fucking ready for her to leave.
” I stare at him, surprised the truth had just slipped out.
“I’m not fucking ready for any of it,” I confess, softer now.
My buddy stares at me for a beat before he shakes his head and whistles low under his breath.
“What?”
“You’ve got it bad, man.”
“Shut the fuck up,” I growl. “I don’t have anything bad. I’m just distracted.”
He cocks a brow. Before he can tell me exactly how distracted I am—and I don’t need any reminders, thank you very much—I continue.
“And what I need to do is get rid of the distraction.” The lie is bitter on my tongue.
“Tomorrow,” I tell him. “After I win this final, I’m taking Maisey back to Vegas.
We can get the annulment, collect our prize money, and go our separate ways. ”
He tilts his head and chuckles.
My hands clench into fists, itching to wipe that cocky grin off his face.
“Right,” he says, drawing out the word. “Because that’s what you want to do? Go your separate ways?”
“I do.” I can’t look him in the eye when I lie. But I also can’t admit the truth, because wanting her to stay doesn’t mean I get to keep her.
“Bullshit.”
“It’s—”
“Save it, Trav,” he stops me with a shake of his head. “I know you too well. And you’re a shitty liar. What I can’t figure out is why the hell you’re working so hard to convince yourself that saying goodbye to her is what you want.”
From beyond the barn, we can hear the roar of the crowd as the announcers call out the next event. The broncs are next. I’ve got to pull it together and quick if I don’t plan on getting my ass kicked out there in front of twenty thousand people.
“I can’t tell her,” I say simply. “She’s ready to go back to the city and her life.” I shake my head, remembering how excited she was about the job interview. Her whole face lit up. “I won’t be the reason she gives it all up.”
“Isn’t that a decision for her to make?”
I don’t have a chance to answer him before he asks another question. “Remember when you told me you wanted something different? Something real?”
“Obviously,” I grunt. “That was the night I—”
“Met your very different, very fucking real wife,” he cuts me off pointedly with another cocky wink. “So, I think the real question is, are you prepared to watch your wife walk away forever, knowing you never had the balls to tell her that you’re in love with her?”
The very thought of it makes my chest ache in a way that makes it hard to breathe.
“Asshole,” I mutter, and he laughs.
“You’re not wrong, Trav.” He slaps me on the shoulder.
“Now get your head in the game and focus so you don’t kill yourself out there and make the decision for her.”
Maisey
I’ve spent the last two days trying not to fall apart. Trying not to think of saying goodbye and walking away forever.
It was hard enough to drive away from Rock Creek Ranch, knowing I was unlikely to ever be back to the lush green fields with the towering mountain peaks surrounding us.
And the horses. Pico. I’d cried when I said goodbye to the horse I’d come to think of as my own, and I swear she understood that it was goodbye by the look in her eyes when I walked away.
Spending the day at the Calgary Stampede had been a good way to take my mind off things.
Mostly.
Because it was such a big deal, we’d all made the trip into the city to watch Rex and Travis ride in the finals of the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth. Of course, I’d heard all about the Stampede, but seeing the massive fair in person was an entirely different experience than I’d been prepared for.
Especially the rodeo.
It was unreal. I couldn’t believe how many people came together to watch everything from barrel racing to little kids riding sheep in an event they called mutton bustin’. And of course, the main events, which were the bull riding that Rex was competing in and Travis’s event, bronc riding.
Both Travis and Rex were in the finals, of course. Wyatt and Cash very proudly filled me in on just how talented the two of them were when it came to rodeo, a detail Travis had very much downplayed in all of our conversations.
And now I was about to see it with my own eyes for the first time.
I was a bundle of nerves watching the first handful of riders compete.
“This is insanity,” I said to Kali, who was grinning and cheering for the cowboy currently getting tossed around by a wild horse. “Why would they do that?”
“Because it’s rodeo,” Cash said, leaning over his wife to answer me. “It’s in their blood.”
“It’s crazy. They’re going to get hurt.”
“Some do,” Anna said seriously. “That’s why they wear all the protective gear, but even with—”
“Don’t scare her,” Wyatt scolded. “Besides, Travis is the best there is.”
“So, he doesn’t get thrown off like that?” I pointed and gasped as the cowboy in the ring got tossed like a rag doll into the sawdust. He rolled to the side, only narrowly avoiding being stomped at by the bucking bronc as a rodeo clown distracted the animal, encouraging it to chase him instead.
Which was also lunacy.
“Oh no,” Wyatt said. “Trav gets bucked off plenty.”
“What?” My mouth dropped in horror, worry filling me. “How dangerous is this?” I asked Anna the question, certain she’d be the only one to answer me honestly. “Should I be worried?”
She looked me in the eye, and I knew whatever she was about to say, it would be the truth. “Yes,” she said simply. “We’re all worried every time he rides.”
Because it could be his last.
That’s what she didn’t say, but it was exactly what was implied.
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?” My head whips between my new friends, looking for at least one of them to explain why I wasn’t warned that Travis was about to go out and risk his life on the back of a wild and clearly deranged horse. “He’s my husband. Shouldn’t I have been told that—”
“Your what?” Kali asks with a grin.
“Your husband?” Wyatt emphasizes the word.
“You all know we’re married.”
“We also know it’s not supposed to be real,” Anna says pointedly. “Right?”
“I would have told him—” I bite my tongue.
“What?” Cash asks, looking me in the eye. “You would have told him what, Maisey?”
All eyes are on me instead of the cowboy currently fighting for his life in the ring.
I blow out a breath, unshed tears burning my eyes. There’s no point trying to pretend anymore. “I would have told him I love him,” I blurt out before I can stop myself. “I would have told him that I don’t want this to be—”
My words are lost as the announcer roars into the microphone.
“ARE YOU READY?”
The grandstand explodes. By this point in the afternoon, the crowd is already amped, sunburned, beer-soaked, and hungry for blood. Or glory. Maybe both.
“Because up next,” he continues, dragging it out just long enough to make everyone scream louder, “we’ve got the man everyone’s been waiting for.”
The noise swells again.
“He’s the reigning Canadian Bronc Riding Champion,” the announcer bellows. “Fresh off a first-place win in Las Vegas last month and currently sitting at the top of the standings.”
My heart stutters.
“Known for taking the rankest stock they got and ridin’ it like he was born on bareback, this cowboy doesn’t just show up to win.”
He pauses.
“He shows up to dominate.”
The crowd loses its mind.
“Ladies and gentlemen—put your hands together for Travis Dean.”
The roar is deafening.
It takes a second for me to realize he just said my cowboy’s name.
I stare at the arena, stunned. I knew Travis had won in Vegas. I knew he was good. But the champion?
I spin toward Anna. “He’s the—”
“Watch,” she says urgently, grabbing my arm and yanking my gaze back toward the dirt. “It all happens so fast. Watch.”
I turn in time to see Travis astride a horse that looks like it was bred specially to ruin men. Even from a distance, I can see murder in its eyes. The animal is wild, tossing its head and stamping its feet, occasionally bucking up and smashing its hooves into the metal bars.
The horse explodes out of the chute.
The crowd roars, but the sound fades, swallowed by the pounding of my heart. Travis moves with the animal as if they’re one. He’s strong and sure, but watching it from so close up is different.
This isn’t like the highlight reels he’d shown me.
This is real.
The horse bucks hard, viciously, like it’s trying to kill Travis.
One wrong move. One bad landing, and—
I curl my hands into fists, unable to look away.
What if he gets hurt?
I don’t just want him to win.
I want him safe.
I need him safe.
The fear settles into my chest, and for the first time, I realize exactly how much I have to lose.
Travis
Everything narrows the second I get on the bronc in the chute.
The heat. The noise of the crowd. Even Maisey.
All of it disappears until there’s only the horse beneath me and the rhythm I’ve trusted my whole life. I ride like everything’s on the line, because it is.
That’s not any different today. It just feels bigger.
Eight seconds.
That’s all it takes to change everything.
The gate blows open. The bronc comes out hard, twisting and kicking like he’s got something to prove.
But so do I.
I stay with it, letting my body move on instinct through every violent, sharp turn.
I don’t fight the ride.
I own it.
When the buzzer sounds, I’m still there.
In a flash, I let my focus move from the bronc to the recovery rider coming up next to me on his horse.
I release my grip on the leather and, in one smooth motion, leap from the bronc—who’s still hellbent on trying to murder me—and use the recovery horse and rider as my buffer to slide down to the ground, while the clown does his job, leading the wild horse back to the corral.
It was a clean ride. Solid.
The crowd erupts, but I barely hear it. My eyes go straight to the stands.
To her.
I find her in the sea of thousands immediately. Maisey’s frozen in place, her hands clenched tight, her eyes locked on me like she hasn’t breathed in eight seconds either.
The second her eyes lock on mine, something in my chest settles.
Yeah.
Today was never about winning. It’s about her.
It’s always been about her.
Like a magnet pulling me across the arena, my feet start to move, but the announcer is right there, shoving a microphone in my face.
“Look at that score,” he yells. “Ladies and gentlemen, our new champion!”
The crowd goes wild, and then there are cameras everywhere. More microphones. People all around, crowding around me, cutting me off from my girl.
“Congratulations! That’s a ride no one’s going to forget anytime soon,” he says with a low whistle and a laugh. “You looked like a man possessed, Travis.”
I shake my head, slow and deliberate.
“No,” I say into the mic, taking it from the man. My voice carries across the arena. “Not possessed.”
The announcer blinks, surprised, but I don’t care about his reaction to what I’m about to say. There’s only one person who matters.
My eyes find her in the crowd again before I continue. “Like a man in love,” I say directly to her.
The reaction is immediate. A ripple goes through the crowd. There are a few cheers and hollers of support. I see the cameras whip around, searching the stands for the target of my love.
To Maisey.
“I know this was supposed to be thirty days, Maisey,” I continue. Despite the adrenaline still buzzing through my veins, I’m steady. “Thirty days and done. A fun story to laugh about.”
I start walking toward her, the cameras following me.
“But I’ll be damned if I let the best thing that’s ever happened to me walk out of my life. Not without a fight.” I swallow hard, fully aware of what I stand to lose.
“She’s talented, ladies and gentlemen,” I continue. “And she has dreams,” I say clearly. “Big ones. And I don’t care where they take her.”
A hush falls over the arena.
“I’ll move to the city,” I say plainly. “I’ll quit rodeo.” That elicits a strong reaction from the crowd, but I don’t stop. “Whatever it takes, so you can chase your dreams, sweetheart.”
The noise swells, louder this time, but I’m not done.
I point to her, sitting frozen in the stands, with my family.
Where she belongs. “Because that woman right there is my wife.”
I will never tire of saying that out loud.
“And I don’t care how it started,” I add. “I care how it ends.”
The crowd erupts.
“I’ll take you back to Vegas, sweetheart,” I say, eyes locked on hers. “But only so we can celebrate...before I bring you home for good. I can’t let you go, Maisey. Because the truth is, I am so goddamn in love with you it would kill me to let you go. And I hope like hell you feel the same way.”
For a heartbeat, the thousands of people who just bore witness to my confession are impossibly quiet.
Then it explodes.
I hand the mic back, toss my cowboy hat into the dirt behind me, and start running toward the edge of the ring. I vault over the fence, boots hitting the dirt hard, moving toward her.
Maisey meets me halfway.
“I do,” she says as she throws her arms around my neck. “I do feel the same way. I love you so much, cowboy.”
I pull her in, and when I kiss her, the crowd disappears.
All that’s left is us.
Exactly the way it was meant to be.