Wade
“Um, I’m really sorry to have to break up whatever the fuck this is,” Sterling said, a sly, cocky smirk on his face as he signaled between Ray and me. “But Izzy Cortez is one of your riders, right?”
I used my large frame to block his view of Ray until I knew she was sufficiently covered. She stiffened beneath me, hearing her sister’s name.
After glancing down to make sure she was decent, I guided her to step in front of me, concealing the massive erection I was going to be sporting for a while.
“That’s my sister,” she declared, a wild look of concern marring her face.
I was sure that whatever Izzy had gotten up to, Sterling wouldn’t have interrupted me if it wasn’t serious. Especially if he had known it was Ray I was mauling against the side of the building.
Sterling and I had been buddies for as long as I’d been circling the rodeo. He was intimately familiar with my hang-up about Rayna Cortez after my lips got loose one too many drunken post-win nights.
“Well, she’s currently three button presses away from Hayes calling the sheriff.”
I could sense the tension radiating from Sterling, and I wasn’t quite sure how to place it. I hadn’t known that he even knew who Izzy was, much less that she was one of the riders I trained. Odd, since I would consider him one of my closest friends.
“What the fuck happened?” Ray pressed, already hightailing it toward the door in search of her sister.
“Something about stupid fucking lawyers, she could drink anyone under the table, and barrel racers are crazy?”
The look of concern that floated across his vision was enough to have both Ray and me moving double time to get back inside the bar.
What we hadn’t expected stepping back into Jack’s was to see Izzy standing at the dartboards, pressing a young buck bronc rider against the wall with a pool cue, cutting off his windpipe, and his buddies standing around laughing, cheering her on.
Ray and I shared a look of concern before both muttering “fucking tequila” under our breath and heading in Izzy’s direction.
“I bet your pansy ass couldn’t ride a horse, much less a woman. Can you even see your small-ass dick? You stupid ass motherfu—”
“Ooookay.” Ray halted her sister, putting a hand gently on her arm, encouraging her to loosen her grip on the pool stick and release the guy she had pinned. “Izzy, let’s go. He’s not worth getting arrested for,” she added softly.
It felt like watching a trainer tame a wild horse. The soft way Ray spoke to her eased the tension in her muscles, instantly relaxing her rigid stature.
Izzy’s head fell in defeat as she dropped the pool cue, the thin wooden stick clattering to the ground with a loud clack.
The guy she’d pinned had the decency to look a little frightened as he scrambled back to his group of friends, who were still doubled over in laughter. He snatched up his sparkling-clean cowboy hat and hightailed it toward the exit, mumbling about crazy fucking barrel racers as he went.
Izzy struggled against Ray’s hold, but she didn’t have much fight behind her resistance. She knew that whatever the guy had said wasn’t worth losing her sponsorships or her career over.
Young bucks like that guy liked to run their mouths, and nothing she could say or do would keep him from thinking his shit didn’t stink.
“I’m fine,” Izzy spat toward Ray, punctuating her words with a flick of her arm, throwing off her sister’s grasp.
“Why don’t we drive you home?” I asked, clearly having sobered up after my own rage-filled incident and subsequent hot and heavy episode out back.
I made a mental note to talk to Ray about that whole incident later. It was a conversation long overdue, and I wanted to know where it left us—if there was an “us.”
Without uttering a word, Izzy stomped out of the bar, the heavy wooden door thudding against the wall for the second time that night.
Ray went over to Hayes to make sure her tab had been paid and apologized for all the drama we had brought with us this evening.
Hayes brushed her off, having dealt with his fair share of bar fights in his day. If there was one thing you could guarantee about a small town, it sure came with a healthy dose of drama.
I walked out to the truck to check on Izzy while Ray settled things up inside. She was leaning against the tailgate, one of her boots propped up on the rear tire. There was a tightness in her posture that I hadn’t seen in her before tonight.
Granted, I didn’t see much of Izzy outside of training and the occasional rodeo event I was able to make it to, but I’d known her as long as I’d known Ray.
She was normally an easygoing, albeit wild at heart, woman.
Something had to have set her off tonight to get her that riled up, and it wasn’t just the tequila.
“Wanna tell me what the fuck that was about?” I asked, hiking a thumb over my shoulder in the direction of the bar.
“Not particularly,” was her curt response. Giving her the quiet space to stew, I watched as she edged a rock around the gravel parking lot with the toe of her boot. She was focused, lost in thought, and I could tell something was eating at her.
“You know your sister is going to want to know what’s going on.”
I could feel the rage simmering in her, even though we were at least ten feet apart. It was something akin to the rage that simmered within me. She was nearly vibrating against my truck, holding back the venomous words she really wanted to say.
“How about this? You’ve got approximately thirty—make that twenty-nine—seconds until your sister comes out here and chews you a new one for that stunt you just pulled. Wanna cut the bullshit and tell me what’s really going on?”
Hanging her head in defeat, Izzy resumed kicking at the gravel around her feet. She looked exhausted, mentally and physically. I felt for her because I knew that pain all too well.
“I just thought that maybe this time, things would be different.” Her deep sigh cut through the warm air with a twinge of sadness.
“Tanner was supposed to meet us out tonight to celebrate the start of the heavy training season, but he couldn’t be bothered to put his own shit aside to do something for me for once.
I was heading to the bar for another drink, and the guy got handsy. I snapped.”
Tanner was Izzy’s fiancé. He didn’t live in Firefly Cove, but he and Izzy had been doing the long-distance thing for a couple of years now.
I didn’t know much about their relationship, other than what I heard from Ray. She wasn’t the guy’s biggest fan, but she was Izzy’s big sister, and I always brushed her hatred of him off as her being overprotective.
“He said he had a work event with the partners at his firm. Drinks and dinner at some fancy-schmancy bar in Atlanta. He promised that he was going to make it out here tonight.”
The hurt in her voice was almost palpable, and I watched as tears welled up on her lower lashes. It took a lot to make a cowgirl cry, and it was at that moment that I surmised that this wasn’t the first time she’d been stood up by him.
Clearly, this was a habit of his, and I could see how much it was hurting her.
“Tab’s all paid, let’s go.” Ray’s tense voice cut through the emotional fog surrounding Izzy and me. I could hear the sniffles of someone holding back tears as Izzy turned away from her sister and stepped toward the back door of my truck.
I clicked the unlock button, and Izzy immediately flung open the door and, with graceful ease, scaled her way into my lifted truck. I stopped Ray with a hand on her arm before she had a chance to berate her sister.
“Go easy on her,” I said softly, running my fingers down to tangle with hers. I squeezed her hand three times in quick succession and rolled my lips inward in a tense smile.
It seemed Izzy had enough on her plate. If there was one thing I was intimately familiar with, it was anger and pain, and Izzy Cortez was plagued with both.