Chapter Thirteen #2
“Slow down, Too Good. You want me to meet your mother? You trying to give her a heart attack or something?”
“Please.” She rolled her eyes. “She’s Taryn’s mother, too. You are not going to be the biggest shock she’s ever gotten. Besides, Grand’s a small town. Do you think she’s not going to hear about you if we take things public?”
“Upping the ante, are we?” Nix got that same reckless rush he always had when he was in the chute, on the bull, and about to give the nod to open the gate.
There was no turning back, so why not enjoy the ride?
“I’ll raise you. If I’m meeting your mother, then you’re going to the kids’ rodeo with me next weekend.
You have to hang close, sit with me, and let me put my arm around you. Act like you adore me.”
Shauna nodded as if taking instruction. “Buckle bunny. Got it.”
As if.
She was beautiful and sexy and funny and smart. And right now, for the moment, she was his. It was ridiculous how happy that made him. He wasn’t ready to look too close at his feelings, but he didn’t need to.
“Stick with me, darlin’,” he said. “By Christmas, Taryn will look like the family saint.”
*
Shauna
Montanans had an odd sense of distance. The neighboring town that was hosting the rodeo turned out to be a two-hour drive away.
Carpooling wasn’t something Shauna had planned on for their first official outing together, but Nix volunteered her because parental enthusiasm for giving up an entire Saturday turned out to be low and he was a few drivers short.
Everyone met at the firehall Saturday morning at an unholy hour.
She’d half-expected she and Nix would travel together, but he and the other men were driving two ranch trucks and hauling gear.
Taryn had taken her car and Remi. Of course.
Shauna ended up driving four of the boys.
One was a senior named Zane Parker. He sat up front.
He was polite and good-looking, with the stoic charm Shauna had come to associate with most men in the state.
He was a little too interested in hunting for her, and clearly believed he was more mature than the boys in the back seat because he disdained joining their conversation.
But he planned to attend Montana State University’s College of Agriculture after graduation, and she could appreciate that.
It didn’t take long for Shauna to figure out that he was well acquainted with Taryn.
An hour into the drive, it became equally apparent that even though he was probably popular with most of the local girls—and no doubt their parents—he was no match for her little sister.
He was too grounded. Too serious. Taryn was toying with him.
She needed to learn to think her actions through to the end, however, because whatever her game was, she had not thought Zane Parker through.
Zane was in love. By the end of hour two, Shauna was tired of hearing how great Taryn was.
How smart. How not like the local girls, which in his eyes, somehow made her better.
When they arrived at the arena, Nix was unloading one of the trucks.
Shauna marched over to him. If they were taking things public, there was no time like the present.
“I spent two hours in a car listening to a lovesick teenager who thinks my little sister is perfect. You owe me,” she said.
His eyes lit up in the slow, lazy way that said he was already considering how he would pay, and it warmed her all over. “You can have whatever you like.” His smile said he knew what she liked and no longer intended to pretend that he didn’t.
He could start her heart pumping even if she were dead.
“A kiss will do for starters,” she said rashly, because she hadn’t seen him all week, and proving she didn’t think things through any better than Taryn.
Nix swept her into a slow kiss that stopped shy of indecent but drew scattered applause from the parking lot and left her unsteady on her ill-advised boot heels, and also grateful for the arm anchored around her waist while she recovered from it.
He was so openly happy to see her, and uncaring as to who knew it, that it was impossible not to be happy, too.
“Help me carry some of this stuff,” he said.
The indoor arena was small, with three rows of bleachers on one side and a wall on the other. One end was all door and opened onto the alley that led into the arena. A tractor and rake were parked in a corner of the far end with a speaker’s booth directly above.
A chute made from portable steel gates had been rigged up in front of the alley. Shauna took a seat in the bleachers where the Grand team had gathered, close to the chute. Nix sat with her for a while and explained how the day would unfold.
He neglected to mention that there was a whole lot of nothing happening most of the time.
The tractor and rake groomed the dirt floor at regular intervals, and wrangling uncooperative animals into the chute, then getting young riders situated, was like watching paint dry—all for eight seconds of glory.
Or as was the case for most riders, two or three.
Taryn and Remi hadn’t yet shown. Shauna texted to find out where they were. Coffee , Taryn replied. The older kids weren’t riding until after lunch, but it would have been nice for them to show up for the rest of the team.
They strolled in before lunch. Shauna might not have noticed their arrival, except Zane had also been waiting.
He met them in the alley outside. The doors were open while animals were being moved so Shauna had a good view.
Zane said something to Taryn. Remi said something to Zane.
Zane ignored Remi, who gave him a shove.
Taryn said something that didn’t appear to help matters at all.
Shauna started to rise.
Nix put a hand on her shoulder and forced her back in her seat. “Stay right here,” he said, his voice hard and his eyes on teenagers. “I’ll handle this.”
He jumped the gate and joined the three teens.
He said something to Taryn, who looked as if she was arguing with him.
He cut her off, said something that made her eyes widen, then she stormed into the arena without another word, but her eyes sparked with lightning. She spotted Shauna and headed her way.
Shauna, meanwhile, kept her attention on Nix, who was patting Remi down like a seasoned police officer on a school yard drug check.
He reached into one of Remi’s pockets, took something out, then thrust whatever it was into his own pocket.
He spoke to them both—they were listening intently—and pointed toward the parking lot.
He clapped each boy on the back and walked off.
Taryn landed in the seat next to Shauna, who thought it best not to ask questions. Whatever Nix said to them must have gotten the effect he intended because he didn’t appear in the least bothered. He stopped to exchange words with an official, who looked in Taryn’s direction, and nodded.
Taryn kicked the empty seat in front of her.
Nix climbed into the bleachers, stopped beside Taryn, and gave her a long look that would have made Shauna shrivel if it had been directed at her. That look explained why he was the one running a clinic for teens and not Miles, the former world champion bull rider.
“You’re in my seat,” he said to Taryn. “Go talk to Ford.”
Taryn’s face flashed surprise, then rebellion. Shauna waited for the explosion.
It never came.
Taryn said nothing. She did as she was told, and Nix reclaimed his seat. He dropped his arm across Shauna’s shoulders. Shauna took a moment to process recent events.
“Do I want to know what just happened?” she asked.
Nix tightened his arm. “I told Taryn to keep her mouth shut and let me do the talking or she wouldn’t ride.
She won’t be riding. So, now they all know I meant business.
I told the boys to take their differences into the parking lot.
If they can’t talk it out, then they won’t be riding either.
That’s harsher punishment for Zane than Remi, but Zane started it, so it’s on him.
Remi doesn’t stand a chance against Zane, and he knows it, so it’s in his best interest to talk too. ”
“I want you so bad right now,” Shauna said.
Nix grinned. “Dang. I don’t think this place has anywhere even close to being private, other than the speaker’s booth, and it’s occupied already. You’ll have to wait until tonight.”
He had riders coming up, so he didn’t stay with her long. Taryn returned after he left.
“I knew Nix was the reason you come to practice,” she said. “You two aren’t sneaking around anymore, huh?”
Shauna had wondered how to go about raising the topic of Nix with her, but Taryn had spent most of the past week at Nora’s—at least, that’s what she said—so an opportunity hadn’t come up. Now it turned out she already knew. How could she possibly have known? Perhaps she was fishing.
If so, Shauna wasn’t about to confirm any suspicions. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Quit being so cringe.” Taryn’s whole body bristled with pent-up impatience. It spilled into her tone. “‘ I’m Shauna, always so perfect. ’ I’ve known about you since the night I came home early and caught you in bed.”
“Oh?” Never admit to anything unless there was proof. “What night was that?”
“The night you had beer in the fridge—which you don’t drink—and there was a wine bottle and two glasses sitting on the counter.
You had a housecoat on when you came out of your room—something you don’t wear to bed—and your makeup was smeared.
You don’t wear makeup when you go to bed, either.
You let me have a beer without making a big deal out of it, so you were in a hurry to get back to your bedroom.
And one of the ranch trucks was parked on Marion Street, near the elementary school.
It was either Ford or Nix, and Ford’s so not your type. ”
Taryn had her facts straight—enough to incriminate, not enough to convict.
“You okay with it?” Shauna asked.
Taryn tossed her blond curls. “Nix is dope.” She cast a sly look at Shauna. “He could trap someone less basic. But he doesn’t try.”
Shauna wasn’t sure she liked being thought of as basic by her drip little sister, but she agreed that Nix didn’t try, because she’d done the pursuing. He would never have made the first move.
“Why is Nix my type and Ford’s not?” she asked.
“Nix isn’t your type either. He’s sigma. You like to run people’s lives, Shauna. You think everyone should be more like you. Well, we aren’t. Some of us don’t need to be perfect. And Nix is never going to be more than a cowboy, no matter how much you try to change him.”
Tell me how you really feel, Taryn.
She’d asked for it.
“Speaking of guys who aren’t someone’s type…” she said. She could be direct too. “What’s the deal with you and Zane?”
Taryn shrugged. “No deal. He’s a ten but it’s giving Facebook. Remi’s a seven, but he’s got main character energy.” She dug her keys out of her jacket pocket. “If I’m not riding, I’m going home.”
“Remi’s riding.” He stood near the chute, moodiness hanging around him like a black cloud. Zane, however, was nowhere to be seen. “He came here with you. You aren’t going to wait?”
“Remi can go home with the Endeavour guys and the gear. I don’t plan to listen to him rant on about Zane for two hours. He doesn’t own me. Let him cool off.”
Taryn zipped up her jacket and climbed over the bleachers, leaving Shauna with plenty to think about, as per usual, whenever they exchanged words.
Was Taryn right? Did she like to run people’s lives?
No. She did not like to run people’s lives. She’d gotten used to it though, because someone in their family had to be an adult, and taking charge was a habit. She didn’t want to run Nix’s life either.
As for Taryn’s assessment of him…
He leaned over the chute, talking to a boy getting ready to climb onto a bull.
The boy straddled the gate, doubt written into every line of his body, but Nix was patient with him.
A minute or so later the boy shot into the arena, clinging to the bull rope with one gloved hand and his other hand in the air.
He got his eight seconds in, jumped to the ground, then shot to his feet with a wide grin on his face.
Nix high-fived him over the arena fence.
Shauna’s heart filled. She had no desire to change anything about him.
He was good at his job. He was good with kids, he was good with animals, and he loved what he did.
She didn’t care that he’d never be more than a cowboy, because he’d never be less than one either.
Money was no true measure of a person’s success.
He was happy, he made her happy, and she loved him just as he was.
She hadn’t expected to feel this way about him, but there was no turning back now.
She wondered how he felt about her. How deep his feelings might run. Inviting him to Thanksgiving dinner with her family might have been a mistake—too much too soon—except he was the one who’d wanted to make their relationship public. That had to mean something.
He must have felt her eyes on him, the way she often felt his eyes on her. He looked to where she was sitting and smiled, his whole face engaged in the expression, and her heart danced with joy because that smile was for her.
She’d leave well enough alone. He’d been married a long time to someone who hadn’t made him happy, and part of his happiness right now came from having his freedom. She wouldn’t take that from him. She didn’t need a commitment he wasn’t ready to make.
And as for Thanksgiving dinner—it was just dinner. No need to attach too much meaning to it. If he wanted to back out, it would be easy enough for him to find an excuse.