Chapter Thirteen #2
“He was it? The one?” She combed her fingers through her hair.
“I wasn’t even looking. I’d just completed my massage therapist certifications and was chilling on a paddleboard.
I saw Boone on the shore. He rented a board and paddled out to meet me.
He’d never been in the ocean before, never been on a board, but he was a bronc rider, abs of steel, balance of a yogi, and he rode the waves like …
” Her eyes went dreamy. She laughed. “Sorry. Not sorry. I’ve been listening to too many audio romances during my workouts.
I can’t listen to them anymore on my drive into town for work because we have two kids who are no longer babies or toddlers, and a third due in six months, God willing.
” She brushed her lower abdomen, clearly excited about her news.
Ayana stared, fascinated. Do you want children?
Telford had asked. Her instinct was always no.
A child would hold her back, be so difficult to protect.
But Piper seemed like she had freedom and independence to work, to drive into town, talk to a stranger without supervision.
Telford had said he’d never leave a child.
Never.
“Congratulations.” Ayana stumbled through the word. “Paddleboard,” she tagged on. Sheesh, she was rattled.
“It’s too late to warn you those Telford men won’t quit when there’s something they want.” Piper laughed, but Ayana’s stomach lurched.
There were children on the ranch. Families. A wedding next weekend. Tarek Telford had practically threatened to arrive—did he intend something nefarious? Should she and Telford warn his family?
“How’d you meet?” Piper clearly expected them to become friends with confidences, and a longing rose up in Ayana.
She hadn’t had that—not really. Roommates out of necessity, but not a true friend.
“At his office,” she answered honestly, her voice a little choked.
“A work romance,” Piper said, delighted. “Sounds like there’s a story there.”
“Ahhh not exactly, but it was quick.”
“A Telford man knows what he wants and makes his move. Boone had only swum in a swimming hole on the ranch, before he mounted the paddleboard to charge into the ocean to meet me. Said it was easier than a buckin’ bronc.”
“Telford showing up without contacting the family first isn’t causing consternation?” Ayana asked curiously.
“This family …” Piper smiled fondly. “They’re like sixth-generation Montana ranchers. Family is everything. The land, stewardship of the land, and the animals and community drive them. I didn’t realize how much I craved that. They have a code and are first to jump in when anyone needs something.”
Ayana listened, finding it hard to believe though Piper’s face shone with honesty.
“When Rohan and Cash heard a wedding guest had arrived at the Graff that looked like his twin, we all thought, here we go again. Find out friend or foe.”
“So, you were suspicious,” Ayana clarified, relieved.
The Telfords had much to protect. And while Telford didn’t intend to do them dirty, there was still the possibility of Tarek Telford. But maybe they were already on guard.
“We’re big-hearted but not na?ve,” Piper said. She stood. “Oh. Hang on. They’re bringing in the first bull, Destiny, to the chute.”
Ayana didn’t understand what that sentence meant, but she put her work aside and stood up to watch the group of men—some standing back, others actively engaged in something that looked and sounded dangerous.
Telford stood apart, posture erect, hands in the pocket of the barn coat he’d purchased at the western wear store.
He was the only man who didn’t wear a cowboy hat, and she wondered if she should have pushed harder for him to buy the hat.
Maybe he’d feel more the part. It wasn’t like she had any cowgirl history in her lineage.
Riley, whom she’d met at the Java Café, stood with the men.
She was tricked out in western wear that looked like it was for work, not an aesthetic.
She spoke animatedly, sweeping her arm wide, and then she spun on her heel, vaulted the arena fencing, making the fringe on her chaps dance when she strode off.
Another tall, dark cowboy, also wearing chaps, smiled and vaulted the fence one-handed to follow her.
“Looks like Riley got her way again. Go, girl,” Piper called. “She’s the only Telford daughter.”
“What was the argument Riley won?”
“She wanted to be the cowboy in the arena during this practice. They herd the bull or the bronc if it gets out of control and doesn’t return to the chute.
They keep the animal away from the bull or bronc rider if they don’t stick or when they dismount or they get caught up in their rigging, which is, of course, dangerous. ”
“That sounds terrifying.”
“The rider has to be top of their game. The horse too. Cutting horses. They’re trained to work with livestock, herd them, face them down.
Riley’s been riding her whole life. She was a barrel racer and does trick riding, and she breeds and trains horses for cutting and this kind of work with her mom, so she’s got this.
That’s one thing about the Telford men. Super protective.
” She shot Ayana a look as if to figure out how much of a Telford this new Telford interloper was.
“This concept of family is new to Telford,” she said, and then not wanting to appear disloyal she added, “to me too.”
I’m only here for a few months, a year at best.
Why did she keep forgetting? None of this was real—for her.
“He’s a little off his stride.”
“He didn’t grow up ranch?” Piper’s light green eyes widened. “Did he ever meet his dad?” Piper asked, sympathetically.
Her hand rested on Ayana’s arm.
“Ahhhh. It’s his story to tell,” she said, struggling both with the desire to talk, and her innate loyalty and need to protect.
“Boone will get the scoop,” Piper said, settling back.
“You think I’m nosy—he’s king of questions.
His family tease him that he secretly wanted to be a spy, but he’s so transparent he’d give everything away with the first hey, how ya doing?
” She laughed. “Ah. Riley’s back. And Cole.
Suited up on the horses, and those two ranch hands will be the rodeo clowns.
Get ready for the show. Yippee-kai-yay,” Piper called out.
Ayana heard the bull more than saw it. The cowboys, including Boone and Telford, stepped back, parting and climbing up on the rails, and a few peeled off to sit at the opposite end of the metal bleachers.
There was action at the chute, which she didn’t understand.
As a teen, she’d worked some traveling carnivals and fairs for local western rodeos before she’d managed to get the proper paperwork for jobs that paid more and would allow her to stay in one place long enough to share an apartment or room in a house.
A man wearing chaps, what looked like a Kevlar vest, and a helmet balanced on top of the railing, looking down.
Cash and an older man who looked a lot like him talked to the cowboy who nodded as he strapped on his helmet and shoved in a mouth guard.
She wasn’t sure what she expected, but the safety measures, while smart, burst the bubble of her image of a cowboy with spurs, tight jeans, and a hat in his hand high above his head rollicking around the arena. The cowboy nodded, dropped down on the bull and there was some banging of metal.
“This is Destiny’s first outing. He probably won’t go into the stock-contracting stable this season, except maybe for a few local rodeos, but Boone wanted to see how he’d do, and this is Parker’s first ride on a real bull.”
“Wait. I met a Parker at the library and Harry’s House this afternoon. He was a kid. This isn’t that Parker.” She felt alarmed.
“Yeah. Parker Wilder. His uncle Kane was a top bull rider in the world for years, and his other uncle Luke was a rodeo star. Now they breed and train bulls with the Telfords and have merged their business to defray the risks and costs. Boone started a rodeo school. Parker’s a student.
It’s all in the family. His dad’s there.
Colt. And his mom. She’s a large-animal vet. Parker’s in good hands.”
Ayana saw an expressionless mountain of a man standing off to the side, hat low on his forehead, and his arm around a tall, slim woman with a riot of blonde curls. She bounced on her toes and shouted out encouragement, but her hand was pressed against her heart.
The crocheting forgotten, Ayana leaned forward as she heard a few shouts.
A blare of some rocking country song she didn’t recognize, and then there was a slide of metal, the chute door swung open, and a smallish, dark bull careened out of the gate.
Ayana and Piper both rose to their feet as if choreographed.
The brown, yellow, and pink triangle scarf fluttered to the dirt.