Chapter Eighteen
Carly had set up a couple of barrels in the corral behind the barn.
Even though rodeo was second nature to her at this point, she still wanted to make sure to get in some more practice before the rodeo that weekend.
The air was thick with the scent of dust and leather, the steady pound of Nieve’s hooves matching the pulse beating loudly inside Carly’s ears.
She felt the familiar surge of adrenaline as she leaned into the last barrel, Nieve’s powerful body moving with hers like it always did.
For those fleeting moments, there was no confusion, no distraction.
Only the sense of freedom and control she always got when she was on a horse.
Remi and Amy sat on the fence, watching her move. Amy held a stopwatch as Carly and Nieve worked their way through the course.
“Not too bad,” Amy said when she finished the last turn.
“Not too bad?” Carly countered. “What do you mean, not too bad?”
Remi glanced at the watch in Amy’s hand. “It’s not the quickest you’ve ever done, but it’s still impressive.”
“Awesome,” Carly replied dryly. Even though it was fall, they were experiencing a warm front expected to last until Sunday. Sweat dribbled down her spine as she hopped off her horse. They’d been at it for hours now.
“Why don’t you take a break?” Remi said. “I feel like I haven’t had a chance to speak with you ladies in weeks.”
“That’s what happens when you have a double wedding,” Amy teased. “You get preoccupied. Besides, I don’t have much to report other than Josephine pooping on Josh the other day. While the look of horror on his face was hilarious, I don’t have any video evidence to share.”
“Well, I don’t have much to report either,” Remi said. “The plans for the wedding are going smoothly now that Tiffany’s agreed to remove me from all decisions for the floral arrangements. Things are getting ordered, and everything seems to be on schedule.”
Both her cousin and her sister looked at Carly as she slow walked Nieve around the corral. She rolled her eyes.
“You two aren’t very subtle.” She tried to bite back a smile though.
Carly had been so preoccupied lately between getting the school ready, settling into her new place, and Jesse that she hadn’t spent as much time with her family as she wanted to.
They were the main reason she moved to Tenacity after all, and she was grateful that they were with her now, helping her with her practices.
“We’re old married hags at this point,” Remi said. “We need to live vicariously through you.”
“You are neither old nor, in your case—” she looked pointedly at Remi “—married.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Amy said. “Spill the beans. What’s going on between you and Jesse? According to town gossip, you and Connor Adair were having an intimate breakfast at the Silver Spur and Jesse showed up with a puffed-out chest before practically having sex with you on the table.”
“I never would have guessed that he was the strong alpha type who claims his woman,” Remi murmured thoughtfully. “I like it.”
“You and those romance novels of yours,” Amy muttered.
Carly shook her head. “That’s not what happened at all. It was a business meeting with Connor. He’s going to do some work on this place so I can get my riding school up and running. Jesse and his son were having breakfast there, and before Jesse left, he kissed me goodbye.”
“So you’ve finally reached the stage where you’re kissing each other in public?” Remi said.
“I don’t know what stage you want to call it, but yes, things seem to be progressing in the right direction.”
“How was the sex?” Remi asked. “You are having sex, right?”
“Remi! You can’t just ask people that,” Amy said before she turned to Carly. “But feel free to answer anyway.”
Carly blushed. “We only slept together once, but…it’s the best I’ve ever had.”
“Nice,” Remi replied.
“But then afterward, he hid in the bathroom for ten minutes.”
Remi winced. “Oh no. What did you do?”
“I…pretended to be asleep when he finally came out.”
“Oi,” Amy muttered. “You two need to work on your communication skills.”
“Well…” Carly smiled a little. “He sent me flowers in the morning, and we talked when we ran into each other at the café. He said he hasn’t felt this way in a long time.”
“Aww,” Remi said, dramatically putting her hand over her heart. “Then you told him you want to marry him and have his babies so you can raise the next batch of rodeo stars, right?”
“I think maybe we should date a few more days before having that conversation,” she said dryly.
“But what did you say in response?” Amy asked, getting the conversation back on track.
“I didn’t,” Carly replied. “His son came up to us, and they left.”
Remi tilted her head. “What would you have said if you hadn’t been interrupted?”
Nieve nudged Carly as they walked, and she patted his nose. “I don’t know. Probably that I’m crazy about him too.”
“We’re talking love here, then,” Remi said.
Carly almost stopped walking, but she knew she needed to cool Nieve down. “I…”
“It’s okay, you know,” Amy told her. “You’re allowed to be loved.”
“I know,” Carly said weakly.
“And he’s a good guy. Stable. Someone who cares about you for you and not what fame you bring to the relationship.”
“I know,” Carly repeated, more firmly this time.
The last thing she needed was to rehash her relationship with Fletch.
She had to strain her mind just to picture his face anymore.
When she tried to imagine the features she’d once known as well as her own, they wavered into Jesse’s face, causing her heart to skip a beat.
Amy grinned at her. “Good. So…between Jesse and your plans to move forward with building your school, it sounds like you’re not going back on the rodeo anytime soon.”
“Nope, I already called Dex and told him to turn down the tour.”
“Yay!” Remi said, clapping her hands together.
“I was low-key going to be so sad if you weren’t there for my wedding.
Or worse, if you missed my bachelorette party.
” She gave Carly a mock glare, her grin tugging at the corners of her mouth.
“Do you know how tragic it would’ve been to drink cheap champagne without you there to make fun of me when I inevitably got sick? ”
Carly snickered. “Glad to see you have your priorities in line. You wouldn’t have even noticed I wasn’t there after the second glass.”
Remi gasped in mock offense. “Of course I would have noticed. Who would hold my hair back when I got sick later that night? Amy? I think not.”
“Hey!” Amy said.
“Sorry,” Remi responded, not meaning it in the slightest. Her expression softened though as she looked at Carly. “But seriously, I’m glad you’re coming. It wouldn’t feel right without you there.”
Carly’s smile lingered, warm and a little wistful. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
The women got caught up a little more before her family finally headed out. After she finished caring for Nieve, she was in the process of returning her gear to the tack room when her phone rang.
She glanced down at the caller ID and sighed before answering it. “Hello, Dex.”
“Carly, I want you to hear me out,” Dex said in response. “There is more interest in Europe than I think either of us realized. The organizers are begging. They doubled their last offer and said you’d only have to commit for six months instead of a full year.”
Carly put the saddle on its rack, her body moving on autopilot.
She’d be the highest-paid rodeo star in the world with the amount of money they were talking about.
She could almost picture it—standing under the Eiffel Tower, lying on a beach in Portugal, the roar of the crowd, her name echoing through the arena.
For years, that had symbolized freedom and security.
But it also came with everyone wanting a piece of her and the endless pace of life on the road.
As she stood in the middle of her stable, she realized that she could breathe for the first time in forever, that she wasn’t bone-weary exhausted anymore. She didn’t want the noise and the paparazzi again. Tenacity, her family, and Jesse and Oscar were all that she wanted.
She looked through the room’s window at the paddock she’d worked hard at repairing. She could hear the soft, contented whinnying of Nieve coming from his stall in the other room. He seemed to be as happy with their break as she was.
She had two choices to make: Get back to doing what she did best. Or follow her dreams. She knew what she should do, but the idea of returning to the circuit made her feel like she was trapped in a tiny box that she’d never escape from.
“Dex, look. I know this is an amazing deal, and I’m truly honored they want me to be the headliner that bad—”
“I feel like you’re about to say no, and before you do, I also want to make sure you know that the CEO said you could use his private plane to go home whenever you want.”
Carly scoffed at that. “It’s Europe, Dex. How often do you think I can get home?”
She heard a noise behind her and swung around. Jesse stood a few feet away looking like someone had punched him in the stomach.
“I’ll call you back,” she told her agent, disconnecting the call even though he’d started speaking to her again. “Hi.”
Jesse’s eyes were shadowed, his jaw tight.
For a moment, she thought he might actually turn and leave without saying a word.
Her stomach dropped. All the things she’d wanted to tell him—how she wasn’t choosing the circuit, how she’d already chosen this life, chosen him—suddenly tangled on her tongue.
But he didn’t leave. “You’re going to be a headliner in Europe?”
Her phone rang again, and she turned it off.
“I was offered the opportunity,” she said carefully.
“I see.” Jesse looked pale. “I should go.”
“Wait! Don’t go! I mean…did you stop by for a reason?”
He was half-turned away, so she could only see his profile. “I wanted to revisit our earlier conversation at the café. It didn’t feel like we were finished. But I should have called.”
“You can come over here anytime.”
“Even when you’re in Europe?”
Carly walked carefully over to Jesse. “I didn’t say I accepted the offer.”
He finally met her gaze. “Why wouldn’t you? It sounds like an amazing opportunity. You’d be the headliner.”
She tentatively reached out, her hand settling on his taut stomach. “There’s a lot of reasons why I should say yes. But there are three reasons why I won’t.”
Jesse went still. “And what are they?”
“One, I want to open my riding school. I already have things in the works, and I want to see it through. Two, I’m tired of that life. I want to stay in Tenacity and see my niece grow up and my cousin get married. I can’t do that if I’m constantly away.”
He turned so that he was facing her fully. “What’s the third reason?”
“Well…you see, there’s this guy that I’m crazy about—”
She didn’t say anything more because Jesse had swooped down and captured her mouth with his. Carly threw her arms around his neck, holding him close. Their breathing became uneven as he guided them back into the tack room and over to the counter that was opposite the window.
He hitched her onto it and only then broke their kiss. His hands moved to her ankles, and he removed one of her boots and then the other.
“Don’t make this decision based on me,” he murmured as his palms glided up her legs to the button of her jeans.
“Did you not hear me mention points one and two? You were third on the decision scale.”
“Funny,” he said, even as his eyes darkened with desire.
When he went to undo the button fastening her jeans, her hands went on top of his to stop him.
“Promise that you’ll wake me before leaving the next time you sleep over.”
A smile tugged on his mouth. “I promise. Even if I have to jump on the bed to wake you up. You’re a sound sleeper. And you have the cutest snore.”
“I do not snore!” Carly replied, affronted by the accusation.
“Sure.” His hands started to work on her jeans’ button again.
“I’m sweaty and smell like horse,” she warned.
He bent his head and licked a strip along her neckline, and she moaned. Her head flew back to give him better access.
“You taste amazing,” he murmured against her ear, causing tingles to shoot across her skin. “And you smell incredible. I’m addicted to you. Let me prove it.”
Her hands moved to the countertop, clasping it tight.
She lifted slightly so he could remove her jeans and underwear.
This was home to her now. Not the hotels, not the crowds…
this beautiful man before her. Not taking his eyes from hers, Jesse got down onto his knees and pulled her hips toward his waiting mouth.
And then he showed her exactly what he meant.