Allie Pleiter - The Bull Rider's Homecoming

Healing the Cowboy’s Heart

When Luke Buckton left Blue Thorn Ranch, he’d hoped to return in a blaze of rodeo glory; instead, he’s limping home with a busted leg. To get back on the circuit he’ll need physical therapist Ruby Sheldon’s help. Six years ago, he left Ruby behind, convinced she was too innocent for such a public life. Now his high school sweetheart is stronger, tougher and even more captivating. A high-profile success story like this could make Ruby’s career. All she has to do is rein in Luke’s bullheadedness, heal his injuries—and hope his reckless charm doesn’t trample her heart again…

“You’re punishing me,” he huffed.

“I’m treating you. You’re the one who set the ambitious goal on the tight time frame.”

“It’s not the exercises, darlin’, it’s the attitude. You want me to hurt.”

She took the bull by the horns. “I do not want to hurt you.”

He stopped again. “You should. I hurt you.”

It took Ruby a moment to decide how to respond.

“Yes, you did.” In for a penny, in for a pound. “You hurt me deeply, Luke Buckton.”

Luke stopped walking, holding her gaze for a moment. His blue eyes looked like their depths went on forever. “I know that.”

“Did you know it when you left? Did you think about it at all?”

“I wouldn’t let myself think about it at first. I let all the dreams and the money dangling in front of my face crowd it out.”

“You said such…hurtful things.”

She heard him sigh. “I needed to burn the bridges behind me. I figured we’d both be better off if you hated me.”

“It doesn’t work that way, Luke.”

Dear Reader,

This novel represents our fourth visit to the Blue Thorn Ranch, a place and family I’ve come to know and love. God has taken each of the Buckton siblings (and their cousin) on journeys of faith and purpose, and it’s my prayer that your faith has been strengthened by their stories.

If you’ve not yet enjoyed the other three books in the series, The Texas Rancher’s Return, Coming Home to Texas, and The Texan’s Second Chance; please do! There will be one more book in the series coming out in September 2017, so keep watch for it.

As always, I love to hear from readers. You can reach my website at alliepleiter.com, email me at allie@alliepleiter.com, like my Facebook page at facebook.com/alliepleiter, or connect with me on Twitter at twitter.com/alliepleiter(@alliepleiter) or Pinterest at pinterest.com/alliepleiter. Of course, if good old mail is your thing, you can always reach me at P.O. Box 7026, Villa Park, IL 60181. I’m looking forward to hearing from you!

Blessings,

ALLIE PLEITER, an award-winning author and RITA® Award finalist, writes both fiction and nonfiction. Her passion for knitting shows up in many of her books and all over her life. Entirely too fond of French macarons and lemon meringue pie, Allie spends her days writing books and avoiding housework. Allie grew up in Connecticut, holds a BS in speech from Northwestern University and lives near Chicago, Illinois.

The Bull Rider’s Homecoming

Allie Pleiter

www.millsandboon.co.uk

My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.

—2 Corinthians 12:9

To physical therapists everywhere

who help so many to heal.

Acknowledgments

There was a heap of technical information to get right in this book, and I had lots of generous help. Dr. David Chen from the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago always lends his expertise for injuries and their symptoms. Nancy A. Hughes, PT, ICCE, enthusiastically shared her insight and great scene ideas as a physical therapist. Ed Crowder was kind enough to read the manuscript for bull-riding accuracy. If there are mistakes or misrepresentations in this book, the fault is purely mine, and not in the excellent information they provided me.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

About the Author

Title Page

Bible Verse

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Dear Reader

Extract

Copyright

Chapter One

Luke Buckton stood on the porch of the Blue Thorn Ranch, his childhood home, disgusted at how he needed to grip the handrail to keep his balance.

Pain came with a life spent trying to stay on top of 1,700 pounds of bucking bull. Every bull rider knew pain went with the territory. Bull riding was dangerous—that’s what made it exciting. And profitable, if done right. Sure, you got hurt—everyone got hurt—but you “cowboyed up” after an injury and got back in there, period. Luke hadn’t come close to winning the Touring Pro Series championship by paying attention to pain. He ignored it.

The numbness he fought now? That was a whole other kind of enemy. It messed with his mind and defied submission. Luke could ride in pain, could win in pain—he had, in fact, on dozens of occasions. Now, he couldn’t always tell where his leg ended and the ground began. He could think “stand” but couldn’t feel it, even when he was standing. That threatened his career worse than the largest, meanest bull on earth.

It made him mad. And the anger and frustration made him mean to just about everyone, including his grandmother who’d just come up behind him.

“How are you feeling?” Gran asked as she approached him with a cup of coffee. He’d left six years ago in such a fury of pride and defiance—and had returned home so full of bitterness and dissatisfaction—that he couldn’t quite understand how Gran found it possible to be nice to him.

Luke took the coffee and gave Gran the answer he gave everyone: “Better.” Most days it wasn’t true. It wasn’t true today.

His hometown of Martins Gap was as gossipy as a small Texas town could get. In the days and weeks since he’d returned, he’d heard the whispers, caught the rumors and ignored the stares. Isn’t that Luke Buckton, home on the Blue Thorn? Did you see he limps now?

Luke had always envisioned his eventual return to Martins Gap as the grandest of victory laps—a homecoming for the local golden boy whose future had always been too big for this place. He’d planned to come home a national champion.

If Dad was still alive, wouldn’t he have had a field day with how those plans turned out?

Gran sipped her tea. “The new therapist is due about now, isn’t she?”

Luke didn’t buy his grandmother’s sugar-sweet tone. He knew full well Gran wanted to take a switch to him for the way he’d treated the last two therapists they’d sent. It was so clear to Luke they weren’t up to the challenge that he’d groused them away in a single session each. He didn’t have time or patience to pussyfoot around with careful exercises or gentle treatments. Luke needed to hit this fast and hard so that he could recover and get back to work. Anyone who wasn’t on board with that strategy was useless.

Which meant he had a pretty good idea of who was about to come up the drive. Had planned for it, in fact.

He shifted his foot, reaching to feel the give of the porch boards underneath his boot. Nothing. It was beyond infuriating. “At ten.”