Jeannie Watt - Once a Champion

It starts with the horse…

Liv Bailey never forgot her high school crush. Champion roper Matt Montoya always did have that irresistible daredevil swagger. But Liv isn’t Matt’s shy tutor anymore. She’s a grown woman and a physiotherapist with a painful past. Matt isn’t the only tough one now, and when their tempers clash over a horse they both claim ownership of, sparks fly in more ways than one.

Liv’s willing to let Matt bring some passion into her life, but when he opens his heart to her, she’s scared of being hurt again. Liv knows there’s more there than just desire—if she can only trust the cowboy who loves her.

“There’s something you need to understand, Matt.”

Liv folded her arms over her chest. “You might be able to charm yourself out of a multitude of situations, but you aren’t charming me. Sometimes, despite charisma and good looks, the answer is no. And that’s what it’s going to stay. No.”

He bit down on the corner of his lip before saying, “Aren’t you going to threaten me with your father again?”

“Dad’s busy cutting hay.”

“About time.”

“He’s been sick.”

“Sorry to hear that.” He didn’t sound one bit sorry and he made his lack of sympathy clear when he said, “This isn’t over, Liv. I’ll hire a lawyer.”

“Andie’s dad already advised me, and he said he’ll give me all the help I need to keep Beckett.”

“He’s my horse.”

“Not according to the State of Montana.” Liv lifted her chin. “This is the last time we’re having this conversation.”

Dear Reader,

Ah, secret high school crushes…remember those? My heroine, Liv Bailey, certainly does. She spent months tutoring hot high school rodeo star Matt Montoya so that he could remain eligible for competition, only to have him ask her sister out once his grades improved. Although Liv didn’t realize it at the time, the situation with Matt helped spark her initiative to stop being the quiet, nice girl who bent over backward to keep everyone happy.

Ten years later, when the story opens, Liv is no longer the make-no-waves person she was, and when Matt once again needs her help, he’s surprised at how much she’s changed. Matt has also changed, but not by choice. He’s dealing with a career-ending injury and has to learn how to deal with the situation. Like many men, he starts with denial…

I wrote this book because I’m fascinated by the idea of reinvention, whether by choice or circumstance. I especially like it when people rebel against their assigned niche (remember how everyone was assigned a niche in high school?). Then there’s the matter of unrequited love. Who hasn’t fantasized about running into that crush and having him or her realize just what they missed? It was a lot of fun giving Liv that chance and it was also satisfying changing Matt from a self-absorbed guy obsessed with reclaiming his career into a caring hero who realizes there’s more to life than winning.

Thanks for reading Once a Champion! I love hearing from readers. If you have questions or comments, please contact me at jeanniewrites@gmail.com.

Jeannie Watt

Once a Champion

Jeannie Watt

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeannie Watt lives in rural Nevada with her husband and many animals. For many years she sent her (now grown) children to visit their grandparents in Montana, where they would experience ranch life firsthand. Her kids still talk about the fun they had teaching calves to lead, branding, driving tractors and fencing. She and her husband still talk about the peace and quiet they enjoyed while the kids were leading calves and driving tractors.

Acknowledgment

I’d like to thank Kari Lynn Dell and Myrna Gallian for bringing me up to speed on rodeo competition and calf/tie-down roping. I love watching rodeo, but, as with all sports, there’s so much more to it than meets the eye. Thanks so very much, ladies!

Contents

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

Epilogue

Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE

WHAT ON EARTH had happened to the Bailey Ranch?

Matt Montoya slowed his pickup to a crawl as he drove over the cattle guard that marked the northern boundary of the property, taking in the sagging fences and weed-choked hay fields that should have been cut at least a week ago. What the hell?

He hadn’t been to the Bailey Ranch in years, not since he’d come to look at some cattle after he and Trena had first married. The place had been immaculate then. Well-farmed, well-maintained. This was not the ranch he remembered.

Matt stepped on the gas and continued down the drive to the ranch house, half a mile away. A few steers stood in the pasture, heads down, tails swishing as they ate. At least they looked fat and well fed, but again, the last time he’d been here, Tim Bailey had had at least a hundred Angus in this field that now held ten.

So was his missing horse here, on this disturbingly run-down ranch? If so, Matt didn’t know why. Tim had never been a horseman, preferring to do his cattle work on a four-wheeler, but one of the local team ropers had insisted that he’d seen Matt’s gelding here when he’d come to repair a gas line.

All Matt could do was hope. He’d been looking for Beckett for over a year now and this was the first solid lead he’d had. Ironic if the missing horse had been on this ranch, two miles from his own home base, all this time. Ironic and aggravating.

After parking under the giant elm trees that shaded the old ranch house, Matt got out of the truck, moving carefully to avoid banging his healing knee, and then for a moment he stood, getting the feel of the place. It wasn’t good, smacking of neglect and abandonment.

White paint hung in tattered strips off the sides of the house and the once blue trim was now mostly gray wood. Weeds poked their heads up through the gravel and the lawn looked as if it hadn’t been cut in about a year. Or maybe two. Matt felt as if he were standing square in the middle of a deserted ghost town, except that this place wasn’t deserted. Two trucks and a small white sedan were parked next to the barn. Someone was there. But where?

If he couldn’t find Tim, Matt wasn’t above exploring the pastures and barns on his own. He needed to know if Beckett was on this ranch and if he was, then he had to formulate a plan to get him back. Tim Bailey was a notoriously stubborn guy, so it might take some work, but Matt was going to reclaim his horse. He needed him.

Matt had just reached the sidewalk when the front door of the house swung open and a slender woman with a long reddish-brown ponytail stepped out onto the porch. She closed the door behind her with a gentle pull, as if trying not to disturb someone inside. Matt stopped dead in his tracks.

“Liv?”

It’d been a dozen years since he’d seen Tim’s daughter, his former tutor who’d helped him maintain his GPA so that he could compete in rodeo during high school. He missed so much school being on the road that he’d had to get some kind of help to keep from flunking, and brainy Liv Bailey had been the perfect person for the job. Shy, but no-nonsense when it came to studies, she’d guided him through the first semester of his senior year, had helped him make grades. Liv had always been there for him and now here she was again.

Life had suddenly got easier.

“Matt,” she replied coolly, shifting her weight and taking a stance in front of the door as if guarding it from an intruder. Or from him. Not the greeting he’d expected.