Barbara Daille - The Rodeo Man's Daughter

Traitors.

Yet, how could she blame them? Hadn’t he roped her in, too, just with different kinds of stories? Not anymore, though. Never again.

“How did you ever get out of that field?” asked Lissa Wright, Dana’s oldest child and Nate’s best friend.

“Didn’t that bull kill you?” another of the girls asked.

Nate rolled her eyes. “Of course not, silly. He’s here, isn’t he? Right, Caleb?”

“Right.”

Even from across the yard, Tess could see him struggling to keep from laughing.

“As for how I got out of there, it’s like this.” With every word his voice grew more animated, holding the girls enthralled. “I whipped off my bandana and blindfolded that bull so fast, he didn’t know what hit him. Got him so confused, he ran into a fence post harder than his own head. The darned fool knocked himself out.”

Her Aunt Ellamae, always given to plain speaking, responded with a very unladylike snort. “Caleb Cantrell, that’s a lot of bull, and you know it.”

He grinned at her. “He sure was, ma’am.”

Aunt El laughed.

Tess gave in to the groan she’d tried so hard to hold back and put her chin on her knees.

“Mom,” Nate called, starry-eyed in the lamps’ glow, “are you listening to all this?”

“I don’t know if I’m hearing it just right,” she said, forcing enthusiasm into her voice. “It sounds almost too good to be true.”

The real truth was, except for the most exciting moments during his stories, when either Caleb raised his voice or the girls repeated in awestruck tones something he’d said, she hadn’t heard anything at all. From her seat, Caleb’s words came as a murmur. A low, sexy murmur. As much as the sound unsteadied her, she preferred not being able to hear him clearly.

Why would she want to know the details of the bait that had lured him away from her?

In the brief moment when everyone had turned to look at Tess, Caleb stared at her. His eyes shone as bright as Nate’s. Not with the glint of excitement, though. Those eyes, his solemn expression, his stiff shoulders, all showed he had caught the false enthusiasm in her tone.

It seemed to bother him. She didn’t understand why. But she didn’t care.

“What’s the biggest rodeo you were ever in?” Lissa asked.

“Well, let me think…”

Caleb broke eye contact with Tess, the audience focused on their star again, and Tess let her attention turn inward.

She knew nothing about Caleb’s biggest rodeo, but she would never forget his first one....

She’d known nothing about his dreams, either, when they’d first found each other in high school. Two lonely teenagers, they’d held on tight to a relationship made even more precious because it was theirs alone.

Their secret.

Yet a few months later, Caleb had left town—left her—to go off on the rodeo trail. When she didn’t hear from him right away, she told herself not to worry. He had sworn he would call. He would write.

When the weeks went by without a word, it grew harder for her to believe in his empty promises.

And when two months had passed and she’d discovered she was pregnant, she’d had nowhere to turn. She couldn’t tell her mom. She’d die before she would confess to Aunt El. And wouldn’t survive if Granddad ever found out.

She couldn’t even risk telling her best friend, Dana.

She had to find Caleb.

And she did.

After weeks of online searches, she had finally tracked him down at a rodeo outside Gallup. She’d had to use most of her babysitting money to buy a round-trip bus ticket that would take her there and back the same day.

She had arrived at the arena just in time to find Caleb flushed with success at his first major win—and with two girls wrapped around him. One giggled into his ear while the other one planted a lipstick-stained kiss on his cheek.

Her own cheeks flaming, Tess had approached the trio.

At first, Caleb looked as though he would deny knowing her. Then, he simply denied that he had any interest in her—by turning to walk away.

She stopped him, saying she had something important to discuss.

“Time to collect my prize,” he told her. “Come and watch, Tess. That’s what’s important. That’s what will save me from going back to some one-horse town with one-horse folks in it.”

Obviously, his statement included her.

Raising her jaw, she stared him down. Sheer willpower kept her from telling him how he’d made her feel. She’d never in her life been so hurt. So humiliated.

Stubborn pride prevented her from telling him about the baby. Instead, she blurted out the news she was getting married.

That didn’t interest him, either. He’d stood there, not saying a word, the silence hanging between them until, finally, he’d wished her well.

Best of luck, he’d said. Damn him.

Then they’d shouted his name over the loudspeakers, and even before he’d turned his lipstick-stained face from her, before he’d rushed off to claim his all-important prize, her heart had broken.

By the time she had walked away, she’d promised herself Caleb Cantrell would never know what he’d meant to her. And he would never know about their child....

In the glow of the hurricane lamp on the picnic table, someone moved toward her. She jumped. Gone so deeply into her thoughts, wrapped so completely in memories, she hadn’t noticed anyone approaching. She looked up to see Caleb standing in front of her. It took her a long, startled moment to come to her senses.

When she did, she shot a glance past him, to find they were alone in the backyard.

She tried to rise from her lawn chair. Her legs, curled in one position for who knew how long, almost gave way. Staggering slightly, she managed to catch herself. Caleb didn’t seem to notice. Still, to her dismay, she imagined him reaching out to steady her. Could almost feel the heat from his hands washing through her, as cozy and warm as if she had been sitting all that time in front of the campfire she’d thought about. She felt an overwhelming desire to move closer, to have him wrap his arms around her.

Was she crazy? Shaking her head at her own stupidity, she eased away from him.

She’d been burned by Caleb once. Hadn’t that been enough?

Hoping her stiff legs would bear her weight, she moved aside and rested her hip against the nearest picnic table.

“Nice meal,” he said.

She nodded.

“Still got that pecan pie to go.”

“Yes.”

“Good company, too. But you didn’t seem to feel much like joining in the conversation.”

What could she say in response? Nothing Caleb would want to hear. She shrugged, hoping he would leave it at that.

He didn’t. Of course.

“Not into rodeo?” he asked.

Astonished, she stared at him. Could he really have asked that question? Could he have forgotten what happened the one and only time they’d been together at a rodeo? Or worse, did he not even care? She swallowed a bitter laugh. He didn’t care at all. Of course.

Why should she? “I was at a rodeo with you, Caleb. Or I should say, I followed you to one. Once.”

“Yeah, that’s right.” He tucked his thumbs into his belt loops. Not meeting her eyes, he said, “Sorry about that night.”

She shook her head again, this time in stunned disbelief. He’d tossed out the offhanded apology with as much care as he’d tossed paper plates into the trash after their supper.

“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “That one time was enough for me. I never had much interest in going to rodeos after that.”

“Look, I guess I got caught up in the win and wanted more.”

“More what? Fame and fortune?” Not more time with her. “You got that, didn’t you? And the stories to go with it.” She couldn’t resist adding, “But then, the rodeo didn’t teach you that. You always talked a good line.”