Read Online Marry Me, Cowboy (Copper Mountain Rodeo) by Lilian Darcy - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Lilian Darcy
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of the time, except for the short, intense bursts of action on the back of a galloping or bucking horse. He carried his saddles lazily back and forth, led Faro at an amble.
He stretched lazily before an event, too, using a repertoire of movements learned in physical therapy, or just from watching older riders. He pulled his elbow across his body a couple of times, across and back, across and back, with his opposite hand. He went down a couple of times in a deep squat, seemed to spend longer strapping a brace, after an injury, than stretching his muscles.
Here, Tegan saw how strong he was, and how good with his hands, hammering new posts into the ground, carrying heavy coils of wire, ratcheting the strainer back and forth as fast as his father did. And lord, did he look good doing it! Denim stretched tight across his butt every time he bent down, muscles knotted hard, mouth closing clean and pout-shaped over a drink bottle when they took a break for water.
Tegan wanted that mouth somewhere else, like on her skin, and those muscles knotting around her own body. It was crazy, and she didn’t even care.
RJ was right. It only took an hour to fix the damaged section of fence. They worked largely in silence, apart from instructions to each other when they needed. Nobody said, “Oh, so you really do know how to fence,” which Tegan appreciated. She didn’t need to make an issue of it.
She thought that all three MacCreadie men had begun to relax with each other a little, by the end. Families were complicated, and problems didn’t often get solved in one conversation.
Okay, another point to you, Jamie.
Robbie and RJ clearly still weren’t too happy that Jamie had taken off on the rodeo circuit, but they weren’t going to cut him out of their lives because of it. They were just... mad at him. Silently. Beginning to let it go.
“We’ll head back to the barn,” they said, when it was done. “You staying for lunch?”
“We’d better not. Tegan has first go-round on the barrels this afternoon, and that starts at three.”
“What about you, son?”
“I’m even earlier. Steer wrestling at two-thirty, if we’re back in time. Saddle bronc late afternoon. The finals tomorrow, if I make it that far.”
Rob MacCreadie nodded but didn’t say anything.
“So we’ll come see you in the hospital tonight, then,” RJ said.
Tegan gave a polite laugh, but the humor had too much of an edge. RJ wasn’t saying it to be funny, he was saying it to make a point - one that Jamie didn’t need to hear, as he’d ridden the first two months of the season with his arm and shoulder strapped in an elaborate arrangement of bandage and brace. He knew the reality of rodeo injuries better than his brother did.
“Let’s grab those horses before they’re all the way at the bottom of the hill,” he growled to Tegan.
“Might see you in town, today or tomorrow,” said his dad. “If I can get your mom out of the house.”
“Yeah, that’d be good. It’d be great if she came.”
“I’ll tell her you said that.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
They arrived back at the rodeo ground at one-thirty, which meant they would both make their events this afternoon. They unloaded the horses, yarded them, then -
“Truck’s gone,” Jamie said.
“What?”
“Look.” He pointed to his and Chet’s trailer, where the front gooseneck section now jutted out into thin air.
He began to stride over there without a second’s pause, and Tegan followed him. Inside, they found Chet’s duffel bag gone and a note on the counter, anchored down with a dirty coffee mug. “Gone home to tell mom, back by Monday morning.”
“Well, I guess he’s scratching,” Jamie said. “I’ll have to see if Dawson can be my hazer in the steer wrestling.”
“Yeah?”
“Chet’s mom lives in North Platte,” Jamie reminded her. “That’s eleven hours away.”
They looked at each other. The trailer suddenly seemed very small, and very quiet, and
He stretched lazily before an event, too, using a repertoire of movements learned in physical therapy, or just from watching older riders. He pulled his elbow across his body a couple of times, across and back, across and back, with his opposite hand. He went down a couple of times in a deep squat, seemed to spend longer strapping a brace, after an injury, than stretching his muscles.
Here, Tegan saw how strong he was, and how good with his hands, hammering new posts into the ground, carrying heavy coils of wire, ratcheting the strainer back and forth as fast as his father did. And lord, did he look good doing it! Denim stretched tight across his butt every time he bent down, muscles knotted hard, mouth closing clean and pout-shaped over a drink bottle when they took a break for water.
Tegan wanted that mouth somewhere else, like on her skin, and those muscles knotting around her own body. It was crazy, and she didn’t even care.
RJ was right. It only took an hour to fix the damaged section of fence. They worked largely in silence, apart from instructions to each other when they needed. Nobody said, “Oh, so you really do know how to fence,” which Tegan appreciated. She didn’t need to make an issue of it.
She thought that all three MacCreadie men had begun to relax with each other a little, by the end. Families were complicated, and problems didn’t often get solved in one conversation.
Okay, another point to you, Jamie.
Robbie and RJ clearly still weren’t too happy that Jamie had taken off on the rodeo circuit, but they weren’t going to cut him out of their lives because of it. They were just... mad at him. Silently. Beginning to let it go.
“We’ll head back to the barn,” they said, when it was done. “You staying for lunch?”
“We’d better not. Tegan has first go-round on the barrels this afternoon, and that starts at three.”
“What about you, son?”
“I’m even earlier. Steer wrestling at two-thirty, if we’re back in time. Saddle bronc late afternoon. The finals tomorrow, if I make it that far.”
Rob MacCreadie nodded but didn’t say anything.
“So we’ll come see you in the hospital tonight, then,” RJ said.
Tegan gave a polite laugh, but the humor had too much of an edge. RJ wasn’t saying it to be funny, he was saying it to make a point - one that Jamie didn’t need to hear, as he’d ridden the first two months of the season with his arm and shoulder strapped in an elaborate arrangement of bandage and brace. He knew the reality of rodeo injuries better than his brother did.
“Let’s grab those horses before they’re all the way at the bottom of the hill,” he growled to Tegan.
“Might see you in town, today or tomorrow,” said his dad. “If I can get your mom out of the house.”
“Yeah, that’d be good. It’d be great if she came.”
“I’ll tell her you said that.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
They arrived back at the rodeo ground at one-thirty, which meant they would both make their events this afternoon. They unloaded the horses, yarded them, then -
“Truck’s gone,” Jamie said.
“What?”
“Look.” He pointed to his and Chet’s trailer, where the front gooseneck section now jutted out into thin air.
He began to stride over there without a second’s pause, and Tegan followed him. Inside, they found Chet’s duffel bag gone and a note on the counter, anchored down with a dirty coffee mug. “Gone home to tell mom, back by Monday morning.”
“Well, I guess he’s scratching,” Jamie said. “I’ll have to see if Dawson can be my hazer in the steer wrestling.”
“Yeah?”
“Chet’s mom lives in North Platte,” Jamie reminded her. “That’s eleven hours away.”
They looked at each other. The trailer suddenly seemed very small, and very quiet, and
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