Unridden: A Studs in Spurs novel (22 page)

Mustang was starting to grasp that when it came to self-denial and stupid choices, Slade was a real champ. Ranked number one.

Stopping when he finally reached the bank of elevators, Mustang realized the kid was still trailing behind him. He turned with a sigh, hoping the rookie wouldn’t follow him all the way up to his room.

“What I don’t get is why you’re trying to find Jenna’s number instead of Slade. I mean she was dating him, not you.”

This kid really needed to learn when to leave well enough alone. “Slade’s too damn stubborn, that’s why.”

Chase stood before him, smiling. Mustang wasn’t in the mood for anyone who was smiling.

The elevator door slid open and Mustang was about to put some distance between himself and Rookie Smiley when what Chase said next stopped him dead in his tracks. “So, I guess it’s lucky for Slade that I can get him Jenna’s number. Huh?”

“You can?” The elevator doors closed again and Mustang made no attempt to stop them, suddenly not so annoyed with Chase any longer.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure I can get her number, or at least get a message to her.”

“How?” Had Jenna given her number to Chase back in Tulsa? This was too good. Why didn’t Mustang think to ask the kid right away instead of going to all that trouble calling directory assistance trying to track her down on the damn payphone?

“When Jenna and her friends were at the bar in Tulsa, one of the other authors, Barb was her name, hooked up with Garret James. Garret got Barb’s number and they’ve been texting back and forth since that night. He could ask her friend Barb for Jenna’s number. I bet she’s got it.”

For a man who had yet to give in and buy a cell phone, it all sounded intriguing but also pretty complicated to Mustang. Luckily, Chase didn’t seem concerned. Instead he whipped out his own phone, punched a few buttons and not more than a few seconds later, the damn thing chimed.

Chase glanced down, then looked up from the phone, grinning. “Garret says he’ll text Barb and ask for Jenna’s number right now. He’ll get back to me when he has it.”

Skeptical, Mustang crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, waiting. Lo and behold, about a minute later, Chase’s phone chimed again. The kid read the screen, then thrust the phone at Mustang for him to see the digits for himself.

“There you go. Jenna’s number. Want me to dial for you?”

Mustang stared at the phone in Chase’s hand for a second, considering. Finally he sighed.

What the hell. Why not?

How bad could Slade hurt him anyway? He could do no worse than what Mustang got every time he jumped on the back of a bull.

Decision made, he nodded. “Yeah. Go ahead. Call her.”

After a few static filled rings, the voice Mustang hadn’t heard for months came through the phone. “Hello?”

Mustang swallowed, strangely nervous. “Hey, darlin’.”

She recognized his voice too. There was a moment of silence followed by a short laugh that didn’t sound at all happy. “Mustang.”

This may take a bit of charm.
“That’s right. The one and only. How have you been, darlin’?”

“Fine.”

Chase had been dead on. Judging by the one-word answers, Jenna was pissed as all hell because they hadn’t called.

“How would you like a chute-side ticket to watch a bull ride at Madison Square Garden?”

She was silent and Mustang wished, not for the first time, that he wasn’t beholden to Chase for the use of his phone because he really wanted the kid to go away so he could have some privacy to talk with her and maybe explain things.

Jenna was quiet for so long, Mustang finally asked, “Uh, hello?”

“I’m here.” He heard her blow out a long breath of air. “What day?”

Mustang grinned. “Tomorrow night. Eight pm. I’ll leave the ticket under your name at the pick-up window.”

Again, she took a long time to answer. “All right.”

“Okay, great! See ya’ then, darlin’.”

“Okay. Bye.” Then the call went dead.

Mustang took a deep breath and handed the phone back to Chase.

It looked like Jenna was going to require some soothing. Getting back in her good graces and her bed was going to be a lot of work.

Damn Slade.

Chapter Twenty-four

Slade glanced down at the tattered scrap of paper he held between two fingers. The ink was so worn and faded from being carried around in his wallet for months that the numbers were barely visible.

How many times he had taken this paper out and considered calling her, he couldn’t count. But this time he wasn’t a thousand miles away and calling her didn’t seem as pointless.

Steeling his nerves, he sat on the edge of the mattress and reached for the phone on the nightstand between the room’s two double beds.

He’d dialed three numbers when he heard the door unlock and open. Slade slammed the receiver down and standing, hid the paper deep in the front pocket of his jeans just as Mustang walked into the room.

Slade shoved his hands into his pockets and tried to look casual. “So, uh, what’s up?”

“Not much.” Mustang barely glanced at Slade, making a beeline directly for the remote control.

Slade breathed freer when all of Mustang’s concentration focused on the television as it sprang to life. Slade sat again, stretching his legs out on the ugly bedspread as he heard the cheesy music of the hotel’s information channel come on.

Slade couldn’t call Jenna if Mustang stayed planted right there all night. He glanced at the clock. “So, you got anything planned for later?”

Mustang shook his head, eyes still on the television as he clicked through the cable channels. “Me? Nope.”

“Any of the other guys doing anything?”

Mustang nodded. “The kids are all going out barhopping for the night. Hey, look. We’ve got two movie channels.”

“Don’t you want to go out with them?” Slade asked hopefully, though Mustang’s discovery of HBO may have sunk any hope that he’d leave the room.

Glancing over at Slade, Mustang answered, “Not really. Do you?”

“Nah. I don’t wanna be hung over for tomorrow.”

“Yeah, me neither. Not for the first match up of the season after being off for so long.”

It appeared as if they were at a standoff, Mustang not leaving the room, Slade not willing to give in and go find a payphone. That was okay. Slade figured he could wait him out until Mustang casually added, “Oh, and Jenna’s going to be in the audience tomorrow.”

Slade’s head whipped around to glare at Mustang. “What?”

Still staring at the television, Mustang didn’t react one bit to the harshness of Slade’s single growled word. “Jenna. I left her a ticket in the VIP section for tomorrow.”

“You called Jenna?”

Did Mustang have Jenna’s number all this time and Slade’s whole charade of pretending to throw it out was for nothing? Finally, Mustang met his gaze.

“Actually, Chase did.” And as Slade nearly choked on that, Mustang laughed. “Yeah, I thought you’d react like that.”

“Chase had Jenna’s phone number?”

“It was on his phone.” Mustang shrugged and went back to flipping channels.

Slade frowned, no longer in the mood for talking or much of anything else. He couldn’t get the thought out of his head, though. Jenna gave Chase her number.
Shit.

———

Booty call.

That was the only term Jenna could come up with to describe the way Mustang and Slade had ignored her for months and then called her now that they were in New York. They wanted to sleep with her again.

And she had agreed to meet them. She let out a bitter laugh. What the hell did that say about her?

The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. Finally, she grabbed her cell phone, found the number Mustang had called from in her incoming call log and hit the send key.

When she heard the “hello” through the receiver, she laid into him. “Why did you wait so long to call me?”

“Huh? Who is this?”

That figured. He didn’t even know who she was. Though it was no wonder. Who knew how many girls called him day and night. She let out a loud, frustrated breath. “It’s Jenna.”

Jeez! He’d just talked to her.

“Jenna! Hey. This is Chase.”

“Chase?” Why the hell was Chase answering Mustang’s phone?

She heard him laugh. “Yup. It’s me. How are you?”

Now that she really listened, Jenna heard the difference in Chase’s voice compared to Mustang’s, something she hadn’t noticed before, during the start of her
why haven’t you called me?
hissy fit.

“Um, I’m well, thanks. And you?”

“Well, I’m wearing my Rookie of the Year buckle, I’m in New York City for the first time in my life and I’m riding tomorrow night at Madison Square Garden. I’d say life is pretty good.”

“Yeah, it sounds like it.”

Chase’s youthful exuberance was infectious. Jenna couldn’t help but smile.

“So how did that super secret book you were researching in Tulsa turn out?”

“Really good actually.” Jenna didn’t go into the details, for so many reasons, but finishing on time and getting a contract definitely qualified as really good, considering how badly her first attempt at the cowboy book had gone.

“That’s great!”

Jenna could hear the smile in his voice and laughed. He really was excited for her. “Actually, I already started writing another one.”

“Is this one about bull riders, too?”

“Yes. It’s about a young rookie bull rider with a taste for older women.” Jenna felt herself blush and waited for Chase’s reaction.

“No way! Really?”

Jenna smiled. “Really.”

She heard Chase laugh. “Wow! That’s great! I’m gonna have to read that one.”

Of course he thought it was great. Chase could get enthused about pretty much anything. Compared to the stuck up, self-centered idiots she and Astrid had encountered online and on their last blind date, Chase was refreshing, to say the least. If only Jenna were ten, all right, maybe fifteen years younger…

“You? Reading a romance novel? That should go over well with the other bull riders,” she teased him.

“Eh, they won’t care. Especially when they hear I know you and that I kind of inspired it. I did, didn’t I?”

“Yes, you did.” Jenna laughed, flashing back to their make out session in the bar in Tulsa and feeling her cheeks heat. Speaking of Tulsa… “Um, Chase, why are you answering Mustang’s phone?”

That elicited another laugh from Chase. “Actually, Mustang called you on my phone. Mustang and Slade both don’t have cell phones.”

“What? Are you serious? Why not?”

“Well, the story from the old timers is that in the beginning, they weren’t making enough money riding to pay the phone bills. Then it became kind of a thing with them. Holding out and not getting one even though they could afford to if they wanted. Making fun of the rest of us for texting or being on our phones all the time. You know?”

Jenna shook her head. “Just like how they sleep in the trailer rather than in a hotel.”

Chase laughed. “Yeah, just like that. Though they’re in a hotel here. They flew in. No good place to park the trailer this competition.”

“Hmmm. I guess not.” Jenna felt strangely sad at that. There was a special place in her heart for that trailer. Then she thought of something. “What hotel are you guys in?”

Chase told her the name. “Why? You wanna come over and visit?”

Jenna laughed. “No. I don’t think so.”

“Don’t be mad at Slade, Jenna.”

This kid was far too perceptive. “What makes you think I’m mad?”

“The way you laid into me when I answered the phone and you thought I was Mustang made me think you’re not too happy with him and Slade right now. But you shouldn’t be mad.”

“Okay, hypothetically, let’s assume I was mad. Why shouldn’t I be?”

“You didn’t hear this from me, but in answer to your hypothetical question, Mustang told me Slade lost your number. That’s why he didn’t call you.”

Jenna’s eyes blurred with tears of relief. Slade was a clumsy idiot for losing her number, but that was far better than the assumption she’d been going on for months now, that neither one of them wanted to ever talk to her again. “Oh. Thanks for telling me, Chase.”

“No problem. Just don’t tell them I told you.”

She smiled. “No problem.”

“So, I heard Mustang say you’re coming to watch us ride tomorrow night.”

Jenna cleared the emotion from her throat. “Yeah, that’s the plan.”

“Good. I’ll look for you in the stands and say hi.”

“I’d like that.”

“I hate to cut you short, Jenna, but the guys are outside waiting for me to catch a cab with them. We’re going to some seaport place.”

Jenna smiled. “South Street Seaport?”

“Yeah! That’s it.”

“Okay, but be careful and only use the yellow taxi cabs. Any other ones are unregulated. Don’t use those. Okay?” Those gypsy cab drivers would take one look at a bunch of sweet young cowboys and triple the price.

“Yellow cabs only. Got it. Thanks, Jenna. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yes, you will. Good night, Chase.”

“Night, Jenna!”

Jenna closed her cell phone and rubbed her eyes as she digested all she’d just learned.

They hadn’t given her their cell phone numbers because they didn’t own any. If she’d heard it from anyone besides Chase, who probably wouldn’t be able to tell a lie even if he tried, she wouldn’t have believed it.

Suddenly, Jenna had to rethink everything she’d felt over the last few months concerning Slade and Mustang. But first, she had something she needed to do. Jenna squatted down and pulled a box out from underneath her bed. From inside she grabbed a photocopy of her cowboy book.

Jenna drew in a big breath, letting it out again slowly as she ran a hand over the cover page. Her heart and soul were contained within those pages. Sending it to the boys would be equivalent to confessing everything she felt about them, about their time together, the hurt, the love, the sex…

She stayed frozen on her knees in front of the ream of paper for a long time.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Besides, being a writer, if it turned out they didn’t feel the same about her, she’d deny the whole thing and call it fiction.