Ride Me Cowboy #4 (The Cowboy Romance Series - Book #4) (8 page)

“Because I didn’t want you to do it. It’s going to
screw up your life. It’s going to take everything you love away from you and
you’re going to end up an unhappy, lonely old man who can barely get out of bed
in the morning.” He pushed back from the table and stormed into the other room.

Lydia looked at me and said, “You should go after
him.”

I didn’t really want to, but she was right. He and I
needed to work this out. It was giving me ulcers worrying about it all the
time. I found him standing on the sun porch, looking out over the ranch.

“Dad…”

“Mark, just let it go. You know how I feel.”

 
“I do. What
confuses me is why – especially if you did it and you understand the pull…”

“Your mother died while I was on the road.”

“You were working…”

“No. This ranch was just starting up. I bought this
place to make your mother happy…I bought it with the money I won placing second
in the finals when you were two years old.”

“Cowboy Bob told me you went to buy cattle.”

“The hands weren’t allowed to tell you I rode the
circuit. Your mother was very strict about that. They were to always make up a
story that made sense if you asked about me. She hated the rodeo. She hated
being alone all the time, but you know what?”

“What?”

“She was supportive for a long time. She did her
absolute best to be happy for me when I did well. She poured her heart and soul
into this place and into you.”

“So why did you stop competing?”

“When you were four, she was diagnosed with cancer.
When you were five, she was in remission. She stayed in remission for a couple
of years so, although she begged me to stop and stay home with the two of you,
I wouldn’t do it…I told her one more season, then I’d have enough money to make
this ranch really something and I’d stay home. We always think we have another
tomorrow. I didn’t – and neither did you. Your mother died unexpectedly that
year as I rode in the finals. I came home a widow with a son I didn’t even
know. That rodeo took everything from us, Mark – don’t let it take what you
have left.”

“Dad…Wow, that’s…”

“Horrible. That’s what it is, that’s how I felt.
Your mother was the love of my life. I didn’t know how to deal with losing her
or the guilt of not being here when it happened. I withdrew from everyone and threw
myself into the ranch. I left you to flounder with the ranch hands acting as
both your mom and dad because I hadn’t been around. I didn’t know how to be a
father. I didn’t know how to be a single parent. I was scared to death and you
suffered for it. Our relationship suffered for it. All of it was because of my
obsession that damned rodeo!”

“Dad, I wish you would have told me all of this
sooner. I would have…”

“What, Mark? You would have given it up?”

“No. It is my life, yes – but it’s not an obsession.
I wouldn’t turn my back on family for it…”

“That’s what you do every time you drive out of
here!”

“No, I don’t see it like that…”

“Neither did
I
! Now look at
me.”

“You have a chance to start over…”

“You have a chance to quit now, Mark! Do it while
you still can, before you have a woman you love more than life itself and you
have to choose.” I couldn’t help it, I thought about Lexi. Would I choose her
if she gave me that chance? I was confident I would.

“Dad…”

“Leave me alone, Mark. I don’t want to talk about it
anymore. We’re not getting anywhere.”

“But…”

“Go!”

I left him there. I wanted to tell him that although
he made a horrible mistake with my mother and a lot of mistakes with me, he
wasn’t alone. I still loved him and Lydia loved him and he wasn’t old and alone
– he had a family. I wanted to tell him that I see him turning his back on that
choice once again. I had a strong feeling that it wasn’t going to do any good.
I didn’t want to argue with him…not tonight. I was headed for the finals. I’m
strong and confident, and I know I can do this. I headed back towards the two
people I knew were in my corner. If my father refused to be happy for me, then
I would celebrate with Lexi and Lydia.

When I got back into the dining room, they both
looked up at me cautiously. Finally after a period of silence Lydia said, “Are
you okay?”

I smiled. “Yeah, I’m okay. Dad has his reasons for
not being happy about this and that’s okay. But I’m happy, and I won’t let him
or anyone take that from me.”

“Why don’t we go out on the porch and have our
dessert and a celebratory glass of wine?” Lydia said.

Lexi looked at me with a secret smile and said,
“Make the cowboy’s a beer.”

CHAPTER
NINE

LEXI

I spent some time with Mark down near the chutes as
he got ready to ride and I learned a lot. For one thing, bull snot is a
glorious thing. It shoots out like a sling shot or silly string from the
bucking and snarling wild bull that wants out of the chute and it splatters
across everyone and everything within its path. After standing three feet from
a bull named Bovine Brad, I needed another shower.

I learned from an old timer who loved to talk that
if you stick your chest out and “squeeze it” that this helps you stay parallel
with the bull. He says this is the “sweet spot.” He also had a lot to say about
setting your knees and ankles and hips.

“How long have you been riding?” I asked him.

He chuckled in a raspy, two pack a day voice and
said, “Honey, I’m sixty-two. I
ain’t
been on a bull’s
back in about twenty years. As it was, I was damned old when I retired. The
wife was plumb fed up with me by then.”

“How long have you been married?”

“It was forty years in May,” he said, proudly. “
Ain’t
an easy thing to do…being the wife or the girlfriend
of one of these stubborn, hard-headed bull
riders.
”

“Was your wife a rodeo girl?”

He laughed again. “No. I met Elaine at an exhibition
rodeo in Madison Square Gardens. She was the event coordinator and just about
as big city New York as a person could ever get.”

“So she gave up the city for you?”

“No, she and I had this idea between us that neither
of us had to give anything up. Of course, that was idealistic and we found out
later that it wasn’t necessarily true, but we tried hard to keep each other
happy and here we are forty years later. She kept her apartment in the city and
we had a house in the country on the west coast that my granddaddy left me.
When I was in that area, I’d stay with her and closer to the west coast, I’d
stay there. She came out to ten or fifteen rodeos a year. We made it work.”

I smiled. “That’s nice. What about kids?”

He looked sad for a minute. “We didn’t have any of
those. It was one of those things we didn’t exactly agree on. Elaine didn’t
want to bring kids into our ‘unorthodox’ lifestyle. I couldn’t really blame
her. I wasn’t ever home and every other week or so I was injured…it
ain’t
no life for a father, I reckon.”

“Did you ever get injured badly?”

He chuckled again. “I’m left handed and I’ve always
had this habit of sliding to the right. I’ve had my right eyebrow split open so
many times I lost count.
Them
bulls are fond of rearing back with their heads and I’d get a head butt or the
horns would get me. I had about a half a dozen concussions; I broke most all of
my ribs at one point or another. I’ve had double knee replacement, and I got
pins in my shoulder….” I kind of just let him drone on and I tuned him out at
that point. I was falling in love with a guy who loved spending time with a
beast that only wanted to kill him. What the hell was I thinking?

I found a seat when the rodeo began, and I watched
numbly as the barrel racers did their graceful thing on their graceful horses.
Then I watched the saddle
bronc
riders and the bare
back riders. I watched the ropers and the team ropers and I was even a little
bit proud of myself for beginning to understand what was going on and what a
good score was and wasn’t. I ate a lot of crap and drank too many sodas and by
the time the last event, which was always the bull-riding, began…I was
practically spun out. There were four rides before Mark’s turn. The first two
guys didn’t make it the eight seconds, but the third guy got an eighty-seven,
which I knew to be a good score at this point.

Then it was time. I wasn’t paying any attention at
all to the fourth guy’s ride – I was watching Mark climb up into his chute.
He’d drawn a bull named “Bushwhack” who had only been ridden twice, Mark had said.
When he was standing up on the side of the chute, his eyes found mine and he
smiled and waved. I forced myself to look happy and not nervous and I smiled
and waved back. I watched as he lowered himself down onto the bull and his
right hand, the inured one, was tied to the rigging on the bull. I thought I
saw him wince, but it could have been my imagination.

I held my breath as the chute opened and Mark and
the bull that was the size of a Volkswagen came busting out. The bull was
pulling up off the dirt with all four of his feet as soon as he was out. I knew
now that I wasn’t wrong about the wince. The look on Mark’s face was pure
agony. I was wishing this was a fight and I could throw in a white towel and
stop it. It was killing me that I had to sit here and watch him in pain…and
then it was over, just like that.

The buzzer rang and that beautiful man who takes my
breath away slid down to his booted feet with a grin from ear to ear. I was on
my feet with most of the rest of the stands cheering my lungs out and when the
ruckus settled down I heard the announcer call out his score…an eighty-five. He
was in second place and looked thrilled about that. I was happy for him, in
spite of myself.

I could hardly contain myself as I waited for it to
be over so that I could congratulate him. When I saw him coming towards me at
last, I didn’t wait for him to get there. I ran and threw myself into his arms.
I forgot about his hand for a few seconds. “I’m so proud of you!”

He was still smiling. “I’m proud of me, too,” he
said. After he sat me down, he was holding onto his wrist with his other hand.

“Oh, Mark! I’m sorry. I hurt you.”

He cracked up. “I just tangled with a two-thousand
pound beast. I don’t think the pain came from picking up my hundred and fifteen
pound girlfriend.”

I liked the way that sounded – “girlfriend.” “A
hundred and twenty-five after all the crap I ate today,” I told him.

“Come on, let’s go back to the hotel and work it off
of you.”

“That’s the best offer I’ve had all day,” I told
him.

He threw his arm around me and we headed for his
truck. He already had his tack and
Sarge
loaded up.
When we got there and he opened the door for me, I saw my phone on the seat.
I’d forgotten all about it all day.

CHAPTER
TEN

MARK

I was on top of the world. I’d just placed second at
a rodeo that a few weeks ago I was told I’d never ride in. Lexi was here and
she was “proud” of me. I could tell that she’d been nervous all day, but she’d
done such an amazing job of supporting me and not showing it that I was “proud”
of her, too. Now, all I wanted was a hot shower and an evening with the most beautiful
girl in the world. I opened her door for her and by the time I got around to my
side and got in she had her phone in her hand and a stricken look on her face.

“What’s wrong?”

She furrowed her brow and said, “I don’t know. Mom
has texted me about five times in the last few hours. She’s called twice, but
she didn’t leave a message.”

“You should call her.” Lexi nodded and as she pushed
her mom’s number and listened to it ring, I pulled out my phone. I also had
multiple missed calls and texts from my dad. The last one said, “Get your ass
home now!”

I heard Lexi say, “Mom! What’s wrong?” then after a
few seconds passed she said, “What do you mean you’d rather talk to me about it
at home. Why not now? Mom, you’re scaring me. Is someone sick or hurt? We just
left the rodeo, Mark came in second. Yeah, that is great, but you don’t sound
very happy. Mom, please tell me what’s going on. Damn it!”

“What was that about?” I asked her.

“I have no idea. I’m really pissed at her.”

“My dad’s been calling all day, too. She said no one
is hurt or sick?”

“Yeah, she told me that much, at least. It’s not
fair for them to do this, though, and let us spend an hour driving home worried
about what’s going on.”

“You think it’s about us?”

She looked like that hadn’t crossed her mind yet as
she said, “I don’t know…you think? How would they know?”

I handed her my phone and said, “Do me a favor, call
Emily please.”

She furrowed her brow again but she did what I
asked. When Emily answered, she put it on speaker and said, “Hi Emily, this is
Lexi…Mark’s stepsister…”