“I’ve missed you in the arena. The day I saw your name on that flyer, I squealed,” she says, her Texas accent extra thick when she’s flirtatious. I remember that about her.
“He’s gonna win, so save all your squealin’ for rodeo night and cheer him on,” Tate says, but Jenna’s eyes never leave me.
“So, what’ve you been up to all these years, cowboy?” She juts her bottom lip out in a move I think she thinks is sexy and seductive, but to me it looks more like she had a dental procedure and the effects haven’t worn off yet. “You still got that fire when you ride?”
I nod. “I didn’t come back to lose, I know that much.” I get to my feet, ready to take a leak and get away from Jenna. I never asked her out on a second date because I could see right away we weren’t about the same things. She’s a buckle bunny through and through, and there’s no future with a woman like that.
“Well, Jenna,” I start, ready to cap that sentence off with the classic“It was good to see you but I have to go,”only, she loops her arms around my neck in a weird, one-sided hug.
“Don’t go,” she whines. “We didn’t get to catch up.”
I peel her hands off the back of my neck. “You still live in Sable Sky?”
She nods, rolling her lips together wearing a mischievous little grin. “I surely do.”
“Me too,” I tell her. “See? Now we’re caught up.”
She swats at my shoulder. “You’re so bad.”
The announcer, a seventy-one year-old man who works at the hardware store just to have a reason to leave his house every day, calls out first notice for exhibition riders to comeand get ready to ride. Fortunately, that’s me. “I’ve gotta go,” I tell Jenna and Tate, but Tate’s already edging away from us, Lola stirring.
“I’ll see you up there,” I tell Tate, who will join me after giving his daughter to Love. I give Jenna one final nod. “Bye.”
She wiggles her fingers, and I’m just about to saunter off, ready to breathe in a breath of air that isn’t infiltrated by cherry blossom body spray and unfiltered Camels.
But Quinn appears.
“Hi, I’m Quinn Farley-Vaughn, Landry’s wife. It’s nice to meet you,” she greets, wearing the type of smile one forces when they have a pinched nerve.
“Married?” Jenna squawks. “Why, Landry Vaughn, you did not mention the fact that you’re off the market.”
“It was in the paper,” I tell her, heating blooming around my collar as Quinn’s hand comes down over my shoulder, clearly claiming me. I place my hand over hers and pull it to my mouth, pressing a kiss to her palm. It’s what I’d do if this thing with us were real, and I’m not doing it to sell the marriage. Right now, I’m doing it because I think it’s what Quinn needs, and also, there’s a vein in her forehead that tells me I may be in some trouble.
“Hi, I’m Jenna,” Jenna greets, though her tone is less than friendly. “Landry and I used to go out. A million years ago, right, Landry?”
I don’t reply beyond a grunt, because Jenna knows she’s wearing out her welcome, and I think she’s doing it on purpose. I don’t like that.
“Well, he’s married now,” Quinn says, adding, “off the market. Mine, mine, mine,” she says, patting my bicep progressively harder.
Jenna smiles at me. “See you out there.” She saunters off,and Quinn and I stay rigidly frozen until she’s completely out of sight, lost to the beer gardens. Then a woman half my size is dragging me behind the food trucks with fire in her eyes.
“First of all,” she stomps, “you didn’t tell her about me, and secondly, you let her hang all over you like that?” Quinn hisses, trying to keep her voice down while cautiously peering around to make sure she isn’t caught. I’d be happy to be caught with her back here, but I’d like to be pleasing her instead of getting yelled at. I swipe my hand up the back of my head, peering down at my young wife as she braces two angry hands on her hips. “You’re a newlywed, Landry, and you didn’t even think to mention that to the first woman to come throw herself at you?”
I shake my head, because that’s not how that played out, not in my mind. “I just wanted to be away from her, is all.” Another hand up the back of my head because— “You’re… angry with me?”
Her green eyes are so wide, I don’t think she’s blinked since she dragged me back here. “I think if you want people to believe we’re a couple so that nothing ever gets back to the judge about us faking things, then you should want to tell everyone you meet that you just got married.” She shakes her head. “Unless you aren’t excited or happy to be married to me.”
I take her by the hips, and press her up against the back of a Coors Light stand. “I didn’t mention it to Jenna because I didn’t want to be talking to her in the first place.”
Her bottom lip wobbles as I swat a fly away from us, soft laughter from the townspeople drifting between the beer booths. The Texas sun warms my skin, and in my gear, ready for the exhibition ride, I’m nearly on fire. But I’d stand here holding her forever if it meant assuaging those damn fears she has.
Senseless fears, that’s what they are. After all, how could I ever be interested in another woman so long as she’s here?
“And you know I’m damn happy and excited to call you my wife,” I tell her, finding my mouth on hers, her soft whimpers making my dick stiff as I kiss her lips, then down the supple curve of her throat. “And Jenna? She’s not even an old friend. She’s a woman I took out once and never again.”
“She wants in your pants,” Quinn states, her eyes falling to my mouth for a moment. I’ve been so worried about winning, about keeping Sadie, about training and not foolishly falling in love that I never considered the roller coaster of emotions that she may be riding, the things she may be going through. I cup her face with my hand and smile down, taking in her wide beautiful eyes, her thick dark eyelashes, and full pink lips, the pink apples of her cheeks, and the gentle curve of her soft smile.
“I haven’t looked at or thought about another woman since you came to Sable Sky.”
