Page 25 of All in with the Maverick Montana

“Ever broken anything?”

“My collarbone,” Amy said. “Once. And my wrist.” She gestured with her left hand. “Got my hand tangled in a rope and got dragged by a steer. I was back on a horse before the cast had even finished setting.”

Josh’s eyes widened. Amy was tougher than he thought.

“I can’t imagine doing that now. So Bitsy and I are going to be good friends. Aren’t we, girl?” Bitsy chuffed like she understood.

They crested the far ridge of the property and started up along the fence that kept the cattle off Juniper Road. Josh kept one eye on the fence line, forever looking for wear and tear that might need fixing. But mostly he watched the way the evening crept up on them, painting Amy in the early colors of sunset. It brought out hints of red in her dark hair and the flush in her cheeks and the blue of her eyes. For a beat he wished he could somehow preserve this moment. Him and Amy and the world around them beautifully still.

His heart raced at the thought.

“So, riddle me this,” she said. “How does a man like you, with a place like this, end up out here all alone? Is it a choice or…” She let the rest of her question fade.

Josh tilted his head, wondering how to answer.

“If I’ve overstepped, just say so,” Amy said.

“You haven’t,” he assured her. Past relationships weren’t usually something he wanted to dwell on, but for some reason he wanted to tell Amy. Maybe just so he could explain that he was a good guy who’d simply stumbled on some bad luck as far as love was concerned. “I guess recently I’d just kind of given up on looking.”

She nodded. Bitsy weaved so close he could have reached out and touched the piece of hair that had escaped Amy’s ponytail.

“I… My last relationship sorta made me want to not try again. I thought things were going well, but Erica felt trapped here with me. So she took off for bigger and better things and… I’m still here,” he said. He didn’t know if he was explaining it right. “Don’t get me wrong, I want to be here. This place is what makes me happiest. I just don’t really need my heart stomped on again.”

“I’m sorry that happened,” Amy said. She glanced out across the fields. “I don’t know how anyone could feel trapped here.”

“I suppose the same way I’d feel totally out of my element if I was dropped in the middle of some big city.”

“Still, I’m sorry you couldn’t find a way forward together.”

“I think in hindsight it’s easier to see that maybe we weren’t as great together as I always thought we were. Maybe we didn’t match up in the right ways. I was content with this,” he said, gesturing out at the ranch, at the gold dappled fields, at the sunset-gilded earth. “And she wanted… I don’t know if more is the right word,” he said, “because I think this is an awful lot for someone to be happy with. I guess she just wanted different things, better opportunities than what Tenacity could offer, and we didn’t realize that about each other until it was too late. It was gonna hurt regardless by that point.”

“I think it’s easy to get caught up in who we think someone is. Especially when we’re not really looking.”

“What do you mean?”

She shrugged. “I guess it’s just easy to see what we want to see. That’s all.”

He knew she wasn’t referring to Erica rather an experience of her own. Again, he wondered about this guy who had hurt her. Wondered where he was now. What he did for a living. How he had walked away from this. From her.

“I like it here,” Amy said.

“Yeah?”

“You were right. It’s peaceful.”

They fell in line beside each other again, their horses weaving together then apart.

“How does one get into rodeoing in the first place?” he asked. “I mean, I realize you’re part of the Hawkins clan, but do they just line you up as kids and teach you rope tricks?”

Amy laughed. “Sort of. As a kid it just seems like fun and games and you can’t wait to get on a horse. I remember spending hours watching my grandmother Hattie in the arena. She’s the one who started it all, proving that anything men could do on the rodeo circuit, she could do better.”

“She sounds incredible.”

“Oh, she’s a hoot,” Amy said.

“So, how do you get from Hattie to you?” Josh asked, trying to place The Hawkins Sisters he’d always heard about with the real-life Hawkins sister sitting next to him.

“Well, Hattie’s husband, Roscoe, died in a rodeo accident shortly after they were married.”