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“Don’t be lazy, boy. You need to work from sunup to sundown, just to earn your keep.”
Dylan had been an average teenager, and had probably been a bottomless pit when it came to his aunt’s fried chicken and spareribs. Who could blame him? But he’d more than earned his keep on his uncle’s ranch where his parents shuffled him off to during the summer and school vacations.
After his older brother died in a car crash, they hadn’t seemed to care much about anything anymore. Danny had wrapped his car around a tree after taking a corner too fast on his sixteenth birthday. Dylan had been ten. After the accident, his parents shut down. They couldn’t handle Dylan’s grief on top of their own. So they sent him away.
His uncle, at least, had been more than happy to have him at the ranch, but that was because he was one less farmhand his uncle had to pay. He stayed there for a few months until school started, but nothing was ever the same again back home. Dylan was caught between wanting his old life back, with Danny taking all the risks and getting all the glory—and all of the heat from his parents—and becoming a cowboy.
“You can learn a trade,” his father had said, after washing his hands of Dylan when it turned out Dylan was destined to be a straight “C” student.
“It’s good for a boy to get some fresh air,” his mother had said, while packing his bags.
And that was how Dylan had come to live with his aunt and uncle.
Aunt Stella had tried to make him feel at home and comfortable, but there wasn’t room in the farmhouse for him, so he slept with the ranch hands, ate with the ranch hands, and worked with the ranch hands from age twelve until sixteen.
She had her hands full doing the work of three people anyway, because his uncle was too cheap to hire help. Not only did Aunt Stella cook for all of them and clean the house, but she was also in charge of the vegetable gardens, the chickens, and the egg stand down the road that sold their fresh eggs to anyone passing by.
Dylan was no stranger to hard work or ranch work, but when it turned out he had an affinity for bull riding, he started following the rodeos instead of working his uncle’s farm. At sixteen, he had taken a horse his uncle had planned on sending across the border for slaughter and ran away with the rodeo.
During that season, Dylan had won enough roping events to buy an old horse trailer and a used beater of a pickup truck. His uncle had been furious, and things had been slightly strained between them ever since. If living his own life made him an ungrateful nephew, so be it. Truthfully, Dylan would’ve ridden a dragon if it meant he could travel from rodeo to rodeo and live out under the stars. However, after almost ten years, it had gotten old and he was ready to settle down on a ranch where he could take care of the animals that had outlived their usefulness, according to some people.
He couldn’t understand why LeAnn Keller kept pushing herself. What did she have to prove? She had family who loved and supported her, and if they were a little much, at least they were there for her. She was a Texas rodeo queen and even won a few beauty pageants, if you could believe the scuttlebutt. He was curious why the perfect girl with the perfect life wanted to put her body in harm’s way by riding animals that outweighed her a good ten times over, beasts that could break her in half if they hit her wrong. She was already the bronc champ. Just like she had said she was going to be.
Dylan wasn’t one of those guys who thought women should only be barrel racers, but he had never trained a woman in bull riding. Hadn’t trained a woman in anything, really. He hoped she didn’t turn into a spoiled brat or dainty princess, because he didn’t know how to handle that shit. He wasn’t going to go easy on her just because she was a girl.
But he couldn’t lose another athlete. He couldn’t lose LeAnn.
Stopping in his tracks, Dylan looked up at the sky. Should he treat her with kid gloves? How seriously should he train her? Would he train her like he had trained Johnny? Or should he try to talk her out of riding a bull? He was worried that she was going to get injured on his watch. And if that made him a chauvinist, so be it. But his wrist was three times the size of hers, and they both gripped the same rope when they were on a bull. One wrong twist wouldn’t snap his wrist like a twig, but it just might break hers. Why was she putting herself and her career at risk?
“That’s none of your business,” he told himself.
His job was to train her, not to give unwanted advice. Dylan probably would anyway because he couldn’t help himself. Still, he hadn’t convinced Johnny to stop taking risks. And he probably wouldn’t stop LeAnn.
When he watched her, he could see that she loved the rodeo life. Dylan knew he wouldn’t be able to stop her from riding a bull if she set her mind to it, any more than he could have stopped Johnny. But Johnny had died and Dylan had to wonder if that had been because he, as his trainer, had missed something. He should have told Johnny not to ride that crazy bull. But would it have changed anything? If Dylan was being truthful himself, he could admit that it probably wouldn’t have. In fact, it might’ve made Johnny even more eager to get on Bulldozer.
Could he protect LeAnn from herself? Or was Dylan destined to watch another talented athlete die trying to go eight seconds and win a boatload of money?
Chapter Five
LeAnn got a text from Dylan on the way to Amarillo. She was riding shotgun, staring out the window, trying not to be nervous about seeing him again, while Reba drove the Winnebago. Dolly was following in the pickup truck behind them, pulling Garth’s trailer.
When are you arriving in Amarillo?
Even though she had had been expecting him to contact her, it still gave her a jolt. When Dolly gave her his number, LeAnn had resisted the urge to call him. What was she going to say to him? What if he brought up that night? What if he wanted her to sleep with him again?
LeAnn was more aroused than alarmed by that notion and she knew that was trouble with a capital T. It was going to be hard enough keeping the bull-riding training a secret. There would be no way she’d be able to keep the fact she was sleeping with Dylan under wraps, too.
First, her family would want to meet him. Probably over dinner. And then they’d spend the entire night embarrassing her and putting Dylan on the spot. Nope. Not going to happen. They had done that to Mick, and he nearly broke up with her because of it. She didn’t need that type of aggravation in her life again. Maybe after she won the gold buckle, she’d introduce her parents to Dylan.
Maybe.
LeAnn had assigned a picture she had taken of Dylan to his phone number. It had been after he had gone eight seconds on the top bull named Implosion. Dylan was grinning wildly, his eyes full of fierce joy. LeAnn loved that picture, not only because he looked so handsome and free, but also because it perfectly portrayed how she felt after pulling off a successful ride.
She had always thought they had a lot in common. That was probably why it had been so easy for her to go to bed with him.
Leaning over to check the GPS, she saw that they were expected to arrive at the trailer park by noon. She relayed that back to Dylan. It felt strange not to start off with small talk, but then again, talking had never been their strong suit.
When do you want me?
