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Her phone buzzed again. This time it was her sister Dolly, asking her what the hell was going on.
LeAnn gave a watery snort and swiped her arm across her eyes. Mick and I broke up. Don’t want to talk about it, she texted back.
But Dolly would want to talk about it. Ever since LeAnn blew her reputation as the WPRC’s rodeo sweetheart three years ago, they had been scrambling for sponsors. This past year, Dolly had been working her ass off trying to rebuild LeAnn’s status. It had helped that LeAnn was damned good at rodeo events, but social media had a long memory. There was still video of her drunk ass mooning the cop floating around. Dolly was having to work overtime to get sponsors to give her another chance to represent their brands. So far, no one wanted her.
No one had ever wanted her, except for Mick. And now that had been taken away from her, too.
Everything’s a mess, she started to text to Dolly. Then deleted it…and turned off her phone.
Mick cheating on her was the rancid cherry on the shit sundae of her life.
Her parents had been disappointed in her ever since she’d spent the night in the drunk tank three years ago. That had been the last straw for them. It had been bad enough that LeAnn risked her health riding bucking broncos instead of excelling at barrel racing, like she had been doing for most of her career. But after one loss, she fell apart? They had urged her to get out of the rodeo before it destroyed her. Her sisters had been more supportive, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that they weren’t too happy about not being on a winning team.
“We didn’t raise you to go wild and disrespect authority figures,” her parents often reminded her when they spoke on the phone to each other once a week.
No, they hadn’t, and LeAnn had three long years to be ashamed of herself as she tried to work her way back. In her defense, she had just turned eighteen at the time, and had been hellbent on sowing all the wrong oats.
Her parents had stayed home after that nightmare season, but they begrudgingly let her and her sisters use the Winnebago to travel across the United States from rodeo to rodeo. She knew that a condition was that Dolly and Reba had to promise to keep an eye on her so she wouldn’t embarrass herself—or them—again. So her sisters continued to travel with her as benevolent wardens in a Winnebago prison.
The bartender set her up with another shot glass. This time, LeAnn took a moment to appreciate the amber color and the sweet smell of the agave. Licking the top of her hand, she dusted it with salt. After coating her tongue with the salt, she slung back the tequila and then jammed a lemon slice into her mouth. Sucking on the sour juice, she remembered how much she liked the tart bite. It had gone down smooth, and the two shots were doing their job of numbing the pain.
“Another,” she barked. “Please,” she added as an afterthought.
He poured her another. And this time, her stomach jolted when she smelled the tequila. Maybe she should slow down.
“All alone tonight, Killer?” a voice drawled from the end of the bar.
It was early in the evening, so the bar wasn’t too crowded, which was good because she didn’t want to talk with anyone from the rodeo—especially anyone with a dick. But this was Dylan Porter. And even though he had a dick, he wasn’t one.
LeAnn hadn’t noticed him when she had come in, which might have been a first for her. She had always admired Dylan, as a bull rider and as a man. Even with her insides twisting and raging against all things male, she could appreciate the curve of his biceps against his black cotton shirt.
She’d always been drawn to him. He loved animals and treated his horse like gold. LeAnn used to watch him when he wasn’t looking while he took care, not only of his horse, but he also made sure that all the horses in the barn were comfortable, well fed and watered.
He’d always have a special place in her heart for helping out Garth that time when his feed bucket had fallen and emptied out. Dylan had fixed it and made sure Garth had enough food to get through the night.
“Not just tonight,” she said. “I’m all alone for good.”
“You broke up with Mick?”
“What makes you think he didn’t break up with me?” She took her tequila, salt, and lemon down to the end of the bar and sat down on a barstool next to him.
Dylan wasn’t part of the crowd that hung out together after the rodeos, but sometimes he was there, playing pool in the bars Mick had smuggled her underage ass into when her sisters thought they were at the movies. She and Dylan had never hung out, but he wasn’t one of the jerks who liked to make fun of the women riding broncs.
“Because even though Mick is an asshole, he’s not stupid,” Dylan said. “Only an idiot would let you get away.”
His words and the admiring look in his eyes made her heart thump. It was warm in here, especially sitting so close to him. LeAnn stared down at their knees, almost touching.
“Then he’s an idiot, as well as an asshole,” she muttered.
“You mean to tell me that Mick broke up with you tonight?”
“He didn’t actually say those words, but since he was banging a buckle bunny a half an hour ago, I took it to mean that that was goodbye.”
Dylan winced. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. You didn’t deserve that.”
“Didn’t I?” she said bitterly and tanked the shot, forgetting about the salt and lemon.
Mick had wanted sex and LeAnn had wanted to wait until marriage. That’s what her parents had always taught her and her sisters. But lately, she had been starting to come around to Mick’s point of view that there was no point in waiting. This year, they had started to date exclusively. And she had been planning to sleep with the bastard, even though there was still a part of her that wanted to wait.
