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Their conversation faded in Faye’s ears which were now buzzing while her heart hammered. Adam wanted to compete in the rodeo. Maybe it wasn’t going to be so bad. Maybe he wanted to pick an event that wouldn’t be terribly difficult. Hopefully, the process to compete wasn’t going to be easy and he’d just forget the whole thing.
Adam wandered back to her, his gaze locked on the mailer in his hands. When he glanced up at her, he froze. “What?”
“When were you going to tell me you wanted to compete?”
“I did.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“Yes,” he drawled. “On our first date, I told you I wanted to do it. It’s one of those bucket list things for me. Some people want to write a book. Others want to go skydiving. I want to compete in the rodeo.”
“Then write a book.”
His brows creased and he tossed the stack of mail on a nearby table. “What’s gotten into you? This isn’t news. I’ve been talking about it since we met. In fact, you’ve been teaching me how to handle a horse for this exact purpose.”
“Yeah, but I always thought that you’d lose interest or realize that you don’t have to impress a girl by risking your life.”
Adam chuckled. “Getting on the back of a horse isn’t risking my life. Do you—”
“Oh, yes. It is,” she cut him off. “Do you know how many people die from horse-related accidents in real life?”
The humor fled from his expression. “No, but I feel like you’re going to tell me real fast.”
She tried to ignore the way his tight voice made her feel like she was doing something wrong. There was this tiny voice in her head telling her to drop this. Drop it now before it became a fight and she lost what she was so happy to have.
That tiny voice was right. This—whatever it was—was too new. She couldn’t become the crazy lady who too quickly stomped out his dreams. Where would that put her? If he had gone after Dahlia, he would have had a support system.
Faye swallowed hard. She could do this. Taking a deep, measured breath, she let it out slowly and then nodded. “You’re right. Of course, you’re right. I wasn’t thinking.”
He gave her a funny look, closing the distance between them. His eyes delved into her as if they could read her soul, and it took every ounce of her strength to break that contact. He reached for her hand, rubbing the back of it with his calloused thumb. “Hey, what’s going on?”
She shook her head. “Nothing. I’m fine.”
“I didn’t ask if you were fine. I asked you to tell me what this is all about.”
She tugged her hand free of his grasp. Standing on her toes, she pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. “Sorry, I have to meet Eloise for a lunch date.”
“But you said we could—”
“Sorry. I just remembered. I don’t want her to think I bailed on her. I’ll call you, okay?” She turned, walking backward before she blew him a kiss. “See you tonight?”
“Yeah,” he murmured.
Faye hated seeing him looking so confused because she could also see the hurt behind his expression. She didn’t know if it was due to her outburst about the rodeo or that she ended up bailing on him. One thing was for certain. She needed to get her head on straight, so when she saw him again, he wouldn’t be able to corner her and demand that she tell him what it was all about.
Any excuse was better than the truth. How would she explain that him doing the rodeo terrified her? She could lose him just like she’d lost her mother. And then there was the issue of not discussing what they were to each other. How would he take that? Combine the two issues, and now this easy thing they’d found had become ten times more difficult.
20
Adam
It wasn’t lost on Adam that his relationship with Faye was a little… strange. His previous relationships had been a little different than what he had now. First of all, every girl he’d dated before wanted to define what was going on between them. They wanted to know if they were exclusive or if they were allowed to see other men.
He’d grown to expect that sort of thing, and that was fine.
Faye was different.
Not once had she asked him where he stood on their relationship. The only time they discussed it had been right before their first date.
