Here For You, page 18
Wil stared down at her hand. “Is it okay if I kiss you? I’ve been dying to since I got out of my truck.”
No further invitation needed, Lacey moved closer and grasped Wil’s nape to pull her down to her ready lips.
* * *
Though Pepper’s calm control and physical cues were becoming more familiar, Lacey missed Denver’s whirlwind of energy indicative of her hot Arabian blood when they approached the arena for a run around the barrels. Pepper barely pranced, but Lacey knew to hold on when she brought her to a stop. She felt Pepper gather under her like a coiled spring, then clapped her legs against the mare’s sides. They were a controlled missile, blasting into the arena with the first barrel in sight. Also trained in reining, Pepper responded quickly to leg pressure and the slightest touch of the reins against her neck.
They rounded the first barrel cleanly with a perfect trajectory to the second one. Whereas Denver’s turns and accelerations between barrels were one smooth run, Pepper’s turns were wider and slower, but were followed by powerful, warp-drive sprints to the next barrel or finish line.
They broke the timer’s beam before Lacey had barely drawn a handful of breaths. Her time flashed on the scoreboard.
Damn, this horse was good. But was it the horse or Wil’s training that made her that fast?
Wil met them at the chute. “Dang. You guys rocked that run.”
“Thirteen-point-eight-nine. That wraps up the barrel-racing with Lacey Bishop solidly in first place, a half second ahead of Brittney Abbott. Third place goes to Lisa Newman. We’ll have a twenty-minute break, and then saddle broncs are up.”
Lacey returned Wil’s grin. They’d won second in the team roping again, and that celebration, along with this moment of exultation, felt like the old chemistry that burned between them.
Even though apologies had healed their earlier rift on the surface, a few deep cracks in their trust had remained. Lacey could feel Wil cautiously measuring her words as if uncertain how Lacey would respond to a conversation or situation. And, honestly? Lacey was still unconsciously expecting to find out there was an alternate Wil under the charming woman who was courting her. Would her sweet Wil turn into a different person if they proceeded down this path to some type of commitment?
People often did that. Her father no doubt was a charming suitor until her mother became pregnant, before he changed into a jerk and disappeared. Good thing Wil couldn’t get her pregnant. Lacey chuckled at that thought, and Wil looked at her quizzically.
“What?” Wil asked as she rode Diamond alongside while Lacey cooled down Pepper.
“Nothing.” She looked at Wil. “Just happy.” And as Wil gazed at her with a soft smile and open affection, she pushed away her doubts for that moment and let herself be truly happy.
* * *
Though Diamond’s coat already gleamed under the stable building’s light, Wil continued to run the soft brush over his back. Her strokes were a calming therapy for both her and the horse, even though Diamond didn’t need to be calmed. He was nearly comatose, head lowered and bottom lip hanging in relaxation, from her gentle ministrations. The repetitive motion, however, had helped her think through a myriad of problems and situations since she was tall enough to reach the backs of the horses in the Double R’s barn.
Today, she was pondering her growing feelings for Lacey and, well, worrying she could disappear from her life in a blink. The thought nauseated her. Nothing other than the loan of Pepper was keeping Lacey on the rodeo circuit. Would their blossoming romance be enough to keep her in Wil’s life if something happened to that arrangement? The uncertainty nagged at her. Lacey’s past experience with relationships—her father, her mother, and the other women on the rodeo circuit—made her a flight risk. Wil had so much other stress in her life, was she willing to gamble with her heart in this tenuous situation? Trouble was, she was already irrevocably hooked. Despite her mental machinations, she smiled to herself at the memory of Lacey shining with excitement over her successful runs with Pepper. She lived for the moments that Lacey looked into her eyes with lust and affection. Yeah. She was hooked.
“Ms. Rivers, isn’t it?”
Wil turned to find an unwelcome visitor standing in the doorway of Diamond’s stall. “Yes.” She stilled her brush but kept a hand on the stallion’s withers. “And you’re from Sierra Canyon Ranch, if I remember correctly.”
“Judson Chandler.”
She remembered who he was but nodded at his confirmation. His macho demeanor rubbed her wrong, but something more, something familiar disquieted her. “What can I do for you, Mr. Chandler?”
“I don’t see your roping partner around.”
“Were you looking for her?” She didn’t think it was any of his business that Lacey had gone to pick up dinner for both of them.
He eyed her for a second. “No, but I am still looking for a new roping horse. The one that was injured in Abilene is done on the circuit. My boss is interested in that stallion you have there. What’s his asking price?”
“More than you want to pay for a roping horse. I brought him here mostly to get him used to the noise of a rodeo. He’s also trained for reining and left ungelded because—as you can obviously see—the Two Eyed Jack bloodline is strong in him. My father plans to campaign him at a few reining competitions before setting a price, but it will be well into five figures.”
“Sierra Canyon is always looking for good investments. You tell your father to give my boss a call.”
Wil stepped away from Diamond Jack and straightened to her full height to look the man directly in the face. “You need to understand a few things, Mr. Chandler. One, my father and I are fifty-fifty partners in the Double R. We make our decisions together. Two, I spoke with him about what you tried to pull in Abilene with Buckeye. We agreed that neither of us is comfortable doing business with you.” She didn’t think it was necessary to tell him she hadn’t told her father how Judson had spoken down to her before. She didn’t need Ray to fight her battles for her or to have to bail her father out of jail.
“Now, hold on. I was just doing what any savvy businessman would do.”
She interrupted his interruption. “Third, the entire rodeo circuit is aware of Sierra Canyon’s injury rate. My father and I will not sell our highly trained horses to any organization that disregards the health and care of its stock.”
He stepped forward, placing his face inches from hers, and sneered. “Don’t you turn your nose up at me, you pussy-sniffing pervert. Yeah. I know all about you, so you and your high-and-mighty father might want to consider whether you want the rest of the rodeo circuit to know who you munch on in that camper at night.”
Wil blinked, his threat blindsiding her. Then her shock turned to seething. She poked him in his chest as she spoke. “My sexual orientation has no bearing on Double R business or our success.”
He pushed her finger away. “We’ll see about that, dyke. Folks might not care about the trash you’re hitting now, but Mac Abbott might have something to say when word gets around about you and his daughter.”
Wil saw red and moved to hit him, but he caught her forearm in time to hold off the blow.
“Careful,” he said. “You wouldn’t want to damage the father of your current slut.”
Shock immobilized her as she stared at his features. So that’s why he seemed familiar.
* * *
Lacey parked her truck and gathered the bags of take-out food for her and Wil’s dinner. She opened the driver’s side door and hopped out, only to find herself face to face with Brittney. A very angry Brittney.
“You better reel in your white-trash family, bitch, before my daddy crushes your slimy cockroach of a father.”
Father? Food bags in her hands and the truck at her back, Lacey was practically helpless to fend off the furious woman. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. My sperm donor took off before I was born. I’ve never even seen a picture of him, so I wouldn’t know him if I bumped into him.”
“Well, that Judson Chandler guy says he’s your father, and he’s drunk at the Watering Hole right now and gossiping about Wil Rivers’s conquests—especially me!”
“Hold on.” Lacey put the food back onto the truck’s bench seat. This had to be a mistake or someone’s idea of a joke. Because her father and mother weren’t married, she had her mother’s last name, and her mother had only ever referred to her father as the big turd. “Who is Judson Chandler?”
“Some homophobic old bigot who looks suspiciously like you.”
Lacey put her hands on her hips. “Are you saying I look like an old man?”
Brittney snorted. “You do act like a grumpy old man, but I meant like kids resemble their parents.”
Lacey let the “grumpy” remark pass because she was trying to remember everything, anything her mother had mentioned about her birth father. This didn’t make sense.
“He says he’s in charge of a group of riders from Sierra Canyon Ranch,” Brittney said.
Lacey shook her head. “I’ve heard of that ranch, but isn’t that out of New Mexico? I don’t know anybody from there.”
“He apparently knows everything about you and Wil.” Brittney pointed at Lacey. “And I’m figuring you must have told him about me and Wil. I’m getting engaged to Bart Roberts right after the national finals and don’t need that white trash spreading stories about me being with Wil.”
It was Lacey’s turn to snort. “Haven’t you spread enough of those stories yourself? Every time I turn around, you’re hound-dogging after her.”
Brittney looked smug. “I assure you that Wil Rivers is no angel. I have plenty of other options, so I wouldn’t be keeping the door open if she wasn’t popping back in for another drink of this water every now and then.” She pointed to herself.
“Liar.”
Brittney tapped a few things on her phone, then held it up for Lacey to see. Wil appeared in the foreground of the photo, lying on her side with one shoulder bare above the sheet tucked under her chin. Spooning behind her was an obviously naked Brittney, grinning at the camera as she shot the selfie. “Note the time stamp.”
Lacey felt sick. “That’s a doctored photo. Wil and I FaceTimed every night.”
“Every night?” Brittney put her hand to her cheek, her mouth forming an O in an overly dramatic expression of surprise. “She used the migraine story.” She nodded. “That’s her go-to.”
“I don’t believe you. Wil wouldn’t do that.”
“How long have you known her?” Brittney was smug before her expression turned into a scowl. “Doesn’t matter. You need to go to the Watering Hole and shut up that old man of yours. My daddy and Bart know I’m a healthy, sexual woman, but they won’t tolerate some yahoo smearing my reputation around the rodeo circuit. If your daddy keeps spreading stories about me and Wil, my daddy might have to find somewhere other than the Double R to buy his horses.”
“That guy is not related to me.” Lacey didn’t know what else to say. Her mind was running in a dizzying loop between the photo Brittney had shown her and her insistence that this drunk at the Watering Hole was her long-absent father. “So, you can just get the fuck out of my face and leave Wil alone.”
“You should leave Wil alone before your trashy family bankrupts her business.”
“What Wil and I do doesn’t concern you.” Lacey grabbed the take-out bags from the truck again and stepped around her. All she wanted to do was make it to her trailer and shut herself inside.
Brittney wasn’t giving up. “No matter what you think of me, I do care about Wil. She has worked her ass off to keep that ranch afloat after her mother died and her father got so sick. If that Chandler drunk starts hurting their business, who do you think she’ll choose—you or the Double R?” She glared at Lacey. “Her mother is buried on that ranch.”
Lacey pushed past her, ripped the camper door open, then went inside and slammed it behind her.
* * *
“Hey, Dad. Did you see my text? Second in team roping and first in barrels. Brittney clocked a personal best time on Dash, but still second to Pepper.”
“So, Pepper’s turning in good times?”
“Thirteen-point-eight-nine.”
“Whew. That’s fast.”
“I already got an offer on Diamond, but I turned it down.” Her ear to her phone, Wil put her manure fork away, double-checked that the stalls on their three horses were properly latched, and walked toward the building exit.
“Not a good offer?” Ray asked.
“It was that Chandler guy again, still looking to pick up a new roping horse. I told him Diamond was primarily a reining horse and would go for a lot more, but we never talked money since we’re not going to sell to that ranch anyway.”
Her dad paused, a long second of silence hanging between them. “Look, kiddo. I know you were counting on letting Lacey take Pepper to the national finals, but we have a very good offer for her we shouldn’t turn down.”
Wil’s heart dropped. She stopped and leaned against the doorway, the building illuminated behind her and darkness gathering outside before her. “How good is it? If Lacey places well in Vegas, we could ask even more. Tell the buyer Pepper’s not available for sale until after the finals.”
“Can’t do that, Wil. He’s our biggest client.”
“Mac Abbott? He said he wouldn’t buy Brittney another horse.”
“Apparently, she went over his head to her grandmother, his mother-in-law. Mac built his oil empire up from one well, but the grandmother’s family money got him started. She doesn’t interfere much, but when she does say jump, Mac still asks how high.”
“Brittney’s doing this just to get Lacey out of her way.”
“Doesn’t matter, Wil. I’m sure Lacey will understand that business is business. A couple of times I had to make decisions that didn’t set right with your mother, but she knew it was what we had to do.”
“The barrel horses are my deals to make. I trained them.” She’d never challenged her father on a business deal, but, damn, she’d promised Pepper to Lacey through the national finals.
“That’s why I called. I’m texting you Mac’s number. The deal is yours to wrap up.”
“I’ll call Mac now.”
“You need to know something else,” Ray said.
Wil took a deep breath to brace herself. This day had started out so good with Lacey’s win. How could it be ending so wrong? “What is it?”
“The estimates on the metal barn you want to build came in. The lowest bid is forty thousand more than the insurance on the old barn.”
“I thought the base price was forty thousand.”
“Apparently, the price they advertise is just a bare hull of a building…no doors, ventilation, plumbing, or wiring, and the foundation, taxes, and permit fees are extra.”
“Maybe we can rent a warehouse somewhere to store hay until we can get a new wood barn built.” Her father’s silence was his rebuke. Crap. Paying rent would be throwing away money, and the current price of wood might end up costing as much as a safer metal barn.
Ray finally spoke. “I’m not going to tell you what to do, Wil. Talk to Mac, and then make your decision. I’m confident you’ll make the right one because this is your future we’re investing in.”
“I know, Dad. I’ll let you know something after I talk to Mr. Abbott.” Wil ended the call. Her decisions now also could secure or endanger her father’s retirement. Ray’s text message came through, and she clicked on the number he sent. Mac answered on the second ring.
“Mr. Abbott, this is Wil Rivers.”
“Hi, Wil. I was expecting your call.”
“Dad says you want to make an offer on Red Pepper.”
“The women folk have ganged up on me, and Pepper’s win over Dash today sealed the deal.”
“With her bloodlines and breeding potential, I would have asked thirty thousand when you were at the ranch to buy Smarty. But since then, she’s proved she has the potential to beat any barrel horse in the state…maybe any that show up for the National Finals Rodeo. That’s doubled her price to sixty thousand.”
“That’s pretty steep for a barrel horse who hasn’t won any major rodeos.”
“I’ll be happy to guarantee sixty thousand if you’ll wait until after the national finals just because you’ve been a great client for the Double R. I’ve got a rider who’s doing great on her, and I want to see if they can compete on a national level.”
“Seventy thousand is my last offer, and for that price, I want you to haul the horse to Big Spring and help Brittney settle in on her. That’s money in your pocket now, and it seems this horse might also give you the best chance of cashing in on that bonus I promised if Brittney places in the money at the national finals.”
Wil closed her eyes. That price would pay for the new metal barn and help her start building a financial buffer for the ranch in the event of another disaster like the unexpected pandemic. “Sixty thousand and sign Dash back over to me, and then you’ve got a deal, Mr. Abbott.”
“I paid a lot more than ten thousand when I bought that horse from you.”
“He was the best horse I had when you made that purchase. Now I have a better horse. Your daughter wants to win races, not place behind a better horse. And since he’s gelded, he has no value as breeding stock.”
“You drive a tough bargain, but I’m ready to get these women off my back. You’ve got a deal.”
“Good. You can transfer the money Monday.”
“No need. I’m at the hotel having dinner with Brittney. I’ve got to go, but you can come over and pick up a check from her.”
“I’ll be there in a few minutes, and we can settle on when she wants Pepper delivered to Big Spring next week.”
* * *
