Home > Hope on the Range(12)

Hope on the Range(12)
Author: Cindi Madsen

   Almost as awkward as gathering all your courage to send a racy text to your best friend, only for him to completely ignore it.

   “How far should we go today, boss?” Miguel hollered in her direction. “Everyone’s gotten a breather, but I’m thinking we should stop at the stream for lunch.”

   “Sounds perfect.”

   A groan came from Eric. “I’m afraid to ask and sound like a kid on a road trip, but how much longer is that?”

   “About an hour,” she said, and Miguel was close enough to overhear and snort. In addition to Winston, Pops occasionally referred to Miguel as one of Tanya’s strays. The nineteen-year-old had come up through Turn Around Ranch. As soon as the kids turned eighteen, the Dawsons had to bid them farewell, or then they would have an “adult” with the “kids.”

   The rules of Miguel’s parole stated he needed a job, and since he had experience with livestock and the dude ranch needed more help, Tanya had hired him. Which led to a lecture from Pops on being too hasty and not checking with him first, but now both her parents adored him.

   Didn’t mean they’d ever rescinded their lecture.

   Admiration for Eric set in as he exhaled, lifted his reins, and set his chin.

   “I’m kidding,” Tanya said. “It’s only ten more minutes.”

   “Thank God.” A relieved breath whooshed out of him. “I was about to call up my buddy and forfeit our stupid bet.”

   Tanya opened her mouth to ask for details, but then her phone buzzed. She whipped it out of her pocket so fast it almost flew out of her hand, like a slippery fish hell-bent on returning to the creek. The edges of the blasted device dug into her hand as she clung on, and she tightened her grip even more when she saw Brady’s name on the screen.

   Brady: You’ll have to show it to me when I come over later this week.

   A squeal escaped, one that made a couple of the riders glance in Tanya’s direction. Diesel snuffled, conveying his dismay they still weren’t moving, and she clicked her tongue and urged him forward, only vaguely paying attention to the trail. Diesel knew it as well as she did.

   It worked! It worked! Tanya did a jig in her saddle, her excitement pumping as quickly as her heart. Unless…

   Fingers crossed this wasn’t one of those misunderstandings where she was the clueless girl who believed she’d done an amazing job flirting, only for Brady to show up ready to play Indiana Jones, like when they were little.

   Every time they’d found an ancient treasure—rusted tractor gears, a shoe that’d been lost for decades, and arrowheads—he got to make up the story of what they were and how the clues tied together. In her frustration, she’d pushed past her fear of snakes and caught one solely to wave it in Brady’s face. Then he’d said, “Cool, let me hold it,” and she’d had to remind him that Indiana Jones was afraid of snakes.

   Ooh, maybe there’s a let-me-hold-your-snake innuendo in there. Heat crawled up Tanya’s neck, and she decided she’d been bold enough for one day. But the next time she saw Brady in person, she’d study how he acted toward her and then judge if and when she should amp things up another level.

   Still, she clung to that glimmer of hope and vowed to spend the next couple of days devouring and highlighting the book that’d gotten her this far.

   * * *

   Harlow extended a coil of rope to Maddox, who stared at it like it was a snake that might bite.

   Given his puckered expression, she wouldn’t mind if the rope managed to grow fangs and follow through.

   Since the Dawsons had hired her to help, Harlow did her best to stifle her irritation with the judgmental jerk and put on her teacher hat. “Do you have any experience with rope?”

   Maddox’s features morphed into a suave expression that probably worked way too well on most females. “You mean tying girls to the bed on their request? Because then—”

   “Gag.”

   “I’ve got some experience with that, too,” he said, that stupid smirk still quirking his lips.

   Harlow brought out the hard glare, the one she’d used when boys at school thought it’d be funny to toss innuendos her way, as if she were too naive to understand them. The glower had been pretty successful at getting them to back away.

   Maddox didn’t exactly withdraw, but he did hold up his hands in surrender. “Just messing with you, trying to find any entertainment I can get.”

   “Well, I’m not here for your entertainment.” Until Harlow had said it aloud, she didn’t realize she’d quoted a P!nk song, and residual pride bolstered her. Just because she wasn’t going out with a guy every weekend or bragging about how older men always fell for her like it was her cross to bear, the way her ex roping partner did, didn’t mean she was a clueless pushover.

   With a sigh, Maddox took the rope from her. “We’re going to be spending a lot of time together, aren’t we?”

   “Gosh, I hope not. But it’ll probably be more than either one of us would like.”

   Two creases showed up between his dark eyebrows, as if he couldn’t imagine a world where a girl wouldn’t fall all over him. Harlow gripped the honda, fed her rope through, and flipped the loop, repeating the move until it was armpit height.

   Then she stepped closer to Maddox to show him she wasn’t affected by his hotness, and she sure as heck wasn’t scared of him. “Here, hold the rope like so…” She expected more pushback, but Maddox did as instructed. “This is called a honda.”

   “Does it help if I know a lot about the type of Hondas that have four wheels?” he asked, and a misguided flutter careened through her belly as he flashed her a smile that seemed more genuine than sarcastic.

   Focus, Harlow. No letting him distract you, because that’s what he’s really after. She showed him how to swing, calling attention to the way she twisted her wrist.

   One thing was for sure: this guy was gonna be trouble. Sure, it was the kind of trouble that’d be fun at first, but falling for his charms meant a painful fall on her butt later.

   On the bright side, a little verbal sparring might make training more fun. Lately, she’d lost a bit of her spark when it came to that. It wasn’t that she didn’t like barrel racing, but her true love was team roping.

   Without a partner, she no longer had the same drive she’d had earlier this summer.

   What was hardest about letting go of winning the team roping event and securing the All-Around Cowgirl title was that she’d poured everything into that goal. To the point she didn’t have a lot of friends or other activities to keep her busy. Because good or not—and she was dang good—couldn’t compensate for not having a partner.

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