Missy's Moment (The West Series Book 4) (5 page)

She glared at him. “I thought you were done with busting?”

He shook his head. “I’ll never be done with it.”

“We had hoped that you would be.” She nodded towards the horse. “I’ve seen you at your best and I can’t deny that you have a way with horses. But I’ve also seen you at your worst. You’ve some recovering to do yet.” She closed her eyes and then turned to him. “You’ve broken a lot of horses in your day. What do you honestly think?” She nodded to the horse that was bucking around the small corral.

He’d seen the fire in its eyes and felt it quiver under him and knew what the horse wanted. It had too much spirit to become someone’s ride. “He’s meant for busting. We could break him. It would take some doing”—he looked at Alex again—“but he was meant to be wild.”

She sighed and he saw her shoulders hunch a little. “I had hoped…” She shook her head and he watched a tear escape her eyes. “You’ll be the first to ride him?” She rested her hand on his, her brown eyes pleading.

He smiled and nodded. “When we’re both ready.”

She was a wreck. She’d gone into Tyler and gotten her hair colored and had a manicure and pedicure to boot. It had been almost a full year since she’d splurged on herself. It would have been better had Holly or Haley been able to go with her, but Holly was busy with her bookstore and Haley with the twins. But both of her friends had promised to have a girls’ night soon.

She’d even stopped off at the mall and gotten some new clothes. Thanks to the pictures Holly had shown her, it was easy to pick out the colors and styles that looked great on her.

She stood looking at herself in the mirror, and while she thought she looked absolutely gorgeous, she felt like a wreck on the inside. She was so nervous, she didn’t think she could go through with the evening.

Someone knocked on her door and she turned to see Alex walk in with the baby on her hip.

“Don’t you look perfect.” She smiled and walked over to her. “That color blue goes perfectly with your eyes. Oh!” she exclaimed making the sleepy baby in her arms squirm, “look at those shoes.” She tilted her head and smiled. “I miss wearing shoes like that.” Her smile turned into a slight frown.

“Sounds like someone needs some mommy and daddy time. Maybe Aunt Melissa can babysit one night?” she said brushing a strand of blonde hair away from her niece’s eyes.

“I’d love some mommy and daddy time.” Alex smiled at her.

“Who gets mommy and daddy time?” Grant asked from the doorway as he walked over and took the baby from his wife and then planted a kiss on her chubby cheek.

“We do. Your sister is going to babysit sometime so we can hit the town.” Alex did a little dance. “I’ll get to wear sexy shoes again.”

He smiled. “I like your boots, but a date night would be great.” Then he turned to Melissa. “Wow, sis. Lookin’ good.”

She smiled. “Thanks.” Just then the doorbell rang and the butterflies jumped in her stomach. “Why am I so nervous?” she groaned.

Alex chuckled. “Because you’re going out with a West. We’ve been known to make a few hearts flutter.” She smiled and rushed to answer the door.

“Should I be worried?” Grant asked, shifting Laura. The baby was now completely asleep in her daddy’s arms.

“No. Of course not. It’s just a date.” She brushed her brother off, but she was worried herself.

It wasn’t as if she hadn’t dated before. She’d been in a long-term relationship during her first year at college. But compared to Reece, Bret had been a boy.

When she’d seen Reece standing across from her in nothing but his boxers, her mouth had watered. She’d never seen a man look so good in boxer briefs before. His thighs were thick and his dark skin was covered in a light dusting of dark hair. The scars that marred his skin weren’t bad, but noticeable. His green eyes had been something to see, and she’d been drawn in the second he’d opened them. She couldn’t explain it, but somehow they were familiar to her. Like a memory pushed to the back of her mind.

When she walked down the stairs with Grant behind her, she was shocked to see how handsome Reece looked in dress pants and a button-up shirt. His hair was darker than she’d first thought, possibly because last time she’d seen him he’d had a layer of dust covering him. It was brushed back away from his face, setting off the West green eyes. The fact that he looked just as good wearing torn jeans and a mangled shirt with a layer of dirt covering him as he did in dress pants and a starched shirt didn’t go unnoticed.

“Evening.” She watched his eyes heat when he noticed her on the stairs.

“Hi.” She smiled and felt like a teenager going on her first date.

“You look lovely.” He walked over to her and placed a soft kiss on her cheek. That’s when Grant cleared his throat.

“Evening, Grant.” He walked over and shook her brother’s hand. Grant shifted his daughter and easily took Reece’s hand.

“Evening. I heard you had some excitement with my wife’s horse the other day. I’ve been telling her since she got that horse that it wasn’t meant for riding.”

He smiled. “I think we got it all worked out.” He winked at Alexis.

“Reece has purchased Ralph from me. He’s going to ride him for busting.”

“You’re what?” Melissa said before she could stop herself. “Are you just plain stupid?”

Reece laughed. “Some days.” He took her hand and started walking towards the door. “Evening.” He dipped his head towards Grant and Alex and continued to walk with her out the front door.

“Well?” She pulled him to a stop just before his truck.

“Well, what?” he asked, taking a step closer to her.

“Are you really going to continue bronc busting?”

“Yes, ma’am, I am. I’ll get back to it as soon as my doctor and nurse clear me.” He smiled and ran his finger down her cheek. She tried to hide the shiver of excitement that ran through her. “You must have a death wish.” It came out as a whisper.

“Nope, just a powerful urge to be bucked off something.” He smiled and stepped back to open her door for her.

She glared at him as he helped her up into his truck. While he walked around the front, she tried to mentally switch gears. It wouldn’t do any good to be angry at him all the way through their first date.

“How’s the leg?” she asked as he got behind the wheel.

“Pretty good. I changed the bandage the other day without passing out.” He smiled over at her.

“That’s always good. How long have you fought with vasovagal episodes?”

“Vaso…what?”

“Fainting at the sight of blood?” She smiled.

“Oh, since I was a kid, I guess. My brother got thrown off a buck once, skinned his back up pretty good. Since our pa wasn’t too keen on fixing us up, I had to do it. I remember standing over him with a washcloth in one hand and medicine in the other. Next thing I knew, Ryan was kicking me in my ribs and yelling at me. I never lived it down.” He shook his head and smiled as he drove out of town.

“You two must have been close.”

“Yeah,” he shrugged. “I guess.”

“Alex told me that no one has heard from him in a few years. It must be hard being away from him for so long.”

“I guess.” He glanced over at her. “What was it like going to school in Houston?”

It was her turn to shrug her shoulders and glance out the window. “It had its ups and downs. I interned at Children’s for a semester.” She closed her eyes and remembered some of the better moments she’d had. She chose to think about those rather than the harder times, the times she had to say goodbye to children so small, so helpless.

“I don’t know how you all do it.” He shook his head. “Staying calm as someone’s bleeding out.”

“I guess it’s the same way you can square off with a very angry thousand-pound beast.”

He shrugged. “I guess so.”

During their drive into Tyler, there was never a lull in the conversation, and Reece enjoyed every minute of their time together. She made him laugh and think, which no other women he’d dated had been able to do.

He’d dated a lot during his travels. Most of the women had been buckle bunnies, and he had always enjoyed the pick of the prettiest ones. But he hadn’t wanted to spend time with any of them the way he did with Melissa.

He listened to her talk about her experiences at the hospitals in Houston and about things she’d done as a child. When she asked him questions, he tried to avoid giving up too much information, since there wasn’t anything really exciting about his life. But when he started to talk about his time at the rodeo, she leaned forward, her plate of food completely forgotten as she listened to every word.

“That’s how I ended up with the pins in my foot.”

She shook her head at him. “What did you do with the horse?”

He laughed. “A year later I got right back on him and rode him across the field then sold him immediately to the man down the street.”

She nodded her head. “Good move.”

“What about you? Do you ride?”

She shrugged her shoulders then picked up her glass of wine and took a sip. “I’ve ridden, but I’m not very good at it.”

He leaned back in his chair and looked at her. “I doubt that. You have grace about you. I’d bet you’d be good in the saddle.” Her face turned a light shade of pink and she smiled.

“My brother is the one that likes all the animals.”

“What do you say I take you riding next week? That is, after I clear it with my nurse.”

He was dying to see her in tight jeans and boots, bouncing up and down in a saddle.

“Well…”

“You’re bound to have a day off from work.”

She nodded. “Oh, yes, of course. Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays are all mine. At least most of the time.” She smiled.

“Good. Then it’s settled. What do you say to a picnic next Friday?”

She thought about it for a moment and then nodded her head.

The drive back to Fairplay was a quiet one. Not the scary silent type where he felt like there should be something said, but instead a peaceful one where nothing needed to be said. He enjoyed the rolling hills as he took the curve towards town.

“I talked to a realtor the other day about finding a place,” he said out of the blue after seeing a for-sale sign for some land.

“Oh?” She sighed and looked out the window. “I’ve been putting off moving out of my brother’s place since I got here. What kind of place are you looking for?”

“Something with some land. I want to continue breaking horses. I’ve been doing it since I was twelve.”

“Twelve?” She glanced over at him.

“Yeah. My father thought that we should start earning our keep early on.” He wanted to change the subject quickly, so he asked, “What kind of place are you looking for?”

“Just an apartment. There are a few places in town, but so far I haven’t found anything I like.”

“I saw a sign at the big white house right inside of town.”

“The Nolan place?” She squinted. “Yeah, I guess they have an apartment above their garage.”

“That’s the Nolan place?” He remembered how Mrs. Nolan had shot Melissa’s brother and kidnapped his cousin Alex.

“Yeah, but Patty is still locked up. Roy used to be the mayor. Maybe I’ll stop by and take a look at the place.”

“Really?” He glanced over at her. “You’d rent a place from the man whose wife almost killed your brother?”