Reckless for Cowboy (8 page)

I shake my head no and kiss him. It’s weird. My inner cynic
still
hasn’t made an appearance today and I’m feeling a little less off balance. I like it.

We drive back to the ranch and I stare out the window, deep in thought. What if this is more than a dare, more than a date? What if this
is
real? I want to believe it. I really, really do. I keep thinking about what Sydney said, about telling Cooper how I feel. Maybe she’s right.

*~*~*

When we get back to the ranch it’s one o’clock. Cooper makes us sandwiches using the leftover bread and some summer salami. I’m famished and I share a second sandwich with him. Afterwards, he says, “Are you ready to ride.”

“Seriously?”

“You didn’t think I’d forget did you?”

“Yeah. I kind of did.”

Reluctantly, I follow him outside in the direction of the barns. I don’t know, I guess I was hoping we’d spend the last couple of hours in bed. I guess I kind of want to see if that was just a one off, or if Cooper can make me lose control again. In some ways, I feel like I’ve had sex for the very first time and I want to do it again. Desperately. Right now!

But he’s serious about the riding thing and he takes me to the stable and introduces me to Sugar. She’s a pretty, tan colored horse with big, beautiful eyes and the softest nose.

“She reminds me of you,” he says.

“What?”

“It’s a compliment.”

I’m not so sure. I’ve never been compared to a horse before.

We spend about thirty minutes in the corral. He explains how to find my balance and direct her with my knees and calves. He teaches me to sit deep to stop her instead of using the reins.

“Sugar’s one of the gentlest, best trained horses we’ve got. My three year-old niece rides her.”

“Your three year-old niece has probably been riding for
three
years.”

“Longer,” Cooper laughs. “Kelly was riding with Izzy in her belly right up until a month before she gave birth.”

Kelly. He told me about her that first night. She’s two years younger, married and lives in Lethbridge. I wonder what she would think of me being here with her brother. I wonder what she would think of me, period. The thought of meeting Cooper’s family makes me warm and dizzy….and sick to my stomach.

Before I feel like I’m ready, Coop saddles up his own horse, Billy. Our horses walk side by side and there are a couple of dogs trailing us as we slowly make our way around the barns and outbuildings.

“Relax,” he says.

“Easy for you to say.” I glance at him and I suddenly don’t feel like I’m on the back of a horse. I feel like I’m on some ride at the Stampede exhibition grounds, the kind that drops suddenly making you lose your stomach. There’s just something about seeing Cooper in his rightful setting. I mean, having him watch me from beneath the brim of his hat while sitting on a stool in a saloon is one thing. Seeing him on the back of an enormous, black animal all calm and cool? It’s unbearably sexy. I wish I had my phone with me to take a picture. He just looks so perfect, like a Stampede poster, the cowboy out on his ranch, etched by the elements, with the mountains in the background.

Like that, I’m moist and dewy where I straddle the horse.

Heaven help me, there is something seriously wrong with me.

There are a couple of men digging fence holes off in the distance and Cooper steers our horses in their direction. It quickly becomes apparent that I don’t need to do anything to guide Sugar—she’s going to follow Cooper wherever he goes.

God…maybe the horse and I do have a few things in common.

Coop introduces me to a red-faced, barrel-chested man named Fritz Helmig, the ranch manager. Apparently it was Fritz’s wife, Annie, who provided the fresh bread and stocked the fridge this morning. I can tell Fritz is curious about me by the way his eyes keep darting my way. I can also tell that he could talk Cooper’s ear off. After about five minutes of non-stop ranch talk—most of which sounds like a foreign language to me—Cooper promises to come back right after Stampede and work out some of the issues Fritz is concerned about.

Turning, Cooper gives his horse a nudge and the big animal starts to jog a little. Without any help from me, Sugar follows, bouncing me around like a kernel of corn on a hot griddle.

“Sorry about that,” Cooper says when he hears my frantic ‘whoa’ as I try to slow Sugar down. He stops so Sugar can catch up. “How’s your butt?”

“Sore.” I blush. I don’t think the saddle is entirely to blame.

He smiles and then looks around at the rolling prairie to the east and then turns his head to the range of mountains to the west. “To be honest, the other reason I brought you here is that I haven’t been back in a while and I’ve been neglecting things.”

“Killing two birds with one stone?”

“Sort of. You don’t mind do you?”

I shake my head. “Where are your parents?”

“Arizona. They live there full time now. They wanted to sell, but I convinced them not to. They used to come back during the summers but since Dad’s heart attack, mom won’t let him. Too stressful.”

“So it’s just you here.”

“Yep.”

“It’s a big place and a lot of responsibility for a single guy.”

“Yep.” He shifts in his saddle as his horse moves in front of mine.

We follow a single track through a field of sweet-smelling clover. The air is alive with the buzz of insects and I feel myself start to relax. Finally.

 “Fritz is great,” he says over his shoulder. “He basically runs the place and I show up on occasion and tell him he’s doing a good job.”

“Don’t you want to be here?”

He takes his time answering. “I do. But then I’m here and…” he glances back at me and doesn’t finish his sentence. He stops his horse. His face is calm but his eyes are wide and his muscles are tense like he’s about to jump into action. “Brooke, don’t move.”

“What? Why?”

“Sugar must have stepped on a hive because you’ve got a swarm of bees following you.”

Chapter Seven

I
hear him clearly the first time, but I still ask again. “A swarm of what?”

“Bees.” He’s slowly reaching for Sugar’s bridle when I feel her twitch beneath me.

Then all hell breaks loose. She jumps. I didn’t know horses could jump. I mean I know they can buck, and leap, but four hooves off the ground at once? Then she twists and turns like she’s chasing her tail.

Then she runs.

With all her jumping and twisting, I’ve lost the reins so I hold onto the saddle horn. Wind whips hair into my eyes. I’m blind and terrified and have forgotten everything Cooper taught me about how to stop a horse without using the reins. There was something about sitting deep but I can’t even keep my butt on the saddle, let alone sit deep.

Just when I think she’s going to gallop on forever, she slows down. That’s when the bucking starts. I’m both terrified of staying on and terrified of falling off. The jolting pain lances through me from the soles of my feet to the crowns of my teeth. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a black blur. The next thing I know, strong arms are wrapped around me and I’m falling, or slipping or something. I land on something soft…and warm…that goes, ‘Oomph.’

I look down. It’s Cooper’s big body that broke my fall. He rolls me over protectively, keeping me out of the way of Sugar’s hooves until she makes a break down the field.

“Are you okay?” I ask, scrambling out from under him.

“Am I okay?” he stands. Grabbing my shoulders and looking me in the eye. “Are
you
?”

Out of the blue, my legs buckle and Coop catches me. He whistles and his horse jogs over to us. “Can you stand?”

“Yeah, I think so.” I try to stand but my legs are noodles. Then the pain hits. Everywhere. I can’t distinguish where it starts or where it ends.

“Shit,” he whispers under his breath. “I need you to try to mount. Do you think you can do that?”

“I don’t know.” I lean on him while I try to put my left foot into the stirrup. The horse is so much bigger than Sugar and the stirrup is so much higher. With Cooper’s help, I somehow manage but it takes another couple of tries to get my right leg over the saddle. Cooper mounts behind me. He’s sitting in the saddle and I’m basically in his lap. With one arm wrapped tight around me, he nudges the horse forward while I marvel at how much my attention is focused on how good Cooper feels beneath me despite the fact I hurt everywhere else.

We ride back to where Fritz and the others are working. Cooper tells him what happens and asks him to find and take care of Sugar. “I might need to take Brooke to the hospital.”

“No problem,” he says. “Leave Billy by the porch. I’ll take care of him too.”

“Thanks.”

“I don’t need to go to the hospital,” I say.

Cooper doesn’t respond. When we reach the porch, he slides off the horse and raises his arms to catch me about the waist as I ungracefully dismount.

“Honestly. I’m fine.”

He continues to ignore me as he carries me into the house and sets me on the big butcher-block island in the kitchen. Carefully, he removes one of my boots, like he’s afraid my foot might come off with it. Then he pulls off the other.

“Cooper. I’m fine.”

Starting with my ankles he runs his hands up one leg then the other, squeezing carefully as he goes. “Does this hurt?”

“No.”

When he gets to my right leg and squeezes my knee, I let out a yelp.

“Dammit,” he says beneath his breath. “You probably twisted your knee when I pulled you off. Let me see it.”

I try to pull my jean leg up but it won’t come up far enough.

“We’re going to have to take them off.”

My hands are shaking. I have no idea if it’s the result of falling off the horse or if it’s the fact that Cooper is helping me undo the fly of my jeans—again. He’s tugging on the waistband as I wriggle my hips to get them off my butt. Gingerly, he pulls them down my thighs until both knees are exposed. Just above my right kneecap is a large puffy spot that’s already turning purple. He probes the sides of my knee and it’s only when he gets to the bruise that I flinch.

“What’s your verdict Doctor Hays?” I ask, trying to lighten his somber mood.

He ignores me as he lightly twists my knee this way and that. When I don’t cry out in pain he sighs in relief. “This isn’t a sprain. It’s just a bruise. Maybe your knee hit the saddle horn when I pulled you off.”

“I’m sure it’s fine. Let me try standing again.”

“Not yet.” He comes around behind me and runs his hands up and down my neck, gently turning my head left and then right, tilting it forward and back. He follows the muscles from the base of my skull down my neck and into my shoulders, pressing as he goes. “Undo a few of the buttons on your shirt, will you?”

“Sheesh, Coop. If you want to get me naked, just ask.” I joke.

“Dammit, Brooke, this isn’t funny.”

I’m completely unprepared for the anger in his voice. I’m even less prepared for how his words make me feel.

Dammit Brooke, would you stop that?

Dammit Brooke, can’t you do anything right?

Goddammit Brooke, you’re a stupid cunt.

I shrug out from under his hands and slide off the counter. My legs support me this time. I brush past Cooper and rush out of the kitchen, down the hall to the spare bedroom, my vision blurred with tears. I start throwing stuff into my overnight bag. There’s not much stuff so it doesn’t take long. When I turn around, Cooper’s standing in the doorway.

“What are you doing?”

“Take me home.” I clutch my bag in front of me, like a shield. “Now.”

“No.”

There’s a sob building behind my breastbone and I have no intention of letting Cooper see me this way. “Fine. I’ll find my own way home.” I go to push him out of the way but he won’t budge. I drive my elbow into his abdomen. Apart from a sharp exhalation, he doesn’t move.

“You’re not going anywhere.”

“Get out of my way.” I pound on his chest. “Leave me alone.” The sobs come out of nowhere and suddenly he’s got me wrapped in his arms, holding me tight.

“Shh, Brooke. Everything’s okay.” He strokes my hair and carries me to the bed, setting me in his lap. “I’ve seen this too many times. People get bucked off and don’t know how injured they are. They go home and pass out in the tub or fall asleep and can’t wake up because they have a concussion. My friend Miles hit a fence. He didn’t know he broke his neck until he couldn’t get out of bed the next day.”

“Oh,” I manage to say through my sobs.

“You’re still in shock.”

He cradles me against him and I’m surprised by the uneven rise and fall of his chest.

“Dammit, Brooke, if anything happened to you…”

There’s that phrase again, said with a voice laden with emotion. “Please don’t say that. Please don’t swear at me.”

Cooper pulls back and looks at me. His eyes widen in realization of what he’s done. “Oh sweetheart. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to swear at you. You just scared me.”

“I did?”

“You have no idea.”

I sniffle and say, “I kind of scared myself.”

“No kidding.”

“That was pretty crazy, right?”

“Yep.”

“Did you see her bucking there at the end? She was really bucking.”

“She sure was.”

“I stayed on, not too bad, huh?”

“I was impressed.”

“Wow. I impressed Cooper Hays with my horsemanship skills, that’s something.”

“Horsemanship? No. Survival? Yes.”

I start laughing. It’s a giddy, nervous, relieved laugh and Cooper laughs with me. Then he’s kissing me like he’s never kissed me before. I think I must have really scared him because his lips are soft and tender and every few seconds there’s this little catch in his breathing.

“I’m okay, Coop. Really, I am,” I whisper.

I pull away and glance at my watch. “And…I hate to break up the party, but we really should head back. I need to get ready for work.”

“You’re not working tonight.”

I’m about to protest but he doesn’t give me the chance. “I mean it Brooke. You might have whiplash. Who knows? At the very least you’re shaken up and when the shock subsides, you’re going to be exhausted. Take the night off.”