LITMIR.BIZ

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avoided looking at her injury. If she needed another surgery to repair the damage her run at freedom caused, she might actually cry. She never cried. She was tough. It was just mind over matter.

      Adrian used the warm cloth to wipe the mud away. His touch surprisingly gentle. He and his twin brother had been a few grades behind her. Everyone joked that her sisters, identical twins, should date the identical twin boys. She remembered him being charming and a favorite with teachers and students. Known as the wild twin, he was the next big thing in the bull-riding world.

      At a young age, he had already won two high school state titles and everyone knew when he turned eighteen he would take the PBR by storm.

      “How did you go from superstar bull rider to a cowhand for Childress?”

      “I haven’t been on a bull since I was seventeen. God had better things in store for me.”

      “What happened? From what I remember, you were a natural. I saw you ride several times. Once, we drove down to San Antonio to watch you.” The blood rushed at the memory of watching him ride, one hand in the air as the massive bundle of muscles, horns and hooves went into a spin. “It was amazing. The bull was huge and mean. Even the way you jumped off stuck in my brain. I think you were sixteen. Why did you stop? Were you hurt?”

      He looked at her face. The gold flecks in his dark eyes flashed, making him look younger. “You drove to San Antonio to watch me ride?”

      She nodded. “A group of us.”

      With a grin, he went back to work on her leg. He gave a half laugh. “Being hurt is part of the game. What stopped me from riding was my daughter.”

      “What? You said you stopped at seventeen.” There was no way she had heard him right.

      He sighed and finally looked up from working on her knee. “Not my finest moment, but I can’t regret it. I’m surprised you hadn’t heard the gossip. I’m pretty sure the whole Southwest knew about my fall from grace. I was the example worried mamas used to warn their kids that might stray.” He broke eye contact and went back to her injury. “Mia was born the end of my junior year. My mom said if I was serious about raising my daughter she’d help me, but I had to leave the rodeo.”

      Maybe if her mom had been alive, things would have been different for her own senior year. She thought back to the girls at their school. “Is her mother a local or did you meet her at a show?”

      “Do you remember Charlotte Walker?”

      “Yeah. She was new in town, and...anyway. So you gave up your bull riding to get married and raise a family?”

      A noise that might be described as a laugh sounded from his throat, but it lacked any humor. “No. Never got married. Being a mother was not in Charlotte’s plans. She wanted to give Mia up for adoption. She left us and went on with her life as if Mia never happened.”

      Nikki fought the instinct to defend the teen mother, but she knew it wasn’t Charlotte she was protecting. It was her own ugly past. She never, ever thought about the son she’d walked away from. She couldn’t.

      Tommy hadn’t been willing to even acknowledge her in public. She bit the inside of her cheek hard and kept her gaze trained on Adrian’s hands. She couldn’t risk looking at him.

      Twisting the cloth, he dunked it back in the water. “But it worked out fine. I don’t have any regrets when it comes to my daughter.”

      He went on as if he hadn’t taken her to the darkest places she worked so hard to avoid and keep buried.

      “Mom always hated that I rode bulls. I think she was secretly happy to have that leverage over me. I got a job and finished high school.”

      Nikki didn’t know what to say. “Wow.” Okay, that was lame. “You went to work for Dub Childress?”

      “I only started working horses for him part-time about a couple of years ago. I thought Mia was old enough for me to be back in the arena. Not bulls, but with horses. I really missed that part. I volunteer with the youth rodeo and horse club.” A throaty laugh made her nerve endings tingle. “Can you believe I’m the 4-H dad? Life takes us to strange and wonderful places we never even knew we wanted. I don’t really miss the bulls.”

      She imagined he missed it more than he would ever admit. Did he say it to remind himself the way she had to remind herself she was tough and better off alone? After a few minutes of silence, he looked back up at her and grinned.

      “George and I have a construction company. We started doing odd jobs, but found we’re really good at restoring old homes. Next week we might actually start a job for your dad. Your sisters wanted to remodel the upstairs of the hardware store for some time now.” He stood. “But you probably knew that already. Everyone has different ideas, and your dad always said no to the project. He asked us to come by Monday and give him an estimate. He has a firm budget, so we aren’t sure what we’ll be able to do.” Taking the bowl to the sink, he dumped the dirty water and refilled it.

      “No, I didn’t.”

      He turned and leaned against the counter with his hands braced on the edge. He reminded her of one of her grandmother’s odd sayings. That man is a tall drink of water. She’d never understood what it meant until now.

      He turned back to the sink and rinsed the cloth. Finished, he started walking to her, an easygoing smile marking long dimples on his cheeks. Her pulse kicked up a notch. “I’m fine. Everything’s clean. You can go.”

      Thunder and lightning gave her sentence an exclamation mark.

      “Are you kicking me out into the storm?”

      She didn’t want to feel better because of his smile or that he was nice to her. If he knew the truth, it would all change. “The rain should let up soon. Why were you on the ranch anyway? My father gets nasty about people trespassing. At least he used to.”

      “Still does. Riding the fence, I found a section down. The storm hit while I was checking to see if any of our cattle had wandered over to your land.”

      He walked toward her and she narrowed her eyes. What was he going to do now? Whenever anyone was this nice to her, they wanted something. “You could wait on the porch or check on your horse. What about the fawn? Should we make sure she’s all right?”

      “You have twigs and mud tangled in your hair. Let me help you at least get the pieces of tree out of your scalp. What happened out there anyway?”

      “What do you know about hair?” She knew she sounded snarky, but the thought of him coming closer set her nerves on edge.

      He didn’t slow down. “I’m a single dad of a ten-year-old girl. You’d be amazed how much I know about hair.”

      Standing behind her, Adrian started pulling out random debris that she had collected on her downhill slide. Soft tugs on her scalp actually soothed her. So he was going to ignore her hints to leave. She closed her eyes. “You’re really good at this.”

      “A perk of having an active ten-year-old daughter. I know how to untangle the biggest mess without pulling out any hair.” He moved to the other side and his fingers started at the base of her neck. “Mia has long curly hair that’s incredibly thick. I try to keep it braided or at least in a rubber band. One time while we were shearing my dad’s angoras, I found her in the middle of a pen full of mama goats and their kids. They had nibbled her hair all the way up to her shoulders.”

      Even the steady rhythm of his voice lured her to relax and trust him. “Was she upset?”

      “No. She’s a great kid. She laughed and said she needed a haircut anyway.” His fingers ran through her strands one more time. “Sorry, I tend to talk about her too much.” Rich sounds of laughter danced across the forgotten family retreat. “She gets a little put out with me, but that’s my job, right? So how are we going to get you home? I don’t think you’re in any shape to ride a horse. Do you have a phone? Mine’s dead, and I don’t see a landline here. I’m sure

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