Learning the Ropes (3 page)

You saw the look on his face. He’ll think you’re not worth his time.

She sighed as her mother came onto the porch. Alicia had already called her from the rodeo grounds to let her know Chris and David were coming to dinner. Of course, her mother was thrilled. Both of her parents adored Chris since meeting him. Who could blame them? Everyone loved Chris. He was one of those people who excelled at everything with minimal effort. His easygoing nature drew others to him like a magnet and he never seemed to lack people vying for his attention, especially women. Not that he ever turned them away. In all the years she’d known him, she couldn’t believe he’d never realized she had a crush on him, too. Maybe, like David, he didn’t think she was worth his time and attention.

Alicia unloaded her horses and turned them loose into the small pasture beside their home. Both geldings took off at a run, kicking their hooves into the air as she hung the halters on the hook beside the gate.

“Where’s Dad?” she called to her mother.

“He’s out in the mare barn, feeding.” Her mother looked toward the gate. “Where are Chris and his friend?”

“They’re loading up and will be here in a few minutes. Does Dad need my help?”

Her mother waved her off. “The boys can help him. I’m going to head over to the house and get dinner on the table for Mrs. Langdon. I’ll be back in a few minutes but can you take the lasagna out and put the garlic bread into the oven in ten minutes?”

“Sure, Mom.” Alicia headed into the house, plugging her phone into the charger on the counter. “Anything else you need me to do?” She took a bottle of water from the refrigerator.

“Nope, Dad will be in after he checks on the yearlings.”

Alicia sighed as she watched her mother walk down the pathway leading to the main house. She’d been the Langdons’ housekeeper and cook throughout her pregnancy while Alicia’s father ran the entire stable of champion cutting horses. For years, the Langdon family had been trying to get Alicia to work for them, showing their horses and training, but she couldn’t give up on rodeo and settle for the same life her parents had. The Langdons were wonderful people who had taken care of both of her parents over the many years in their employ but Alicia refused to quit rodeo until she reached the pinnacle—the National Finals Rodeo. She had to prove to herself and everyone else that she wasn’t just some poor kid the Langdons helped. Reaching her goal would also help her do the one thing she wanted most: help her father train his own horses instead of someone else’s. Watching her mother head over to the Langdons when she should be having dinner with her family made Alicia realize that nothing short of the Finals would be enough.

She sighed, rising from the chair as the buzzer sounded, and reached for the oven mitts her mother left on the counter. This year she was closer than ever to making the Finals. She might not win every rodeo but the second place purses were adding up. If her luck and her geldings continued to hold out, she’d place in the top ten this season and be in Las Vegas competing this December. The mere thought caused flutters of nervousness in her stomach.

Her parents didn’t have any idea what she was planning but she already had her eyes on a ranch on the outskirts of town. Nothing as large as the property the Langdons owned, but it was plenty of room for the three of them to build a house and enough space for her father to finally raise his own horses, the way he’d always talked about doing. Adding this season’s winnings to what she’d already saved over the past two years should give her enough for a nice down payment. But she didn’t want to get her parents’ hopes up until she put an offer on the place. She couldn’t bear to get their hopes up only to have it fall apart later.

D
AVID PARKED THE
truck behind Alicia’s trailer and looked around at the tiny house. “Not much to the place, huh?”

“We can’t all have parents who own cattle ranches or were world champions,” Chris pointed out, wondering if David realized he sounded like a snob.

His friend arched a brow at him in indignation. “I wasn’t criticizing, just stating a fact. Sensitive much?” David climbed from the driver’s seat and Chris followed.

Maybe he was being a bit oversensitive but he knew how Alicia hated being judged for her parents’ lack of money and he didn’t want to see David get off on the wrong foot from the start. Noah Kanani had come from Hawaii and worked hard to earn the respect of Bradley Langdon, one of the largest cutting horse breeders in the nation. Jessenia was one of the sweetest women he’d ever known and he’d thought of her like a second mother when he was younger. As much as he hated to see how hard she worked as both housekeeper and cook for the Langdon family, he could only imagine how it troubled Alicia.

“Hey,” Alicia called from the front porch. “You can either tie your horses to the trailer or turn them out in the pasture behind the house. We don’t have any broodmares out there right now.”

David glanced at Chris, letting him make the decision. “Pasture?”

“Might as well. You want me to do it and you can head inside?” Chris wagged his brows at his friend suggestively.

“Why don’t I handle the horses?” David muttered, opening the back of the trailer.

“Chicken,” Chris chuckled and shrugged. “Whatever. More food for me.” He hurried up the porch steps and followed Alicia into the house, immediately hit with a whiff of Italian spices and garlic. His stomach rumbled loudly and Alicia glanced at him over her shoulder, laughing.

“Dinner is just about ready, if you want to wash up in the bathroom at the end of the hall. Towels are in the bottom cabinet.”

“I remember,” he said, winking at her. “David should be in shortly. Does your dad need any help?”

She bent over and checked the bread in the oven. “No, Mom just left for the main house but she’ll be right back.” She shot him a sideways glance and the corner of his mouth curved up. “I think she’s pretty excited to see you.”

“I’ve missed your mom. I know I should stop by more often when I’m home. But you know how it is.” He shrugged by way of apology. “I’m on the road most of the time and when I do come back, Dad needs my help at the ranch. Time flies and I never realize it’s gone.”

“I know.”

Chris narrowed his eyes, wondering if she really did know. She’d never travelled as much as he and David did, staying close to her parents and helping them whenever she could. Even at that, she was still sitting pretty in the standings.

He watched her adjust the tray of bread in the oven, trying not to notice the rounded curve of her rear, although parts of him were making the task extremely difficult. She’d always been a pretty girl but she was his sister’s skinny best friend, smart enough to be a year ahead of him in school even though they were the same age. Back in high school he’d almost asked her to the prom but hadn’t been brave enough. When she told him she was going to a rodeo instead, he insisted on driving her and was there to celebrate her first professional win. In the end, he never did ask her out, for fear of jeopardizing their friendship. Instead, he’d forced himself to back off, admiring Alicia from a distance. He arched a brow. He didn’t remember her having these curves back then, or even at his sister’s wedding.

The front door slammed and Chris tore his gaze, and wandering thoughts, from Alicia’s backside, poking his head around the corner to see Jessenia come inside.

“Cristobel!” She hurried forward and enveloped him in a hug, squeezing him impressively for such a tiny woman.

“Jessie!” He laughed at the Spanish nickname she’d given him in high school, as he lifted her from the ground and swung her around once. He placed her back on the floor. “I’m sorry I haven’t been by sooner.”

She gave him a frown. “I should hope so. I don’t even know how long it’s been since I’ve seen you,” she scolded in her thick Spanish accent.

Chris tried to look sheepish when he heard the clomping of boots on the steps of the front porch. The door opened as Noah came inside, making sure not to track dirt into Jessie’s immaculate house. “I sure hope that cowboy putting horses in the back is with you, young man.”

Chris laughed and thrust out a hand to Alicia’s father. “He’s my roping partner. It’s good to see you again, sir.”

“Alicia, why don’t you go see if that young man outside needs anything else?” Jessie suggested.

Chris wondered if she wasn’t already having the same thoughts as he was about the pair and looked over at Alicia, leaning against the side of the doorway, watching their interaction.

“Sure, Mom.” Alicia sighed and pushed away from the wall, rolling her eyes as she moved past them to head outside.

“Don’t mind her,” Noah said as she closed the door. “She’s just mad about quitting rodeo.”

“I
CAN’T BELIEVE
I let him get me involved in this,” David muttered as he threw two flakes of hay to the geldings.

It wasn’t as if they didn’t have plenty they needed to work on. What they really should have done was head to Chris’s parents’ ranch to practice before their second go-round tomorrow. If they didn’t get some better times, there was no way they were going to stay in the top ten and get to Vegas. It pissed him off that Chris would rather spend precious practice time flirting with girls from his past, and trying to get him to do the same.

“You know, some people think talking to your horse is a sign of insanity.”

The quiet laughter at the pasture gate made him clench his jaw. She might be a great girl but he wasn’t looking to get involved with anyone nor did he have time for a relationship, contrary to what Chris seemed to think.

“Yeah, well, that tends to happen anyway when Chris Thomas is your roping partner.”

She leaned her arms over the fence, resting her chin on them. “He does have that effect on people,” she laughed. “Need some help?” She pushed herself from the fence and opened the gate.

“I’m about finished, unless you want to grab a can of grain from the trailer?”

“Sure,” she said, hurrying toward their trailer in front of the house.

David couldn’t help but notice the way her full lips curved into a pretty smile making her dark eyes light up or the slight sway of her hips as she left. She was exactly the type of girl he was attracted to, a girl-next-door with natural beauty, even with her hair pulled back and no makeup. Chris knew it, too, damn him. But what he didn’t realize was that it only made him more driven to focus on winning so he could earn enough money to be able to settle down and have the things he wanted in his future—a wife, kids, his own ranch—like his brother.

She returned with a coffee can of grain, shaking it. The horses jerked their heads up and whinnied their approval as she came near, drawing him out of his pointless daydreams, and she passed it to him over the fence.

“Nice looking boys,” she commented, jerking her chin toward the animals. “You two are doing pretty well in the standings, at least for now.”

David shrugged. “Not if I can’t keep Chris’s head in the game.”

She gave him an understanding smile. “You guys have been roping together for almost five years, right? You know he’ll manage to pull it out in the end. I have no idea how he always seems to do it but he does. I wish I had that talent.”

He caught her frown from the corner of his eye as he poured the grain over the flakes of hay and locked the pasture gate. “Let’s hope so,” David grumbled. “Personally, I’m tired of almost making it to the Finals. I want to be there this year and I’m not letting him lose focus.”

She cocked her head at him, as if she was trying to read his thoughts, and he wondered if he’d said more than he should’ve. He didn’t normally let his mouth get ahead of his brain and good sense but for some reason this woman had him acting out of character, admitting things he wouldn’t under normal circumstances.

“I mean . . .” He closed his mouth, wishing he’d just kept it shut from the beginning, and wondered again how she was able to get him to let his guard down so quickly.

“I know what you mean,” she cut him off. “It’s hard to come so close over and over only to be disappointed, especially when it’s not your fault.” She glanced up at the back of the house. “I’m hoping to make it to Vegas, too. Even if other people do have a different opinion as to where I should be.”

He stopped walking and stared at her, knowing there was far more she wasn’t saying. He arched a brow. “Maybe we have more in common than either of us thought.”

She smiled at him, and the sadness he’d seen in her eyes disappeared for a moment. “Maybe we do,” she agreed.

“So, tell me,” he began, looking around him at the various fenced pastures. “What’s up with this place?”

“Dad’s run the day to day operations for the Diamond Bar for the last twenty-five years and Mom works for them in the house. I guess you could say it’s turned into a family affair.” The frown was back, marring her brow. “They’re nice people and they’ve been good to us.”

“You’re sure it’s fine for the boys to be in the pasture?”

“What?” She glanced at the horses quietly eating. “Oh, they’re fine. It’s not like you guys are staying long. It’s just dinner.”

David felt a twinge of disappointment. She was different than he’d expected her to be. He’d assumed any woman Chris introduced him to would be shallow and, well, a floozy. Alicia wasn’t like that at all. He found himself interested in her and wanted to spend more time with her. He needed to stay focused, and keep Chris focused, but they obviously weren’t going to do any practicing tonight. Why not invite this pretty barrel racer to the dance tonight after all? If they weren’t going to work, maybe one night of fun with an attractive woman wouldn’t be such a horrible idea. If nothing else, it might get Chris to quit pestering him.

“T
HE PLACE LOOKS
great, Jessie. I like the new counters in the kitchen,” Chris said, reaching for another piece of garlic bread, wiping the excess butter from his hands on the paper towel beside his plate. “Did you have it professionally done?”

“No, I did it myself.” Alicia shook her head as her mother blushed slightly at his compliment. “But, thank you.”

Alicia caught Chris’s eye. “I think you have a little something right there.” She rubbed at the end of her nose. David choked back a laugh, covering his mouth with his napkin. Even her father laughed at the joke.