The Cowboy's Saving Grace, an erotic western novella (Taming the Cowboy) (11 page)

"Right now he's at Luke's place in Texas."

"Is that your home base?"

"For now." He squeezed conditioner into his hand, the bottle making a rude sound that echoed in the small bathroom. "Thinking about changing that to Vegas, though."

"Unfortunately, I don't have a stable handy." She closed her eyes in pleasure as he worked the conditioner into her hair. "Mm, maybe if this rodeo thing doesn't work out, you can work in a salon."

"A minute ago you were complaining I pulled your hair."

"I have no recollection of that." She rested her head against his shoulder, her back to his chest, and felt him catch his breath.

"Can't." His voice was gruff against her ear. "Noah."

"Mm-hm." He had a point, but this felt so right, so right.

"Grace."

"Hmm?"

"Would you have a problem with me making my home base in Vegas?"

She turned in his arms, curled her hand around the back of his neck and looked into his eyes. "No problem at all."

***

Liam rolled his shoulder, then rolled it again as he waited for the bronc event to start. He was riding first today. Damn, he hated riding first. He liked to watch the other riders, liked to get into the rhythm before he mounted.

He glanced toward the stands, and saw Grace, her blonde hair in a messy ponytail, the best he could do, and Noah on her lap. If he won today, he'd win a big purse and gain some more sponsors, and buy a house. A house with a yard, in a decent neighborhood, with room enough for Teresa, since Grace didn't want to leave her. Maybe a dog. And between rodeos, he'd live there with Grace and his son, and maybe some rodeos she'd go with him, watch him, cheer him on.

Maybe he'd buy a couple of rings, too. A pretty diamond one, and a plain gold one. Maybe he'd take her to a chapel, or maybe she'd want a nice wedding. He didn't know.

“Delaney! You’re up.”

Liam exchanged a look with Luke, and stepped up on the rail to mount the bronc. With his injured shoulder, he wouldn’t be able to hold onto the rail, so he took the nylon rein in his left hand, letting Luke snap the helmet on his head. He hated the damned helmet, but he was a father now, and had the responsibility for a kid. He couldn’t go risk a brain injury. He slipped onto the saddle, tucked his boots deep into the stirrups. His stomach was jittery, something it hadn’t been in a long time. He looked up at his brother, then focused on the horse and nodded.

The chute sprang open and he scraped his feet forward, above the horse’s shoulders.  Good start. The horse, named Hummingbird, hit the ground with her front feet, hard, but he didn’t let her jar him. He brought his heels back along her withers as she leapt and twisted, wriggling beneath him like a worm on a hook. Each landing shot pain through the arm he held over his head, and he was losing his grip with his weaker left hand. Shit, and now he’d lost count in his head.

Hummingbird headed for the fence, and Liam dragged at the rein, but she was determined. His knee hit the rail, sending a jolt of pain up his leg, but he focused on moving his feet, on keeping them in the stirrups. He had to stay in the top eight to make the money he needed.

First, he needed to get the bronc away from the fence before she did some serious damage.

Suddenly, she twisted at the same time she hit with her front feet. He went over her head, the helmet ringing as it hit the metal fence. Automatically, he curled into a ball to protect himself, felt the brush of her hoof against his thigh, and prayed she wouldn’t come down on him.

Then he heard the buzzer go off. He dropped his head to the dirt and closed his eyes. That was going to knock his average on its ass.

He heard footsteps and pushed himself to a sitting position, using his left hand. Luke reached him first, but he waved off his brother’s concern, climbed to his knees and waved at the crowd, who cheered. He didn’t seek out Grace in the crowd, because, damn, his head hurt.

“You okay?” Luke grabbed his arm when he staggered.

“She rang my bell pretty good.”

“We’ll get the doc to look at you.” Luke signaled to someone and guided his brother through the gate.

Next thing he knew, he was sitting on a bench behind the chutes, near the holding pens, blinking up at Grace, who braced Noah on her hip.

“How’d you get back here so fast?” Liam asked.

Luke turned to look at her, then did a double take. “What the hell happened to you? He was the one who fell off a bronc.”

She loosened her ponytail to let her hair fall around her face, obscuring the injury near her eye. “We went on a date last night. Your brother sure knows how to show a girl a good time.”

Luke pivoted on his brother, towering over him. “You
hit
her?”

“No! Jesus, no!” Though looking at her scraped and bruised face, he could see where someone might get that idea. “No, I got in a fight and she came to my rescue.”

“You should see the other guy,” she drawled, and shifted Noah higher on her hip. “Liam, are you all right?”

“You shouldn’t be carrying him,” he said. “I’m good. I’m good. Just pissed at myself.” He caught the exchanged look between Luke and Grace. “What? Am I talking funny?”

“You always talk funny,” Luke retorted. “Here’s the doc.”

Liam wished Grace wouldn’t watch him with such worry while the doctor examined him, taking off the cursed helmet with caution. Liam’s head seemed to throb even harder without the padding around it. He almost wanted it back on, for it to hold his head together. He focused instead on Grace, whose posture showed him she was in pain.

“Luke, her arm’s hurt. Take Noah. He’s too heavy for her.”

Luke’s jaw dropped comically but he took a look at the bandage on Grace’s arm and scooped Noah out of her arms. Noah went stiff, and leaned as far as he could away from Luke. They stared at each other warily.

“Don’t you cry, kid,” Luke said when Noah pursed his lips. “I’m your uncle Luke.”

Grace stepped forward and put her hand on Noah’s back.“This is Daddy’s brother. You know, brothers like Martin and Chris?”

“Who are Martin and Chris?” snarled Liam as the doctor shone a light in his eyes.

She huffed a breath and folded her arms in front of her. “They’re on a kids’ show. They teach about animals. Chris is pretty cute, though.”

He deepened his snarl when she winked. “Smartass.”

“Daddy, that’s a bad word.”

Holy shit, he hadn’t thought about that, about watching his language around the kid. So far it hadn’t been an issue, but he was going to have to be careful. ”You’re right, little man. Sorry, Grace.”

She just grinned.

“Am I clear, Doc?”

“You can thank that helmet for that,” the doctor said, straightening.

“At least it’s good for something.” He pushed to his feet, still a little dizzy, and cupped his hand around the back of Grace’s head, pressing his forehead to hers. “Aren’t we a pair?” he asked, and kissed her.

She leaned into him, just for a moment, then looked into his eyes for a long minute. “I need to go, need to get to work.”

“Leave Noah here. We’ll take care of him.

Doubt flickered over her face as she looked from one brother to the other.

“Still don’t trust me?” he asked, testy.

“Not that. He’s a lot more work than you think, and he hasn’t had his nap. And I don’t have any of his toys or anything.”

“Grace. Let me do this.”

How hard could it be?

***

Grace unlocked her apartment door, dead on her feet, to find Liam slumped on Noah’s daybed, sound asleep, and Noah, in his pajamas, was wide awake in front of the TV, where a Bruce Willis movie was playing, the sound of gunfire and broken glass echoing in the small room. She closed the door and turned down the TV.

“Baby, what are you doing up?”

“I not sleepy.” He climbed to his feet to hug her neck when she bent down.

“Did you take a nap?”

“No.”

“Did you eat?”

The light was on in the kitchen and she straightened to wander in there. The fast-food and candy-wrappers were a dead giveaway. She knew why Noah wasn’t sleeping. To be fair, she hadn’t given Liam instructions about meals and bedtime, but he should know he couldn’t fall asleep when Noah was still awake. She strode back into the living room and stood over Liam, nudging him with her foot.

He woke slowly. “Hey. You’re home.”

“Introducing my son to bad habits?” She jabbed her thumb at the TV.

He looked past her and his eyes widened. “I swear, it was on a cartoon.”

“When you fell asleep.”

“I didn’t say it was a good cartoon.” He sat up and shifted his gaze to Noah at Grace’s side. “Dude, you were laying here with me. How are you still awake?”

“Could be the sugar and caffeine.” This time she pointed at the kitchen.

“Geez, you’re mad.” He rubbed both hands over her face.

“I guess I expected more common sense.”

“Sorry. I’m sorry. But no harm done, right? I mean, he’s awake, but he’s okay.”

She looked into his eyes, saw the exhaustion there, remembered he’d taken that fall, and she’d left him alone with her son for ten hours. “He’s okay.” She bent and picked him up. “Are you?”

“Yeah, I’m good.” But he rolled his shoulder and rested his hand on top of it. “You?”

“I survived.” But her arm ached and she could sleep about a week. “Thank you for watching him. I’m going to bring him to bed with me.” That meant she wouldn’t get as much sleep as she wanted, but at least he would settle down.

“You said I’m too big to sleep in your bed,” Noah said.

“I know, but I missed you so much.” She lifted him in her good arm and breathed deep. He smelled so good, so clean and sweet. And it had been a long time since she’d let him sleep in her bed.

“Me, too?” Liam asked.

She looked over her shoulder at Liam’s hopeful expression and she hesitated. Would it be weird? Married parents did it, and as long as Liam behaved...it might be nice.

“You, too.”

Moments later, she was snuggled up with her little boy in the middle of the bed, and the cowboy she loved on the other side. She was asleep within minutes.

***

The last day of the rodeo, and Liam hadn’t said what he was going to do next.

Grace knew she should prepare herself for him to leave, should prepare Noah, but part of her held out hope that he would stay. After all, they'd gone to see a lawyer, and were just waiting for the papers to be filed.

What worried her more than it should was the fact that he hadn't touched her in days. He was hurting, she knew that, though he denied it every time she asked. She didn't know if it was the fall that had hurt his shoulder, or the fight. All she knew was that his face was drawn with pain whenever he thought she wasn't looking. Or maybe it was worry. Maybe he didn't know how to tell her he'd changed his mind, that he didn't want the bother of a kid. She could deal with his rejection of her, eventually, but not of his son, not when he had made such a fuss about being in Noah's life.

She couldn't go see him ride tonight, because she had to work. Had to. Rent was coming due and Teresa was short because Christmas was coming and she wanted something nice for her daughter. It was easier for Grace to make extra money than for Teresa. All she had to do was show a little more boob.

She could go back to stripping, if it came to that. She had almost lost her post-baby tummy and the cream she'd used on her stretch marks had worked wonders. But she didn't want Noah's mommy to be a stripper. So she put on a flimsy bra and a tight t-shirt that showed a bit of belly over her shorts and went to work, wishing she could be at the rodeo instead.

***

The last night of the rodeo, and his rankings were slipping after the fall yesterday. He had to finish in the top eight slots to get any money, and right now he was number six. If he landed in the dirt, he was out of the money.

He'd gone shopping today, something new for him, and found the ring he wanted to give Grace. Simple but beautiful, just a diamond solitaire on a gold band. He thought she would like it. He hadn't told her of his plans, because he wanted to surprise her. He hoped the surprise would be a pleasant one.

And he wanted to ask her to find another job. That conversation wouldn’t be as fun.

But now, he needed to concentrate on keeping his ass in the saddle and winning the money so he could buy that ring. The next step was a house. He'd like a farm house like Luke's so he could keep his horse, but that was something he and Grace could work on together.

Butterflies fluttered below his Kevlar vest as he watched the barrel racing from the chutes. He didn't remember being so nervous about riding before, but he'd never had so much depending on his purse, either. Usually he spent it on something for himself, but he had to expand that now.

Luke and Kennedy approached then, and Luke clapped his brother on his shoulder. Pain flashed behind Liam's eyes, but he didn't let his brother see.

"Going to use your proper hand tonight?"

"I like the challenge."

"The challenge put you in the dirt, head-first," Luke pointed out.

No shit. "I'll be just fine."

"Is Grace here tonight?" Kennedy asked.

"Working."

"Good, then you can concentrate on keeping your ass planted, and not where she is," Luke said.

"You two going back to Texas tomorrow?" Liam diverted the conversation.

Luke wrapped his arm around Kennedy and pulled her close. "First Christmas in the house. Well, since it's been livable. Kennedy wants to hang lights on damn near everything, including the barn."

"It will look nice." She jabbed him with her elbow.

"And no one but us will see it. We're a million miles away from everyone."

"Just like you like it."

"And I've been up and down that damned ladder more than any human should be."

"Then I'll do it."

"Over my dead body."

Liam had let the conversation flow around him until the tone of his brother's voice changed. "Wait. Is there something going on here?"

Kennedy blushed and Luke squared his shoulders.