The Cowgirl Ropes a Billionaire (21 page)

“No,” Evan said. He stepped in front of Bella in a protective gesture which she appreciated given the crazy look in Madelyn’s eyes.

“Ellis! Get me Legal…”

“I’m not bailing on my contract; I’m just saying those bridges are impossible to cross.”

“Baloney!” Madelyn said. She whirled on her assistant. “Ellis, cross that bridge.”

Bella looked to Ellis with the rest of them, assured the assistant would do just that. He always jumped when Madelyn barked an order. But instead, he took a deep breath and said, “He’s right, Madelyn. We both saw what happened; the bridges aren’t stable enough.”

Madelyn’s face grew paler and the scarlet of her cheeks intensified. “Cross. That. Bridge.” She punctuated each word with a stab of her finger.

The rest of them held their breath, mesmerized by the director’s rising tones. Ellis stood his ground, his dark eyes inscrutable, before he extended his hand toward her. “I’ll cross it when you cross it.”

Bella blinked. She didn’t think the assistant had it in him. But as he and Madelyn glared at each other, a thought insinuated itself into her mind. There was more going on here than met the eye. This wasn’t just a contest of wills between boss and underling; something else sparked between them.

Lust.

Were Ellis and Madelyn a couple? Bella raised an eyebrow at the thought. Or…did Ellis want to be a couple, but Madelyn remained unconvinced?

Ellis was daring Madelyn; daring her to climb down off her director’s high horse and roll in the muck with the rest of them. Bella couldn’t believe he thought she’d do it.

But to her surprise—and everyone else’s, judging from the collective intake of breath—Madelyn took his hand and allowed him to lead her back around the pond. Bella trailed after them, tugged as if by an invisible cord.

She had to see this.

Evan followed close behind her, and they stood together as director and assistant took their respective spots at the beginning of each bridge.

“Not stable enough, my ass,” Madelyn hissed at Ellis.

“We’ll see, won’t we?” He set a foot on his span and sent a ripple of motion down the strip of metal.

“We certainly will.” Madelyn set a foot on her own bridge. “Ready. Set. Go.”

Bella didn’t know what she expected to happen, but the sight of Madelyn and Ellis lurching out over the slippery, wobbling metal spans, then simultaneously losing balance and pitching headlong into the pond brought her hand to her mouth to cover a shriek of laughter. She dashed to the side of the pond, ready to wade in and help them back out of the water.

But when Madelyn broke the surface and found her footing, she didn’t head for the bank. Instead, she launched herself at Ellis and bowled him over as he stood up, so both of them sunk beneath the water again.

“What the hell?” Evan said from behind Bella.

They came up locked together this time, Madelyn pounding her fists into Ellis’s chest. “We’re going to lose the show. I’ll be back on daytime television. I can’t do that!”

“It’ll be all right. It’s going to be all right, Maddie,” Ellis said, taking what she dished out.

“Shit,” Nita said. Beside her, Chris and Andrew stood with slack jaws, their cameras forgotten.

“I think we should give those two a little privacy,” Evan said slowly, taking Bella’s hand. She allowed him to tug her back the way they’d come just minutes before, still looking over her shoulder as Ellis pulled the director to him, wrapped his arms around her, and kissed the top of her head.

Footsteps behind them told her the camera crews dutifully trailed along behind.

“That…was a little weird,” Bella said, finally finding her voice.

“Sounds like this show is really in trouble,” Evan said.

“What kind of trouble? I thought it was a popular show.” She sat down heavily when they reached the far bank, her clothes still sopping wet and uncomfortable.

“Money trouble. They’ve had to pay out too many times recently, I guess.”

“Oh.” Bella stopped twisting the fabric of her shirt to wring out the water. “So if I win…”

“If you win, the producers might give Madelyn the ax.”

She thought back to the GPS unit and all the time she’d spent wandering around the woods. Had that been Madelyn’s doing? Or was she really just lousy with directions?

“Can I win?”

He seemed to understand exactly what she meant. “I think so.”

“You think so.”

He shrugged.

Back across the pond, Ellis led a sopping Madelyn out of the water and toward the helicopter. Soon its rotors whipped up a whirlwind of dust and water as it lifted off.

“Now what?” Bella asked.

Chris answered. “On to the next challenge.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The rest of the morning’s hike was far from comfortable. Her wet clothing chafed her thighs and arms as she walked. Water oozed out of her shoes with every step. By noontime her shirt, cami, and bra were dry, but her pants remained damp and she held no hope that her feet would ever be dry again.

Still, when they paused to eat, she untied her shoes and stuffed half of her dry outer shirt into each one, hoping it would draw some of the water out of them. She peeled off her socks and draped them from nearby branches, then looked down at her pants.

“Go ahead—take ‘em off,” Evan said with a grin. “We won’t mind.”

Pursing her lips, she decided to keep them on. She sat down, stuck out her legs to catch as much as the sun as possible, and ate a sandwich.

“I hope the next challenge is a little easier,” she said.

Evan laughed. “If it isn’t, I bet they’re working hard to modify it. Like Chris said—it isn’t good television if we can’t even score a single point between us.” He lowered his voice. “How’re you doing?”

She felt a blush creep over her skin, even though he hadn’t mentioned what happened the night before. She knew he was asking after more than her physical condition. He meant how was she doing emotionally, and she liked him for that.

“Good. I think.”

“You think?”

She shrugged. “I have to win this, you know. No matter if I…” She bit off her words, realizing what she was just about to say.
No matter if I’d like to lose.
A glance his way told her he’d heard her loud and clear.

“Same for me, you know.” He said, taking a long drink from his water bottle. “I’m not in the habit of forcing women to marry me.”

“Really? I figured you forced at least ten women to marry you every day before lunch.”

“Then divorced them again before dinner? Yeah, billionaires do that stuff all the time.”

“What do you do?” she asked. “I mean I know what your job is, but what do you do for fun?”

She wished that two cameras weren’t recording every minute of this conversation. If only she and Evan were hiking alone, spending time together because they liked each other, not because they wanted to beat each other in some inane contest.

“I like being outdoors, so I run, hike, do a little rock climbing when I can. What about you? What’s your favorite leisure-time activity?”

“Leisure time? What’s that?” She laughed ruefully. “Actually, before the shelter got so out of control, I used to like to go dancing. I haven’t done that in a long, long time.”

“Dancing? Like at a bar?”

“Yeah—line dancing, mostly.” She glanced sidelong at Evan and caught him smirking. “What?”

“Line dancing? Does anyone do that anymore?”

“Are you kidding? It’s huge!”

“In some circles,” Evan intoned and laughed aloud.

“Jerk.” But she didn’t mind his teasing as much as she used to. Maybe only country people line danced; that didn’t mean it wasn’t fun.

“Don’t you take any nights off work?” he said. He was sitting so close she could reach out and touch him. She wondered what the camera crew would do if she took Evan’s hand.

Lots of close-ups
.

“Not really. There’s too much to do.”

“You can’t live like that,” he said, turning to her. She read genuine concern in his eyes and her heart warmed.

“I don’t know what else to do.”

“Bella, you aren’t responsible for every animal in the world. You can’t be.”

“Yes, I can.” She knew he was right, but something within her refused to let that thought take hold. “I feel responsible for them all. I can’t help it.”

“Why?”

She glanced his way. “What do you mean?”

“Why should you be responsible for all the animals and not someone else? What about the rest of us? Aren’t we responsible, too?”

“Well, sure, but I…I’m more responsible.” It sounded crazy. It was crazy. But she’d never been able to shake the feeling, not after what happened to Caramel, not when she’d caused Cyclone to break his leg so he had to be put down, too. Saving animals was the only thing she did right.

“Why?”

She shook her head, wishing she’d never opened her mouth. “It’s not important.”

“Sounds pretty important to me if it’s made you responsible for every pet in Montana,” Evan said, nudging her with his shoulder.

She wished she could recapture the lighthearted feeling she’d had just a moment ago. Wished he’d do more than nudge her. She wanted to run her hand down his arm, to clasp his fingers in hers and lean in and give him a kiss. Anything to deflect this conversation from its inevitable end.

A glance told her he wasn’t going to let her change the topic. She’d tell him the simple version, the one she told everyone who asked why she became a veterinarian. Leave the rest for another time…some other time that would hopefully never come.

“We had a dog when I was a kid. A lab named Caramel. I loved that dog.” For a moment, memories overtook her. “We all did,” she went on, straightening up. “My parents, my brother, Craig, and I.”

Evan packed away the remainder of his lunch slowly, giving her time to tell her story.

“When I was ten I was playing with her in back of the house. My brother was helping my father and the other men with the horses. My father needed to take a stallion to another spread to stud. They were loading him into the trailer.”

She’d relived this particular memory way too many times, but it never failed to bring tears to her eyes. “I wasn’t supposed to be there at all. I was never allowed to play out back when the men were working, but I liked the attention. I didn’t want to stay out front, away from the action. Craig was there helping. I wanted to be a part of it, too. Or at least to be close to it.”

“What happened?”

“The stallion spooked. The next thing I knew he was rearing over me. I should have been killed. Caramel barked. I probably screamed. My Dad was yelling. I don’t know what happened next. Except the stallion crashed and broke his leg. Then something hurt Caramel. She took off like she’d been hit…”

Bella broke off.
Like she’d been hit.
Something twinged in her subconscious. A memory she couldn’t quite access.

Like she’d been hit.

She saw her father dash between her and the stallion. The stallion twisted away in alarm, and fell with a shattering crash. Caramel barked. Her father’s face went red with fury. His lifted his arm.

Bella shook the memory away.

“I tried to go after her but a car came down the road much too fast…” she trailed off again.

“It was an accident,” Evan said.

“If I had done what I was supposed to do, she would have lived.”

Evan turned to face her. “That was what—twenty years ago? More? She would have died by now anyway, Bella. Accidents happen. Pets die. Horses die. You can’t stop living your own life because of it.”

“You don’t understand,” she said, knowing he truly didn’t. No one did. No one outside of her family. Because that was only the beginning of the story. “I loved her and I caused her death. I was irresponsible, and selfish, and I didn’t listen, and Caramel paid the price. Cyclone did, too. Everyone did.” Despite her best efforts tears welled up.

Evan narrowed his eyes. “That’s what they told you, didn’t they? Your family? God, I can hear them say the words—your parents and Craig all blaming you. Didn’t they take any responsibility at all?”

Bella stared at him. “But…”

“But what? I’m serious—you were ten years old. How hard would it have been for your father to scan the yard before he moved the horse to the trailer? How did the stallion get away from him, anyway?”

Bella blinked, astounded by the vehemence of his anger. “Horses are unpredictable.”

“All the more reason he should have been careful.” Evan leaned forward, his jaw tight. “And the fact that he dumped all his guilt on you sucks. Do you still see these people?”

She forgot the cameras around her and searched Evan’s face for the source of his anger. Was he really upset that her family blamed her? “No. Well… sometimes. My parents still live on the ranch. What’s left of it. So does my brother.”