Her Cowboy Billionaire Beast

by Liz Isaacson

  “I’m right here,” Sophia said, rising from the couch. “Let’s go.”

  Patsy practically jogged to her car, glad Sophia understood the urgency of the situation.

  “You called him, right?” Sophia asked.

  “Yes,” Patsy said. “But he can’t hold it, and I really don’t want to miss it.”

  “We’re not going to miss it,” Sophia assured her. “It’s not for another hour, and it only takes forty minutes to get there.”

  Patsy took a deep breath and buckled her seatbelt. Sure enough, they pulled down the newly paved lane that led through the orchard to the big building in the back corner. She’d been down the road many times, but it felt different this time.

  The parking lot was full, but Patsy drove around to the back of the building and right into one of the bays. Cy stood there, talking to none other than Wyatt Walker, and Patsy dang near pressed harder on the accelerator instead of the brake pedal.

  “Oh, my goodness,” Sophia said. “That really is the rodeo king.”

  “Cy says he hates that,” Patsy said. “Just so you know.”

  “He’s married besides,” Sophia said. “I’m not going to flirt with him.”

  “Hm,” Patsy said as Cy came toward her. Sophia flirted with everyone, and Wyatt wouldn’t be immune just because he was married. He held a boy on his hip and his pretty, blonde wife watched another child who ran around nearby.

  She got out of the car and stepped right into Cy’s arms. “Sorry. I’m so sorry.”

  “You’re fine,” he said. “You didn’t miss it.” He looked at her, his eyes sparkling like dark stars. “Come meet Wyatt.” He took her hand and turned toward the couple and their children. They all looked perfectly at-ease and like they belonged to each other.

  “Wyatt,” Cy said. “This is my girlfriend, Patsy Foxhill. She owns the orchard here.”

  “You don’t say.” Wyatt grinned and reached up to touch his cowboy hat. “Pleased to meet you, ma’am.”

  “It’s great to meet you too,” she said, extending her hand to shake his. They did, and he introduced her to Marcy, his wife, and his two boys, Warren and Cole. “And Cy’s not been entirely truthful with you.” She glanced at him as Wyatt’s eyebrows went up.

  “Oh?”

  Ames, Cy’s twin, edged closer, his gaze suddenly sharp.

  “He owns this twenty acres of the orchard,” Patsy said. “My family owns the other side of the highway.”

  “They used to own it,” Cy said. “I kept as many trees as I could. In fact, I only took out some four-year-olds that weren’t producing fruit yet.”

  Ames glanced at Cy, and Patsy wished she could understand their silent twin language. She met Wyatt’s eyes, and he started chuckling. “Oh, I have twin brothers, and I know that look well.”

  “You have twin brothers?” Cy asked.

  “Oh, yeah.” Wyatt grinned like he was thrilled to be there, in their tiny town, at a motorcycle shop reopening. “Liam and Tripp. They have whole conversations without saying a word.” He looked at Cy and Ames. “It’s highly annoying.”

  Cy blinked, and then he burst out laughing. Ames did too, but Patsy noticed his was much shorter than Cy’s. Wasn’t as loud either. He kept glancing around like he expected a problem to arise, and he was going to solve it singlehandedly.

  “All right,” Cy said. “It’s getting close to time. We should get out there.” He stepped back to Wyatt’s side. “Thanks again for doing this. We’ve got a great lunch planned at my brother’s afterward. It’s up in the woods, and you’ll love it.”

  “I love this place,” Wyatt said, handing his smallest boy to his wife. “We’re in Three Rivers now, and it’s small like this. It’s nice to be part of a community.”

  “That’s what I’m hoping to do,” Cy said as they walked away, and Patsy marveled at the two of them side-by-side. Wyatt was a little taller, but not by much. They both had those broad shoulders, and cowboy hats, and jeans. Cy had bypassed his eccentric fashion choices, and today he wore a polo with his logo on the front, jeans, the cowboy hat and boots.

  He was perfection to her, and she sighed as he and Wyatt went through the doors that led to the showroom.

  “You can come with me,” Patsy said to Marcy and her boys. “Come on, Sophia.” Patsy turned just as an earsplitting clatter filled the air. She caught sight of Sophia going down, pure alarm on her face as she tried to find something to grab onto.

  There was nothing.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Sophia Cooke had never experienced such humiliation in her life. Her tailbone hurt, and tears sprang to her eyes. She couldn’t cry, because she’d spent far too long on her makeup to look amazing for this grand reopening.

  She had no special role in it, but she was going to Gray Hammond’s afterward for lunch, and Ames would be there.

  To add further shame to her humiliation, it was Ames himself who appeared in her sight first. “Hey, you okay?” He reached for her, and Sophia put her hand in his. He was big and strong, and he helped her to her feet easily.

  Her heart rebelled against the idea of starting a relationship with him. Number one, she’d already witnessed all of her friends falling in love with these Hammond brothers. She felt like a tagalong. Number two, Ames was far too broody for her.

  Handsome, sure.

  The perfect blend of cowboy and cop, of course.

  But he scared her, and Sophia didn’t like feeling like the weak one in a relationship.

  “What happened?” Patsy asked, also appearing on the scene.

  “Nothing,” Sophia said quickly. “Just me being my clumsy self.” It was that, true. But it was more, too. She’d been trying to lean against the toolbox in a sexy pose to try to catch Ames’s attention. She hadn’t realized it had wheels and would roll.

  One of Marcy Walker’s boys began to fuss, and Patsy turned her attention to her. “Come with me,” she said, scooping the child right into her arms. Patsy was so good with kids, and Sophia wondered how she did that.

  Sophia could get the little ones at the lodge to play with her now. It had taken a long time for them to warm up to her, but she didn’t know why. She adored children—she’d even thought about becoming a nanny for a career—but they needed time to get to know her before they liked her.

  “I need to clean this up,” Sophia said, looking at the mess she’d made.

  “If you do, you’ll miss the ceremony,” Ames said. “Leave it. We can come do it after that ribbon is cut.”

  “But Cy—”

  “I can handle Cy,” Ames promised her with a smile. It fled as quickly as it had appeared, and Sophia wished it would stay longer. She followed Patsy and Marcy out the door and across the showroom floor.

  Ames touched her elbow and nodded toward a side door. “I don’t want to be center stage.”

  Neither did she, and she wanted to be closer to Ames, so she followed him to a door that led outside on the edge of the crowd. And what a crowd. It felt like everyone in the town of Coral Canyon and Dog Valley had converged on this building in the corner of an orchard.

  It couldn’t be seen from the road, and up until the moment the building had emerged from the trees, Sophia had doubted they were in the right place. But they were, and she stayed close to Ames so she wouldn’t have to stand through the ceremony by herself.

  “Welcome, everyone,” Cy said into a microphone. “What a great turnout. I know why you’re all here, but I wanted to take a couple of minutes and explain what we do here at Rev for Vets.” He explained that they were a full-service motorcycle shop, a sales floor, and their specialty was custom designed bikes.

  “Our first veteran that will get a custom-designed motorcycle is Major Andy Archer.” He gestured to a man standing down at one end of the long, wide red ribbon that separated Cy and the microphone from the crowd. His brothers held the ends of the ribbon, and Sophia realized Ames had slipped away from her.

  She looked around for Patsy while she clapped and th
e Major walked over to Cy. They shook hands, and embraced, and Cy said, “The Major here likes Captain America, so we’re planning a patriotic bike. He’ll be in the shop next week to go over initial designs, and then our mechanics start to build. We employ twenty-six people from right here in Coral Canyon, and I want you to meet them too.”

  The front row of the crowd surged forward, and several people began calling out their loved one’s name. Sophia wondered what it would be like to have a cheering squad. Someone who cared at all that she was doing something good with her life. Heck, someone who cared would be enough for her.

  Patsy cares, she thought. And Bree did, and Elise. Celia was forever asking Sophia how she was doing, that was for sure. It was almost like Celia knew Sophia didn’t have anyone in the world concerned for her well-being, and she could admit she’d enjoyed spending time with Celia and also Amanda, the older women at the lodge.

  She liked them more than women her age, but she couldn’t explain why. And she got along great with Patsy. She finally spotted the blonde woman—her best friend—only a few paces away, in the front corner of the crowd.

  Sophia edged through a few people to her friend’s side. “Oh, Sophia,” Patsy said, relief in her voice. “There you are.” She reached over and squeezed her hand. “Are you okay?”

  “Fine,” Sophia said. Only her ego was bruised—and maybe her tailbone. She cut a glance at Ames, but he didn’t look at her. Of course he wouldn’t. A man like Ames likely had a dozen women in Colorado he could call for a date. He didn’t need her, a mousy woman five hundred miles away.

  “And now,” Cy said. “The man you’re all here to meet.” He turned back to the glass door Sophia hadn’t wanted to walk through. “Mister Wyatt Walker, the rodeo king himself.”

  The crowd went wild, and Wyatt Walker came through the door, a wide smile on his face and one hand already up in a wave. He went to Cy’s side, and they looked at one another, practically identical smiles on their faces.

  Then, as if they’d rehearsed it—which they probably had—they both reached up and removed their cowboy hats and started flapping them at the crowd.

  A roar rose up and every hatted person in the crowd took off their hat and returned the gesture. In that moment, Sophia wished she wore a cowgirl hat, but she didn’t. Patsy just used her hand, waving her wrist up and down while she giggled.

  “He’s full of charisma, isn’t he?” she asked, not taking her eyes from the two men at the front of the crowd.

  “Yes,” Sophia said, but she had her gaze glued to Ames. Ridiculous, she knew. The man didn’t even know her name. The public servant in him would’ve helped anyone who’d flopped to the ground with such a racket.

  Wyatt took the microphone and said, “I’m thrilled to be here. I’ve been wanting to learn to ride a motorcycle. Now that my back is healed, my doctor says I can.” He glanced at Cy. “Horses are out, but apparently, motorcycles are in, and I thought maybe they’d be somewhat similar.”

  Beside her, Patsy burst out laughing, and it was loud enough to draw the attention of several people, Cy included. He grinned for all he was worth, and he leaned toward the mic. “Not even close, Wyatt, but I’m sure we can outfit you with something that will be a smooth ride for your back.”

  “Great,” Wyatt said. “I’ll be in the shop next week, too, folks. This is a great thing Cy has here, and you’re lucky to have him as part of your community.” He handed the microphone back to Cy while everyone clapped again, and Cy faced the crowd.

  “All right, let’s do this. Then the showroom will be open. Wyatt will be signing in the back corner. We have refreshments for everyone. Thank you so much for coming.” He looked toward Patsy, and she darted forward with a giant pair of scissors Sophia hadn’t even seen.

  She handed them to him, and he put one hand on each of the handles. With one big chop, he cut right through the red ribbon. Cheers and whistles rent the air, with the Hammond brothers making some of the loudest of the noises.

  Sophia could admit the Hammonds knew how to throw a party—who got Wyatt Walker to come to a motorcycle shop opening?—and she couldn’t wait to go to Gray’s. She’d been to Colton’s wedding, but that was all. Elise had tried to get her to come to other events last year, but Sophia didn’t fit. She didn’t belong to the Hammonds the way she did the Whittakers.

  Maybe if she started dating Ames….

  She banished the thought, because when she looked to where he’d last been standing, he’d disappeared. Sophia wished she could disappear too, because that would be easier than constantly being overlooked.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Ames Hammond couldn’t stop grinning at his twin. Cy had a unique way of endearing everyone to him, and Ames had just watched him win over an entire town in a ten-minute ceremony.

  The motorcycle shop crawled with people, and Ames stood a few feet from Wyatt Walker and his wife, both of whom sat at a table Ames had set up himself. He’d covered it with a white cloth, and he’d put several permanent markers out for the two of them. They were signing everything from T-shirts to cowboy hats, and they seemed to be the happiest people on the planet.

  Ames had done a little reading on Wyatt once Cy had called to say he’d booked the celebrity rodeo star for the grand reopening. He’d endured several back surgeries in the recent past, so Ames knew his life wasn’t as charmed as it looked from the outside. Ames knew that hardly anyone’s life was what it looked like to other people.

  He’d brought his mother with him to watch Cy’s reopening, but their father had stayed in Ivory Peaks with Grams. Ames hadn’t told anyone else yet that he had a feeling Grams wouldn’t be alive very much longer. He’d been going out to the farmhouse every chance he got, and Grams was very nearly one hundred years old.

  He couldn’t even imagine living that long, and he certainly didn’t want to do it alone. Now that Cy was dating Patsy, it was only Ames who didn’t have a significant other. He’d been looking, but the last few dates he’d been on had been disasters. He’d been hit on by a woman in the back of his patrol car, and his desperation had become apparent when he’d actually considered saying yes.

  He and Gray ran at the gym together a lot, but they’d moved outdoors in the past couple of weeks, and they’d talked a lot about how Ames could find a girlfriend. But Gray was worse than Ames when it came to dating, and he’d gotten very lucky when he’d found Elise.

  He’d traveled to Coral Canyon to do it, and Ames kept looking around, thinking perhaps the woman of his dreams was right here in the crowd. His eyes kept going to Sophia, one of Elise’s friends. He didn’t know her last name, though he was sure he’d met her before. Maybe. He couldn’t entirely remember.

  But all of those women from Whiskey Mountain Lodge had come to Colton’s wedding, and Ames had been there too. So surely he’d met her before.

  He could ask Gray or Elise for Sophia’s last name, but he didn’t want to. He didn’t want either of them to know that he was considering starting a long-distance relationship with any woman who’d be willing to talk to him on the phone.

  Pathetic, he told himself, because he was.

  He kept an eye on the Walkers at their table, his stance and his folded arms a warning to everyone that they should behave, or he’d escort them right back outside. Eventually, the line dwindled, and the crowd thinned.

  When it was just family left, as well as Patsy and Sophia, Cy clapped his hands together and said, “Thank you, everyone.” Silence followed, and Ames knew Cy was holding back his emotion.

  Ames didn’t feel a whole lot of emotions, as he’d learned to stuff everything away in the police academy. He showed nothing while on the job, and he reminded himself he wasn’t on the job anymore.

  “Lunch at my place,” Gray said. “Everyone meet over there, and we’ll plan to eat in about a half an hour.”

  Everyone started to head out, and Ames stuck close to Cy, Patsy, and Mom. Sophia stayed with Patsy too, and he remembered the two of them arriving toget
her. He had nothing to say to a woman, so he just shuffled along with his mother, making sure she had a firm footing as they left the building.

  “It’s a beautiful shop, Cy,” she said, and Ames faded further into the background. He was the older twin, but he felt like he was constantly jostling for a position in the family. He loved his brothers, and he didn’t mind marching to the beat of his own drum. He just didn’t know what that beat was anymore. He couldn’t hear it. And he was terrified he’d spent thirty-eight years listening to the wrong rhythm.

  He helped his mother up into his truck and waved to Cy as he got in his. Patsy and Sophia climbed in with him, which didn’t make sense to Ames. Patsy’s car was in the back; Cy would have to drive her all the way back here, when they’d be halfway back to the lodge by the time they reached Gray’s house.

  Ames shouldn’t care. It wasn’t him who had to make the drive. And yet, the wasted time gnawed at him to the point of frustration. He masked it well and made the drive to Gray’s house in near-silence. Only the radio played music from his phone, as the two connected the moment Ames got behind the wheel.

  “Coral Canyon is a beautiful place,” his mother said, and Ames didn’t know how to respond.

  “Yes,” he said, and that was all. He could admit this town had a specific charm. The views of the Grand Tetons were magnificent, and Ames had never met a pine tree he didn’t like. He pulled in behind a few other trucks, and Colton opened their mother’s door before Ames got out.

  “Come on, Ma.” He smiled at her, and then Ames, and Ames just nodded back. He’d worn a cowboy hat to the grand reopening, mostly because Wyatt had brought them for everyone in the family.

  He could admit he didn’t hate wearing a cowboy hat. He had grown up on a farm, after all, and he still rode a horse whenever possible. He watched Colton and Annie take Mom toward Gray’s front steps, and he watched Wes and his family follow them.