The Irish Cowboy: Bear Creek Rodeo

by Jessica Marin

  And that’s exactly the kind of love I’ve been looking for.

  Just like I have to prove myself to the world that I’m the best bronc rider within eight-seconds, I’m going to have to prove myself to Tessa and that I’m sincerely interested in being with her.

  And my actions are going to be the way to her heart.

  I continue listening to the conversation, enjoying everyone’s company, when I notice Tessa’s eyes have become glossy. Her eyelids start to droop and I know it isn’t long before she is going to fall asleep at the table. Ryan now has Adeline fully engaged in conversation, so I remove myself from my chair and kneel down next to Tessa.

  “Little lass, are you ready to go to bed?” I softly ask, wondering how far the drive to her house in Bear Creek is from here. We can always get a hotel here for her to sleep it off if need be.

  Her head bobs to the side, the alcohol now affecting her motor movements. She half smiles/half sneers at me as she tries wagging her finger in my face. “You can take those thoughts and shove it, as there’s no way I’ll be going to bed tonight with you, sir. I don’t go to bed with strangers. You, my sexy foreigner, are going to bed all by yourself tonight and your hand can keep your lower brain company.”

  I throw my head back and laugh at how hilarious and adorable drunk Tessa is. My heart swells with pride that although she admitted I’m sexy, she doesn’t jump right into bed with people she just meets.

  “Thank you for those explicit instructions, but that isn’t what I meant. I only meant sleep and nothing more… that is until you’re ready to share a bed with me.” I lick my lips at the images that come to mind of Tessa in my bed, naked and ready for me.

  “Oh,” she says sheepishly while trying to get her eyes focused on me. “Yes, I think sleep might be a good idea right now.”

  “Adeline,” I command loud enough to get her attention away from Ryan. Her eyes widen as she takes in the condition of her friend. “How far away is Tessa’s house? She needs to go to sleep.”

  “We have a hotel room for tonight and it’s only a block away. Do you mind helping me get her there?” she asks as she stands up and Ryan moves her chair back out of the way for her.

  “It was always my plan to make sure you two got home safely.” I stand up and help Tessa out of her chair. She gets to her feet fine, but as soon as I let go of her arm, she starts to wobble.

  “Whoa lass, I’ve got you.” I wrap my arm around her waist and pull her to my side. She grabs onto my shirt and looks up at me, her dark blue eyes staring at my mouth. Her lashes are painted with mascara but I can still tell they are naturally long. I have a hard time believing there is anything fake about this girl.

  “You have very nice lips. If you weren’t a cowboy, I would kiss them.” I softly groan at the now uncomfortable tightness in my pants. I have every intention of kissing Tessa - when she’s ready and begging for it.

  “I’ll quit the rodeo tomorrow if it means I get a taste of you.” Her cheeks flare red and her eyes widen when she sees how serious I am. Before she looks down, I catch the same spark of desire that I saw earlier from her when she didn’t know who I was.

  Adeline moves to Tessa’s other side to help balance her upright. Ryan carries the girls’ purses for them and we bid farewell to the other guys. We walk that one block to the hotel and as soon as we get in the elevator, Tessa wraps her arms around me and lays her head against my chest. My arms instinctively wrap around her and I rest my chin on top of her head. She fits perfectly in my arms, as if she was made to be there. I close my eyes and I can picture us in the same position, standing on a balcony, watching the ocean.

  When I hear the ding of the elevator, I open my eyes and see Adeline and Ryan staring at us, a weird expression crossing both of their faces. The doors to the elevator open and I scoop Tessa up into my arms so that I can carry her safely into her hotel room.

  “Wait, I’ve got to get a picture of this for blackmail purposes,” Adeline laughs as she gets her phone out of her purse that Ryan was carrying for her and snaps a photo of me holding Tessa. She leads us to their room and opens the door for me. I lay Tessa on the bed closest to the bathroom since she might need it in the middle of the night. Adeline starts taking off her shoes and as I stare down at Tessa, a strong need to stay with them overcomes me. I don’t want to overstep my boundaries and I know Adeline will take the very best care of her. Besides, Tessa seems to have a lot of pride and won’t want me to see her in the morning after a rough night. I have no doubt that she’ll already be embarrassed by her inebriation.

  I kneel down beside the bed and push Tessa’s hair off her face. She’s exquisite even in her sleep. Her long lashes sweep against the tops of her rosy cheeks. Her lips parted slightly as she exhales out.

  “Good night, little lass. I’ll see you tomorrow,” I whisper and as I stand upright, her eyelids flutter open and she looks at me.

  “Am I dreaming right now?” she asks, making me chuckle at the awe in her voice as she looks me up and down.

  “No, lass, you’re not. Ryan and I are leaving and we just wanted to make sure you girls got to the hotel okay.” She grabs hold of my arm and tugs, making me bend down closer to her. I try to gently disengage her hands from me, but her grip is surprisingly strong for someone so drunk. “Do you want me to stay, lass?”

  “No, I want you to stay away from me.” She stares at me for a couple of seconds before smiling and closing her eyes. Her grip loosens and she lets go of my arm.

  “I’m never going to stay away from you, Tessa Mandel. Start getting used to it.”

  She sighs and for a moment, I think she’s asleep before she surprises me with her next words. “We’ll see. All men run away.” And with that, she rolls away to the opposite side of the bed.

  I want to kill whomever broke her heart. But then, we wouldn’t be here together if he hadn’t.

  “Adeline, can you please give me her phone number?” I ask and with the way Adeline is staring so intensely at me, I feel she isn’t going to do it. Whatever internal battle she’s having with herself ends and she grabs the pen and paper out of the nightstand drawer.

  “Hurt my friend and I’ll personally poison the next beer you drink,” she threatens, looking at me dead in the eyes with ferocity. I wouldn’t put it passed Adeline to kill for Tessa. Their love and loyalty for each other is evident.

  “Rest assured, I’ll never intentionally hurt Tessa,” I state as I grab the piece of paper that contains Tessa’s cell phone number out of Adeline’s hands. “Thank you for this. I’ll call her in the morning.”

  “Fair warning, she might not pick up. Tessa is pretty adamant about not getting involved with cowboys,” she sighs and moves toward the door, indicating she’s ready for us to leave.

  “Hey, where’s my digits?” Ryan whines as we follow her to the door. I’ve never heard my brother sound more pathetic asking for a girl’s phone number. It makes me want to slap him upside the head right now, but I refrain. In fact, Ryan is usually not the one asking for phone numbers. Girls slip him their digits all the time, even when he doesn’t ask for it.

  “You didn’t properly ask for it, so therefore, you don’t get it.” Adeline smiles sweetly at him, making me chuckle at her brazenness as I walk past her into the hallway.

  “You’re a sassy one… and I like it!” Ryan looks her up and down in appreciation, which causes Adeline to roll her eyes. He wiggles his eyebrows up and down and that actually makes her giggle. It’s exactly the reaction he was hoping to get out of her.

  “You better start getting used to seeing me around as well, Sassy.” Ryan swoops in and manages to sneak a kiss on her cheek before he walks out into the hallway.

  “We’ll see if both of you are men enough to prove it.”

  And with that, she slams the door in our faces.

  Chapter Six

  TESSA

  I can count on one hand the times I’ve thrown up in my life and about three of those times happened within the last
24 hours alone. Fortunately, I made it to the bathroom each time, with Adeline beside me to hold my hair back. Each time she helped clean me up and put me right back to bed. I hate losing control of myself like that. Normally when I drink, I make sure I’ve eaten plenty of food and drink water in between beverages. But, for some reason, I was consumed with drinking my sorrows away about Rhett being a cowboy. The one guy that sparks a fire in me since Ty and he had to be what I’ve sworn off.

  I deserved the way I felt today, guilt eating at me with the fact that Adeline had to take care of me as if I were a baby. As soon as I woke up, she was awake with water and aspirin for my headache. I took a hot shower, got dressed and we checked out of the hotel. Halfway back to Bear Creek, we stopped for breakfast. I was ravenous and the grease from my potatoes and eggs actually helped my stomach.

  “Have you checked your phone yet?” she asks in between bites of her breakfast. I look up at her, my eyes questioning why as I chewed my food. “To see if Rhett called,” she says in her “duh” kind of voice.

  I swallow the chunk of food and shake my head. “I didn’t give him my phone number so how could he call?”

  “I gave him your phone number!” she says in exasperation.

  “Why would you do that? You know I won’t date cowboys.” Considering that Adeline was with me on the anti-cowboy movement, it’s surprising that she would’ve given him my number.

  “I gave him your phone number because he wasn’t going to leave our hotel room without it and I’ve never seen you react toward a man like the way you did to him.”

  I shrug my shoulders nonchalantly, trying to make light of it, when in fact my heart is racing at the knowledge that he wanted my phone number. “My reaction was just lust. He is quite good-looking after all.”

  “Cut the bullcrap, Tessa - this is me you’re talking to. You felt something way more than lust for him. He rattled you.”

  I put down my fork and look her straight in the eyes. “Yeah, he rattled me, okay? In the most uncomfortable, yet delicious way. How can a stranger evict such intense feelings out of me? It’s got to be just from lack of attention.”

  “Tessa, you get hit on all the time at the rodeo, so you can’t say it’s from lack of attention. There’s a reason you reacted the way you did. Maybe he’s the one?” My eyebrows shoot up in disbelief that she just uttered those words.

  “I think you’ve read too many love stories, Adeline. Besides, he’s exactly the type of person I don’t want to date.”

  “Who cares if he’s a cowboy, Tessa! Not all cowboys are the same. Not all men just want to get laid and move on.” Sometimes I think Adeline would’ve made a great lawyer with the way she argues. She’s passionate and always believes she’s right.

  “Let’s say he’s one of the good guys, there’s still a huge strike against him. He lives in Ireland!” I throw down my napkin, the topic of conversation making me lose my appetite.

  “Soooo…?” she says slowly, not even acting as if this is an issue.

  “So… you want me to move to Ireland?” I counter back, having a hard time believing she would be willing to give-up our dream of moving to Austin together.

  “If it means you’re in love and with the right person, yes, I would want you to move to Ireland. It would suck and I would miss you, but your happiness is everything to me.” She reaches across the table and squeezes my hand. “Listen, Tessa. What Ty did was beyond horrible, but most men are not assholes like him. You’ve got to stop assuming that all men are going to hurt you the way he did. Is it possible you might get hurt again in the future? Of course it’s possible. But missing out on any kind of love would be the biggest shame of it all.” She gives my hand one last squeeze. “You’ve got to believe that you deserve your happily ever after too and the only way you can get one is giving someone a chance.”

  I contemplate her words while we wait for the check. It isn’t that I disagree with her, I just don’t know if Rhett Kearney is the right person to be open-minded about. When the check arrives, I pay for our meal and we get back on the road.

  “Out of all the men you know have shown interest in me, why do you think I should give Rhett a chance?” I ask once we’ve been on the road for a while. The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that Rhett would be the wrong person to take a chance on due to his current living situation.

  “I think he’s the perfect person to dip your toe back in the dating waters with and here’s why. One; it was obvious to everyone in that restaurant that you two are extremely attracted to each other. I swear there was one point where I think you both forgot about everyone around you.” I blush slightly at her words and look out the window because that’s exactly what happened.

  “Two; he made it pretty clear last night that he wasn’t giving up until you did give him a chance.”

  “Actions speak louder than words though,” I respond, something that I’ve preached since Ty’s deception. Words are powerful, but following them up with action is what proves someone’s sincerity to me.

  “But if you don’t give them a chance, how can they prove it to you with their actions?” she debates and I hate to admit it, but she does have a point.

  “And lastly; if things don’t work out between the two of you, he goes back to Ireland. Since this will be your last rodeo, you won’t run the risk of ever running into him again.” It’s easy for Adeline to say that - she’s never been in love before. She doesn’t know what it’s like to have your heart broken and shattered into a million pieces. She’s always cutting guys loose before she has a chance to fall for them. She says it’s because she knew right away that she wasn’t going to be in love with them. I have a hard time believing that since she doesn’t give herself a chance to fall in love with them.

  Regardless, all of her advice is just words because she’s never experienced heartache.

  “Have you checked your phone yet?” she asks again when we pull into the parking lot of our apartment. I shake my head no and rummage through my purse to find it.

  “It’s dead. I’ll charge it when we get upstairs.” We get out of the car and into our apartment. I plug my phone into the charger in the kitchen and go into my bedroom, where I immediately lie down and fall asleep.

  And dream of one sexy, Irish Cowboy.

  Chapter Seven

  RHETT

  “When are you going to quit leaving her messages?” Ryan asks after I hang up the phone from trying to reach Tessa again. Even though Adeline warned me, I was hoping she would be wrong and that Tessa would’ve picked up on the first ring.

  Four messages later and not only has Tessa not picked up, but she still hasn’t called me back.

  “Until she picks up,” I respond, not willing to give up that easily on her. My feelings last night were too strong to ignore and just brush aside. “I wish you got Adeline’s phone number so we could call her to make sure everything’s okay.”

  “I’m sure everything is fine and Tessa doesn’t want to talk to you because you’re proving to be a creepy stalker. You’re sure starting to creep me out. I’ve never seen you react this way over a girl.” I chuckle at him and think maybe he’s right - I need to stop calling her. At least maybe wait until tomorrow.

  “There’s something special about her, Ryan. I can feel it. Until she tells me personally that she never wants to hear from me again, I’m not giving up.” I look him dead in the eye so he can see how serious I am about her.

  “C’mon, let’s go work out so we’re ready for Belton this weekend,” I suggest, needing some sort of distraction to take my mind off of Tessa. The rodeo in Belton is an hour and fifteen minutes away from Bear Creek. After Belton, we travel north for a couple of rodeos closer to the Dallas/Fort Worth area before we come back down south and compete in Bear Creek. I’m hoping I can spend some time with Tessa this week while I’m still within driving distance. Then our relationship will have to be long distance for a while before I see her again.

  If she’s even willing t
o try to have a relationship with me.

  We take the elevator downstairs and workout in the hotel gym for over an hour before we swim laps in the pool. We needed this break in between rodeos and already I’m feeling rejuvenated. Most cowboys fly or drive home when they have a week break, but because our home is so far away, we drive to the next city we compete in and stay there to prepare. The hotel costs get expensive, but we have no other choice. After our swim, we go back to our room. We rotate business calls and emails in between showering and by the time we’re done, it’s getting close to dinner time.

  “What’s for dinner? We also need to go grocery shopping to have stuff in the room,” Ryan tells me after we’re dressed and ready to leave.

  “Alright, let me just try Tessa one more time and then we can go.” I reach for my phone but Ryan grabs it before I can.

  “No! Stop the stalker madness! You are not calling her again today! What in the hell is wrong with you? You aren’t even in a relationship with this girl. You don’t even know if this girl feels the same way you do. This girl might be a complete psychopath.”

  “Give me my phone, Ryan,” I say calmly, silently counting to ten in my head to keep my cool before I tackle him to the ground. “You’re right, I don’t know who she is as a person or how she feels about me, but how else am I going to know if I don’t keep trying? Besides, aren’t you interested in seeing Adeline? You couldn’t even charm her enough last night to get her phone number. These American girls must see through your bullshit.” With that, he hurls my phone back and fortunately, I catch it before it smashes into my face. Pointing out whenever Ryan fails with the ladies always pisses him off, especially since it doesn’t happen very often.

  I dial Tessa’s number, expecting to hear her voice message again when I’m pleasantly surprised that the phone is picked up after the second ring. “She’s not ignoring you, Rhett, she’s been asleep for the last four hours,” Adeline says and I sigh in relief to actually be hearing a human voice on the other end. “Her phone was also dead from her not charging it throughout the night, so she hasn’t seen or heard your voicemails and texts.”