Rodeo Summer: A Camden Ranch Novel

by Jillian Neal

  “Are you sure?” She was all but bouncing on her toes.

  “Climb on in there and see if Whirlwind will let you saddle her.”

  “You promise you will not take him anywhere near your Mighty Bucky thing or have any discussions with him about becoming a bull rider.”

  Laughing at her outright, Grant and Austin shook their heads.

  “I don’t even know where his old Bucky is. Probably out in one of the barns. I’ll keep an eye on ‘um. If he tries to put the baby on one of the calves, I’ll personally skin his hide,” Grant vowed.

  “And I’ll help him,” Brock chuckled as he joined them at the paddock, pulling on a pair of gloves.

  “Thank you.” Summer planted a kiss on Austin’s lips and then one on J.J.’s cheek before she ducked under the low paddock fence.

  Trying to remember that Whirlwind didn’t know her, Summer ordered herself to calm. She hadn’t ridden for fun in far too long. Austin knew her so well. He’d known this was the one and only thing she might could do outside of his bed that would make her forget all of the troubles looming on their horizon.

  Keeping her head low, she extended her hand to Whirlwind who eyed her cautiously. She allowed herself to be sniffed and the horse eased closer. “Good girl,” Summer gently stroked down the horse’s neck then ran her index finger tenderly down the slight groove in her muzzle. She gave a soft neigh of appreciation as Summer’s finger teased her nose. Moving on, Summer scratched under Whirlwind’s chin, grinning when the horse leaned into her, desperate for more. “Gets itchy there doesn’t it, girl?”

  Austin, Brock, and Grant looked on. The grin on Austin’s face spoke directly to Summer’s heart. She swelled with pride. When Whirlwind closed her eyes, Summer understood immediately. Flattening her palms, she gently rubbed the horse’s eyes, probably tired of the dusty wind constantly blowing in them.

  Whirlwind gave another neigh and nuzzled Summer’s neck.

  “What’s she doing?” Grant huffed.

  “Teaching your ass how to get a horse to love you forever,” Austin supplied with more than a note of pride in his voice.

  Loving Whirlwind long enough to get her to trust her, Summer left her wanting just a little more so she’d come willingly the next time. Guiding the horse into the stable, she took the saddle Austin pointed to and saddled her expertly before she mounted her. Whirlwind seemed very pleased.

  “Have fun, sweetheart. Several miles each direction you’ll come up on a fenced tree line that separates our land from the other ranches. Cattle in several of the pastures, but the paths are clear. Stay on this ranch,” Austin commanded.

  “I will,” Summer certainly didn’t need that reminder. As much as she always loved riding, she still wasn’t entirely sure of her surroundings. “Okay, if I want to ride away from Wyoming, which way do I go?”

  Austin, Brock, and Grant all chuckled as they simultaneously pointed to the right.

  “Got it.” With that she leaned in, clicked her mouth, and they were off.

  A minute later, her hair whipped out behind her as the ranch itself spread its arms before the horse and let them fly. Letting her eyes close in an extended blink, she felt her soul settle. Whirlwind’s rhythmic gallops ate up the unending expanse, and she reveled in the sanctuary she’d been provided.

  Her entire life raced through her mind timed to the thunder of hooves. All she’d been through. How she’d found herself here on a horse that spoke directly to her heart. I was never going to fall in love with a rodeo cowboy. She couldn’t help but grin. There were a lot of things she never thought would happen, and yet they had. She was never going to have children, and now, she loved her little boy more than life itself and found herself wanting to have more with Austin. Her hawk. He’d rescued her from that damn swinging lariat. She’d never felt more secure. Now, they had to save J.J. Determination timed itself with every strike of Whirlwind’s hooves. They would save him from Brant and create a life together. If this all worked out, she swore she’d live through every shitty moment of her past just to get herself here again. They could do this together. She refused to doubt that. This was going to work.

  “She would whip your ass up one side and down another, and that’s before Mama got a’holt of you,” Grant laughed as Austin joked about getting on the old Bucky with J.J.

  “Well, what she doesn’t know wouldn’t hurt me, but since I haven’t actually gotten her down an aisle yet, maybe I’ll save that for his second birthday.” While Austin was in the process of switching J.J. from his back to his front to take him for a ride on the Gator, his cell rang. Forgetting for a moment that he’d switched phones with Luke, he wondered how on earth he was calling himself. Shaking his head and calling himself a dumbass, he answered. “Tell me something good.”

  “Wish I could. I don’t know who’s more insane, Preston or his mother, but I’m leaning towards his mom.”

  “The ass-wipe ran me off a horse. He’s a kidnapping douche-nozzle. His mother is insane.”

  “Yeah, I hear ya. I followed him around Cheyenne last night. Mostly from one bar to another ‘til he stumbled back to the hotel. His mother’s wound tighter than a nun’s nancy. She tried to have one of the waitresses fired from the hotel café because her eggs were overdone.”

  Austin chuckled. “Not surprised, but you don’t think they know Summer found them papers yet do you?”

  “Not that I can tell. Brant headed out about early. Went back to the PBR office. They released Dallas Devil back. He’s set for the rodeo Wednesday night, but Brant still ain’t happy.”

  “You’re good at this.”

  “Well, if the whole cowboy slash playing vet around the Glen don’t work out, maybe I’ll become Walker, Texas Ranger.”

  “Figured that’s where you got your skills,” Austin laughed.

  “Well, from there and that time when we were kids stuck at Granddaddy’s house during that blizzard and watched four seasons of McCloud ‘cause that was all we could get through the antenna.”

  Smirking as he cranked the Gator, Austin asked, “You found you some pretty girl to be your counterpart for this particular episode?”

  “Keeping up with the Preston psych-ward patients is taking up most of my time.”

  “Thanks for doing this. We talked to a Bureau detective last night. They’re looking for the forger because the actual forgeries aren’t enough to send Brant to jail.”

  “Why not?”

  “Something about Brant being able to say Summer framed him or something. It was a bunch of bullshit. Anyway, they’re looking for the guy that makes a living forging documents to prove her ex-husband is the low-life everyone knows he is. That makes sense, don’t it? They’re planning on having a police presence all around Brant and Jean tomorrow. I’m very interested to see how they react to that. You mind staying out there ‘til then?”

  “Nah, I’m good. Kind of looking forward to something going down. I’m tired of just spying on the two of ‘um arguing.”

  “What are they arguing about?”

  “Yesterday, she came storming in the bar up in arms over Summer being in Santa Fe.” Luke gave nothing away. “He basically told her to fuck off. Acted like he didn’t give a shit about Summer at all, which don’t make sense to me, given that he was pissed enough to knock you off a horse over her.”

  “That was a pissing match. He doesn’t want her, love her, or give a shit about her. He just don’t want me to have her. He doesn’t want her to be happy. That’s about as far as his field of shit is plowed. Hence the one and only reason he’s trying to take J.J. He just wants to make her miserable. Trust me, he doesn’t even want his own kid.”

  “Nice guy.”

  Austin grunted his disdain.

  “Oh, hang on a sec,” Luke said.

  Austin heard the phone crackle. A moment later, Luke’s chuckle was audible. “They’re towing his mama’s Caddy. She parked it on the curb of the hotel right by the entrance. The detective have anything to do with getting
it towed?”

  “Nope, but karma is a bitch. High time she learned that.”

  “Let me go, Aus. She just came off the elevator, and she’s about to blow.”

  By Sunday night, Summer was bordering on hysterical. Luke hadn’t reported anything all that odd other than Brant had downed more liquor than was held in most distilleries in the last two days. Detective Miller was in Cheyenne preparing to let their presence be known the next morning.

  The Preston Cattle crew had shown at the big stock show, but Brant hadn’t attended. Since Summer insisted that Brant loved nothing more than showing off for people, she’d seen this as a bad sign. Austin tried to discreetly make plans for them to go somewhere else if nothing came out of the next day. Most every member of his family had gone to the bank for him and taken out cash from the family accounts. Twenty-thousand dollars was currently in his wallet, which would get them by for a while. He’d vowed to Summer repeatedly that the police would either have found the forger or gotten Brant to confess in a few weeks’ time. She didn’t seem any more certain of that than he really was.

  Currently, Summer was in the bedroom repacking the bags Austin had just gotten her to unpack. Shaking his head, Austin captured her with his arms and held her to him. “Come on, darlin’, you’re spinning like a rope. You’re a bundle of nerves with great tits. Deep breath for me.”

  She jerked out of his grasp. “Austin, this isn’t going to work. I just know. Nothing except finding you has ever worked out for me. I did find you, so now all my good luck has run out. We’re gonna have to run away.”

  “Can we please wait and see what happens tomorrow before we completely freak out?”

  “No.”

  Before he could continue his futile argument, his cell rang. “It’s Detective Miller.”

  Summer halted her frantic packing as he answered. Miller launched into the reason for his call immediately. “Dallas PD thinks they found the forger,” Austin mouthed as he continued to listen.

  Summer’s eyes goggled before she squeezed them shut in what he assumed was a prayer.

  “What happens next?” Austin demanded.

  “They aren’t going to bring him in yet. Two uniforms are going out to talk to him. He’s been in trouble before and does a fair amount of work for the Dallas elite. Well known around the country clubs. I prefer to scare ‘um and then leave ‘um to think while we keep an eye on him. Nothing as cruel as your own guilty conscience.”

  Austin highly doubted that any asshole who’d willingly forge a kid’s birth certificate had much of a conscience at all, but he didn’t argue.

  “If he turns on Brant Jr., that’ll give me enough to get warrants for the Preston checking accounts, and we’ll have him. I told you just to give me a little time. We got eyes on Brant right now. Bet my badge on the fact that he’s both guilty and feels the pressure of it. Looks like hell. Paranoid and wiggling like a worm on a hot dock.”

  “My brother says he’s been making friends with Jack, Jameson, and Jim Beam lately.”

  “Nothing new about that,” Summer quipped under her breath.

  “Yep, I’m sitting in the hotel bar. I’m assuming your brother looks just like you, only a little taller, with lighter eyes.”

  “Light brown Resistol cowboy hat?”

  “Yup.”

  “Yeah, that’s him.”

  “K, I got eyes on him and Preston. Your brother’s not a half bad detective, but he’s been sitting in here too long. Needs to leave and come back.”

  “He’s afraid he’ll miss something.”

  “Tell him I’m much obliged. I’ll call tomorrow. We’ll be in the hotel lobby asking about ‘em when they come down tomorrow morning, and then at the PBR tent and anywhere else Jr. might like to go. Should be interesting.”

  “Yeah, well, we’re losing our minds here, so updates would be good.”

  “Understood, but I ain’t gonna risk a call to you if I’m on to something or I might out one of my men. I know you’re worried, but try to relax. Let me do my job. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

  “What did he say?” Summer demanded as soon as Austin ended the call.

  “They’re sending cops out to talk to the forger, and that Brant looks guilty as shit.”

  “He is guilty as shit. He’s a motherfucking asshole. Too bad you can’t be arrested for that. I’da had his ass in prison day after I married him.”

  “Nobody’s doubtin’ that he was one sperm that should’a been swallowed, honey, but Miller sounds pretty confident about tomorrow, so please relax for me.” Gently, he tugged a pair of J.J.’s pajamas out of her hands and set them in his suitcase. “Come on. Tell me your favorite movie. I’ll download it.”

  “Is there a movie about a kidnapping, motherfucking, ex-husband that gets his ass blown up in his car and trampled by his own bull while the mother of his kid laughs hysterically? Because I want to watch that one.”

  “Might could find the car blowing up thing, but the bull is gonna be hard to come by. You’re getting too specific.” Austin removed the suitcase from the bed and climbed in. He beckoned her with his index finger, smirking when she rolled her eyes and begrudgingly crawled in beside him.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Up for chores even if he was in Cheyenne and not Pleasant Glen, Luke slowly sipped his second cup of coffee and kept an eye on the Cheyenne Sheriff’s Deputies stalking the front entrance of the hotel. Should be interesting.

  Stock contractors were supposed to be having a meeting at 9:00 that morning with the Frontier Days officials and a few of the sponsors about the final rodeo. Luke had learned this bit of information when Detective Miller had knocked on his hotel room door at midnight the evening before. He’d expected to be told to go home, but Miller told him everything they’d found out and how to improve his detective game. Apparently, they needed all the help they could get.

  Despite the meeting being in an hour, neither Brant nor his mama had made an appearance at the hotel restaurant for the deeply discounted breakfast.

  “Can I get you anything else, good lookin’?” The waitress that had been flirting with him all morning made another approach. Cute little brunette with a nice plump backside he wouldn’t have minded running his hands all over. God, he loved a woman with real curves. The black waitress-apron she was wearing, along with the bandana tied in her ponytail, left him with all kind of ideas he really had no business considering, given the gravity of what he was supposed to be doing. In her early to mid-twenties, she was a little young for him anyway, but he was flattered none the less.

  “I’m fine, darlin’. Take another coffee when if you get a minute.”

  “You got it. You need some sugar?”

  “For my coffee?” He gave her a half grin and lifted his left eyebrow in intrigue, watching her turn redder than strawberry wine.

  “For wherever you want it,” she came right back. His cock twitched its intrigue, but Brant chose that moment to slink off the elevators. Guy really was a rat-bastard.

  Giving her a wink, he gestured to his half empty coffee cup. “How ‘bout in my coffee … for now.”

  His breath caught, but she beamed at him and he relaxed. He would have hated himself if he’d hurt her feelings.

  The deputies entered from the front doors just as Brant rounded the corner. Luke ran his thumb along the rim of the mug, trying to discreetly watch the interaction.

  As soon as Brant spied the uniforms, he spun and headed out the back doors by the pool. Miller and Luke shared a quick glance. Miller grinned and gestured for his deputies to follow Brant.

  The sheriff himself entered next. He gave Miller a quick nod, and took a seat near the doors.

  Mrs. Preston barreled down a little after ten. Luke had gotten up and walked around Cheyenne at 9:15, keeping an eye out for Brant or the cops. His ass had been getting sore sitting in that hotel. He didn’t know how Austin had done this for months at a time. He already missed the ranch. Taking a different table and pretending to read
a book on the Cheyenne people that had lived in Wyoming prior to the Civil War, he watched Jean Preston march right up to the sheriff.

  Biting his lips together to keep from guffawing, he leaned closer to hear.

  “I sincerely hope that you’re here to do something about the noise at night. That ridiculous midway is going constantly, concerts every night, and I can hear people talking and even singing of all things when they’re coming in from the rodeos. I won’t tolerate it. This is the nicest hotel in Cheyenne. There are those of us who shouldn’t have to put up with such things, and I expect you to do something about it.”

  “The midway shuts down each night at twelve thirty, Miss …?” the Sheriff played his part well.

  “Mrs. Brant Preston Sr., of the Dallas Prestons. I feel certain you’ve heard of my husband, and my son is the supplier of Dallas Devil, the highest ranked bull of the season.”

  “Oh, I’ve heard plenty about the bull. Just didn’t know who you were. It’s Frontier Days ma’am. Things are gonna get loud. People are having a good time. I’m Sheriff Dillon, the sheriff of Cheyenne. I was sent out here to talk with a Jean Preston, actually. I’m guessing you’re Jean?”

  This took her aback. Luke gripped his mug tighter.

  “Why on earth would you want to talk with me?” Chancing a glance, Luke noted her usual sanctimony staging an uprising with all-out panic in her eyes.

  “We have a few questions about your son, if you have a minute.”

  “Oh,” she clutched her chest, “Brantley is a good boy. I do not know why the PBR is being so harsh with him. He supplied an outstanding bull, and now everyone’s upset about it. I told him just last night if these cowboys were half the man he is, they’d stop all of their complaining and ride. That’s what bull riders are supposed to do, after all. Good day, Sheriff. If you can’t do something about the noise, I’ll find someone who can.” With that, she marched out of the hotel.

  If he were a betting man, Luke would say there was at least four or five entire corn stalks, not just cobs, shoved up her self-righteous ass.