by Leslie North
“If you say so, but I’ve never seen you this riled up before a competition. What’s got you so rattled?”
Instead of answering, Nate looked around for what had to be the thousandth time, searching for some kind of sign that Athena was coming after all.
He'd spent the last week telling himself that there was nothing else he could have done. The blow-up with Athena had been inevitable. He’d been stupid to get involved with her in the first place, knowing all the risks of things going south.
The problem was, his life seemed a whole heck of a lot emptier without her in it. He tried to find an excuse to see her, but his obligation to her girls was over and with the two of them at odds, he couldn't exactly show up to do extra classed like he'd been doing before.
But it was more than that, as much as he had come to care about those little ladies. It was Athena herself. She’d affected him in a way he couldn’t understand—or deny. Nate had made a practice of keeping himself unattached. It was something he had been proud of. Athena, though? She had gotten under his skin something fierce, and now that she was there, there was no getting clear of her again. More importantly, he didn't want to get clear of her. He only wanted to see her again. He wanted to see her and tell her how many mistakes he had made, how sorry he was—and all the ways he wanted to make it up to her.
“Hey, Nate. Earth to Nate!” Ian said loudly, “What’s going on here, man? Seriously. I’m getting a little worried about you.”
“Don’t be worried about me,” Nate shot back, “just tell me whether or not you’ve seen Athena. Truthfully, I don’t think she’s coming, but—"
“Athena?” Ian interrupted with a slow smile, “You mean the same Athena who’s sitting in the makeup chair behind you?”
“What?!”
Nate whirled around so quickly he got dizzy, but when he saw what Ian was looking at, he didn’t care in the slightest. Because it was real. It was her, Athena, leaning back in a chair and letting somebody mess with her hair. Despite the surge of nerves that flooded his stomach, Nate couldn’t help but smile. He was well aware of how much Athena hated being primped and fussed over. He could see it all over her face. Until she caught sight of him watching her in the mirror, that was. When their eyes locked, her expression changed to something he absolutely couldn’t read.
“Hold on a second,” he said vaguely to Ian, already headed towards her chair, “I’ve got to take care of something.”
He walked towards Athena on legs he couldn't feel, his mind racing a million miles a minute. There were dozens of things he could think to say to her, and not a single one of them felt like the right thing. After the mess he'd made, he wasn't sure that there would ever be a right thing. All he knew was that he needed to try. If he didn't at least try to get her back, he thought he was going to regret it for the rest of his life.
“I... I didn’t think you were going to come,” he whispered. As opening lines went, it was about as lame as things could get, but it was a start.
“I know,” she answered softly, “I didn’t think I was going to either.”
“I want to concede to you,” he said in a rush, “I don’t want anything to do with the competition. I want you to have it. You deserve it. You deserve this and so much more.”
“Nate, I—"
“And I want to give it to you, Athena,” he continued in a rush, “I want to give you everything you deserve. Because I love you, Athena. I love you so much it hurts.”
“Are you done?” she said with a smile.
“Yes,” he sighed, defeated by that one word, “I’m done. I tried, right?”
“You did, and now I’m going to give you my answer. You can’t concede.”
“But—"
"You can't concede because I love you too," she said, a slow grin spreading across her face, "and I want to help you finish this thing. I want you to get your sponsor, and I want the two of us to give it a real shot. Do you think we can do that? Do you think we can give it a go?"
Because he couldn't find any words to do justice to the way her words made him feel, Nate scooped Athena out of the chair, swung her around like the two of them were in a movie, and planted her with a kiss.
Epilogue
“All right, girls, anyone have any questions? Are we all clear on what we’re going to do here?”
“Yes, Mr. Grant,” the girls—who Nate still thought of as Athena’s little ladies—answered in a chorus.
“Are you sure?” he pressed, “Because this is a big deal. This is the biggest deal, my friends. This is your basic life or death situation.”
“Come on,” Gretta half-laughed, half-groaned, “nobody’s going to die. You’re just being silly.”
“Bite your tongue,” Nate said with mock horror. Except that he kind of meant it, at least in part. He’d been through plenty of competitions, plenty of scenarios that warranted a surge of adrenaline, but nothing in his life that came anywhere close to this. Out of everything he had done, this was the only thing that felt like it really counted, and the competition wasn’t even his own.
"Does she know anything?" another girl asked, her little face beet red with excitement, "Like, do you think she's got a clue?"
“I don’t know,” Nate answered suspiciously, folding his arms across his chest for good measure, “it depends. Did you guys keep my secret?”
The girls gave him an enthusiastic “yes,” a couple of them shooting him looks that made it clear how little they appreciated his lack of faith.
And he did have faith in them. He had been helping Athena with them from time to time ever since their legendary competition, the one in which she had beaten him soundly. He had still gotten his sponsor despite losing. All the publicity from the reality show and from their very real relationship had seen to that. In the end, though, it had hardly seemed to matter. It was Athena that mattered. It was what the two of them had together, and he reminded himself of that fact every day. He was lucky to have her. As far as he was concerned, he was the luckiest man alive.
Athena’s career had taken off after the commotion too. She’d been able to start working on the rodeo circuit, just as she had always wanted. She still taught classes for her girls—she did that because she wanted to, not because she needed the money. That love for her girls was what had given him the idea for what was about to happen. He already had a bus at his disposal from his travels, and it hadn’t been a hard sell to get Athena to take it for the trip to her Dallas competition. The girls had been so happy to be a part of his surprise that they had actually tried to spend the night on the bus for fear of being left behind.
“Mr. Grant!” Gracie whispered shrilly, tugging on his shirt, “She’s coming! You better get ready!”
Nate didn’t have time to say anything in rebuttal. Athena was halfway up the stairs to the bus before she realized that it wasn’t just going to be her and Nate. When she saw all of her girls sitting there on the bus with him, she stopped and stared, her face such a perfect mask of surprise that Nate couldn’t help but laugh.
“Um, hi, girls,” she said cautiously, “what’s going on here?”
“Nothing much,” Nate answered as casually as he was able. He shoved a hand into his pocket, holding fast to the box waiting there. Anytime he stopped touching it, he started to panic that it wouldn’t be there anymore.
“Nate? Please tell me they have permission to come to the competition,” she started to say doubtfully, “because they need things like parental approval, you know? They—"
“I got it, honey,” he interrupted, “give me a little credit, will ya? I’ve been doing this for a year now. I like to think I’ve learned a thing or two. They’ve got everything they need.”
“That’s right, Miss Athena!” Gretta piped up, no longer able to contain herself, “We’ve got everything we need, including this!”
Before Nate could stop her, Gretta grabbed the sign carefully hidden beneath her seat and held it triumphantly over her head. When Athena saw what it said
, her hands flew up to her face and tears sprang out in her eyes. Nate groaned, but he couldn’t stop his grin.
“This wasn’t exactly how it was supposed to go,” he said, rolling his eyes dramatically at Gretta, who gave him a sheepish smile in return, “I had a whole plan. I was going to wait until you won the competition and there were going to be flowers. I feel like there should be flowers with this sort of thing.”
“Right,” she answered distractedly, her eyes never leaving the poster her girls had worked so hard to create, “does that say what I think it says?”
“The sign? Well, if you think it says ‘Will you marry me?’ then you would be right.”
He had a whole speech planned out, one in which he would tell her all of the amazing things she was and all of the ways she had changed his life. Before he got a chance to say anything else at all, though, Athena was up the rest of the bus’s steps and in his arms. She kissed him deeply, her face so close to his that he could feel the wet from her cheeks on his own. She was pressed so tightly against him that he could hardly manage to get the ring box out of his pocket. When he did, he held it out for her and smiled gently when she started to cry even harder.
“Well? If you need some time, sugar, I understand, but I’m not going to lie. I’m kind of dying here. I—"
“Yes!” she shouted so loudly that it made the girls sitting closest to them jump, “The answer is yes, cowboy. Now you’re stuck with me for good!”
“Well, it’s about time!” Ian’s voice rang out from behind the two of them.
“Damn right,” Jonah agreed with a hearty laugh.
Nate kissed Athena deeply, and then turned to face his brothers. He raised both of his fists over his head in a gesture reminiscent of Rocky throwing his hands up in victory, and they both laughed, just the way he knew they would.
He wanted to remember this moment forever, and not just because Athena had agreed to be his wife. He wanted to remember Ian and Jonah and him, the three of them together again and all of them finally happy. For the first time in a long, long time, the Grant brothers were all settled in their lives.
Nate couldn’t wait to see what the world had in store for them next.
End of The Cowboy’s Rodeo Rival
Grant Brothers Book Three
Want to saddle up with another cowboy? Please keep reading for a preview from Breaking the Cowboy’s Rules.
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About Leslie
Leslie North is the USA Today Bestselling pen name for a critically-acclaimed author of women's contemporary romance and fiction. The anonymity gives her the perfect opportunity to paint with her full artistic palette, especially in the romance and erotic fantasy genres.
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BLURB
Ranch owner, Trevor Wild, loves nothing more than spending his day in the saddle riding in the Texas sun. He’s passionate about being the latest generation of Wild man to breed quarter horses on Wildhorse Ranch. But in the aftermath of inheriting a bad business deal the Ranch is in serious financial trouble, and this serious cowboy needs to look outside the box to save his family’s pride and joy.
Glamping guru, Sabrina Hearthstone, is the best of the best at what she does, and she could very well be Trevor’s saving grace. The blonde beauty arrives at Wildhorse Ranch ready to get the job done. She’s all business when it comes to bringing a little luxury to the leather and dirt clad Ranch. But soon she’ll realize that to renovate the Ranch for Glamping she may have to renovate it’s cowboy too.
Sabrina is tempting on a whole lot of levels for Trevor—when he gives into both her touch, and the 1,000 thread count bed sheets, he finds that she soothes his soul. However, Sabrina’s world is a difficult thing for the hardened cowboy to accept. Trevor will have to learn to accept Sabrina and her changes to his world, not only to save Wildhorse Ranch, but to save a love he never expected to find.
Grab your copy of Breaking The Cowboy’s Rules here.
EXCERPT
Chapter One
"That her?" Trevor Wild asked his brother. The question rose from his lips like vapor, his warm breath chilled by contact with the early morning air.
He already knew the answer to his question, but he wanted to make sure he wasn't hallucinating the pretty blonde woman standing in front of the old bunkhouse with her arms crossed. She appeared to be in deep contemplation of the woodpile he had been gathering there all season, and the intensity of her concentration made her blind to everything else—including the two men watching her from behind the fence across the property.
"That's her," his brother confirmed. Trent hitched the front of his Wranglers up and blew casually on a steaming mug of coffee he had lifted out of the ranch kitchen. Trevor, sleep-deprived from his long drive home from the conference, felt a surge of jealousy at his twin's morning alertness. "Sabrina Hearthstone, Wildhorse Ranch's very own Glamping Adventure Coordinator. I'd say it has a certain ring to it, but I'm not sure half of those words were meant to exist in the English language."
Trevor cringed in private agreement, the shadow of his hat brim concealing his reaction to the distasteful word. “Glamping,” a portmanteau of glamorous camping, was not a concept he had ever imagined, let alone expected to put into place at Wildhorse. At thirty-two, he was sure life had more unpleasant revelations in store for him, but whether Sabrina Hearthstone might be the next unfortunate event in a glamping-related string of surprises remained to be seen.
"Looks like you're going to have your hands full with this one," Trent remarked as the distant female figure pulled her hair back into a ponytail and dropped to a squat. He said it in the tone of a horseman surveying a particularly unruly filly. Trevor wondered what his brother had gone through already with this woman; still, there was no mistaking the slight tone of admiration in Trent's voice.
"Looks like she's got her hands plenty full already," Trevor mentioned. He squinted across the lawn as Sabrina, who appeared to be dismantling and hauling much of the woodpile up onto the porch. "What the hell is she doing?"
That scrap was probably lousy with splinters—not to mention pill bugs and termites—yet she didn't shrink from grappling with it barehanded. She might as well have been holding the front door wide open and inviting the pests to brunch in the goddamn bunkhouse living room.
"No idea," Trent replied, before amending, "I thought she said something about wanting the scraps for planters or a coffee table or something. You know, like a project."
Trevor sighed and cuffed his brother on the shoulder. "Thanks for keeping an eye on the place while I was away." He tipped his hat in advance of another momentary farewell. "You want to stick around for a bit? Give me the rundown of what's been going on?"
"Sure. Not like I have a job or anything."
The grim line of Trevor's mouth flexed a little. "I'll catch up with you in a few, Sheriff."
"You know I'll be here. And get some coffee!" Trent hollered the suggestion after him. "Something tells me you're going to need it!"
Something tells me you're not wrong. What he wouldn't do for a cup as black as Sabrina Hearthstone was fair. Despite feeling dead on his feet, Trevor loped the length of the yard to reach the new adventure coordinator. She glanced up when she heard his bootsteps; she opened her mouth to start talking almost before he was within earshot.
"Oh! I'm so glad you're here, Trent. Do you mind helping me with this monster?" Sabrina wiped her forehead and indicated the log giving her trouble.
Trevor knew it all too well. Not only had he struggled for more hours than he would readily admit to unearth it and drag it this far, but his unwillingness to move it again was the entire reason the wood scrap on his property had started accumulating here in the first place.
Trevor doubted a pair of freckled, toothpick-thin arms would provide the help he needed to haul it, but he had never turned down a woman in distress before. "Sure." He pulled on his work gloves and stooped to wrestle the other end of the log into his arms. "But I'm not Trent."
"Huh?" Sabrina glanced up to take him in again, and dropped the side of the log she was holding. Trevor grimaced and set his end down, also. The way his mouth tended to frown naturally—and only deepen when he was annoyed or working—distinguished him from his more approachable twin brother.
"No…I mean, wow. You really aren't, are you?" Now that Sabrina had halted operations, Trevor straightened to regard her in turn. The way she looked him over, with eyes as wide and summer-blue as the Wyoming sky, made him acutely aware of just how closely they stood.
"No. I really am not," he agreed. He wondered just how much Trent let her get away with while he was gone. Sabrina Hearthstone had a face as pretty as an angel's—pair that with her ridiculously tight, stone-washed designer jeans, and he doubted his brother had been willing to deny her much. She was the living, breathing lyric of a country song standing before him—the worshipped, vaunted city girl—and for the first time, Trevor contemplated just how much trouble he might be in having her on his property.
At least they had managed to agree on one important detail so far: he wasn't his brother Trent. While the Sheriff of Lockhart Bend might be willing to let certain behaviors slide, Trevor expected a rigid adherence to his rules. If she already found him more serious, more commanding, than his twin brother, then it might make his job a hell of a lot easier.
