The Bull Rider's Homecoming

by Jeannie Watt

  “Great attitude, Trace. Good luck with the ride.”

  “Thank you.”

  Honestly, he was going to need it. Brick was undefeated this season. No one had ridden him for longer than six seconds. Trace had every intention of getting his eight.

  He just had to focus. Go through the ride mentally. Prepare for all eventualities.

  Get Annie out of his head.

  That was the challenge. She was with him constantly, and she was with him now. Distracting him in a way he didn’t need to be distracted. Nothing like this had ever happened to him before, but he was certain that he’d move past this with time.

  “Delaney! You’re up!”

  The shout snapped him back to the present. He started toward the chute, giving his shoulder one more roll for reassurance. Fine. He felt fine. Brick banged around in the chute, kicking with one hind foot. Trace leaned over the rail, adjusted his rope. Brick rolled his eye at him, as if to say, “You’re mine.”

  “Right back at you,” Trace muttered before he climbed on board.

  Brick shifted irritably as Trace settled, twitching the skin on his back as if Trace were an annoying fly. He shifted his hips, wrapped the rope, pounded his glove. Deep breath, eyes closed. Weight in his feet. Center of the bull.

  He gave a quick nod and the gate opened.

  The next thing he knew he was at the end of his arm—Brick had blasted out of the chute that fast, and from there, Trace was playing catch up. Before he could get his weight back where he wanted it, in his feet, Brick spun away from his hand and then tossed him forward, swinging him around and smashing him into the ground.

  Trace automatically started scrambling, trying to get out from under the bull, catching flashes of hooves and horns as the bullfighters ran toward him. For a brief moment he thought he was home free, just before he caught the hoof to the side of his head and went down...

  * * *

  THE GOOD NEWS was that he’d be healed in time for the second half of the tour, which started in late August, just as he’d planned from the beginning. He’d also get another shot at Brick in December at Man vs. Bull. The bad news was that he was going to be out for several weeks. Again.

  The worst news was that he didn’t care.

  What had happened to him?

  Easy answer. Annie. The girls. A glimpse of a life he’d long ago told himself he couldn’t have. He’d had security snatched away from him so many times that he’d been afraid to believe he could have it.

  Tough. Tenacious. That was how the announcer had described him after the ride.

  Bull.

  He’d gotten scared of having what he wanted yanked away from him again and had hit the road rather than fight for it. He’d behaved like a freaking coward and that didn’t sit well with him. The biggest problem was that until he worked things out with Annie—settled them one way or the other, faced his fear of loss...well, his career was going to suffer.

  He was going to suffer.

  And right now, as the meds kicked in, he was going to pass out. When he came out of it, he’d call Stoddard, make sure he had a bunk. Then when he was healed, he’d head to Gavin. Risk Grady’s protective-brother wrath. He was done running. Well and truly done.

  His eyes slowly closed as his limbs grew heavy.

  He was...drifting.

  * * *

  ANNIE HAD NEVER spent more than a night away from her girls, but right now she was planning to spend at least two nights away from home. More if she had to. She and Trace were going to have words. And if he was weak because of the medication and pain, good. She was not above taking advantage.

  Lex had texted shortly after Annie arrived in Salt Lake City, assuring her that the girls were fine and quite busy cleaning all of Lex’s tack. And Lex owned a lot of tack. With her mind eased on that score, Annie focused on her mission.

  She parked in the hospital lot and went into the cafeteria to get a cup of coffee before embarking on her mission. It’d been a long drive from Gavin and she needed a minute to regroup. This, she figured, might be her last chance to talk sense into a stubborn man who was scared to death of hurting her. Failing her.

  As if.

  It had taken time, going over their previous conversations, having several heart-to-hearts with stern and protective Grady before she’d fully accepted that it was probably fear that motivated her man. Fear of losing. Fear of failing those he loved. He hadn’t been able to keep his mom alive. He hadn’t been welcome at his dad’s ranch. He’d moved around, making few friends until he’d started riding bulls. Even the couple who’d mentored him had passed away.

  The guy had nothing permanent in life.

  Well, he was going to have something permanent now.

  After her coffee, which had to be the reason her heart was beating harder than usual, she went to the desk and asked for Trace’s room number then took an elevator to the second floor. By the time she approached the room, her heart was hammering to the point that she could no longer blame caffeine. She was scared. Really scared.

  When Grady had told her that Trace had been hurt again, she’d almost thrown up. And that had convinced her once and for all that she was not going to let him ruin both of their lives. Not without one heck of a struggle. She pushed the door open, sucking in a breath as she saw Trace lying in the bed closest to the door. The other bed was empty.

  Good. No witnesses.

  She lifted her chin and moved into the room.

  Let the battle begin.

  * * *

  TRACE HEARD THE nurse come in and slowly opened his eyes...only to discover that he was hallucinating. It wasn’t a nurse who stood next to his bed. It was Annie. His mouth was dry, but he managed to say, “Are you here to prop me up?”

  “I’m here to take you home.”

  If he’d had a heart monitor on, it would have red-lined.

  “I don’t have a home.”

  “Yeah. You do.”

  “I’m not going to be taken in like some charity case.”

  “I think you know better than that.”

  Damn, but she looked adamant. Trace closed his eyes and wished the pain meds hadn’t worn off. At least then he’d be loopy and could blame these feelings on the drugs. But his mind was clear and he had no doubt about Annie’s meaning.

  She leaned down and took his chin in her hand, holding it as she stared into his eyes. His breath caught at the fierceness in her expression. “I’ve come for what’s mine. Whatever fears you have about not having what it takes to be a decent partner, we’ll confront. Together. But the one thing I know is that you are a good man. Wes left because he was worried about himself. You left because you were worried about me. About failing me and the girls.”

  Trace swallowed. True. At least the part about him being afraid of failure.

  “All right,” he said slowly. “I left because I was scared. Scared of screwing up. Scared of hurting you and the girls. Scared of not being enough.”

  “And that’s where you got yourself into trouble,” Annie said darkly. “When you have doubts, you voice them.”

  “I did.”

  “And then I made my mistake. I let you go.” Her expression shifted, softened. “Come home with me, Trace. We need you.”

  He looked at the wall over Annie’s shoulder. “I think you guys do pretty well.”

  “We want to do better. It’s better when you’re there.”

  And he needed them.

  “What if it doesn’t work?”

  “What if it does?”

  Annie didn’t look as if she had any intention of giving up on him, and it struck him that the last thing in the world he would do would be to give up on her.

  “Annie...I’m at a disadvantage here.”

  “I know.” She didn’t sound
one bit displeased. “Bull riders are stubborn, and I have to take every advantage.”

  Trace gave a laugh that morphed into a cough that hurt the detached muscles of his sternum.

  “I want to come home with you.” The hardest words he’d ever said, but once they were out he knew just how true they were. He wanted to go home.

  “This seems too easy,” Annie said, her gaze narrowed suspiciously.

  “No,” he said softly. “It’s been a while coming. I couldn’t stop thinking about you. What I’d given up. My old life didn’t seem so good anymore.”

  He reached out to take her hand, pain shooting through his ribs, but he barely registered it as her fingers entwined with his. “I’m sorry I put you through this,” he murmured.

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” But he could see the glimmer of unshed tears in her eyes, and it killed him. “We both had lessons to learn.”

  “I want out of this bed.”

  “I want you out of that bed, too. In the worst way.”

  He squeezed her hand. “How are the girls?”

  “Resilient. But they miss you.”

  “I miss them. I worry about them.”

  Annie smiled softly. “I think that’s a pretty universal feeling, in our small universe.”

  “Annie...I’m not afraid of a half-ton bull, but I’m afraid of failing you.” He swallowed hard. “I love you and I left because of that.”

  For a moment Annie simply stared at him, then she blinked, as if trying to hold back tears. Oh, but he hoped they were happy tears. It would kill him to have hurt her more than he already had. Her grip tightened on his hand and he pulled her closer.

  “And now you’ll come back for the same reason?” she asked softly.

  “If you’ll have me.”

  She wrapped her arms around him and it hurt. He didn’t care. He kind of liked the pain because it reminded him that he was alive. “I didn’t come all this way because I didn’t want you,” she murmured before finding his lips, kissing him deeply. “’Cause you know what? I love you, too.”

  Trace’s chest tightened and he brought his hand up to thread through her silky hair, bringing her mouth back down to his and apologizing for everything in the best way he knew how.

  Annie sighed against his lips when she finally moved away. “I’m so glad I came. It wasn’t an easy decision.” She smiled a little. “But I want to make a life with you.”

  “Do you want me to give up bulls?”

  Her eyebrows lifted. “Do I want you to give up breathing?”

  He started to smile. She got it. She well and truly got it. And he had her. For his own. He lay back against the stiff hospital pillow, grimacing a little at the deep ache in his side before reaching out to take Annie’s hand in his.

  Did life get any better than this?

  Epilogue

  Brick shook his massive head and kicked his back foot, making the metal panel behind him ring.

  “You know what?” Trace muttered to the bull, “I feel the same way.”

  He shot a quick look at the crowd, knew that Annie and the girls were there, somewhere, and that brought on a swell of determination. One, he couldn’t get hurt in front of his girls, and two, he was going to take Brick down. The bull hadn’t been successfully ridden by anyone in over a year, and it was time.

  The bull’s muscles bunched as Trace eased himself on, scooting his butt around to find the proper spot to grip with his thighs, push the weight down through his feet before dealing with his rope and glove. The strangest calm settled over him. He usually felt the pump of adrenaline, heard the crowd, but things became oddly silent. The sharp smell of bull sweat still stung his nostrils and he felt the power of the animal between his legs. It was just him and Brick and the contest between them.

  Nothing personal, big guy, but I have something to prove.

  The gate opened. Brick didn’t move, then, just when Trace concluded that his contest was a bust, the bull exploded out into the arena, spinning first left then right. He changed it up with an ass over ears high buck, then started spinning again.

  And Trace countered every challenge, his body moving fluidly, despite the jerking, jarring action of the bull beneath him. Oh, yeah, he had this. The buzzer sounded and Trace, for once, disembarked without a face-plant. Only then did he hear the crowd and he raised a hand, pumped his fist. Smiled broadly. Brick continued to buck around the arena until the safety man moved him to the gate, and then the bull trotted out with an until-we-meet-again shake of his horns.

  Trace walked to the main gate, feeling...satisfied. Yes, that was the word. He’d be in the money tonight—he was sure of it—but even better, Annie and his girls had been there to witness his triumph.

  * * *

  IT SEEMED LIKE forever before the show ended and Annie was able to herd her excited girls to the area where she was to meet Trace. She saw him instantly, moving a little stiffly as he walked toward them, but she knew that the stiffness came from the previous week’s injury. Tonight’s ride had been gold.

  Kristen and Katie instantly attached themselves to Trace, each taking a hand.

  “You were great!” they said in unison. Annie’s heart swelled at Trace’s answering smile. He knelt down to look them in the eyes, still holding their hands in his.

  “I was aiming for great,” he said. “Old Brick isn’t very happy with me.”

  “But we are!” Katie said. “Mom thought we might not want to watch, but I wasn’t scared at all!”

  Annie had been scared. A little. Common sense scared, but that was part of being involved with a bull rider. They’d been together over six months and it just kept getting better...to the point that when Trace offered her the ring that she’d accidentally come across when he’d asked her to get the tire gauge out of his glove compartment, she knew exactly what her answer was going to be—an unequivocal yes. She’d told him she wouldn’t sign up for anything too permanent before a year had passed and he was honoring her wishes.

  She was seriously considering pushing the deadline up, especially since Trace was now in partnership with Jasper and working to increase the quality of his bucking stock.

  “We can get pizza now, right?” Katie asked.

  “Anything you want,” Trace said, getting to his feet and pulling Annie into a warm embrace. “Thank you for being here. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

  “There’s Lex!” Kristen said, pointing to the walkway leading to the exit.

  “You guys can go see her,” Annie said. The girls raced off and Annie brought her hands up to frame her bull rider’s face, smiling up into his hazel eyes. “I’ll just stay here and congratulate the champ.”

  Her champ leaned down to take her lips and Annie allowed herself to melt against him until she heard the happy laughter of her daughters.

  “Yes,” Lex said drily from behind them. “I agree. To-tally mushy.”

  Trace just smiled and leaned down to kiss her again.

  * * * * *

  Be sure to check out the first book in Jeannie Watt’s

  MONTANA BULL RIDERS miniseries,

  THE BULL RIDER MEETS HIS MATCH, available

  now from Harlequin Western Romance. And look for

  a new MONTANA BULL RIDERS story,

  coming in 2017 wherever Harlequin books are sold!

  Keep reading for a sneak peek of

  SUNRISE CROSSING,

  the latest captivating novel in the acclaimed

  RANSOM CANYON series by

  New York Times bestselling author

  Jodi Thomas!

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  Sunrise Crossing

  by Jodi Thomas

  CHAPTER ONE

  Flight

  January 2012

  LAX

  VICTORIA VILANIE CURLED into a ball, trying to make herself small, trying to disappear. Her black hair spread around her like a cape but couldn’t protect her.

  All the sounds in the airport were like drums playing in a jungle full of predators. Carts with clicking wheels rolling on pitted tiles. People shuffling and shouting and complaining. Electronic voices rattling off numbers and destinations. Babies crying. Phones ringing. Winter’s late storm pounding on walls of glass.