The Cowboy’s Rodeo Rival: Grant Brothers Series Book Three

by North, Leslie

  Grant Brothers

  The Cowboy’s Surprise Nanny

  The Cowboy’s Contract Marriage

  The Cowboy’s Rodeo Rival

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  RELAY PUBLISHING EDITION, MAY 2019

  Copyright © 2019 Relay Publishing Ltd.

  All rights reserved. Published in the United Kingdom by Relay Publishing. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Mary Sue Jackson is a pen name created by Relay Publishing for co-authored Romance projects. Relay Publishing works with incredible teams of writers and editors to collaboratively create the very best stories for our readers.

  Cover Design by LJ Mayhem Covers.

  www.relaypub.com

  Blurb

  Nate Grant knows that his eldest brother has the respect, his middle brother has the smarts, and he was left to fight for his own piece of the spotlight. Thus, began his daring, dangerous, and often a little bit crazy foray into the world of rodeo. Now, with his career on the rise, Nate is back in town to do a promotional show at the local Strawberry Festival to land himself a major sponsor. But when he arrives expecting to be welcomed as the hometown hero, he instead finds himself challenged by the only person who could ever make him shake in his boots: Athena Moore.

  Athena grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. Limited money for rodeo lessons or competitions meant that while she could best the boys, she couldn’t follow them to the big leagues. Watching Nate excel really lit a fire in her britches and after school she began training and teaching young girls rodeo skills. Winning against Nate at the upcoming Strawberry Festival will show the girls (and Athena) that they could do anything boys could—and do it better to boot.

  But promoting the event means Nate and Athena are forced to spend time together. Too much time to keep their tumultuous feelings under wraps. Now, there’s a grudging respect to their relationship and a heavy dose of passion too. But as Nate and Athena get closer, their competition becomes public via a reality show. When the lines between promotion and passion are crossed, they’ll be forced to ask themselves what it is they’re fighting for...and what they’ll lose if they win.

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  (Grant Brothers Book Three)

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  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Epilogue

  End of The Cowboy’s Rodeo Rival

  Thank You!

  About Leslie

  Also by Leslie

  1

  “Athena! Athena, we’ve got some company!”

  Shelly, Athena’s assistant trainer for her group of budding rodeo girls, hissed the words loudly. It was likely meant to be a whisper but what came out was an awful parody of one. Athena stiffened, shutting her eyes briefly and willing herself to be calm. She had known this was coming after all. She had known he was coming. Was she thrilled with Shelly for sounding like they had just been favored with a visit by the pope instead of a rodeo star? No, she most definitely was not. Still, she understood very well that keeping her cool was paramount. There was no way in hell she was going to give Nate Grant the satisfaction of seeing her sweat.

  Athena had known for some time now that Nate was returning to their small hometown for the local festival. It was knowledge she couldn’t have avoided, even if she’d wanted to. With Nate being such a big deal, it seemed like the only thing people could talk about, both in the rodeo circle and in the town in general.

  For at least a week now, Athena hadn't been able to take a simple trip to the grocery store without hearing the latest gossip on the youngest Grant brother. It seemed that everyone loved the classic prodigal son returned story, and Nate's was no exception. She would be lying if she said she wasn't irked by the reaction, but she was without a doubt in the minority. Even Shelly, typically cool as a cucumber, was practically vibrating with excitement.

  “Um, Athena? You heard me, right? Because we—"

  “Have company,” Athena interrupted, “yeah, I heard you. Just keep your cool, okay? It’s not like he’s a legitimate celebrity.”

  "Right, except that he kind of is," Shelly countered, her eyes darting from Athena to the oblivious girls practicing and then to Nate who was being led in through the gates behind the girls by the men who ran the practice barn, "at least in the rodeo circuit. Come on, Athena, I don't have to tell you that. If anyone understands that, it's you."

  “Okay, sure, in the rodeo circuit. I’ll give you that. All I’m saying is, it’s not like Cary Grant just walked through the door,” Athena said, starting to get annoyed now.

  “He may not be Cary himself, but he’s just as good looking as any movie star in his prime. If you don’t see that, you must be even crazier than I thought.”

  She would have liked to pretend he wasn’t there until he gave up and went away again. Maybe that would teach him not to show up before he was expected in the future.

  He was expected though, a few days early or not, and Athena couldn’t be sure that it wasn’t just his presence in the training barn in general that had her on edge. He was easily one of the more well-known competitors on the rodeo circuit, and one of the few to cross over into mainstream recognition as well.

  It wasn't just because of his talent, although that was impossible to ignore. It was a charisma that translated effortlessly on the cameras and to the crowds. It was his undeniable good looks, and yes, it was his patented cockiness as well. He was pretty much the whole package, and she knew she should be grateful to have him doing this PR stunt with her in the first place.

  The Strawberry Fest was fast approaching, and this year a major rodeo competition was going to be a part of it. It was meant to draw in more than just local attention, and having Nate Grant be a part of it was a big coup, local boy or no. The PR stunt the two of them were to be engaged in had been cooked up by Nate’s agent to draw even more attention to the whole thing. The festival would end with Nate performing in a rodeo competition against a yet-to-be-named local competitor—but in the days preceding it, Nate was going to be working with Athena’s rodeo students, girls ranging from ages nine to eleven, helping them learn their lessons and such. There were going to be photographers and camera crews leading up to the main event, with the understanding that the more publicity they could get, the better it was for all of them.

  It could only mean good things for Athena’s career. She knew that. At the very least, she thought it would be good for her girls. Any publicity brought to them and what she was trying to do for teaching young girls how to rodeo was a good thing. It could lead to more community interest, donations, maybe even partne
rships with larger, more established programs. As for what it might do for her personally, Athena was trying not to think about it. If she thought about it too much, she might start to get hopeful, and hope could lead a person down a dangerous path. That was a lesson she had learned the hard way and one she had no desire to repeat.

  “Come on, girls!” She called out, clapping her hands to get her class’s attention, “Eyes on me. A visitor doesn’t mean we let up on our drills.”

  There was a murmur of agreement from the girls, but Athena could tell she didn't have their attention. They were only half with her, their eyes cutting towards Nate and then the guys who ran the barn. As she watched, her frustration mounting, several of the girls whispered to each other, giggling and blushing furiously. Nate, either unaware of the effect he was having on the class or unbothered by it, let out a loud, booming laugh at something one of the men said, and that only made the girls giddier. Athena sighed to herself and dropped the rope she'd been using for her demonstrations, her hands landing squarely on her hips. For the first time since feeling his presence in the barn, which she had done immediately, Athena allowed herself to look at Nate.

  She had to work to keep her face from registering a reaction. It had been some time since she had seen Nate in the flesh and she had forgotten just how handsome he really was. What’s more, she hadn’t been expecting him to be looking right at her when she finally looked in his direction.

  “Great,” she whispered to herself disgustedly. She could feel a flush creeping up her neck, making its way to her cheeks where it would surely linger for a while before finally beginning to fade. She pulled her hair out of its messy ponytail, only to smooth it down and put it right back up again. Playing with her hair was something she did both when she was nervous and when she was around a man she found to be good looking. With thick, shiny auburn locks curling halfway down her back, Athena had always considered her hair to be her best feature by far. She saw Nate noticing it and thought he might agree with her estimation.

  In the end, it was the little wink he offered her that tipped her over the edge. His eyes were sparkling with mischief in a way she remembered from childhood. They were unapologetically bright with what she was fairly certain was an air of defiant challenge, too. Still, she thought she could have turned and gone back to her girls, pretending he wasn't there at all, if it hadn't been for the damned wink.

  “Nate!” she called across the barn, shrugging off Shelly’s hissed questions of what exactly she thought she was doing, “Looks like you got here a little early.”

  “What can I say?” he called back amidst the chuckles of the other men, “I like to make an entrance.”

  "I just bet you do," she muttered to herself. Her girls giggled and whispered all over again, and it was all Athena could do not to roll her eyes. If Nate's intent had been to come and take over her skills session, he was doing a bang-up job.

  "That's not going to be a problem, Moore, is it?" he continued. She hated it when people called her by her last name only, always had. Come to think of it, she seemed to remember that it was Nate who had begun the trend back when they were only children.

  “Nope, no problems here,” she called over her shoulder, refocusing her attention on her class. He was goading her, heckling her in front of her girls. If he thought he was going to best her in front of them, however, he had a surprise coming his way.

  “Good!” Nate laughed, “I would hate to send you and the girls into a tizzy. I’m just here to watch, after all, aren’t I?”

  “Actually? No, I don’t think you are.”

  Athena noted the way Nate's brow furrowed with some satisfaction and even smiled when her girls gasped and started asking questions. She had just surprised Nate, put him on the spot instead of the other way around, and she knew it. She also knew that Nate was far more of a showman than he was a teacher. Unless she was very much mistaken, unless Nate had completely changed from the boy she once knew, he enjoyed the spotlight too much to have the patience to teach. The only thing she didn't know was how he was going to handle this curveball.

  “Sorry? I’m not sure what you’re getting at,” Nate said, just the smallest hint of uncertainty in his voice as he approached the middle of the ring with his hands shoved deep into his pockets.

  “Well, you’re the Rodeo God, aren’t you?” she said with an innocent smile, “Why don’t you come teach my girls their next skill? I’m sure they would be beyond thrilled by it, wouldn’t you, kids?”

  “Yes!” came the chorus from a group of children so excited now they were verging on mania. It might have been her imagination, but she thought Nate’s face was just a touch paler than it had been only moments before. Still, he nodded at her, took his hands out of his pockets, and clapped loudly.

  “Right, girls. Sounds like a plan. Who wants to tell me what we’re doing?”

  * * *

  Nate thrived on pressure, often times seeking it out when he wasn't getting enough of it from his surroundings. Today, however, participation in this rodeo training class hadn't been a part of his plans. It might have been a dick move, but he'd come to the practice barn today to see if he could throw Athena off her game. The two of them might be doing this PR stunt together, but in the end, they were still competing in the same profession, though not on the same level and not both active on the rodeo circuit. As far as he was concerned, a little reconnaissance mission never hurt anyone.

  What he hadn't considered was that Athena might call his bluff. He had a hell of a reputation as a rodeo star, and people tended to see him as one of the bad boys of the arena. What he'd never been much of was a teacher. Whether that was because teaching wasn't something he was suited for or because he'd never given it a try, he couldn't be sure. What he was sure of was that he was going to give it a shot now. There was no way he was going to back down from the challenge Athena was presenting. That was not the impression he had come here to make.

  “Come on girls,” he prompted, “don’t be shy. Tell me what we’re getting up to here.”

  “Miss Athena was teaching us about roping and riding,” one eager little girl in the front of the pack said, bouncing up and down with palpable excitement.

  “Good, good, that’s a start,” Nate said, trying to ignore his lack of confidence until he could get rid of it entirely, “what about it, exactly?”

  "How to do it, Nate," Athena answered, her voice full of humor, "they've done both things independently, but they've never put the skills together. You're going to show them how."

  "Great," he answered, forcing a smile. He sauntered forward, approaching the patiently waiting horse and trying to search back into his distant memories. He knew there was a time when he hadn't known how to do this most basic of rodeoing skills, but for the life of him, he couldn't remember when. Rodeoing, every part of it, ran through his veins right along with his blood. For him, it felt like he'd been doing it since the day he was born. Trying to break down and explain something that came as naturally as breathing was a tall order indeed.

  “All right, girls,” he said in his best approximation of a confident voice as he swung up onto the horse, “what do you say we show these fine folks how this is done?”

  Forty-five minutes later, Nate was amazed by the progress and success of Athena’s girls. He’d been sure that he would fail to teach a single one of them. Actually accomplishing what the lesson was meant to teach hadn’t even been in his line of sight. His aim had been to get out of the experience without injuring anyone or making a little girl cry. Now, all of the girls seemed to have the hang of it, at least to the extent that a beginner should.

  All the girls, that was, except for one. There was one little girl named Gretta, and try as he might, Nate couldn’t seem to help her get the hang of it. With so little experience teaching, he had nothing to draw from when she didn’t get it as easily as the others. Even worse, all it took was one look at her face to understand that she was very close to losing her composure. It was looking a
hell of a lot like he was going to make someone cry, after all.

  “Hey, honey, it’s okay. Here, let’s take some breaths, okay? Just like I taught you before.”

  Athena came out of nowhere and crouched beside little Gretta, got onto her level, and looked her directly in the eye. It hadn't even occurred to Nate to do something as simple as that, but he could see that the calming effect it had was almost instantaneous. For a moment, the two of them breathed in and out together, concentrating on the rising and falling of their chests and nothing else. When Gretta’s color was back to normal, Athena stood and held out her hand. Gretta took hold of it with zero hesitation, and the two of them approached Gretta’s horse.

  “Okay, sugar, let’s try this one more time. I’m going to be right here, right next to you, every step of the way. Watch my arms, honey. Watch the way they move. I know you can do this, do you hear me? There’s not a single doubt in my mind.”

  Nate sat back and watched as Athena walked the girl around the barn. There was something in her movements that was almost feline, something fluid and impossible not to appreciate. Her hair, a fiery balance between brown and red, was coming loose so that pieces of it fell into her face. It framed her green eyes perfectly as they flashed encouragement and good cheer toward the little girl.

  “Damn.”

  He whispered the word to himself without realizing he was speaking out loud. Some of the girls closest to him snickered and gasped at the use of the naughty word, but Nate didn't notice that, either. He was totally engrossed in watching Athena work her magic.