Her Rodeo Rancher

by M. K. Stelmack

  “Not with Will’s shoulder the way it is,” Krista said. “That is one fight I would definitely put an end to.”

  Alyssa set down her phone and turned to Krista until their knees grazed. “You really do love him, don’t you?”

  Krista tried to laugh it off but her breath caught in her throat and she made a strangled noise. “All those guys fighting over me at school? And the only one I really wanted was the guy who flat out rejected me.” She nodded at Alyssa’s look of surprise. “Yep. Will Claverley. I’ve been stuck on him for a long time.”

  “The fish that got away?”

  This time Krista could laugh. “You clearly have not seen him in water. He’s more like a rock. A terrified rock.”

  “I heard about that. Everybody was amazed he got in there for you.”

  “Yeah, well, in the end, I guess he shouldn’t have bothered.”

  Alyssa sucked in her breath, the kind that signaled she was about to blow up. “Krista, you know I was angry when you and Will got together. Here was a guy I hoped could put up with my...explosions. I’m aware that I can be—intense. I so want things to go right that I end up making a mess of them. I ruined my friendship with Laura because I wanted her wedding to be absolutely perfect.” Alyssa twisted her mouth. “I blamed you for abandoning our partnership when you probably left because I was so insufferable.”

  Krista had no idea Alyssa had such a low opinion of herself. “Honestly, you didn’t need me. You could handle the business on your own, and you’ve proved it.”

  “But it’s made me a nervous, high-strung wreck. You had a way of bringing me down. I thought Will could help me chill a bit. And I wanted to make him feel good about himself again. Show him his fans, give him a pep talk when he was low. But then I started taping you two together and I realized—” Alyssa sucked in another breath “—I realized how good you two were together because you weren’t perfect for each other, and neither of you seemed to care.”

  But they had cared, and that was the problem. “Appearances can deceive,” Krista said quietly.

  “Or,” Alyssa said with equal quietness, “they can show what the people in the picture can’t see for themselves.”

  She was wrong, but on the brink of resurrecting their friendship there was nothing to be gained by arguing the point. “Thank you, Alyssa. Is this us patching things up?”

  “It’s me admitting that my own worst enemy was never you.” Alyssa’s head shot up and she snatched up her phone. “Worst enemy! I got it. How about this? The numbers from the video of the doctor visit are high—by the way, you would not believe the stupid hoops that doctor put me through before he’d allow me to record him. He’s the most infuriating, insufferable, conceited man I’ve ever met.”

  “I don’t know,” Krista said, “he seemed genuinely concerned about Will.”

  “Oh, I’m sure he has a heart—somewhere,” Alyssa said. “Probably keeps it buried in a closet and brings it out to scare kids on Halloween. Anyway, views are up but now I’m getting comments and emails that people are worried for Will. I’ve even had a lawyer from one of the sponsors contact me about liability waivers should Will get reinjured on his ride.”

  “Are you saying that this has backfired?”

  “No, but maybe we should address their concern. I was thinking that you could speak for every mom and girlfriend out there who doesn’t want to see their guy hurt.”

  Their guy. Will wasn’t her guy. But the world believed he was, and she’d agreed to play along in this game where the fake and the real had become one. “What’s the plan?”

  * * *

  HOURS LATER, KRISTA leaned against a real fence with a real Will beside her, while Silver had her head over the railing between them.

  Alyssa was a ways off, fiddling with her camera, adjusting for the evening light, which at the rate she was working would soon disappear entirely.

  Silver snuffled in the direction of the pocket on Krista’s hoodie. “You found me out, girl.” Krista withdrew a baggie of apple slices and offered one to her, steeling herself not to flinch at Silver’s giant mouth.

  “You cut up an apple for her? She has teeth,” Will said.

  “But then she’d crunch through it, leave and then where would we be without our prop?”

  “Point taken.” Will tugged at the neck pad of his sling.

  “That sling a prop, too?” Krista said.

  “I’ll have you know that I’ve been wearing it every time my butt’s parked in a chair. You ever try eating with your opposite hand? Austin and I are quite the pair at supper.”

  “That I’d like to see.”

  “Not if I can help it.”

  “Somebody,” Krista informed Silver as she fed her another apple slice, “is grumpy that he has to take care of himself.”

  “The problem is that I’m not allowed to take care of anything other than myself. I’m on lockdown. Dad saddled up my horse today. He hasn’t done that since I was six. I might as well play with Austin in the sandbox.”

  “Quit feeling sorry for yourself,” Krista snapped. “If you were a horse, you’d be shot.”

  Silver jerked her head. “Not you,” Krista cooed. “Who would dare hurt you with those big brown eyes and long eyelashes? And your pretty, pretty hair?” Krista ran her fingers through Silver’s forelock and Silver lowered her head.

  “Why did she do that?” Krista said.

  “Because she likes it,” Will said. He sounded even more irritated.

  “What I said or what I did?”

  Will looked at her as if she was jerking him around. “Both.”

  “Finally, I can pay her back for all the trouble I caused her,” she said, rubbing Silver behind the ears.

  “Don’t worry, we won’t shoot you for it,” he said.

  She’d never seen Will this grumpy. Alyssa had mounted the camera now, so filming might actually start this century. Meanwhile, she’d have to deal with Will. “C’mon, I didn’t mean you should be shot. All I’m saying is that a lot of people would be glad to put up their feet for a while.”

  “That’s not the point,” Will said. “If I was sure that six weeks of rest—or six months!—would solve all my health issues, I’d hate doing it but I would. It’s the uncertainty. Or the realization you might have to give up on your plans and dreams, and that people bound to you will have to change theirs as well because of you. I can’t stand that, and let me tell you, the second I sit that starts running through my head.”

  The raw pain in his voice stabbed Krista. What would she do if she couldn’t operate her spa anymore? If she had to let go of the life she’d created for herself? She instinctively reached out to him, her fingertips on the coarse canvas of his sling. “You will never be useless, Will Claverley. You’ll become a one-armed rancher and carry on. And everyone you love and who loves you will be right there with you.”

  His voice dropped a fraction. “Everyone?”

  His hazel eyes latched on to hers, and she couldn’t pull away. He was asking her if she loved him, and she did. Not the girl-crush infatuation but the hard kind of love. The kind of love that recognized she would do anything to keep him well and happy, even if that meant there was no place for her in his life.

  “Yes,” she said firmly, “everyone.”

  Something leaped in his eyes, something that she’d not seen since the rodeo when he’d asked if he could date her for real. When they agreed to try despite all the differences between them.

  “Cut!”

  They whirled to Alyssa, who was beaming. “Perfect! I got it all. This should show everybody that no matter what happens, he’ll rise stronger than before. The one-armed cowboy thing was brilliant, Krista. I got a good close-up on Will’s reaction. That’ll connect with the kids.”

  Krista opened her mouth to protest that she hadn’t realized the camera was rolling, tha
t her lines were not planned, but then she caught Will’s eye. The special something in his eye had vanished. A hard, wary look had crept in.

  Along with Alyssa, he believed that she’d said it all for the camera. They were wrong. Loving him had never been the problem. Living with him was. But if she denied it, then he’d clutch to the futile hope that they could work things out. Better to stick to the hard kind of love. After all, she already had a reputation for walking away.

  “I’m glad you liked it,” she said to Alyssa. “I thought it came off pretty natural, too.”

  Will jerked away from the fence. “Since I’m no longer needed here, I’ll be off.”

  He strode off, leaving Alyssa to stare between the two of them. “What did I miss?”

  Krista rubbed Silver’s cheek. “You caught it all.”

  * * *

  NO CANCELLATION OF the celebrity ride this time around. The skies had been wide and blue all day long. Mid-August heat plastered Will’s jeans to his thighs as he waited outside a vendor truck for his fries and burgers. People had pressed themselves under beach umbrellas, overhangs or thin skirts of shade from horse trailers and viewing stands, happy to wait out the break between events with popsicles or cold beer under a tent.

  The evening mutton-busting event was announced over the speakers, and people began to mosey to the arena. His ride would be up in a couple of hours. He’d already given his speech during the afternoon show to rustle up excitement. A bare-bones, Krista-less one.

  She wasn’t here yet. A wedding party had her booked solid into the early afternoon, a wedding he’d be at right now if not for the rescheduled celebrity ride. One his entire family would’ve been at too, except that his mom and dad had chosen to come to watch him ride. Laura and Ryan would go. Keith had better show up, too, because Dana would be there.

  His brother still had a shot at happiness.

  He remembered the glide of Krista’s face away from him, the break of her blue eyes from his, her casual answer to Alyssa. Natural. Three weeks on and the word stuck in his throat. He’d fallen for her little speech about being there for him. But it had all been for Alyssa’s camera. He’d refused to take any more video with Krista, and Alyssa had not argued the point. Maybe Krista had requested the same thing, who knows. They’d not communicated since that evening, relying on Alyssa as a go-between. Yet he still checked for messages from her half a dozen times a day, hopeless as it was. No painkillers for a broken heart.

  The burger vendor called his number and Will picked up his order. Then he made his way to where his dad sat alone at a set of bleachers at the rear of the arena set up for entrants and their crew. Out in the arena, sheep and kids were lining up for the mutton-bustin’ races.

  “I can still feel the greasy crunch of that sheep wool in my hands,” Will said, handing a loaded burger over to his dad. “And the smell. Like when Austin puked up grass.”

  His dad spoke through a mouthful of burger. “I remember Keith trying to convince the organizer he was four so he could race against you.”

  “Then when he was four, he beat me.”

  His dad frowned. “I don’t remember that, but I s’pose he could’ve. He can hold the saddle every bit as good as you.”

  “I know, but I’d never tell him that.”

  About to take another bite, his dad pulled the burger back, gusted out his breath. “I don’t know that I ever told him, either. I should’ve. Might have made him rethink his choices.”

  “You talking about Macey?”

  His dad shrugged, his attention on the little cowboys and cowgirls in their helmets as they sidled up to their woolly mounts. “That, and the whole ranch thing. You and Keith, you’re both suited to take over, but it’s always gone to the oldest kid. Up to now that’s always worked. Other sons had their plans to move on.”

  His dad seemed to be suggesting a partnership. “I don’t mind ranching with him, Dad. We just don’t have the same ideas, is all.”

  “Only way for that to work is if one of you ended up unhappy, and now with both of you in that state, it’s not pretty.” Around a mouthful of burger, he added, “I kind of hope he patches things up with Dana.”

  His father was far more observant than Will had ever supposed. “You know about them?”

  “Have for years. At least, her part.”

  “She told you?”

  “Saw it for myself. She’d lift her head like a colt whenever he came close. Those two always kept an eye on the other.”

  “You’re smarter than me. Could’ve knocked me over with a toothpick when she admitted it to me. Krista figured it out and talked Dana into telling Keith about how she felt. He declined her offer.”

  “Know that, too. From your mother.” His dad wiped his mouth. “Hard to watch your kids fall. In and out of the arena.”

  That was his dad’s way of declaring his love. Will had to swallow a couple of times to get the chunk of burger past the lump in his throat. When he did, he said what children said more and more to their parents as they grew up, whether it was true or not. “The kid in the arena tonight will be fine, Dad. And the kid out, he has another chance tonight at the wedding.”

  “He’s going?”

  While the announcer and the clown bantered about the upcoming high-stakes sheep race, Will texted Keith to ask.

  Soon as I get Austin into more than a diaper, I’m headed out the door.

  Keep at it. Dana will be there. Dad wants you to finalize a Claverley-Stanziuk merger.

  Great.

  Have fun.

  You too. Don’t show off.

  Will sent Keith a grinning emoji because Keith hated emojis.

  “What did he say?” his dad said, neatly folding his wrapper into tiny squares he’d later deposit into a garbage can. His dad didn’t like messy garbage.

  “He’s going,” Will said.

  “Good. One down.”

  What did he mean by that? A buzzer rang out and the first heat in the mutton race took off. Three-quarters of the kids dropped off their sheep like shook flies, but two hung on until the halfway mark and then it was down to one boy. Will could see the gritted strain on the boy’s face as he held onto the side of the sheep to cross the finish line.

  “He earned his pay on that one,” his dad said. “You could learn a thing or two from him when it comes to Krista.”

  His mom had been talking to him. “Dad. We gave it a shot, but you’ve got to admit we’re from two different worlds. We might care for each other but that doesn’t help with the day-to-day.” Lines straight from Krista’s playbook, but true.

  His dad watched as the clown passed the boy his mutton-bustin’ trophy. The kid looked more interested in the coupon for free ice cream. “Caring’s better than the opposite.”

  “It’s not like it is with you and Mom. You two do everything together. And she loves the country life. Krista’s—not Mom.”

  His dad tipped back his cowboy hat and stared at Will as if he was talking in a foreign language.

  He pointed to the boy. “That was what I had to be with your mother.”

  It was Will’s turn to stare.

  “I had to hang on for all it was worth to cross the finish line with her.”

  His father was dead serious. “First time I asked her to come out to the ranch, she stayed seventeen minutes. That was how long it took before she was dive-bombed by a barn swallow, stepped behind a horse as it let go from the back end and tripped over a pail full of milk. She said the place was out to get her, and I was thinking that myself, to be honest. She took it as a sign.”

  “But you didn’t.”

  “I did. I took it as a sign that she was the one meant for me.”

  “How did you figure that?”

  “Claverley tradition,” his dad said, as they watched all the other kids receive their trophies plus a popsicle. Every k
id got a trophy regardless of performance, but every kid knew that only one got bragging rights. “Not a single Claverley right from my great-grandfather down married a so-called suitable woman. The first one married the younger sister of a duchess.”

  “I thought that the story was made-up. The one about how when he met her she was on a horse. With a gun. Standing over a dead bear.”

  “That part might have been a stretch, but she was related to a duchess. So you can imagine an Alberta ranch was a bit of reduction in lifestyle from English aristocracy.”

  “I knew she came from England but—” Will shook his head.

  “And then my grandfather married a ballerina.”

  “I assumed by ‘dancer’ people meant country or something.” So much for knowing the Claverley legacy.

  “Nope, a ballerina. But it gave her a good sense of balance and she took to horse riding easy enough. Rode better than him, he said. Stood on a horse bareback.”

  “But Grandmom was a rancher’s daughter,” Will said.

  “Born on a ranch. But remember there were nine kids and those were hard times. She was sent to live with her aunt and uncle in Calgary when she was three. Her wedding gift to the place was a piano. I remember in the summer, milking and listening to the piano drifting down the hill, my dad singing along. Those two were their own concert.”

  “So...how did you get Mom to like the ranch?”

  “I’m not sure it was any one thing. She agreed to come out again, and the second time wasn’t so bad, not that it could’ve been worse. And after that I made sure that I always had a plan for something we could do together when she came out.”

  “I tried horseback riding with Krista, and I tried being part of her life but you know how I am with water.”

  “All I’m saying,” his dad said, “is every last single Claverley has picked an unsuitable woman for their wife and every last time it’s worked out.”

  “Except for Keith,” Will said.

  “Keith is the second born, and the second born have the guts to make their fortune off the ranch. There’s a whole tradition about them choosing country girls, if you’d like to hear that.”