Texas Daddy

by Jolene Navarro

  “I thought bull riders did a lot of traveling. Last I heard, you were on the road for some big purses and the next big thing to hit the PBR.”

  “I don’t ride bulls anymore.”

  The edge of the brace popped, and she sucked in her breath. Her hands fisted on the edge of the bench.

  “Sorry.” He gave her a fast glance.

  “It’s okay, just surprised me.”

  Fresh blood bubbled from the wound. Pulling a bandanna out of his pocket, he applied pressure. “Here, hold this. I think I almost have it.” He stood and took off his duster. Throwing it over a nearby rocking chair, he went back to work. “So riding your bike off-trail in the rain is part of your therapy?”

  “I figured it wouldn’t be much different than the stationary bike they have me on in the office.”

  He laughed. He shook his head as he slipped the last chain from under the metal hinge on her brace. “You might have gone backward in your recovery. The chain did a number on your skin, and the knee looks discolored and swollen. You need to elevate and put ice on it.”

  Biting hard on her lip, she tilted her head back, eyes squeezed shut. Each breath was deep and hard.

  He wanted to cover her free hand and stop it from rubbing her thigh red. He had never seen anyone work so hard not to cry. “Nikki, it’s going to be okay.”

  “I can’t take this anymore. I have to get better. I need to get back to work.”

  “Rushing it will only make the recovery longer.” A gust of wind pushed rain onto the porch. “Let’s get inside and clean all this mud off. Last thing you want is an infection.”

  * * *

  Do not cry. Only the weak cried. She was not weak. The last thing she wanted was Adrian seeing her pathetic self-pity, or anyone, for that matter. Weakness gave people the impression they could use you.

  Standing, Nikki tried to put weight on her bad leg, but sharp pain shot up her spine, threatening to bring her to her knees. Swallowing down a scream, she instinctively reached out to Adrian for support.

  What she really wanted was to be whole again, independent and strong. She’d get her life back.

  She had to. Being in Clear Water was too painful, and it brought secrets too close to the surface.

  Twelve years separated her from the past. She had made the mistake thinking she was over it. It was easier to forget when you weren’t surrounded by reminders.

  Allowing Adrian to help settle her into one of the ladder-back chairs, she traced the patterns in the wood her grandpa had carved. When she saw her mother’s study Bible, she stopped breathing. “How did that get here?”

  “What? Oh, the Bible. I found it tucked away when I was looking for—”

  “Put it back.” She closed her eyes. “Please.”

  “Sure. Sorry. I didn’t mean to—”

  “I just don’t wanna see it.” A burn started at her arm. An angry red scratch showed through her fitted shirt. The sleeve of her favorite workout top had a rip running all the way up to the shoulder.

  Adrian pulled another chair up close for her useless leg and gently pulled her favorite running shoe off her foot. The timeworn sofa would have been more comfortable, but no telling what critters had moved in under the old cushions or what they might have left behind. The years of dust alone would smother her if she plopped down on the blue plaid fabric.

  Images of her and her twin sisters curled up around their mother as she read from her Bible bubbled to the surface. Nikki used to rush to answer the questions at the end of each story. The twins were one year younger than her, but she had wanted to prove she was smarter and better at everything.

  Looking back, she was sure it had to do with all the attention they got. Beautiful twin girls did not go unnoticed, but the plain big sister did.

  It wasn’t their fault.

  She never felt that competition with their youngest sister, Samantha. She’d been more of a mother to her. Sammi was the only good thing their stepmother had given their family. Sheila’s leaving had been the other good thing, but that happened after she herself had left.

  Nikki took in a deep breath. She had no right to judge. Her family needed her, but she’d been too much of a coward to face the consequences of her own mistakes and abandoned everyone that counted on her. She turned away from the living room and closed her eyes.

  She couldn’t remember the last time she felt smart or accomplished.

  Her gaze went back to the river stone fireplace, to the past. It was cold and empty now, not crackling with a warm blaze like her memory. She could see her father sitting on the recliner, telling her to give her sisters a chance.

  Remembering the twins when they were little had a tendency to soften her heart. Soft hearts broke easily.

  The image needed to leave her head. She didn’t have time for regrets or grief. They weren’t real anyway. Just pictures she stared at when she was little so she wouldn’t forget the way her mom looked.

  Her mom was gone, and the twins were women now. Danica had her own twin daughters. Even little Sammi, who had barely been in school when she left, was now in her twenties and helping run the lumberyard.

  Eyes closed, she focused on her body and took deep breaths, pulling in all wayward thoughts. She rotated her foot to evaluate the pain of the injury. Hopefully it wasn’t anything that damaged her recovery. A cold chill climbed up her spine. The last thing she needed was another surgery. Adrian had left. His warm touch no longer working on her knee.

  The sputtering of water forcing air through old rusted pipes brought her attention back to the present.

  Adrian held a bowl at the sink. “After tending that cut, we’ll get your knee washed up. Then I’ll try and get the mud out of your hair. You must have taken some fall. Was it after or before the rescue?” His shoulders bunched and moved as he rinsed out the bowl and filled it with water. She’d been impressed by the way he snapped the chain and took charge. He might not be riding bulls any longer, but he was still a man of action. He turned. “Do you know if there are any blankets we can trust?”

  The rain hit the tin roof. Talking took energy and focus she didn’t have right now. “I haven’t been here since I was eight.”

  “That’s a shame. It’s a great place. There’s always someone trying to buy it from your dad or lease it, but rumor has it he won’t even talk about it.”

  “The twins and I actually own the ranch. It’s been in my mom’s family for five generations and Dad didn’t want any problems with Sheila, so he made sure to put it in our names.” One of the many things that had made Sheila mad.

  He pulled another chair up next to her and carefully wiped at her arm. “That turned out to be a smart idea. This seems like a perfect place for you. One of the highest cliffs in the county is on the far corner of your property. There are rumors of caves, and you have one of the best parts of the river running right through it. It’s too rough and small to really run cattle, but you could have your own private adventure park.”

  “One problem. I’m leaving Clear Water as soon as possible.”

  “I used to have that goal.” He shrugged and winked. “But God had other plans for me, better plans.”

  She tried to stop him by placing her hand over his. Despite the cold, his skin warmed hers. His fingers were long and surprisingly graceful. The calluses kept them from looking pampered. “Working man hands” was what her dad called them. “You don’t have to do that.”

  “No, but I’m not going anywhere, and it’s much more efficient for me to take care of it.” He scooted the chair down and removed the brace. “So what did you name your new baby?”

  For a second her gut twisted, and she wondered how he knew. The deer. He was talking about the fawn. “I thought men talked less than women.” She certainly didn’t want to talk about babies.

  “Now there
you go, stereotyping me.” He grinned at her.

  She almost laughed. When was the last time a man teased her? He might actually be flirting with her, and it was nice. He pressed on the bottom of her knee.

  Her jaw locked, and she took a sharp breath in through her nose. She would not cry out. Gaze on the ceiling, she avoided looking at her injury. If she needed another surgery to repair the damage her run at freedom caused, she might actually cry. She never cried. She was tough. It was just mind over matter.

  Adrian used the warm cloth to wipe the mud away. His touch surprisingly gentle. He and his twin brother had been a few grades behind her. Everyone joked that her sisters, identical twins, should date the identical twin boys. She remembered him being charming and a favorite with teachers and students. Known as the wild twin, he was the next big thing in the bull-riding world.

  At a young age, he had already won two high school state titles and everyone knew when he turned eighteen he would take the PBR by storm.

  “How did you go from superstar bull rider to a cowhand for Childress?”

  “I haven’t been on a bull since I was seventeen. God had better things in store for me.”

  “What happened? From what I remember, you were a natural. I saw you ride several times. Once, we drove down to San Antonio to watch you.” The blood rushed at the memory of watching him ride, one hand in the air as the massive bundle of muscles, horns and hooves went into a spin. “It was amazing. The bull was huge and mean. Even the way you jumped off stuck in my brain. I think you were sixteen. Why did you stop? Were you hurt?”

  He looked at her face. The gold flecks in his dark eyes flashed, making him look younger. “You drove to San Antonio to watch me ride?”

  She nodded. “A group of us.”

  With a grin, he went back to work on her leg. He gave a half laugh. “Being hurt is part of the game. What stopped me from riding was my daughter.”

  “What? You said you stopped at seventeen.” There was no way she had heard him right.

  He sighed and finally looked up from working on her knee. “Not my finest moment, but I can’t regret it. I’m surprised you hadn’t heard the gossip. I’m pretty sure the whole Southwest knew about my fall from grace. I was the example worried mamas used to warn their kids that might stray.” He broke eye contact and went back to her injury. “Mia was born the end of my junior year. My mom said if I was serious about raising my daughter she’d help me, but I had to leave the rodeo.”

  Maybe if her mom had been alive, things would have been different for her own senior year. She thought back to the girls at their school. “Is her mother a local or did you meet her at a show?”

  “Do you remember Charlotte Walker?”

  “Yeah. She was new in town, and...anyway. So you gave up your bull riding to get married and raise a family?”

  A noise that might be described as a laugh sounded from his throat, but it lacked any humor. “No. Never got married. Being a mother was not in Charlotte’s plans. She wanted to give Mia up for adoption. She left us and went on with her life as if Mia never happened.”

  Nikki fought the instinct to defend the teen mother, but she knew it wasn’t Charlotte she was protecting. It was her own ugly past. She never, ever thought about the son she’d walked away from. She couldn’t.

  Tommy hadn’t been willing to even acknowledge her in public. She bit the inside of her cheek hard and kept her gaze trained on Adrian’s hands. She couldn’t risk looking at him.

  Twisting the cloth, he dunked it back in the water. “But it worked out fine. I don’t have any regrets when it comes to my daughter.”

  He went on as if he hadn’t taken her to the darkest places she worked so hard to avoid and keep buried.

  “Mom always hated that I rode bulls. I think she was secretly happy to have that leverage over me. I got a job and finished high school.”

  Nikki didn’t know what to say. “Wow.” Okay, that was lame. “You went to work for Dub Childress?”

  “I only started working horses for him part-time about a couple of years ago. I thought Mia was old enough for me to be back in the arena. Not bulls, but with horses. I really missed that part. I volunteer with the youth rodeo and horse club.” A throaty laugh made her nerve endings tingle. “Can you believe I’m the 4-H dad? Life takes us to strange and wonderful places we never even knew we wanted. I don’t really miss the bulls.”

  She imagined he missed it more than he would ever admit. Did he say it to remind himself the way she had to remind herself she was tough and better off alone? After a few minutes of silence, he looked back up at her and grinned.

  “George and I have a construction company. We started doing odd jobs, but found we’re really good at restoring old homes. Next week we might actually start a job for your dad. Your sisters wanted to remodel the upstairs of the hardware store for some time now.” He stood. “But you probably knew that already. Everyone has different ideas, and your dad always said no to the project. He asked us to come by Monday and give him an estimate. He has a firm budget, so we aren’t sure what we’ll be able to do.” Taking the bowl to the sink, he dumped the dirty water and refilled it.

  “No, I didn’t.”

  He turned and leaned against the counter with his hands braced on the edge. He reminded her of one of her grandmother’s odd sayings. That man is a tall drink of water. She’d never understood what it meant until now.

  He turned back to the sink and rinsed the cloth. Finished, he started walking to her, an easygoing smile marking long dimples on his cheeks. Her pulse kicked up a notch. “I’m fine. Everything’s clean. You can go.”

  Thunder and lightning gave her sentence an exclamation mark.

  “Are you kicking me out into the storm?”

  She didn’t want to feel better because of his smile or that he was nice to her. If he knew the truth, it would all change. “The rain should let up soon. Why were you on the ranch anyway? My father gets nasty about people trespassing. At least he used to.”

  “Still does. Riding the fence, I found a section down. The storm hit while I was checking to see if any of our cattle had wandered over to your land.”

  He walked toward her and she narrowed her eyes. What was he going to do now? Whenever anyone was this nice to her, they wanted something. “You could wait on the porch or check on your horse. What about the fawn? Should we make sure she’s all right?”

  “You have twigs and mud tangled in your hair. Let me help you at least get the pieces of tree out of your scalp. What happened out there anyway?”

  “What do you know about hair?” She knew she sounded snarky, but the thought of him coming closer set her nerves on edge.

  He didn’t slow down. “I’m a single dad of a ten-year-old girl. You’d be amazed how much I know about hair.”

  Standing behind her, Adrian started pulling out random debris that she had collected on her downhill slide. Soft tugs on her scalp actually soothed her. So he was going to ignore her hints to leave. She closed her eyes. “You’re really good at this.”

  “A perk of having an active ten-year-old daughter. I know how to untangle the biggest mess without pulling out any hair.” He moved to the other side and his fingers started at the base of her neck. “Mia has long curly hair that’s incredibly thick. I try to keep it braided or at least in a rubber band. One time while we were shearing my dad’s angoras, I found her in the middle of a pen full of mama goats and their kids. They had nibbled her hair all the way up to her shoulders.”

  Even the steady rhythm of his voice lured her to relax and trust him. “Was she upset?”

  “No. She’s a great kid. She laughed and said she needed a haircut anyway.” His fingers ran through her strands one more time. “Sorry, I tend to talk about her too much.” Rich sounds of laughter danced across the forgotten family retreat. “She gets a little put
out with me, but that’s my job, right? So how are we going to get you home? I don’t think you’re in any shape to ride a horse. Do you have a phone? Mine’s dead, and I don’t see a landline here. I’m sure your dad’s worried.”

  “I think my dad stopped worrying about me a long time ago.”

  “Dads never stop worrying. My dad still tells me what I should be doing, how to do it and what I’m doing wrong. Can’t imagine giving up that card for Mia either.”

  Giving him a light shrug, she leaned her head back and closed her eyes. So Adrian was the perfect father. Great, just what she needed—another reminder of all the ways she had messed up her life. Let me count the ways. “I’ll just wait until the storm passes. Then I’ll walk back to town.”

  “That’s about ten miles from here. I can’t believe you biked this far on that knee. Not gonna happen, and I’m not leaving you here alone. So do you have a phone on you?”

  “You have to push through the pain if you’re going to make any gains.” She crossed her arms.

  He mirrored her and leaned to the side, shifting his weight to his left leg. He didn’t say another word, just stared at her, waiting for an answer.

  “You’re not giving up, are you?” She had to respect his quiet tenacity.

  “Nope.”

  “Fine. I didn’t bring one because I didn’t want anyone to find me, but there should be an old landline in the office behind the stairs. And yes, I might have overdone it on the knee.” With the same swagger he had as a bull rider, Adrian cut across the room. Back in school, even the older girls would sigh when he walked past in his Wranglers.

  Palms pressed against her face, she blocked the sight. She had no business noticing his swagger. Eye candy was not her thing. It just got a girl in trouble.

  Back in high school, Tommy had been all smiles and charm wrapped up in a good-looking package. She wanted to be loved so bad she believed his lies. Then in Arizona, sweet eye-candy Mike captivated her and convinced her he was ready to take on an adventure as long as she was there. Look where that got her. Both men almost destroyed her.