The Bull Rider's Homecoming

Home > Romance > The Bull Rider's Homecoming > Page 13
The Bull Rider's Homecoming Page 13

by Allie Pleiter


  “Oh,” she said in a tone he’d never heard from her before, “you’re not done.”

  Startled, he uncovered his eyes and rolled his head to look at her. “There are only two verses.”

  Ruby finished her drumstick and licked her fingers victoriously—really, that was the only way to describe it. “That was a test.”

  Not the test, a test. He didn’t like what it implied.

  “Now I have the real demand.”

  Luke looked at Oscar, who was staring at him from Ruby’s lap with “now you’re in for it” eyes. “Ouch,” he told the dog. “I think I’m about to regret this, Oscar.”

  Ruby sat back on her hands and stretched out one foot to cross it over the other. “Church,” she pronounced. “Every Sunday between now and the ride.”

  Luke felt as if someone had whacked him in the chest. “What’d Gran say to you?”

  “Not a thing. This is my idea.”

  That was hard to believe. Gran had been on him to go to church from the minute he set foot back on Blue Thorn land. She kept going on about how he “needed to get his soul in the right place.”

  “Why?” He was pretty sure he wouldn’t like the answer, but he wanted to hear it from her anyway.

  “You’re going into battle, Luke. We’re both going to need loads of prayer support to get ready. And you’re going to need God’s grace to pick you up off the ground if you fail.”

  “Which I won’t,” he interjected, which only earned him another one of Ruby’s looks.

  “You say you can’t face JetPak without me, but I’m telling you, you shouldn’t face that bull without God.”

  Now she really sounded like Gran. He thought about the open Bible on his kitchen table, feeling more than a little like Ruby, Gran and God had ganged up on him. “You’re sure Gran didn’t put you up to this?”

  “Your grandmother had nothing to do with this. But I expect she’d agree with me that you’d better get your faith back on the right track if you want to do this thing. Consider it part of the treatment plan you think I’m so capable to give you.”

  Luke sighed. “Well, I always did say you could push me where I didn’t want to go.”

  She sighed, but it wasn’t the kind of sigh he used to delight in pulling from her. “You used to go to church all the time, Luke. Why don’t you want to go now?”

  It’d be easy to give her any one of the half dozen wisecrack answers he gave any of the guys who invited him to cowboy church or the rodeo’s Bible study. Still, this was Ruby—she deserved better than that. He sat up and shifted to face her. “At first it was just time. I’d be out so late Saturday night I’d be dead to the world Sunday morning. And I’m working all weekend, you know?”

  “But lots of rodeo riders are open about their strong faith. Most rodeos I’ve seen open with prayer.”

  “And they close with a lot of rowdy partying. I expect you know which one suited me better.”

  “So you were too hungover to get to church?” He felt her disappointed look in his gut. Gran wasn’t the only one who could wield a disparaging glare.

  “I told myself that at first. It wasn’t the real reason. It just sort of stopped making sense. I had too many other things calling my name.”

  Ruby folded her hands in her lap. “Bottles and women, you mean.”

  He knew it would have to come up at some point. They’d carefully avoided the topic of women up until now. He took a moment to phrase the words right, then answered, “I never loved ’em, Ruby. They were distractions. Amusements. Shallow things that kept me...from thinking about what I’d left behind.”

  Her face went a bit hard, tight with hurt he knew he’d caused. He had to try and make her understand. He owed her that.

  “Truth is, I think I spent the past six years learning the difference between pretty and beautiful. All those women hanging around the rodeo? They sure were pretty.” He ducked down into her gaze, needing to see her eyes as he said the rest. “But none of ’em were as beautiful as you. Oh, I liked them well enough, and they made me feel all big and important, but—” Say it, he told himself, say all of it. “You were the last woman I loved.”

  She lowered her eyes and went very still. He felt the full depth of how he’d hurt her, his dismissal of the powerful thing that had been between them. He’d tried to tell himself it was just teenage love, two kids who didn’t know any better, but he’d never believed it. What they’d had was real, honest, whole-hearted love, the likes of which he’d never felt before or since. He’d lost his chance with her—no, he’d thrown away his chance with her—and he’d live with the consequences.

  “And I know we can’t go back to that,” Luke went on when she kept silent, “but I trust you. Deep-down trust, and believe me there isn’t much of that where I’ve been. I need somebody I trust getting me where I need to go now.” He waited until she met his eyes. “I need you.”

  It struck him, right then, that even if she said yes, he wouldn’t come out of this completely healed and able to resume his life as if nothing had happened, like he planned. They’d try to keep things concrete and professional for her, but he wouldn’t make it. She’d already begun to tug on his heart in a way that wasn’t safe for either of them. Maybe that’s why he’d been so stupid this week. He’d thought he’d come out of this with an old love remade into a new friend, but that wasn’t possible. He was likely to leave his heart in Martins Gap when he left, just like last time.

  This ride was going to cost him even more than he thought.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Mama nudged Ruby’s elbow as they sat in church the next week. “Is that who I think it is?”

  Ruby nodded. Poor Luke, his arrival at church had been something of a spectacle. He’d probably hoped to slip in without notice, to be just another of the Buckton siblings lining the long pew beside Granny B, but it seemed like everyone went out of their way to note his presence. I shouldn’t enjoy this, Lord, she confessed, but I am. Thank for putting that idea in my head at just the right moment. There were five more Sundays for God to get through to that man before he either rocketed back off to the stars or the bottom fell clean out of his life.

  Mama cast her a sideways glance as she opened her hymnal. “Did you have something to do with that?”

  She smiled. “I might have. Let’s just say I put a few conditions on our partnership.”

  The word caught Mama’s attention. She put a hand on Ruby’s arm. “Be careful, hon. I’d hate to see you hurt again.” Mama’s slowly earned approval of Luke from years before had gone out the window when he left, and his return hadn’t improved her opinion.

  “We’re friends, Mama.”

  “Really?” Mama clearly wasn’t convinced.

  “Well, friends with too much history, maybe, but trust me, I’m not looking to start back up with Luke Buckton. All that was a long while ago, and we’re past it.”

  Mama frowned. “That boy hurt you. Badly.”

  “And that man has apologized. Like I said, we’ve gotten past it. I have a job to do with him. I told you, Mama, a client like him could do a lot for my practice. I’ve already gotten several calls for new clients from people who said they’d heard I was treating Luke Buckton.” When Mama continued to look skeptical, Ruby added, “Really, I’ll be fine.”

  The start of the hymn ended any further discussion, but Ruby noticed Mama’s questioning look when Luke and his niece, Audie, wandered over during the post-service coffee.

  “What did you think of the service, Luke?” Ruby tried not to pay attention to how sharp he looked—she’d not seen him dressed up in years, and the turquoise in his lariat tie against the white shirt made his eyes sparkle more than ever.

  “Fine enough, I suppose.”

  Audie leaned in. “That’s not what he told me, Miss Ruby.”

/>   Ruby couldn’t resist. “And what did he tell you?”

  “Audie...” Luke warned, his face flushing just a bit.

  “Oh, no, Audie, I’d really like to know. He’s coming on account of me, after all.” That came out with more implications than she would have liked.

  “Well,” Audie said with great importance in her voice, “he said it wasn’t half as boring as he—” the girl’s words turned into a squeak as Luke clamped a hand over her mouth.

  “As the services I attended on the road,” he finished. Ruby had to admire the save, even if it wasn’t entirely truthful. His other hand attached itself to his niece’s elbow. “Audie, you were showing me where the best cookies are.”

  “Over there,” Ruby offered, not quite hiding her laugh.

  “That’s not what he said,” Audie let slip as Luke led her away.

  Mama laughed. “I know Audie’s a stepdaughter, but I think that girl fits right into the Buckton family, don’t you?”

  Audie was the daughter of Gunner’s wife, Brooke, and as such not Gunner’s blood daughter, but Mama was right—she was definitely a Buckton in spirit. From what Ruby had seen around the ranch, Audie and Granny B were two peas in a pod. It amused her to see Luke get taken down a peg or two by someone so young. He laughed it off, but not entirely. She might need to engage Audie’s help in keeping Luke on his toes—that girl had the right personality to make a great therapist.

  “Hi, Ruby.”

  Ruby turned, “Rachel, hello.” She hadn’t noticed the journalist in the service. “Mama, this is Rachel Hartman, the reporter covering Luke’s comeback.” It still felt odd to put it that way—most of her clients were engaged in healing or treatment. “Comeback” felt a bit too dramatic a term, but Luke had insisted on it.

  “It should be quite the event down in San Antonio. Of course, my focus is on how he gets there. His training, his treatment, his hometown life, that sort of thing.”

  Ruby hid her surprise—San Antonio? That meant being part of the Pro Tour. It made sense; he couldn’t really stage an event like that locally, but somehow she’d expected him to do it closer to home and on a slightly smaller scale. Ha—Luke, small scale anything? Still, doing it within the Pro Tour and in San Antonio felt like the launch of his departure to get back to the place where he actually wanted to be—which, of course, it was. “If anyone can do it, it’s Luke. He’ll have the whole town cheering him on.”

  “He’ll have a lot more than that if I do my job right. People love an underdog story.”

  Rachel wondered how Luke would take to being labeled an “underdog.” He had never fallen second to anyone in anything he did. It was why his injury proved such an emotional setback as well as a physical one. Still, the experience had clearly changed him. The Luke who’d spoken to her with honesty and—dare she say it?—humility at the park, and all week, was a very different man than the boy who’d left years ago. Pastor Theo had preached today on Jacob wrestling the angel and coming away with a limp. That was too much of a coincidence to pin on anyone but God. I see You working to get through to him. And now I’m part of it. Watch over both of us, Lord.

  “Will you let me observe some more of your sessions with Luke?” Rachel asked.

  “That’s up to Luke,” Ruby replied. “I’m going to have to push him hard, and he may not want an audience for that.”

  Rachel offered up a smile. “Oh, I don’t know. He strikes me as the kind of man who likes an audience for everything.”

  “Good for cowboys, not always good for patients,” Ruby replied with a shrug. She did think an audience would spur Luke on, but if he hit the end of his patience, it wasn’t the kind of thing she wanted the world watching. Was she supposed to be protecting Luke from his appetite for publicity while he trained? Or was that Nolan’s job? One thing was certain: this was going to be like no other client she’d ever had. But then, she’d known that from the start.

  Rachel leaned in. “Off the record, do you think he can do it?”

  Ruby knew enough to see that evading this question would give the wrong impression. Did she have doubts? Of course she did. She expected that even Luke had doubts—not that he’d ever voice them, even to her. “Like I said, if there’s anyone who could do it, it’s Luke. I wouldn’t be on his treatment team if I didn’t think he could get back on that bull.”

  She’d worded her answer carefully. She did believe Luke could get back on the bull. The true question was whether or not he could stay there for eight seconds. That, and what damage he’d do in the trying.

  Rachel paused, then smiled. She’d clearly recognized the careful balance in Ruby’s answer. She tilted her head to one side, then broadened her smile. “Does he know what an asset you are?”

  Six years ago, uncertain of her worth, she would have hesitated. She knew, though, how Luke thought of her. He’d been insistent in proclaiming how he needed her for this challenge. She hadn’t thought about it until this moment, but she felt appreciated and respected in a more powerful way than just the lovestruck attention Luke had paid her in high school. “Yes,” she said with a deep, solid certainty. “I believe he does.”

  “You know,” Rachel replied, “I really do think he’ll pull it off.” She finished her cup of coffee and turned to Mama, offering a hand. “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Sheldon. You’ve got a great daughter there.”

  “Don’t I know it,” Mama boasted, putting one arm around Ruby. When Rachel was gone, Mama looked at her. “You didn’t know the ride was going to take place in San Antonio, did you?”

  Mama always could read her like a book. “No, that’s news to me. But I suppose he has to do it somewhere where he can get lots of exposure.”

  Mama frowned. “Don’t you think he should have told you?”

  Should he have? Her job was to get him ready. She had no role in the actual ride, except as a spectator. He’d never officially asked her to be there when he did, but she assumed she would be. She wanted to be there. She was too invested not to be there. What did it say that he hadn’t shared the San Antonio location with her? “I don’t know, Mama, but I’m going to find out.”

  * * *

  Luke knew something was up the moment Ruby came around the corner of the church hall. “San Antonio?”

  “How’d you hear that?”

  Her brows furrowed. “Why does that woman keep telling me things I ought to already know?”

  Ouch. He’d promised not to keep things from her. “I just confirmed it last night with Nolan for the tour stop on September seventeenth. We were going back and forth between there and Houston. I was going to tell you tomorrow, really. I had no idea Nolan would notify Rachel right away.”

  “Why there instead of closer by?”

  “They gave us a better media package. You know I need the biggest bang I can get for this.” The package had been even better than he’d dreamed. This comeback was pulling together faster and stronger than even he’d predicted, and it surged through him like a current. I’m on my way. I won’t be down for much longer.

  “Rachel asked to observe another session this week. I told her she needed to ask you.”

  Luke leaned against the wall. His leg was bothering him this morning, but that was nothing new—he’d been doing twice the number of repetitions Ruby had prescribed. “You could have okayed it.”

  Ruby crossed her hands over her chest. “I’m going to be working you really hard. You’ll fall a lot. Are you sure you want her to see that?”

  “Rachel can see me fall, as long as she sees me get back up again.” He smiled at her concern. “Besides, falls are dramatic.”

  “She called you an underdog.”

  That was a bit of a shocker. He was more accustomed to the term champion or rising star. Well, if that’s what it took to get folks rooting for him, he’d swallow the label. “I can live with th
at. Besides, I’ll only stay an underdog until that ride.”

  “Then what will you be?”

  The question caught him up short...mostly because he didn’t have an answer. He wouldn’t be a champion—there wasn’t enough of the season left to put him back up on top and this was only an exhibition ride. Much as he hated to admit it, Ray was going to take the championship this year, and there wasn’t much he could do about it. “Everybody’s favorite.”

  “That’s not the same thing as champion.” Ruby could follow his thoughts without him ever having to voice them; she knew how he saw the world. He’d miss that back out on the circuit. He’d grown used to her companionship. A bit dependent on it, if he was honest. “You’ll be there, won’t you? San Antonio? I mean, you have to be. It wouldn’t be right if you weren’t there.”

  “We’ve never talked about it.”

  “I didn’t think we had to. I figured you’d come.” He hesitated a moment before adding, “I really want you to come.”

  She smiled. “I’ll be there. Someone has to keep an eye on you while you go crazy celebrating your victory.”

  “That’s Nolan’s job.” He reached for Ruby’s hand. “I don’t want you there as my babysitter. I want you there as my friend.” As he ran his thumb along the back of her hand the way he always had those years ago, he realized he didn’t mean it. He wanted her there as something more than just a friend. “Come to San Antonio. See what this whole crazy thing is like.”

  After the way he’d told her all those years ago that she couldn’t come with him, couldn’t be part of his life anymore once he went on the circuit, that was a loaded request, and he knew it. He’d left her behind, half to please his new agent and half out of the knowledge that Ruby wasn’t cut out for that lifestyle. And she wasn’t—back then.

  She was different now. He was, too. The hard partying rang dull and tinny in his ears now. More than a wild night, he craved someone he could trust. Someone who believed in him for more than just his earning power or fan base or how much the camera liked him.

 

‹ Prev