by Deb Kastner
His gaze was distant, and she wondered if he was reliving the accident in his mind.
How could he not be?
She wandered over to where he was and bumped his shoulder with hers.
“Hey,” she whispered.
“Hey.” His voice had the texture of gravel, and when he glanced her direction, his eyes were glazed.
Angelica had removed the receiving blanket that she’d had tented over Toby’s car seat and had artfully wrapped it around him so his costume was still hidden.
Rowdy’s gaze dropped to Toby. He was awake and alert and immediately grabbed on to Rowdy’s finger when he offered it.
“I’m really proud of you for staying and helping out the teenagers, and for getting out in the arena again,” she said. “You once told me sometimes the best way to go beyond fear is to go through it. Today is that day for you, Rowdy.”
His brow rose and his expression changed, although she couldn’t quite discern what it meant.
“What?”
His lips curved up the slightest bit.
“I appreciate the encouragement. But would you believe I wasn’t thinking about my accident?”
“No?”
He shook his head. “At least, not in the way I had expected to be haunted by it.”
“It can’t be easy for you to be here.”
“No. It’s not. And I’m not sure how I’m going to feel when the saddle bronc riding starts. But just now, I was thinking about you.”
“Me?”
Yes, they’d shared that amazing kiss earlier, a real game changer as far as Angelica was concerned, but Rowdy had so much more to be thinking about right now. His past was going to rise up to meet him in a major way in just a couple of hours.
“I was thinking about how things might have been different if either one of us had reached out to the other. If we’d supported each other better. It’s amazing to me how easily a simple miscommunication broke our relationship. If I hadn’t been so caught up in my own issues, I would have been able to see what I was doing to you.”
Angelica’s throat tightened and tears burned in the back of her eyes.
“We both made mistakes,” she said. “In my view, mine were far worse than yours. But we can’t go back, and I wouldn’t want to. I might have had a miserable eight years away from Serendipity, but now I have Toby and I wouldn’t change that for all the world.”
Rowdy wiggled the finger Toby was grasping and the baby smiled, his eyes crinkling.
A low rumble came from Rowdy’s chest. “Now tell me that wasn’t a real smile.”
“He always responds to you in a special way, perking up when he hears your voice, smiling when he sees your face.”
“Really?” Rowdy’s face colored and he stood an inch taller, looking very pleased with himself. And Toby.
Then he looked back at Toby and cleared his throat, his Adam’s apple bobbing.
“I know the past is—what it is—but do you think maybe that we could work toward building something new for the future?”
Angelica’s heart warmed until she was beaming with sunshine from the inside out.
Rowdy wasn’t being unrealistic or suggesting they just try to pick up where they had left off all those years ago. That would be impossible anyway, because Toby was now in the picture.
But maybe, if they took it slow, they could start to build something new. Something better and more mature.
“We aren’t the same people we were eight years ago,” she started to say, meaning to agree with him, to let him know the tentative feelings he had expressed were reciprocated, that she was more than willing to take the next step, to explore what might be and not just what had been.
But just then, the microphone pitched in high, squeaky feedback that made Angelica and Rowdy flinch and Toby start crying.
“Sorry, folks,” Jo said. “Just a small technical difficulty.”
“His poor little ears,” Angelica said, cringing.
“Don’t worry, little dude. You’ll be okay.” He pressed a kiss to Toby’s forehead and brushed a palm over his white-blond hair.
Angelica couldn’t keep her eyes off Rowdy, and her heart was skipping beats all over the place.
He was so good with Toby.
He was so good to her.
“Toby’s going to rock the Baby Cowboy contest,” he said.
Angelica chuckled. “You haven’t even seen his outfit yet.”
Rowdy shrugged. “I don’t need to. Your son is the cutest baby in Serendipity, bar none.”
“Thank you for that,” she said, a little choked up.
“Just telling it like it is.”
Her heart swelled.
“I promise I’ll be watching you and rooting for you during the saddle bronc riding.”
“You know I’m just a pickup man, out there for safety’s sake and not actually bronc riding, right?”
“I know. I just wish I could be out there with you.” It was a silly thing for her to say. She’d be useless both to Rowdy and the kids riding the broncs. She just wanted to do something to prove she was ready to pursue a relationship with him. Be the partner she hadn’t been before.
But Rowdy evidently didn’t read between the lines, or else he’d turned his focus completely on the rodeo to come.
“No worries, Ange. I will be just fine without you.”
* * *
Rowdy’s words had a double meaning. It was true that he had every faith he and his stocky black quarter horse gelding Hercules would be able to keep the bronc riding kids from being injured.
But he was also telling Ange that she didn’t need to finish her statement.
What she had said was more than enough for him to catch the full drift of her meaning.
They were two completely different people now, not the young adults who’d believed in the kind of love that was only in movies, not real life.
Perhaps their kiss had been some kind of test for her, the opportunity to see if there was anything left of what love there had once been between them.
Rowdy felt sick to his stomach as he mounted Hercules and directed the teenagers into their first event, wild cow milking, a hilarious spectacle meant to get the crowd stoked up for the rest of the rodeo.
Why had he kissed her? He should have realized that he was moving too fast, in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Real romantic, Masterson. Way to blow it.
Kissing her in the middle of the rodeo arena right before a major town event, where anyone could have shown up. Thankfully, it had only been Jo, but that was bad enough.
Oh, Granny Frances, I wish you were here to help me sort this out. Was this what you wanted for us? Have I really messed it up?
Jo and Frank were keeping the events moving, and Rowdy had no choice but to turn his attention to the ranch rodeo. The teenagers “branded” cows with paint, showed their prowess at gathering strays and loaded and unloaded horse trailers with barely started horses, sometimes requiring quite a bit of pushing and pulling of both heads and hindquarters.
The noisy crowd was having a blast, cheering on the contestants and laughing up a storm, encouraging the teenagers to do their best.
Mutton busting in particular was a town favorite, with five-to-seven-year-olds, absolutely adorable little cowboys and cowgirls in hard helmets, holding on for dear life on a sheep which, unused to having a person on its back, bolted forward pell-mell.
And then, at last, came the new event, the one he and Ange had added to the lineup specifically for Toby and the one event Rowdy was actually looking forward to today.
“It’s time for all our Baby Cowboys and Cowgirls to make their way to the front of the arena,” Jo announced.
As usual, Jo was ready for the new event, wearing one of her infamous homemade T-shirts. This one read Let
’s Go, Babies! Which pretty much summed up her feelings on the new event, and apparently, her opinion on what was going to be the highlight of the rodeo.
Rowdy’s pulse jumped, thundering as loudly as if he had his own baby in the race.
In a way, he guessed he did. Although he couldn’t have explained why, he couldn’t feel more emotionally bonded to Toby than if he was his own son.
Maybe it had something to do with how Rowdy was, and always had been, bonded to the baby’s mother.
Whatever the cause, Rowdy’s heart was thundering when it was time for Toby to make his official Serendipity debut.
Let’s Go, Toby.
Chapter Eleven
A dozen mothers and fathers, all decked out in their country best, stood in the arena just before the announcer’s platform holding their little stars in their arms for everyone to see.
Babies and toddlers from newborn to age two had been invited to participate, and Angelica was thrilled at the first year’s turnout. She suspected this was going to be a new annual event and something the folks in town would look forward to.
Angelica and Toby were in the middle of the row. Not first, not last. She just hoped the focus would be on Toby and not on herself.
At Jo’s announcement, parents unwrapped their children from the blankets covering them and revealed adorable cowboy and cowgirl costumes to the cheering audience.
One at a time, each mother and father walked around the perimeter of the arena so everyone could get a good look at the babies. Angelica didn’t miss the fact that she was the only single parent in the group, but it was what it was.
Her life belonged to Toby, and that was good enough for her.
It had to be.
The costumes ran from quickly thrown together to more intricate, although nothing near what Angelica had done with Toby. She suspected that most parents were counting on the cuteness factor for their baby to win the contest.
And there was some truth to that. In the parents’ eyes, their babies were the cutest.
And it hadn’t been a stretch for most of the families to come up with Western outfits. Most of the toddlers already owned at least one pair of denim jeans and a tiny pair of cowboy boots or mud boots. Some even had hats in toddler sizes. Kids started learning how to do ranch chores early in Serendipity, accompanying their parents from the time they could walk.
All of the babies were by far the cutest little ranchers she’d ever seen.
The smaller babies’ outfits typically leaned another direction—onesies with cute country sayings on them. Some of the baby girls had bows in their hair, and there was one baby boy who was dressed in nothing more than a denim-decorated diaper.
Every one of them was adorable, too.
But then again, so was Toby. And she’d put a lot of thought and effort into his wardrobe. Maybe it was because she’d been the one to think up this extra event, or maybe it was that she was newly returned to the country, but she had been more detailed in planning Toby’s costume. She’d tried to see the big picture and not just focus on a particular item of clothing.
He was a chunky monkey and had been able to fit into toddler blue jeans, with some minor modifications in length and girth. She’d purchased the smallest bright-blue-checked chambray shirt and used safety pins to size it to Toby.
She’d even taken a length of black ribbon to make a belt and had formed a shiny belt buckle out of tin foil, on which she’d glitter-glued the word COWBOY. But her pièce de résistance was the cotton-ball sheep with a black eye and red smile that she’d pinned to his shirt.
As a final touch, she’d found a small length of rope that someone had abandoned in a ditch near her ranch. She’d washed it clean and looped it into a lasso, which she pressed into his fist when it was time for them to make their promenade around the arena.
She’d walked about three feet when a shadow fell over her and she realized someone was walking alongside her.
She looked up to see a grinning Rowdy, waving at the crowd and encouraging them to cheer even louder.
“Rowdy,” she exclaimed, before lowering her voice. “What are you doing?”
“When you unveiled Toby’s outfit, I just knew I had to be there with you guys. I’m proud of my little cowboy. But the sheep on his shirt? Now that’s ingenious.”
She flashed him a questioning look.
“I know. It doesn’t make any sense. But we sheep farmers have to stick together.”
Which made sense, she supposed, and it was a nice thing for him to say. She was shocked that Rowdy had joined them, but mostly, she was grateful.
She’d seen how Rowdy had bonded with Toby. With her prodigal daughter reputation, Toby was at a natural disadvantage straight out of the gate. Rowdy’s presence with them evened out the scales.
If he could get over their negative history together, surely members of the community could overlook her past and possibly allow her to find her future here.
When they returned to their spot in front of the podium and Rowdy propped his cowboy hat on Toby’s head, there was no question as to which baby had most captured the audience’s hearts. The crowd was roaring for the baby with the glitzy belt buckle.
For once, she had done something right.
* * *
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Jo announced, her voice crackling over the microphone’s feedback. “We’ve had our share of cute and lots of laughs. Now it’s time for a shot of pure adrenaline in our last event and a fan favorite, saddle bronc riding!”
Rowdy shifted in the saddle, his attention glued to the first chute, where a dark-haired girl wearing a white straw cowboy hat was making last-minute adjustments to her balance on the bronc.
“Let’s give it up for Erin Smith riding Charlie Horse.”
The crowd cheered. Rowdy tensed and his stockiest quarter horse, Hercules, skittered to the side, reacting to his negative energy.
Erin nodded and a ranch hand pulled the chute gate open.
Charlie Horse sprang into action, twisted and turned; his back legs kicked out and his front legs bucked, sometimes at the same time.
Rowdy pressed his knees into Hercules as he laser focused on Erin and Charlie. Mostly his eyes were glued to the horse, watching for signs that he would make a sudden unexpected move, but from time to time Rowdy glanced up to see how Erin was faring.
If her expression was anything to go by, she was reveling in the ride, totally in control, solid in the saddle and calling to Charlie to urge him onto the best ride she could have.
Eight seconds seemed to take forever to Rowdy, who was counting down in milliseconds, but Erin easily rode out her time and dismounted on her own without Rowdy coming alongside her.
He grabbed Charlie’s flank strap and the horse immediately calmed down, happy to be herded off the arena grounds.
Rowdy swallowed hard. One down, four to go, and then he would be able to breathe again.
Next up was a much smaller boy named Ryan who didn’t look to be as old as his peers. Maybe he was a late bloomer. Rowdy was worried that he wouldn’t be able to handle the horse he’d drawn, but another eight seconds went by without incident. The little scrapper held on like a trooper, and though he flipped and flopped a bit, he stayed in the saddle.
Third up was another girl, Jessie, riding a horse named Cricket. Odd name for a ranch horse, Rowdy thought, but he made a decent bronc. Jessie also stayed on the eight seconds and made a smooth dismount with Rowdy’s help.
The fourth horse, Rocket, was ridden by a boy named Philip. Unfortunately for Philip, Rocket didn’t feel like living up to his name for the event. He barely bucked at all, just throwing his back feet out from time to time as if the flank strap merely annoyed him.
So it was a disappointed boy who ended his eight seconds with Rocket. The horses’ movements made up half of the score, with the cowboy’s or cow
girl’s riding making up the other half. The rules stated that if a cowboy or cowgirl pulled a horse that didn’t live up to the half of the score required for the horse, he or she could choose to make a second ride on another horse. But since it was a ranch rodeo and there were no cash or trophies awarded, Rowdy doubted Philip would bother.
The fifth and last teenage cowboy to make his saddle bronc ride was Jace on a horse called Crash. Hercules shifted, alerting Rowdy to the fact that he’d tensed up again. There was no reason to believe the horse was named on his behavior, but Rowdy wouldn’t rest easy until the ride was finished.
Crash was a decent bronc, but as with the other teenaged bronc riders, Jace had spent his life on the ranch and bronc riding came naturally to him.
Rowdy’s adrenaline sparked at about six seconds in, when Crash went one way and Jace went the other. There was nowhere for that kid to go but down, but at least the horse had tossed him into the middle of the arena.
Thankfully, Jace landed on the padding the good Lord had given him and immediately rolled to his feet, stalked the few yards to grab his brown cowboy hat off the dirt where it had landed and waved it to the riser full of friends and neighbors to let them know he hadn’t been hurt. Everyone cheered for him as loudly as they had the others, and he walked out of the arena with a smile on his face.
Rowdy was about to rein Hercules out of the arena so he could go find Ange and they could celebrate their success with the ranch rodeo when the microphone crackled again.
“Don’t leave your seats just yet, folks. Rocket wasn’t much of a bronc today, and Philip was unable to show off his bronc riding skills, so he has elected to take a second ride, this time on a horse named Shy Boy.”
Rowdy groaned.
Couldn’t they just be done already?
Hopefully Shy Boy’s name was indicative of his personality and they could get these eight seconds over with.
Rowdy was so done with this ranch rodeo. He wanted to spend the rest of the day out on the neighborhood green, picnicking with Ange and Toby, enjoying the games and fireworks and showing off to friends and neighbors their adorable little winner of the Baby Cowboy contest.
