Cowboy Strong (Cowboy Up Book 5)

by Allison Merritt

  “Off the lot in fifteen minutes or else,” Benton shouted, and even some of his guests booed.

  “I need a halter and rope right now,” Jody murmured to Chuck, who came up with one almost instantly. “Back the trailer up to the gate.” She flushed slightly, finally tearing her eyes away from the rider and horse in the ring. “Please.”

  “Just go,” he said, nodding. “Hey, Ram, get a couple of ropes ready just in case.”

  Hundreds of eyes followed Jody’s diagonal path across the arena.

  “You okay?” she asked Joe, who nodded.

  “Jody—”

  She ignored him, calling out to the horse instead. “Hey, Cowboy. Silly guy. Come on. We’ll find you a treat.”

  Cowboy’s ears pricked and he turned his head slightly, but the big body tensed visibly.

  “Joe, find me food—grain, or fruit, or a candy—anything,” she said urgently.

  “Right here,” someone called, holding out a half-eaten granola bar. Joe retrieved it quickly, but walked back, stopping within arm’s reach and holding it out. Jody took it, put it in her palm and extended her hand.

  “Cowboy, come on. Look what I have.”

  He lowered his head a little, sniffing, but stayed by the fence. Jody walked toward him, talking softly, hand out, stopping a step away. Cowboy’s nostrils flared, then he nickered and stepped forward, nosing Jody. She laughed and handed him a bit of the oat bar, then slipped the halter over his head. “Come on, big guy,” she coaxed, patting his neck. “Let’s go home.”

  No one made a sound as Jody led Cowboy straight across the ring and walked up the ramp. He put his front hooves on the ramp, then balked, snorting and throwing his head.

  Don’t get in the trailer, Jody. Watching was hard as memories of his injury flooded back, and Joe moved toward the trailer, but Chuck grasped his arm.

  “Her horse,” he said succinctly. “Give me your keys.”

  Joe stared at him in confusion, but handed them over.

  “When she walks out of that trailer, you go get in. Benton’s going to start something. Don’t embarrass her or risk the horse if he does.” Then he grinned and winked at Joe. “She does not need another cowboy to save.”

  Jody’s voice called out from inside the trailer, urging the horse to follow her. His whole frame shook, but step by reluctant step, he did.

  “Good boy,” Jody enthused. “We’re going home, Cowboy. Just a little while longer.”

  Then she walked out and reached for the ramp, but several onlookers beat her to the task, locking Cowboy safely inside.

  And the entire crowd erupted into chaotic cheers.

  Except Benton, leaning on the fence, who called over to them, “Bet someone gets some ass tonight, hey, Rogers?”

  Joe lurched toward the fence, but Chuck clung to him as if dogging a calf.

  “Don’t you dare embarrass Jody!” he snapped. “You walk over and drive away. She’s waiting for you. And the whole crew’s meeting outside Cowboy’s stall. Go.”

  Benton snickered and the crowd cheered.

  Jody and he headed home with Cowboy.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  “I can’t believe you enjoy editing all those students’ papers,” Joe muttered, walking to his own chair when she swatted his hand away. “Boring!”

  “Occasionally. But until we decide what we’re doing with sixty odd horses, I need a real job.” She smiled across at him. “At least until more of the horses can go to new homes. I’m so glad Hope is being trained as a therapy horse.”

  “That’s a perfect spot for her,” he agreed. “Richard still wants us to go to Dallas for Thanksgiving. But he said they could come here if we can’t leave the horses.”

  “Yeah, right.” Jody smiled at the idea. “We couldn’t fit everyone in even if we bought bedrolls and tents. He doesn’t still want us to talk to his financial advisor, does he?”

  “Yes. He thinks we should take the steps to become an established horse rescue.”

  “Maybe someday.” Jody stared absently at the wall for a moment, then remembered. “We got a nice thank you from Heaven’s Wings Horse Rescue for featuring them on the website. They’ve gotten some contributions they really needed.”

  “All’s well that ends well,” he said, glancing pointedly at the bed. She laughed and flung a notepad at him. Then she started pulling clothes off.

  ***

  The gray horse Benton had switched for Cowboy was truly the most vicious she’d ever seen. Eric wouldn’t even throw hay over the fence into the paddock that he occupied alone, and Joe kept insisting he be euthanized or put out with Eric’s cattle and forgotten.

  “We’ll get there, won’t we?” Jody asked. “You’ve probably been abused all your life. You can’t get over something like that in a month or two, right boy?”

  If anything, the gelding flattened his ears even more. When she held an apple out over the fence, he snorted, then suddenly charged the fence. The apple fell to the ground, and she barely jumped down before he crashed into the fence.

  “What the hell’s wrong with you, Jody?” Joe’s voice behind her startled her, as did the anger tightening his face when she turned. “Do you have some damn death wish?”

  The words stung. She’d never seen him mad at her, but she could feel the heat of his fury even though he didn’t touch her.

  “He needs work,” she said, shrugging. “Joe, calm down. I wasn’t in any danger.”

  “What if the fence hadn’t held? What if he’d gotten your arm? He attacks any horse we try to put in here for company. He’s not Cowboy, Jody. He’s not going to be okay!”

  Jody felt tears sting. She wanted so much to be able to control the stupid things. They just made her feel weak. She turned and looked at the horse until she could reason with Joe again.

  “Look, I know you worry, but you don’t need to. I’ll be fine.”

  “I don’t want to see you anywhere near this pen, Jody.”

  “What?” Jody stared at him, open-mouthed. “You can’t mean—”

  “I mean if I see you here, again, I’ll put the horse down.”

  “You’re telling me what I can and can’t do? No!”

  “I will not come over—and Eric won’t—to find you in a mangled heap in the dirt. Why can’t you just see that it’s for your own safety?”

  “So I listen, the way you did when I begged you not to ride Cowboy?”

  “If I hadn’t, you wouldn’t have Cowboy. This horse has no reason to live, Jody. Cowboy had every reason to. You’ve proved that.” He paused, his chest heaving with emotion. “You want me to tell you why you can’t come here again? Because I love you too much to let you. Okay?”

  Jody stared at him in shock, then her own anger ignited deep inside. “Now you love me, Joe? We both agreed there were no ties. You didn’t want a relationship. And I don’t want one more person using love as a reason for me not to do what I want. I lost Cowboy because my stepfather ‘loved’ me! I cry too easily and I can’t say the right words, but I am not some little ragdoll—”

  “No one ever said you were.” Joe turned away. “I don’t want to stand here and yell at you, Jody. I’m telling you to leave this brute alone.”

  “You don’t have that right, Joe Roberts! Standing here on my ranch telling me what I can and can’t do!” She saw him wince and knew she’d gone too far. She wished she could choke back the reference to the ranch, but words failed her again.

  He paused, looking over his shoulder. “So, just to be clear, I don’t have the right to demand anything out of this relationship?”

  “No,” she whispered, unable to bend as she usually did.

  He nodded and walked away.

  That night, he slept in his room with the door shut. She didn’t sleep until the early morning hours, and when she finally dozed off, her alarm jolted her awake almost immediately.

  She got up, dressed and went to find Joe. And apologize. He’d told her he loved her. She told him he had no rights on ‘her�
�� property. She thought of Cowboy, safe in his stall, and learning to be ridden with a saddle. Of Hope, off to work on a ranch serving troubled and disabled youth.

  He wasn’t in his room. Her heart stopped when she looked out the front window. He was gone.

  “Why in hell would you run a man like Joe off, girl?” Eric demanded, coming out of the kitchen.

  “Run—what did he say?” Jody whispered, pressing her palms into her jeans so her hands wouldn’t shake.

  “Come sit down a minute,” her stepfather ordered. He motioned her to the table, where his mug of coffee sat steaming. “Something to drink or eat?” he asked awkwardly, and she shook her head.

  “Can’t talk to you if you just stand holding that chair like I’ll hurt you, girl,” Eric told her gruffly. “Sit. Please.”

  Jody eased herself into a chair, and he continued. “Joe said he’d let me know where he was going so he could keep up with the horses. Said he couldn’t stay if you didn’t understand why he didn’t want you endangering yourself.”

  Jody hung her head, but blurted out the truth she’d carried for so many years. “That’s what you told me, too, Eric. First you lied and said Cowboy had died. Then you said you’d sold him because you didn’t want him to hurt me.”

  “And that’s true, Jody. I didn’t want you to get hurt. Because your Mom—you were everything to her. I didn’t keep her from breeding horses, Jody. Katie got scared for you, afraid she might be hurt. Then she found out she was sick. She—we thought it was best, Jody. We never meant to hurt you and we would have taken it back, but we couldn’t.” He hung his head for a moment, and when he looked up, the strong, emotionless man she’d known for so long had tears in his eyes. “When you do something out of love, it’s not always what’s best for everyone,” he said quietly. “But it’s always the right reason to try.”

  Jody grabbed a handful of napkins, wiped her face with one, and handed him some, smiling at him through tears. “Do I need to go to Dallas?”

  Eric shook his head. “He went to Chuck’s for a few days.”

  She walked around the table, shocking them both when she hugged his shoulders and kissed his cheek.

  “Wish me luck,” she whispered.

  “I always have,” he said.

  ***

  Jody didn’t find Joe at Chuck’s ranch, but his wife told her to look for “the gang” at Red’s Diner. She found the small place easily and recognized his truck among a handful of others.

  Going in alone was torture. Still, she forced herself to the back table where half a dozen men who’d helped Joe and her were eating and laughing.

  Chuck saw her first and nudged Joe, whose fork fell back to his plate with a clang. The others started standing, but Jody made a motion with her hand, stopping them.

  “Please don’t go. You haven’t finished eating.” She took a deep breath. “Besides, I have something to say to Joe, and—” her words caught in her throat. She dragged in a deep breath, and went on. “You guys helped us when it mattered. You can hear this.”

  “I—Joe, I’m sorry. I’ve blamed love for a lot of things that…maybe they started out of love and didn’t turn out right for me, but no one ever used love to hurt me.” She stopped, fishing for words. “I hugged Eric before I came,” she said.

  Joe’s friends looked confused, but Joe’s eyes misted.

  “He said if something starts in love it doesn’t always end the way you want it to, but love is the best place to start.”

  Joe’s friends were sliding out of the booth awkwardly, smiling at her and disappearing. Other guests and a waitress were clearly listening, but for once, she didn’t care.

  “If it’s really love, Joe, I’d like to start forever. With you.”

  EPILOGUE

  Jody leaned against the fence as Joe maneuvered his truck through the gate with its newly painted sign: Sixty-Three Second Chance Rescue. Joe still teased her about the length of the name, but she refused to waver. Cowboy came back over to the fence and slung his head over the top rail and her shoulder, and she laughed.

  “Nosy!” she scolded.

  Joe slid out but saw her and came her way immediately, leaving their new assistant, Sabrina, to unload the occupant of the trailer.

  He wrapped her in a hug and had to turn away from Cowboy’s insistent nose pokes to separate them.

  From the paddock next to Cowboy’s, the big gray gelding stopped grazing and came to the rail to gawk, too.

  “Do we have a damn audience, everywhere?” Joe groused, and Jody laughed.

  “That’s what you get for giving up too soon—he’s a big baby now and he’s jealous of everyone.”

  Joe nodded. “Rub it in. I don’t mind. I didn’t see any way to save him.” He kissed her. “I’m glad I was wrong.”

  “Love and time,” she said succinctly. “

  “Our first official rescue,” Joe announced, as Sabrina led the chestnut mare toward the barn. “The other sixty-three we just own.”

  “Eric’s okay with it now,” Jody noted. “Joe, whose side has twins—yours, or the twins’ father?”

  Joe grinned. “Did I mention Derek and Angela are twins?”

  “No.” They ambled toward the barn, arms linked. Jody glanced around and spotted Eric, driving his backhoe along in one of the pastures. “Let’s take him out to dinner, Joe. We probably should tell him he’s going to be a grandad.”

  Joe stopped and looked down at her, surprised. “Will he? Not just Eric?”

  “Of course not.” Sadness touched her voice briefly. “He’s the only family on my side our kids will ever know.” She smiled as she remembered something. “I sort of slipped this morning and called him ‘dad.’ I think we both were shocked for a minute.”

  Joe hugged her. “How did it feel?”

  Jody thought about it. “Awkward,” she answered. “But not wrong.”

  They walked into the shadowed barn, greeting some of the horses as they walked.

  “So,” Jody repeated, outside the mare’s box. “Sixty-four rescues.”

  “No.” Joe shook his head slowly. “Sixty-five.”

  “Sixty-three and this one—” She indicated the newcomer.

  “Sixty-four and me,” he said softly. He smoothed a hand over Jody’s cheek. “When I told you I didn’t know who I was—I didn’t. You rescued me, too, Jody. All I thought I had left was resentment over being betrayed, over losing a career—you give me everything.”

  Words failed her again, as they still often did. It didn’t matter. She wrapped her arms around him and let her heart speak.

  The End

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  My sincere thanks to all those who rescue unwanted or abused animals, and post their struggles and stories online. Animal Angels, Inc. reports on and tries to ease the excessive abuse of farm animals sent to slaughter and reports extensively on the cruel end that horses meet when sent to Mexico to the slaughterhouses there. Brighter Days Horse Refuge located in the Texas Hill Country (Pipe Creek) has been saving horses for thirty years. Please support rescue groups when you can—all give far more than they get, and the number and variety of animals helped is amazing.

  As always, my beta reader, editor, and conscience is my sister, Victoria M. Potter, who finds time for me always. Thanks, Vicky.

  To D’Ann Lindun, whose writing truly captures the men and women of the west, thanks for inviting me along on this ride.

  To Melissa Keir, the detail guru and dynamo who never stops—thank you.

  And as before, I appreciate my fellow collaborators Allison Merritt, Autumn Piper, and Sara Walter Elwood more than I can say. To have a group that works together so well must be celebrated. Thank you all.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Leslie P. García grew up lost among a crowd of six siblings and a menagerie that included more than twenty horses and ponies, uncounted dogs and cats, possums, raccoons—even a lion and monkeys. Then she moved to Texas, fell in love, was disowned—and embarked on her real adventu
res, raising 4 children, teaching hundreds, and loving 9 grandkids through forty years of marriage. The fabric of that colorful life has always been writing. In A Love Beyond, Leslie celebrates two of her passions—unusual love stories and the ever present chance at redemption in spite of past mistakes. Leslie loves hearing from readers and can be found all over cyber space, including these places:

  Facebook: www.facebook.com/LeslieP.Garcia

  Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/LesliePGarcia

  Website: Return to Rio

  Pinterest: Leslie P. Garcia

  Amazon Author’s Page: https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/books

  Bidding for the Cowboy’s Heart

  Melissa Keir

  Other Books by Melissa Keir

  Wilder Sisters Series:

  Forever Love

  Beach Desires

  A Christmas Accident

  Coming Home

  Home is Where the Heart Is

  *

  Charming Chances:

  Charming Chances (print of combined ebooks)

  Second Time’s a Charm

  Three’s a Crowd

  *

  Pigg Detective Agency:

  Protecting His Wolfe

  Protecting Her Pigg

  *

  Magical Matchmaker

  Chalkboard Romance

  One Night in Laguna

  One Night Behind Bars

  *

  The Cowboys of Whisper, Colorado

  The Heartsong Cowboy

  The Heartbroken Cowboy

  Claiming the Cowboy’s Heart

  A Pigskin Cowboy

  Broken Dreams

  Broken Vows

  Redeeming Dreams

  *