Her Rodeo Man (Reckless, Arizona)

by Cathy McDavid

  “It’s exactly the same. I allowed my relationship with a coworker to affect my judgment and cost the company. The amount is irrelevant.”

  He wasn’t ready to concede. “I was pressured into resigning rather than face a potential lawsuit, and your employer wants you to stay. In fact, they’re heartbroken you quit.” He recalled Cassidy’s sobs when she’d told him about Tatum’s notice.

  “Not your father.”

  “He likes you.”

  “I’m not his first choice for an office manager, and he sure as heck doesn’t want me handling any of the marketing or promotion. With good reason.”

  Frankly, she baffled Ryder sometimes with her mulishness. “You’re still stuck on the notion that my family is giving you charity.”

  “They have. Do you think somebody else would get a mere slap on the wrist? I’ve been treated differently from the beginning.”

  “Me, too. And my sisters. We’re family.”

  “Dammit, Ryder. You aren’t making this easy.”

  “I’m trying not to.”

  She groaned with frustration. “It’s time for me to grow up. Other than going to college and obtaining my teaching degree, I haven’t done one responsible adult thing on my own. When Monty left me, I mismanaged my finances and lost my house.”

  “He should have helped you. He had a responsibility.”

  “Maybe. Or maybe I simply messed up. I may resent my mother-in-law, but without her, I’m not sure what I would have done. Now, I’ve messed up again. I want to learn my lessons, handle my problems, and I can’t do that if I continually let other people rescue me.”

  The part of his brain that remained rational saw the logic behind her argument. It gave him pause and cleared his head.

  “Okay. Fine. Quit the arena. But that’s no reason to leave Reckless.”

  “I need a job. There aren’t many in town for the taking. Not that would enable me to earn a decent living.”

  He asked the question in a much more reasonable tone. “Where are you going?”

  “Mesa.”

  His shoulders slumped, the fight going out of him. All this anger and frustration for nothing. Mesa was an hour at most from north Phoenix where he’d be located. In fact, now that he thought about it, the distance was more doable than her living in Reckless. He’d been wrong to jump to conclusions. To come in with both guns blazing. Really wrong.

  “I’ll help you move,” he said.

  “I beg your pardon.”

  “We can do it together. Look for new places. Buy furniture. I’ve got a bunch of stuff in storage.” An idea occurred to him. A good one. “Let’s rent a place together. Halfway between our two jobs. There’d be some driving for both of us, but later we could buy a house, and you could look for a closer job.”

  “What the heck are you doing?” She glared at him, furious. “I’m not moving in with you.”

  “Why?” The idea made complete sense to him.

  “Weren’t you listening to me? Because I need to grow up, Ryder.”

  “This isn’t charity. It’s two people in a relationship planning a life together. A future.”

  “I have to think of my children.”

  “They like me.”

  “Not Gretchen.”

  “She’ll come around.”

  “How well you get along with them isn’t the problem. I’m just not ready to make any kind of commitment. Not until I figure out my life.”

  The slam to the gut Ryder received earlier was nothing compared to this. He felt pummeled, as if he’d been run over by a convoy of tanks.

  He could love Tatum. Might already be in love with her. Yet, she was tossing him aside like yesterday’s garbage.

  How wrong he’d been, and how right she’d been when she’d said she wasn’t ready for a relationship.

  “Look.” As if sensing his anguish, she made an appeal. “We can still see each other.”

  At that, Ryder laughed. A loud, short burst that had her taking a step back. “See each other?” He’d stupidly believed he meant more to her than that.

  “I wasn’t being funny.”

  “No, you weren’t.”

  He was vaguely aware that his remarks had wounded her, but he didn’t care. She’d shot her share of arrows without thought or concern.

  “And now that I want to take our relationship to the next level, you’re the one putting on the brakes. Tell me that isn’t funny.”

  Sweeping her hair over her shoulder with a jerk of her hand, she started for the door. “I think I should go.”

  Ryder didn’t stop her, which seemed to give her second thoughts because she hesitated at the door leading to the store, her hand on the knob, a perplexed expression on her face.

  “That’s it?” she asked.

  “What else is there?” He didn’t try to mask the bitterness in his voice. “You’ve decided. Any arguments I make will fall on deaf ears.”

  Pain ravaged her face. “This isn’t how I wanted it to end.”

  “At least you’re admitting you wanted it to end.”

  “Not true,” she protested. “You’re twisting my words.”

  “Am I? Or, are you finally being completely honest, with yourself and me?”

  At that, she turned the doorknob and left, walking out of the studio and out of his life forever. He waited a full two minutes before letting the emotional weight of what had just transpired push him down into the depths of emotional despair.

  How he made it to his truck he wasn’t sure. Where he was heading, he had no idea.

  At the street light, he stopped and let the truck idle, not proceeding even when the light turned green until the driver behind him laid on the horn.

  Just as well he was leaving Reckless. After today, there was no reason for him to stay.

  * * *

  “YOU’RE WRONG.”

  Ryder cranked his head in the direction of his father’s voice. “About what?” Frankly, he could take his pick of accusations.

  “With Tatum.”

  He’d expected his mother to be the one giving him grief, not his father—who’d often treated Tatum with ambivalence. Yet, there Mercer stood at the door to the guest bedroom Ryder had occupied since returning to Reckless, a disgusted scowl on his whiskered face.

  “Your mother called.” His father didn’t wait for an invitation, not that Ryder would have issued one, and entered the bedroom. “She said Tatum is upset.”

  “That was some reprimand you gave her. She did quit.”

  “Damn woman is overly sensitive, if you ask me.” His father grumbled something unintelligible under his breath. “But that’s not why she’s leaving Reckless.”

  “She told me differently.” Five days ago, to be specific.

  “You disappointed her.”

  Ryder turned from the window he’d been staring out of, mentally reviewing his list of regrets. “How exactly did I do that? By wanting to date?”

  “You pushed her into taking a responsibility she wasn’t ready for and didn’t want.”

  “No kidding.” His father had some nerve. “I seem to remember telling you the exact same thing before you decided to reprimand her and not me.”

  At that moment, Ryder felt the need to haul his suitcase out of the closet and start packing. He was heading to Phoenix this weekend in search of an apartment near his new job.

  His father stared at the suitcase. “I thought you were giving us two weeks’ notice.”

  “I figured since I’m such a washout, you’d have no objections to me cutting that short.”

  “You’re wrong.”

  Ryder shook his head and threw the suitcase on to the bed with enough force, the headboard banged the wall.

  “Fix this,” his fathe
r said.

  “The wall?”

  “Don’t be stupid. You know what I’m talking about. Convince Tatum to stay.”

  “I thought you wanted her gone.”

  “Hell, no, I don’t want her gone. And not just because it would break your mother’s heart and quite possibly cost me my relationship with Cassidy.”

  “Then, why?”

  “I didn’t want her doing your job, making it easier for you to leave. She was, is, a fine office manager.”

  “You keep forgetting, I never intended to stay permanently.”

  “Because you don’t like taking handouts from your family?”

  That sounded a lot like Tatum’s complaint. Why had he insisted she wasn’t taking charity from his family and shouldn’t resent their help when he felt the same way? If he examined his reasons more closely, he probably wouldn’t like what he found. He’d been out for himself and willing to use Tatum and her personal plight to get what he wanted.

  She was right to toss him aside. He didn’t deserve her.

  Come to think of it, he didn’t deserve his family, either. They’d been nothing but good to him these past weeks. Best to make a clean break, painful though it might be.

  “Look, I like working at the arena. But the fact is, I have more potential. Greater ambitions. And you’re overpaying me.”

  “Well.” Despite them being the same height, his father managed to look down his nose at Ryder. “Didn’t realize we were such a step down for you.”

  “That didn’t come out right.”

  “No? Somehow I think it came out exactly how you intended.”

  “You’re right.” Ryder should apologize.

  Rather than lash out in anger, his father sat on the footlocker at the end of the bed. “I did the same thing when I left all those years ago. I pretty much hated myself and figured other people felt the same. If they didn’t, I was bound and determined they would by the time I left. Worked hard at it, too. Like you’re doing.”

  Ryder really didn’t appreciate how well his father knew him.

  “Let’s say, for the sake of argument, you’re capable of more than the Easy Money has to offer. When did you get so all-fire full of yourself that you stopped having to make the most of a job and have everything handed to you on a silver platter?”

  The remark struck Ryder like a blast of cold water. He’d worked his butt off for the first dozen years of his career, turning a sometimes mediocre position into an exciting and rewarding one. Had the fiasco at Madison-Monroe altered him? Taken the wind from his sails? The thought that it had rankled him.

  “I might not have given this job a fair shake.”

  “How ’bout that?” His father chuckled dryly. “Your old man isn’t as dumb as you thought.”

  “I never said you were dumb.” The suitcase remained open and empty on the bed. Ryder had yet to throw any clothes in it.

  “Can’t say the same about you.” Mercer shook his head.

  “Because I’m leaving?” Why did they have to argue the same point over and over?

  “Because you’re letting that pretty young woman walk out on you.”

  That hit a nerve. “I asked her to stay. Suggested we rent a place together.”

  “Moving a little fast, aren’t you?”

  “Doesn’t matter. She won’t listen to reason.”

  “Maybe the problem is you’re not being reasonable. Women think differently than men.”

  “Like you’re an expert on women,” Ryder scoffed.

  “Trust me, I’m the furthest thing from an expert. But I don’t need to be one to know you should go after Tatum. Fight for her. I didn’t when your mother divorced me. Took me twenty-five years to come to my senses. Even then, I needed Liberty to show me the error of my ways. I’m trying to save you the trouble.”

  “Dad—”

  “Not sure what went wrong at that last job of yours and, frankly, I don’t care. But whatever happened changed you. You’re not the same man I knew a few months ago. You’re whipped.”

  Whipped? Ryder hated the sound of that. It too closely resembled what he’d been thinking himself.

  “I got involved with a coworker. It didn’t end well. She made trouble for me. A lot of trouble. She did it because I let her.”

  “Doesn’t sound like anything Tatum would do.”

  “No, I’m the one who made trouble for her.”

  “Look.” His father stood and put himself between Ryder and the suitcase on the bed. “You can fix this. There’s still time.”

  “And I presume you’re going to tell me how.”

  “Chase Tatum down. Convince her you love her and will do anything for her and those kids of hers. Who desperately need a father, from what I can tell. Make her stay. Propose if you have to.”

  “Propose? Didn’t you just say it was too soon to move in together? Now you’re suggesting I propose?”

  “Women want a commitment. Living together is a token effort at best. No wonder she turned you down.”

  Hard to believe but his father did make sense. Ryder had known all along Tatum was the marrying kind, not the date-then-live-together kind.

  “You could do worse than her.”

  “Truthfully, I’m not sure I could do any better. She’s an amazing woman.”

  “Marriage isn’t so bad,” his father said. “In fact, I’m considering giving the honorable institution another shot.”

  Ryder did a double take. “You’ve met someone?”

  “Gawd almighty, you really aren’t very bright.” Mercer shook his head in disgust. “I’m talking about your mother.”

  “She know about this?”

  “Not yet. I’m waiting for the right moment to pop the question.”

  Ryder was thinking the right moment might be when hell froze over, given his mother’s resistance. But then, she had relented about purchasing the new bulls. And Liberty had told him she’d caught them kissing once outside the arena. Perhaps his father was more persuasive than Ryder gave him credit for.

  “You sure you want to live the rest of your life wondering if you made the right decision? Or the wrong one?”

  “She’s dead set against reconciling. I’ve tried. She shuts me down every time.” The past five days had been difficult for him. A living hell. He wasn’t ready to repeat them.

  “Charm her.”

  “Not that easy. She’d have to speak to me first.”

  “If you can’t get her to talk to you, guess you’re not the hotshot marketing exec you think you are.”

  “Not the same thing.”

  “I disagree. You give that gal your best sales pitch. The most important one you’ve ever made. See if she doesn’t come around.”

  In a strange way, his father made sense. “And if she says no?”

  “What if she says yes?”

  Then Ryder would spend the rest of his life making her happy.

  His father’s next words spurred Ryder into action. “Get after it, son. Daylight’s burning.”

  He left without a backward glance, hopped in his truck and drove to town, taking side roads to shave a few minutes off his time. On the way to Tatum’s apartment, he ignored his father’s earlier directive and placed a call to Lynda Spencer. The more he thought about it, the more determined he was to see if anything could be done about the contract fiasco.

  She answered on the second ring. “Hello, Ryder.”

  “Do you have a minute?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “About the contract.”

  “I was wondering when you were going to call me.”

  “There was a mistake. Numbers transposed.”

  “I saw that.”

  “We’re going to honor the terms. You can count on
us.”

  Surprise tinged her voice. “I appreciate that. Another contractor wouldn’t.”

  “We both know you’re getting a smoking deal.”

  “I agree. But what do you want, Ryder, if not to ask me to renegotiate the contract?”

  He was a little disappointed she didn’t offer to make the terms right. They had, after all, reached a verbal agreement. Having no choice, he plowed ahead.

  “Give us your next six rodeos. For the same terms we originally agreed to at the restaurant. You owe us that much.”

  There was a moment of silence before she answered, “That’s two years out. We don’t normally contract more than a year in advance.”

  “We just purchased ten new bulls. From Harlo Billings.” She’d recognize the name and the stellar reputation attached to it.

  There was another lengthy pause. Ryder swore he could hear the wheels in Lynda’s mind spinning.

  Finally, she answered, “Done. I’ll have a letter of intent drawn up and forwarded to your office.”

  Ryder allowed himself a smile. It would take two rodeos for the Becketts to recover the money they’d lost. The remaining four would be at a respectable profit. And they could use Lynda to promote even more new business.

  He disconnected after saying goodbye, satisfaction coursing through him. He’d done his job, maybe for the first time since returning to Reckless. This was why his father had wanted him to work for the family. What he’d meant when he challenged Ryder to turn his position at the arena into all it could be.

  Was that what he wanted? To stay in Reckless? Maybe. Yes. But only on the condition he could convince Tatum to stay with him.

  Ryder picked up his discarded cell phone and placed another call. This one to Myra. He knew from past experience that he worked best when under pressure and with the right motivation. If he had any chance of changing Tatum’s mind, he needed to be sweating bullets.

  “Hello, Ryder.” Myra sounded glad to hear from him. After he told her the reason for his call, her demeanor noticeably cooled.

  “Are you absolutely sure? This is an amazing opportunity.”

  For her, too. She stood to lose a substantial fee.

  “I’m going to stay in Reckless. I haven’t given the job with my family a fair shot.” He went on to apologize for inconveniencing her and wasting her time. Ryder prided himself on following through with his commitments, and it bothered him to renege on this one.