Chapter Thirteen
Jamie put the unpleasant conversation with Dylan out of his head, and focused instead on enjoying the time he had with Rachel. It had been years since he had watched a rodeo. Since the three-day event seemed to be all people at the lodge were talking about, they agreed it would be a fun way to pass a few hours, and made their way to the fairgrounds.
After parking the van, Rachel automatically reached for Jamie’s wheelchair, and he saw her surprise when he stopped her.
“I can get by with my crutches,” he said. “It will be easier.”
Rachel frowned. “Are you sure? I don’t want you to overtire yourself.”
Jamie gave her a lecherous grin. “Don’t worry, sweetheart; I’ll be sure to save enough energy for tonight.”
She gave a surprised laugh. “Jamie Colter, you’re unbelievable.”
As she leaned through the open door of the van to reach for his crutches, he took the opportunity to kiss her, gratified when she gave a small sigh and leaned in to him, kissing him back until finally they broke apart, breathless.
“We don’t have to see the rodeo today,” Jamie said, his voice husky with suggestion. “It’ll still be here tomorrow.”
Rachel leaned in and pressed her mouth against his. “As tempting as that sounds, I promised Dylan we’d come back later, so we only have a few hours.” She pulled back and looked at him, before stroking her thumb across his mouth, her smile full of promise. “But I’ll make it up to you tonight. Deal?”
Jamie gave a soft groan. “Lady, you are killing me.”
But Rachel just laughed softly.
They made their way to the ticket booth at the edge of the fairgrounds, and Jamie could already hear the call of the announcer and cheers of the crowd. A carnival was underway on the far side of the fairgrounds, and he could see the giant Ferris wheel turning overhead, and smell the aromas of funnel cakes and fried foods.
Jamie paid for their tickets, and they found two seats on the lower tier of the grandstands that allowed Jamie ample room to extend his leg.
The stadium was nearly full, and Jamie breathed in the familiar smells of dust, leather, and fresh manure. He, Dylan, and Lucas had spent many days during their youth attending local rodeos, and Lucas had declared he was going to be a bull rider when he grew up. That had never happened, of course, since he lived on Long Island, and there seemed to be a shortage of cowboys in New York. Instead, he’d attended West Point and had been commissioned into the Army following graduation. He’d gone through a series of grueling physical and mental tests and had been selected for the elite Special Forces. Jamie kept in touch with him, and knew he had recently been deployed to the Middle East. While he, Lucas, and Dylan didn’t see as much of each other as they had when they were kids, Jamie liked to think their friendship was still as solid as it had always been.
“What is this event?” Rachel bumped his shoulder with her own, pulling him out of his thoughts.
He surveyed the arena, and saw an enormous steer snorting impatiently in the chute, and a cowboy on horseback waiting in the chutes on either side.
“This is the steer-wrestling,” he said. “They’ll release the steer, and that cowboy there will try to wrestle it to the ground. That other cowboy is called the hazer. He’ll ride alongside the steer to make sure it runs straight.”
Rachel looked at the steer, concern clouding her eyes. “Isn’t that dangerous?”
Jamie nodded. “There’s a lot of risk for the cowboy, if he doesn’t get a good hold on the steer.”
They watched as the cowboy nodded to the caller, and the steer was released, followed immediately by the hazer. The steer was big and layered with muscle, and Jamie thought the cowboy would have a tough time bringing it down. The cowboy exploded from his chute as soon as the restraining rope came free, and he thundered across the arena until he was parallel to the steer.
Rachel moved closer to Jamie and clutched his arm as the cowboy leaned over the side of his galloping horse and grabbed the horns of the running steer. She gasped as the cowboy was yanked off his horse by the rampaging steer, but he planted his booted heels into the dirt, dragging both himself and the massive animal to a slower pace.
They watched as the cowboy released the horns with one gloved hand and grabbed the animal’s nose, pulling it off-balance and throwing it to the ground. The steer’s legs went into the air, and the official waved a flag.
“That’s it,” Jamie said, as the cowboy released the steer and stood up, dusting himself off as he acknowledged the cheers of the crowd with a nod.
The steer, clearly indignant but no worse for the event, heaved himself to his feet and trotted off.
Rachel released her breath. “That was crazy!”
Jamie laughed. “Darlin’, that was nothing. Wait until the bull riding starts!”
Rachel made a sound that was half-laugh, half-groan. “And here I thought I was just going to see some nice barrel racing, or maybe a bucking horse or two!”
They stayed long enough to watch the remainder of the steer-wrestling event, and then caught the beginning of the bull-riding competition. Jamie knew Rachel didn’t enjoy that sport as much. She hid her face against his shoulder, certain the cowboy would be flung to his death, or gored by the bull. After the third cowboy had completed his bull ride, Rachel declared she couldn’t watch another cowboy risk his life.
“They’re so young!” she exclaimed, as they made their way out of the grandstands. “How can their mothers even allow them to compete in something so dangerous?”
Jamie didn’t want to tell her most of those cowboys were around his own age. That would only reinforce her belief he was too young for her. They made their way slowly through the fairgrounds to the midway, where Jamie bought them both a bratwurst sub, with some cold drinks. Rachel carried them to a table beneath a shady umbrella, and they ate in comfortable silence, watching the people go by.
“I bet this place is fun at night,” Rachel commented, sipping her drink. “I haven’t been to a country fair in years. I love all the bright lights and sounds.”
“What, Times Square at night doesn’t compare?” Jamie teased.
Rachel made a face at him. “Seriously, I miss these kinds of things.”
“So what did you do for fun when you weren’t working?”
Rachel thought for a moment. “Well, when I was still with Deke, we’d usually head out to one of his vacation houses, or maybe spend time on the family yacht.” Seeing his expression, she frowned. “Don’t judge. The guy has more money than you can even imagine, so his idea of recreation is a lot different than yours or mine. In his defense, that’s the way he was raised, so that’s all he knows.”
“That guy has no defense,” Jamie muttered. “Even if he wasn’t filthy rich, he’d still be a dick.”
Rachel gave him a half smile. “Probably.”
“So now that you’ve returned to the real world, what do you enjoy doing in your free time?”
To Jamie’s surprise, she leaned across the table and laced her fingers with his, as she gave him a shy smile. “Well, this is pretty nice. I like being back in Montana, and I like being with you.”
Something shifted in Jamie’s chest as she looked at him. He wanted to capture the moment and savor it. In the time since they’d been together, her eyes had never held the soft promise he saw reflected there now. Hope welled inside him. Could she be falling for him? Could he possibly mean more to her than just a temporary diversion?
He fervently hoped so.
“Hey, is that you, Colter?”
At the sound of the deep, surprised voice, Rachel snatched her hands away, pushing them down into her lap. Jamie shaded his eyes as he turned to see a couple with a child had stopped beside their table. He frowned, peering up at the man.
“Cole Tanner?”
The man’s face broke into a grin, and he stepped forward to shake Jamie’s hand. “I thought that was you. I heard you were home.” He sobered, and gestured toward Jamie’s leg. “Hey, man, I was sorry to hear what you went through. Are you doing okay?”
Jamie nodded. “Yeah, thanks. I’ll be getting this off in a few days. How’ve you been?”
Cole had grown up in Glacier Creek, and although he was a few years older than Jamie, they’d always been friendly.
“Things couldn’t be better.” Cole turned toward his companion, a slender, attractive woman with honey-brown hair and large, blue eyes. Holding her hand and staring at his cast with wide eyes was a little girl, no more than five or six, with corkscrew red hair and freckles. “Jamie, meet my fiancée, Joy Holliday, and her daughter, Piper.”
Jamie shook both their hands, winking broadly at the little girl, who grinned at him and half-hid behind her mother. He gestured toward Rachel, who all but squirmed in her seat. “You remember Rachel McCafferty, right? She’s Dylan’s sister.”
Cole’s face registered surprise, which he quickly schooled into a friendly smile as he shook Rachel’s hand. “Sure, I know Dylan. We jumped fires together before I left the forest service, and we built his house together a couple of years back. I haven’t seen him yet this summer. How’s he doing?”
Jamie briefly described Dylan’s accident, and Cole was instantly sympathetic. “I’m sorry to hear that. I had no idea. Here I was wondering why the two of you would be together, but I get it now.”
Jamie groaned inwardly as the other man all but solidified Rachel’s fears about being seen with him.
“We’re only in Bozeman until tomorrow,” Cole continued, “but I’ll stop by the hospital and see him, unless you think he’s not up for visitors.”
“I think he’d like to see you,” Rachel said. “That would be really nice of you.”
They talked for several more minutes, mostly about how Cole had recently taken over his family’s timber-frame company, before they said their good-byes, promising to get together for a drink back in Glacier Creek.
“Well, that was awkward,” Rachel commented, when Cole and Joy were out of earshot.
“How so?” Jamie asked, pretending to misunderstand. “Cole’s a great guy, and he’s a good friend of your brother’s.”
Rachel gave him a tolerant look. “He couldn’t begin to fathom why you and I are together.”
“Are we back to this again?” Jamie shoved his food away, no longer hungry. “I thought we had an agreement.”
“I agreed we wouldn’t talk about the difference in our ages, but that’s not going to stop other people from talking and wondering.” She gestured toward the passing crowd, where Cole and Joy could no longer be seen. “You must know this is how it’s going to be every time someone sees us together.”
Jamie leaned forward. “That’s bull, and you know it. The only reason Cole even questioned it is because he knows—”
“—there’s no reason why we would even be friends, never mind lovers,” Rachel finished for him. “You know it’s the truth.”
“So let’s do this,” Jamie said, refusing to be drawn into an argument over something that seemed, at least to him, so trivial. “Let’s bring it all out into the open, and let everyone know we’re together. Glacier Creek isn’t that big of a town, so if we tell a few people, I figure everyone’s going to know inside of a week. They can get all their idle gossip and speculation out of the way, and within another week it will be old news. People will get used to seeing us together, and before you know it, nobody is going to care.”
Rachel looked away. “I don’t know…” She glanced at him. “Are we even going to be in Glacier Creek long enough for it to matter? Our parents will be back in less than a week.” She groaned. “Actually, mine will probably be here tomorrow.”
“In which case, we’ll leave them to look after Dylan, and you and I can hightail it back to Glacier Creek. We have at least a week before my folks return, and your parents will probably stay here, until Dylan can be moved. We have some time to figure this out.”
Rachel pressed her fingers against her temples. “Wait, wait. This is moving way too fast. Are you saying once our parents come home, we should tell them about us?”
Jamie forced himself to sound casual. “Sure. Why not?”
Rachel stared at him in disbelief. “Really? What about your parents? Do you really think they’ll be okay with us being together? Won’t they think it’s crazy?”
Honestly, Jamie didn’t know how his parents would react. He didn’t think his father would care, but his mother was a different story. She still thought of him as a kid, and couldn’t help but fuss over him as much as he tried to discourage her.
He leaned forward and captured one of her hands in his. “I don’t have all the answers, Rachel. All I know is our folks are coming home soon, and I’m not ready to end whatever this is between us. We’re both adults, which means we get to make our own choices. So if you still want to be with me, we’re going to have to go public, because I refuse to sneak around.” He gave her a meaningful look. “We’re both too old for that.”
Rachel stared at him, and then nodded. “You’re right. But can we at least have this next week to keep things under wraps? I promise once our parents and Dylan are back in Glacier Creek, if you still want to go public, then we will.”
Jamie let out a slow, controlled exhalation of relief. He’d been half certain Rachel would take the coward’s way out and end things now, before she was forced to face her family and friends. Hell, he’d end things if she felt that strongly about keeping their relationship a secret, as if it was something to be ashamed of. As if he was someone to be ashamed of.
He glanced at his watch. “It’s just past one o’clock, and I’m pretty beat. Why don’t we go back to the lodge and, uh, take a nap?”
Rachel narrowed her eyes at him, but her mouth curved in a knowing smile. “Somehow, I don’t think sleeping is what you have in mind.”
“Nope,” he agreed cheerfully.
If he stood even the smallest chance with Rachel, he needed to take every opportunity to remind her how good they were together.