My stomach barely had time to drop before the gate swung open, and out charged, I kid you not, the biggest bull of them all. He was the Zeus of the bulls, and dammit if he wasn’t out there proving it.

Garth’s body bounced and flailed about like a rag doll’s as Zeus kicked his back legs a few times before spinning. The bull had barely made a full revolution before Garth flew off. Well, it was more like ejecting. Everything about it was violent: the way his arms and legs grabbed at the air, the way his face looked, and the way his body slammed into the dirt. Nothing about this sport wasn’t brutal. Gentle was checked at the gates.

The bull stopped spinning as soon as Garth had been bucked off. He stood for a minute, his entire body heaving, as he and Garth seemed to have some kind of stare down. Just when I couldn’t decide who would be the first to charge, those crazy-ass clowns intervened and got the bull moving toward the open gate at the end of the arena.

The crowd applauded when Garth stood, but that only seemed to make him angrier. I’d seen plenty of shades of pissed, and Garth’s expression definitely made the top ten list. Stomping over to where his hat had landed, he dusted it off before settling it low onto his forehead.

Without so much as a wave or even a look of acknowledgement into the crowd that was still clapping for him, Garth powered out of the dirt arena.

I’d known zilch about bull riding coming into the rodeo, but I’d picked up enough to know his ride hadn’t made it to the buzzer. I wasn’t sure if that meant he received a reduced score or no score, but either way, I knew he wouldn’t leave with a shiny, new belt buckle.

I knew what failing was like. If I was an expert at anything, it was failing. I wasn’t sure if Garth wanted to see anyone right away, but it wouldn’t hurt to try. I’d seen enough bull riding for one night, and I certainly didn’t want to be in that seat when Jesse came back with a flushed face and a satisfied smile. No, thank you.

I was out of my seat and down the stairs in a flash. I didn’t know exactly where he’d be, but I headed in the direction of a bunch of cowboy hats bobbing above the gate on the opposite side of the arena. I was pretty sure one of those black ones had to be his.

I got a few curious looks as I wove toward the pack of cowboys with numbers on their backs. Maybe I was heading into an “off limits” area, but since no one stopped me, I kept going.

Ducking under a rope, I headed for a familiar back. Sporting his signature color on everything from his boots to his chaps, his body was still rigid, but he had a beer in his hands. All had to be somewhat well in the universe.

There was a good-sized crowd around Garth, all about the same age and sipping on their own beers, likely commiserating the woes of bull riding, when I stopped a few feet behind him.

“I don’t know who looked more pissed off out there,” I said. “You or the bull.”

Garth twisted around. He had a serious scowl on his face. That was, until he took one look at me. His eyes skimmed up and down me once, then repeated. When his eyes finished on mine, they were ice. “This is a rodeo, sweetheart. Not the circus.” His voice was just as icy.

I flinched. At least on the inside. It took everything inside of me to keep from wincing on the outside. “Excuse me, Garth I-can’t-stay-on-a-bull-for-longer-than-two-seconds Black? And thanks for remembering to leave me a ticket, a**hole.” I was about to spin away and get the hell out of there when a single chuckle rolled out of him.

“Rowen?” he said, like he couldn’t have been anymore dumbfounded. “Holy shit. I knew you were troubled, I just didn’t think this troubled.” He waved his hands up and down my way and shook his head. “I might be able to overlook the hot mess if you’re as freaky in bed as you dress.”

He wasn’t saying anything I hadn’t heard before, but he’d taken me by surprise. I was always on guard for those kinds of cruel words and nasty names, but I’d let that wall fall sometime recently. Each of his words hit me in a sore spot. Each of them would leave a permanent scar. That was why I didn’t let my walls down. Not even for a second because the moment I did, I was reminded why I’d built them in the first place.

Making sure those walls were back in place before I replied, I glared at him. “I knew you were a poser, I just didn’t realize how much of one until I saw that sorry excuse for a ride out there.” He might have known where I hid my emotional underbelly, but I guessed where he hid his, too. Rodeo. Winning. Proving he wasn’t a failure. Proving to himself and to everyone else.

From the expression darkening his face, I knew I’d hit the right spot. “Why don’t you get the hell out of here?” he said before pointing for the exit. “You’re confusing everyone.” He cupped his hand over his mouth and shouted, “No, people! It’s not Halloween! It’s just our resident freak who’s really letting that freak flag fly tonight!”

Shit. That would have done some damage if those trusty walls of mine weren’t back up. I’d known from the start Garth was one of those troubled, angry souls, but I never guessed he was the cruel, downright nasty type.

Dropping his hand, he took a sip of his beer. That predatory look in his eyes returned. “You know, when teachers told us not to be afraid to be who we are, you really shouldn’t have listened.”

The rest of the guys around him chuckled. A few tried to hide their amusement, but the majority didn’t. I hated being laughed at. I hated being seen as a joke. I hated feeling the way I did then. I turned to rush for the exit, when a body plowed past me.

“Shut the hell up, Garth.” Jesse squared himself a foot in front of Garth and very intentionally looked down at him.

“And what makes you think I’d listen to anything you say?” Garth replied, his voice and expression lazy and unimpressed.

Jesse’s fists clenched and unclenched. “Because I know, and you know, I’d have no problem shutting you up if you don’t want to do this the easy way.”

Those words, or that warning, hung in the air for a moment. The rest of the guys around Garth stepped back a few feet. Maybe to give those two space to duke it out if it came to that, or maybe just because they feared the quivering mass of muscle that was Jesse Walker. Whatever the reason, those guys were ten times smarter than Garth Black. He just stood there, staring back at Jesse and taking swigs of his beer.

“Go ahead,” Garth said after a solid minute of their silent stare down. “She’s all yours tonight. I’ll take my turn later.” Glancing my way with a look of disgust, he shook his head. “It’s not exactly like she’s shiny and new.”

“What did you just say?” Jesse fumed, stepping into Garth. They would have been nose to nose if they were the same height. “What did you say, you little piece of shit?”

It was the first time I’d heard Jesse curse with real emotion. Other than that time in the kitchen, which seemed like the kiddie pool in comparison to what was going down, I hadn’t seen Jesse’s lid about to fly off.

I had turned him into a seething, cursing, crazed man. I’d been the one to make him lose his cool. Sure, what Garth had said and did really set him off, but my being there, being the target of Garth’s words and being who I was, had set the fire to the flame raging in front of me.

I wasn’t sure if I’d ever had a less proud moment.

I’d screwed up enough. I’d done what Rowen Sterling did best and made a shit-storm of everything. Enough for one night. Before the guys said another word, I spun around and rushed the hell away. Maybe once I was gone, they could forgive, forget, shake hands, and share a couple of beers. That’s what guys did, right?

Once I was outside the fairgrounds, in the dark and quiet, I felt comfortable. Like I could breathe again. As much as I’d tried to fight it, the dark and quiet was home to me. The only place I felt accepted.

The air was a bit cooler than when I’d arrived, but by the time I’d speed walked a few hundred feet down the road, my body was so warm I rolled up the sleeves of my hoodie. I made a note to remember a flashlight the next time I planned on walking at night. Out in the sticks, there weren’t such things as street lights. If not for the clear sky and almost full moon, I would have been lost in no time.

The crickets were really chirping, and for the first time since arriving at Willow Springs, I found the sound soothing. I’d kept my windows shut for the past week because those little buggers made a lot of noise, and for a city girl used to being serenaded by car horns and sirens, trying to fall asleep to a cricket chorus was like trying to fall asleep with a fog horn going off a few inches from my ear.

But I’d grown to like the crickets. In one week’s time, I’d been converted.

The country was slowly making its way inside me. First the people out there who, other than Garth Black, had to have some of the biggest hearts on the planet, and the crickets. I had a feeling I was on a slippery slope.

I was maybe a mile down the road and a million miles down my thought-path when I heard a car approaching. Well, a truck approaching.

The driver dimmed the headlights as they approached. The truck wasn’t familiar to me, so I knew I should probably duck into the field and run, but if the person inside that truck wanted to catch me, they were close enough running wouldn’t matter. Plus, I could qualify as the world’s slowest runner. The clodhopper boots didn’t help.

The driver’s window whirred down, and a sweet smile greeted me. “If Jesse knew you were out here walking all by yourself, he would bust something,” Josie said, slowing the truck to keep pace with me.

“He doesn’t know, and he doesn’t need to know,” I replied. “So no need to worry about Jesse busting anything.” My eyes drifted automatically to the bed of her truck, and my stomach twisted. “And didn’t you leave a while ago?”

“I did. Until I realized I’d left my purse behind.”

You left your boyfriend behind, too I almost added.

“Hop on in,” she said with a tilt of her head. “I’ll give you a ride. Willow Springs is on my way.”

I thought about that for all of a second. I still had a few miles left to go, I was exhausted physically and emotionally, and I knew the rodeo was close to finishing. Jesse and the Walkers would drive down the road soon, and they would pull over the instant they saw me. I didn’t want to be pressed up against Jesse in a car any more than I did earlier.

“Are you sure?” I asked, already crossing toward the truck.

“Sure as sure can be,” she replied.

Josie’s truck was nice. It was shiny red, and even though it didn’t seem to have a lift on it, I had to jump to get into the passenger seat.

“Thanks,” I said as I snapped my buckle into place. “I wasn’t really thinking when I walked to the rodeo tonight. I guess it slipped my mind I’d have to make a return trip, too.” I glanced down at my boots. I might have ticked off some miles in my day, but ten miles in the span of an evening was a bit ambitious. I already felt a couple blisters on my heels.