She leaned down to whisper in his ear, asking him to let her ride him, telling him how she needed this, explaining how much was at stake.
She could hear the cowboys, a low hum of voices on the corral fence. She didn’t look, but imagined in her mind one in particular on the fence watching her, his dark eyes intrigued, his interest piqued.
Her body quaking with anticipation—and a healthy dose of apprehension—she gave Lou a nod to open the gate.
In that split second as the gate swung out, she felt the horse lunge and knew The Undertaker didn’t give a damn that she was trying to impress some cowboy. This horse had his own agenda.
He shot straight up, jumped forward and came down bucking. He was big and strong and didn’t feel like being ridden—maybe especially by her. Dust churned as he bucked and twisted, kicking and lunging as he set about unseating her.
But she stayed, remembering everything she’d been taught, everything she’d been teaching this morning along with Lou. Mostly, she stuck more out of stubborn determination than anything else.
She vaguely heard the sound of cheers and jeers over the pounding of hooves—and her heart.
When she heard the eight-second horn signaling she’d completed a legal rodeo ride, she couldn’t believe it.
Too late, she remembered something her father always warned her about: pride goeth before the fall.
More than pleased with herself, she’d lost her focus for just an instant at the sound of the horn and glanced toward the fence, looking for that one cowboy. The horse made one huge lunging buck, and Dusty found herself airborne.
She hit the ground hard, the air knocked out of her. Dust rose around her in a cloud. Through it, she saw a couple cowboys jump down into the corral, one going after the horse, the other running to her.
Blinking through the dust, she tried to catch her breath as she looked up hoping to see the one cowboy she’d do just about anything to see leaning over her—Boone Rasmussen.
“You all right?” asked a deep male voice.
She focused on the man leaning over her and groaned. Ty Coltrane. The last cowboy she wanted to see right now.
“Fine,” she managed to get out, unsure of that but not about to let him know if she wasn’t.
She managed to sit up, looking around for Boone but didn’t see him. The disappointment hurt more than the hard landing. Just before she’d decided to ride the horse, she’d seen Boone drive up. She’d just assumed he would join the others on the corral fence, that for once and for all, he would actually take notice of her.
“That was really something,” Ty Coltrane commented sarcastically as he scowled down at her. Ty had been the bane of her existence since she’d been born. He raised Appaloosa horses on a ranch near her family’s Sundown Ranch and every time she turned around, he seemed to be there, witnessing some of her most embarrassing moments—and causing more than a few.
And here he was again. It never failed.
She took off the helmet, her long blond braid falling free. Ty took the helmet and motioned to the cowboy on the fence, who tossed her western straw hat he’d been holding for her. It sailed through the air, landing short.
Ty picked it up from the dirt and slapped the dust off against his jeaned thigh. “Yep, that one could go down in the record book as one of the dumber things I’ve seen you do, Slim.” He handed her the hat, shaking his head at her.
As a kid, she’d been a beanpole, all elbows and knees, and she’d taken a lot of teasing about it. It had made her self-conscious. Even when she began to develop and actually had curves, she’d kept them hidden under her brothers’ too large hand-me-down western shirts.
“Don’t call me that,” she snapped, glaring at him as she shoved the hat down on her blond head, tucking the single long braid up under it as she did.
He shook his head as if she mystified him. “What possessed you to ride The Undertaker? Have you lost all sense?”
The truth was, maybe she had. She didn’t know what had gotten into her lately. Not that as a kid she hadn’t always tried to be one of the boys and ride animals she shouldn’t have. It came with being raised on an isolated ranch with four older brothers and their dumb friends.
That, and the fact that for most of her life, she’d just wanted to fit in, be one of the boys—not have them make fun of her, but treat her like one of their own.
All that had changed a few weeks ago when she’d first laid eyes on Boone Rasmussen. Suddenly, she didn’t want to blend in anymore. She didn’t want to be one of the boys. She felt things she’d only read about.
Now all she wanted was to be noticed by Boone Rasmussen.
And apparently there was no chance in hell of that ever happening.
“Here,” Ty said extending a hand to help her up.
She ignored it as she got to her feet on her own and tried not to groan as she did. She’d be sore tomorrow if she could move at all. That had been a fool thing to do, but not for the reason Ty thought. She’d only done it to get Boone’s attention. She couldn’t believe she’d been so desperate, she thought as she took off the protective vest. Ty took it as well and handed both vest and helmet to one of the cowboys along the fence.
She hated feeling desperate.
Being that desperate made her mad and disgusted with herself. But the problem was, even being raised with four older brothers, she knew nothing about men. She hadn’t dated much in high school, just a few dances or a movie. The boys she’d gone out with were like her, from God-fearing ranch families. None had been like Boone Rasmussen.
She realized that might be the problem. Boone was a man. And Boone had a reckless air about him that promised he was like no man she’d ever known.
“Nice ride,” one of the cowboys told her as she limped out of the corral.
“Don’t encourage her,” Ty said beside her.
There was a time she would have been busting with pride. She’d ridden The Undertaker. She’d stayed on the eight seconds for the horn.
But today wasn’t one of those days. The one cowboy she’d hoped to impress hadn’t even seen her ride.
“You don’t have to go telling my brothers about this,” she warned Ty.
He grunted. “I have better things to do than go running to your brothers with stories about you,” he said. “Anyway, the way you behave, it would be a full-time job.”
She shot him a narrow-eyed look, then surreptitiously glanced around for Boone Rasmussen, spotting him over by the bull corrals talking to the big burly cowboy who worked with him, Lamar something or other.
Boone didn’t even glance in her direction and obviously hadn’t seen her ride or cared. Suddenly, she felt close to tears and was spitting mad at herself.
“You sure you’re all right?” Ty asked as he reached to open her pickup
