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We watched the rest of the bronc riding, and then it was time for the bull riding.

“Rhett’s turn,” she said.

I nodded. He’d been riding bulls since we were sixteen years old. I remembered going to his first rodeo and cheering for him from the stands, so proud that he was my boyfriend. He’d ridden his bull for eight seconds that night.

He said I made him feel invincible.

Neither of us knew then that what we had could break.

Things were different now, but when the announcer called Rhett’s name and I saw him in the chute, on the back of that massive, horned animal, my heart still leapt to my throat.

I still held my breath as it bucked, him holding on to the back.

The seconds seemed to drag by until the buzzer went off, signaling he’d made the entire ride. He flew off, rolling on the ground and then easily springing to his feet as a rodeo clown sprinted out and distracted the bull.

Rhett ran to the fence and stood at the top rung.

And, in front of everyone in the audience, he pointed right at me.

All the people around me turned to take me in, and my cheeks flushed bright red as I lifted my hand to wave. The cheering got louder, and I realized Rhett was egging them on, clapping, waving his hands.

The announcer joined in on the fanfare. “Looks like Rhett Griffen wants to give the praise to a special little lady in the stands. Let’s make some noise!” A sound effect of clapping and cheering joined the deafening ruckus around me.

As Rhett met my gaze across the space between us, I mouthed,I hate you.

His grin only got bigger.

11

RHETT

It wasdark outside when Cooper and I rolled up to the township hall where the town’s events board was throwing a post-rodeo “barn dance.”

“Think she’s gonna kill you?” he asked.

I smirked, turning off the engine to my truck. It was old enough I still had to use a key in the ignition. “Mags never minded the attention before. But it has been a long time since then.” Shit. Now I was second guessing myself.

“What the hell happened between you two anyway?” he asked. “I swear I’ve never seen you put in this much effort for a chick before.”

I let out a sigh, looking out my window even though I could only see the truck parked next to me. “I don’t like to talk about it.”

“That’s obvious.”

Why hadn’t I told him? Probably because it was one of the dumbest things I’d ever done, and thinking about it still hurt like hell. Time didn’t heal all wounds; it just taught you how to live with it. “I was twenty years old, and Mags had just graduated high school. She was about to go study cosmetology, and I’d just graduated from a diesel mechanic program. I had this idea that I could follow her to Austin, work there while she got her degree, and then we could move back to Cottonwood Falls together.”

Cooper gave me a teasing smile. “Quite the romantic.”

I rolled my eyes at him.

“I don’t see the problem.”

“The problem is I thought we could do it all as man and wife. Several couples from the years before us had gotten married straight out of high school, and I thought we could make it too. I proposed, and she wasn’t ready. She turned me down, I freaked out. I was hurting so bad I did the only thing I thought I could to make it through the night and hooked up with a girl to try and cover up the hurt. Then Maggie showed up at my place to say she was ready to say yes now that the shock had worn off... while the girl was there.”

Cooper winced.

I nodded. “It was the worst mistake of my life.”

With a frown, Cooper said, “We’re all dumbasses at twenty. Some of us stay dumbasses our whole life.” He gave me a pointed look.