Page 2 of Headstrong Cowboy (Montana’s Rodeo Cowboys #2)

“Barrel racing? But you haven’t done that for years! The rodeo is only a couple of weeks away. Can you enter at this late stage? Why are you even thinking about it? You need a horse to compete too. What are you going to do about that? You’re not as young as you were when you were competing before.”

Way to tell me I’m too old, Mom.

Chrissy kept the words locked down. Her mom wasn’t wrong, but she also wasn’t right either.

While it had been a long time since she’d competitively competed, she had been on the back of a horse over the intervening years.

So what if it had been riding around a ring on the weekends when Beau had been off at work conferences?

She’d still felt the wind in her hair as the horse galloped over the dirt.

It didn’t quite give her the same adrenaline rush as sliding around barrels gave her, but she’d taken whatever she could get.

She was sure if she’d looked hard enough, she would’ve found a place around Buffalo where she could’ve gone around some barrels if she’d wanted to.

“It’s like riding a bike, Mom. You don’t forget those skills.

As for if I can enter, I’ll check, but as a previous winner and hometown Marietta girl, I’m sure I’ll be able to get a spot.

” At least she hoped she would, but that was a bridge to cross later.

As for a horse, well, she’d work that out too.

All that mattered was if she could enter.

If the fates were on her side and she won, she could use not only the proceeds from Beau’s life insurance but also the rodeo winnings to get the farm out of the red and into the black.

It would be a start. An injection of cash, and that was all they needed.

She would look at other ways to increase the profits of the farm.

Maybe they could do something for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Although it was September and getting anything ready in time for them to sell for the holidays was likely impossible, but she had to try.

“Hmm, well, I think you should sit on it for a bit longer before making a decision. Is there a particular reason as to why you’re looking at entering the rodeo?”

While her mom’s tone was light, Chrissy didn’t miss the way her gaze had fallen on the books resting on the desk. Nor did she miss the way her shoulders drooped a little and her mouth firmed into a thin line.

If Chrissy had thought her mom didn’t know about the farm’s issue, her reaction right at that second suggested the opposite.

How did she approach it, though?

How did she tell her mom what she’d found?

How did she tell her sisters? And should she?

The questions raced around her mind, and she willed them to stop so that she could think logically and unemotionally about it all.

“It will be a bit of fun. You know I used to love competing in the Copper Mountain Rodeo each year. Since it’s my first year back, why not give it a go?”

Mom pursed her lips, as though she was about to lecture her like she had when Chrissy had been a teenager and had wanted to join the school dance team.

In her teens she hadn’t had a lick of coordination when it came to dancing, or for doing the leaps and jumps that were required for the routines, and she still didn’t.

Nor had she had any dance lessons, either, because her focus had been on horses and rodeos.

Mom had sat her down and pointed all of that out to her, and in the end, Chrissy had listened, even though she hadn’t wanted to.

After seeing one of the group practices, Chrissy had been glad her mom had set her straight.

There would’ve been no way she would’ve made the team and would’ve embarrassed herself silly when she’d tried out.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking, Chrissy, but you know yourself better than I do, and if this is something you want to do, then I’m not going to stop you. You still haven’t said where you’re going to get a horse from, though?”

The logistics of how it was all going to happen wasn’t something she’d really thought about, considering the idea had only popped into her head, but no way was she going to let Mom know that she had no plans.

Wait... Riley. Yes! That will solve one problem.

“Riley Telford,” she blurted out triumphantly. “You remember her—she went to school with Sunny. Her family breeds horses. They let me ride one of their horses in a rodeo when Pepper pulled up sore after a practice run one time.”

Pepper had been a beautiful black horse with a white strip down her nose.

Chrissy had been heartbroken when it became evident that the injury Pepper sustained during one of their runs had turned out to be more serious than they’d first thought.

There’d been only one option in the end.

Chrissy quickly shoved those thoughts down deep.

They’d done the right thing, even though it had hurt so much at the time.

“I know the Telfords.”

Mom glanced at the books again, and the ball of dread in Chrissy’s stomach that her mom knew exactly what was going on bounced around like the silver ball in a pinball machine.

“Is there something else you want to say, Mom?”

Mom’s attention darted to the ceiling before landing back on Chrissy. “I’m not sure how to say this. I don’t want to disappoint you or Tilly, and most especially, Sunny, but I’ve thought long and hard on this decision and I think it’s the right one.”

Chrissy didn’t like where the conversation was heading, but Mom was talking and she would listen, like the dutiful daughter she was. “What are you trying to say, Mom?”

Eunice Bloom closed the distance between them and reached out to brush her fingers over the books on the desk.

There was Chrissy’s answer. The one she’d been hoping that she could keep from her mother, but as she suspected, was something her mom knew all about.

“Your father was never any good with the books, and after he fired Ewan, the accountant, I knew something was up. He was a stubborn man whenever I asked to help. He told me he had it under control, but I knew he didn’t. ”

“That’s why he called me,” Chrissy murmured. Once again, the guilt that she hadn’t made time for her family cut deep. She may not have been there for them in the past, but she was here now and she was going to make it right.

“What?”

“It doesn’t matter now.” Letting Mom know that Dad had called her and she hadn’t bothered to speak to him wouldn’t make the situation any better. “I’m sure, even if you pushed Dad, he wouldn’t have been forthcoming.”

“You’re probably right. I could’ve asked a bit more about the business, though.

But I knew my place, and as old-fashioned as it sounds to everyone now, I accepted it and was happy being a mom and homemaker.

I loved that man with every fiber of my being.

And he was a good man. A good husband, who treated me like a queen, and he loved you girls as much as he loved his flowers. ”

Tears welled in Chrissy’s eyes. She’d known her parents had a relationship that most of the current generation of women would rail against. Chrissy herself had thought it more than once—that her mother could do more than just cook, clean, and look after her and her sisters.

But she’d also seen how much her father loved her mother and vice versa.

While how they lived and their relationship may not work for Chrissy, it had worked for them.

“What’s going on, Mom?” Chrissy questioned when her mom hadn’t spoken for a few seconds.

“I think the best thing to do is look at selling the farm.”

Chrissy jumped from her seat, shock rolling through her in waves. “What? No! It doesn’t have to come to that. I can help. I can work out a plan to make us profitable again. I’ve already got ideas on how to do it. I’ve got Beau’s money I can use to help us. You can’t do this, Mom.”

The second she said her mother couldn’t do it, Eunice’s spine straightened.

“I can assure you I can. The farm will be lucky to survive to the end of the year. No matter what plans you might have. Nor will Beau’s money help, which I forbid you to use to rescue the farm.

He left that for you and your future, and that’s what you’ll use it for. There’s no other choice.”

Chrissy opened her mouth to argue more, especially about Beau’s money.

She had no qualms about using it to save the farm and knew deep in her bones that Beau would encourage her to use it to save her family legacy.

But the way her mom’s chin had lifted and the fire of determination in her eyes meant that stating her case and arguing wouldn’t be worth it.

Mom was convinced this was the only way forward.

Chrissy was going to persuade her there was another way. That selling the farm was a last resort. The flower farm had been her father’s dream and now it was Sunny’s, and she was going to make sure it didn’t leave the Bloom family.

Ever.