Page 8 of Headstrong Cowboy (Montana’s Rodeo Cowboys #2)

A sense of excitement, nervousness, and trepidation vied for Ryder’s attention as he slowed down, coming up to the turnoff to his destination.

In a few moments, he was about to stand on his family’s land.

A family he hadn’t known he was part of because he’d never bothered with his past. Not after his mother had died and he had been placed into the foster care system, a boy of eight, angry at the world and everyone in it.

He wasn’t that boy anymore, and he would do everything he could to fulfill a long-ago wish of his mother’s. A wish he would’ve liked to have known about sooner. Although, would it have made any difference to how he’d lived his life so far? That was a question that couldn’t be answered.

The blue sign advertising the flower farm stood tall on the corner. The wording was faded, as if it hadn’t been painted in a long time.

In his call with Lucinda, he hadn’t asked why the farm was being sold. He hadn’t needed to know. After seeing the tired-looking sign, he suspected it may have hit hard times.

Ryder had never considered it was possible to grow flowers in Montana, considering the amount of snow the area got.

Or how harsh the winters could get. What type of flowers did they produce?

Not that it mattered to him, as he was looking at the land for a different reason.

He wasn’t thinking about buying it to be a flower farmer.

He didn’t know if it would fit his needs at all.

The size concerned him, but it would be a start to the Four Leaf Ranch.

Maybe once he purchased his first bit of land, he could approach the surrounding areas and gauge their interest in selling.

Perhaps there were some owners who were ready to sell, but just hadn’t taken the leap forward to do so. Anything was possible.

Mentally, he cautioned himself not to get too far ahead in his thinking. There was no guarantee that any of this would come off, but he would do his best to push it in the right direction—the direction that favored him.

Dust flew up behind him as he traveled down the driveway toward the main hub of the property. The grass on either side was neatly clipped, and in the distance were a large homestead and what appeared to be other structures.

They had to be the greenhouses Lucinda had mentioned.

Ryder pulled to a halt outside a building where another Bloom Flower Farm sign adorned the porch. This one looked in better condition than the one he’d driven past. Had he gotten it wrong and things weren’t as bad as he’d assumed? Or had they just updated this one and not the one by the road?

All of those thoughts were forgotten when he saw who was walking up to him—Chrissy.

He’d known he was likely going to run into her on this visit. He’d hoped he had a little more time to prepare himself for it, not to mention come up with a plausible reason why he was out here. He had an idea and guessed he would run with it.

Grabbing his hat where it sat on the seat beside him, he got out and smiled. He took a moment to savor the enormity of him stepping onto land that had been in his family for a couple of generations before they’d lost it. “Chrissy, this is a surprise.”

Like they had when he’d seen her the previous day, her eyes widened at his presence. “Ryder? What are you doing here?”

He looked around, taking the seconds it took for him to do so to get the idea of why he was there straight in his mind. “I was going for a drive and saw the sign for the farm and thought I’d come and get some flowers. I’m staying at the Graff and thought some would brighten up my room.”

Now Chrissy’s eyes narrowed, and he made sure he didn’t fidget to give away that he wasn’t telling her the whole truth. “Really? I’m sure a hotel the quality of the Graff could’ve easily given you some. Or you could’ve called Sweet Pea Florist and gotten some delivered to your room.”

Damn, what Chrissy suggested made perfect sense. “Yep, I could’ve done that, but I hadn’t thought about it until I saw the sign.”

Chrissy nodded, but he was sure she didn’t truly believe the excuse he’d come up with, even though he was impressed he’d come up with it on the fly. “Right, well, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but we don’t sell direct to the public.”

Ryder was surprised they didn’t. They weren’t far from the main highway heading toward Bozeman. They could pick up some good traffic from people driving past who had the same idea he had after they saw the same sign he did. “You should consider it. You could get some extra business.”

What was he doing? Was he trying to give her ideas of how to keep the place going? All the buildings were looking a little tired. The paint was peeling on the eaves of the building they stood out in front of.

“Uh-huh.”

Ryder really did want to have a look around.

Wanted to see what the land was like behind the buildings.

If he could recognize anything from the one grainy photo he had of his mom standing on Munro land.

Would Chrissy give him a tour if he asked?

Only one way to find out. “This is your family’s business?

” he asked, keeping his tone inquisitive, as if he didn’t already know the answer to that question.

“Yes, it is. If you really do want flowers, you should visit the florist in town. They have some lovely arrangements.”

“I’m sure they do, but...” He stepped closer to Chrissy, not to intimidate her, but because he wanted to be near her. She drew him in like a bee to pollen, and he wanted to get stung by her.

Since their encounter the day before, his thoughts had been on her constantly, and not because of his interest in her family’s land.

The vision of her sliding around the barrels and the look of happiness on her face when she’d finished were not easy to forget.

Nor the way his body seemed to come alight when they’d touched.

Would it happen again if he touched her right now?

Ryder wasn’t one to do anything to make a woman uncomfortable, so he controlled the urge, but he didn’t miss the way her breathing quickened as he got close to her.

“But what?” she asked when he didn’t say anything else.

Did he take the risk and tell her what he was thinking and feeling around her?

As someone who’d ridden bulls for a living, taking risks was something he thrived on.

Every time he climbed on the back of an ornery beast, the outcome was unknown, but he’d survived every time.

Even though the last time he got battered, he was still alive. Still standing.

If he told Chrissy what being near her did to him, the worst thing that would happen would be her laughing in his face and rejecting him.

The best thing? She might tell him she felt the same because everything about the way her body swayed toward him and her tongue darted out to swipe across her bottom lip showed him the attraction wasn’t one-sided.

“But I don’t want to leave just yet, now that I’m here. I want to spend more time with you. Get to know you. Because you intrigue me, Chrissy Bloom.”

A twinge of guilt hit him that he was keeping the real reason for being on the property from her. He hadn’t been lying when he said he wanted to get to know her better, though. He did. His reasons for wanting the land may not make sense to others, but they made sense to him.

“I-uh...” She swallowed and that cute pink tongue peeked out again before swirling over her top lip this time. Ryder bit back a groan as his body responded.

Did she know how tempting that action was?

Probably not, because there was no calculating glint in her eye like he’d seen on buckle bunnies who wanted to bag the champion bull rider.

“How about you show me around? I’ve never been at a flower farm before,” he said, letting her off the hook from saying anything about what he’d said to her. It didn’t matter that she didn’t say she found him intriguing as well. Her body was saying everything she couldn’t say.

“You really want to see what we grow?” she asked, skepticism clear in her tone.

“Sure, why not?”

“Fine. Let’s go.” She turned on the heel of her dusty cowboy boots and marched up the stairs to the building they stood in front of.

The scent of soil and a light fragrance hit him as he followed Chrissy inside. Ryder took in the space, noting that it was a decent size, even though it was a little cluttered at present.

The more he looked around, the more he wondered if members of his family treaded across the scratched wooden floors. Had they laughed and joked in here? Or had they argued with each other when the truth of them losing their livelihood was revealed?

The cliché “if these walls could talk” filtered into his mind, and he wished he could make it come true. Wished that there was a way he could find out exactly what had happened and how prosperous land could be lost and split up to create the parcels that the Bloom Flower Farm now sat on.

He had an opportunity to claim a part of his origin. A part he didn’t know anything about, but now that he was here, standing on the soil his ancestors had sweated over, he wanted to know.

“What are you thinking about? You look like you’re making plans in your mind.”

Ryder looked at Chrissy. She was right beside him, her fiery blue eyes full of questions. He would have to tread carefully. “I was thinking this must be where the magic happens.” He canted his head toward the pots. “Looks like you’ve got some new stock to plant.”

Chrissy shrugged. “Sunny and my dad did all the work with the plants. They’re the ones who always knew how to make them flourish. But, yes, I believe Sunny will be moving these to the greenhouses soon.”

Ryder nodded, as if he was totally interested in the inner workings of how to grow flowers. He was more interested in the woman in front of him. “What do you do here if you don’t work with the plants?”

“I help out with the maintenance of the garden beds, but that will slow down with winter approaching. I’ve only been back on the farm for a few months. I lived in Buffalo for quite a while. I do some contract accounting work as well.”

He filed those bits of information away and asked the question that had been noodling in the back of his mind since he saw her on the back of a horse. “Did you compete in many rodeos while living in Buffalo?”

Chrissy touched the leaf of a rose plant gently, as though she were trying to soothe it. “No. I haven’t competed in a very long while.”

He didn’t miss the hint of wistfulness in her voice. The woman was becoming more of a mystery with every passing moment. “It sure didn’t look like it when I saw you yesterday. You looked like you’ve been competing for years. I was really impressed with how you handled the horse.”

Chrissy shrugged his compliment off. “Thanks, but it’s like getting back on a bike. You never truly forget. It helped that Ranger is a great horse.” She moved toward the door. “You want to see what we do, so come on.”

Ryder followed her, but he had a lot of questions in his mind.

He didn’t really believe her when she said that barrel racing was like getting back on a bike.

It took years of practice to get the right techniques.

The relationship between horse and rider was a special one.

Midnight always knew when he was upset and needed to a ride to clear his head.

Even yesterday the horse had known that, as much as Ryder may have wanted to go fast, Midnight had tempered his gallop, as if he knew he had to make adjustments because of Ryder’s injury.

Whatever was going on with Chrissy, he was determined to find out what it was and see if he could help.

No, that wasn’t why he was there. He was there to look at the land, not develop a relationship or any type of connection with a woman. His focus needed to be on doing something he should’ve done a long time ago and nothing else.