Page 23 of Rogue Cowboy (Montana’s Rodeo Cowboys #3)

“Y ou sure you want to do this?” Riley asked, probably for the tenth time Saturday morning.

She felt jittery—and not just from the second large Americano she’d downed, hoping to give herself a boost to sail through the day as if she’d had a full night of sleep instead of lying awake staring at the tiny glowing stars she’d stuck on the ceiling above.

She couldn’t stop thinking about the little boy he’d been.

How alone. She had her family, and yet he’d lost both of his siblings and his parents.

She couldn’t even imagine her life without her mom and dad supporting her, guiding her, teaching her.

And her brothers had teased her but had always loved her and watched out for her.

Cole had been alone—well not alone. He had a large extended family. Still.

“No place I’d rather be.”

Riley looked around the livestock barn that smelled of animal, dirt, sawdust and manure even though everyone kept the stalls clean.

“Huh.” She didn’t take that as gospel. She loved horses and the rodeo but there were plenty of other places she wouldn’t mind being.

“And last night should permanently put to bed any doubt you have about my intentions.”

“But we didn’t…” she burst out, both embarrassed and frustrated because sometime during the night, she had rolled into him, wrapped herself around him and had started kissing him dreamily. Cole had sweetly returned her kiss then told her to go back to sleep.

Hardly raging lust.

“We will when you are ready and will enjoy it—not just want to get it over with.”

Oh. My. God.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” she said, beyond mortified. She was sending mixed signals. He deserved better. Her best. She was no longer nineteen. She should be better at this by now.

“You keep saying that.”

He paused and looked at her—his stare so intense and navy it looked like midnight. Her tummy flipped and her breath caught. How did he do that to her by virtue of existing?

“Because it’s true. I’ll never lie to you, Riley. You might not like what I have to say at times, but I will be unfailingly honest.”

Unfailingly. He’d never let her down. And he believed it. He sounded like a recruiting poster for something she’d never achieve. Riley tore her attention back to Cinnamon who snorted and pushed at her with her head, nearly knocking her on her behind.

“Point to you,” she murmured, fastening the cinch and checking it for fit. “I know, you’re the queen here and deserve all my attention.”

Cinnamon lowered her head for a rub.

“You’re still staring,” she said, not looking at Cole.

“Impossible not to.”

“Cole,” she whispered, helpless to not stare back. “We can’t…”

“Confident we can. Certain we will.” Cole didn’t seem perturbed by her continued doubts, though she felt like she wanted to jump on Cinnamon and race far into the mountains and hide until she could pull herself together. He’d rejected her last night, and now it seemed like he did want her.

She scrunched her eyes shut like a kid afraid of the dark and leaned against Cinnamon. Resisting Cole was exhausting. Understanding him and her own desire more so.

“Have a little faith in me.”

“I do,” she confessed, looking at him. “It’s me who’s a hot mess.”

“Reframe.”

Ugh.

“Like it’s so easy,” she burst out.

“Didn’t say it was.”

Before she could snap back who knows what, Arlo and Petal returned with Spice, already groomed, saddled, and…were those sparkles in his mane?

“No,” Riley said flatly hitting her teacher mode immediately.

“Ahhhh, he looks so pretty.” Petal pouted.

“You’ve not practiced with sparkles in his mane.” Riley ran her fingers through the silky gray mane, relieved the sparkles came out easily in her hand. “I don’t want him to get spooked out there.”

“Told you,” Arlo said grabbing the last two sparkles and stuffing them in her pocket.

“We’re just riding in the parade at a walk,” Petal said. “And doing a few stunts.”

“Do not take the work casually,” Riley began.

“We’re ready. Our exhibition drew a big crowd yesterday, and we had no problems,” Petal said. “Today is much more chill. Standing, arabesque, backbend, jumping off and on again. Maybe a standing hippodrome if the mood strikes.”

“Absolutely not. No standing hippodrome outside of an arena and without a spotter.” Riley glared at the girls, hand on hips. “Just the moves we’ve practiced. That’s it,” Riley stated, keeping her voice firm.

That’s when she saw the smirking hint of a smile, and both girls struggling not to laugh.

“Very funny, not.” She tried to sound stern, although for the hundredth time she worried that she should ride or walk with them, but the thought of walking down Main Street, hundreds of pairs of eyes on her—it made sweat break out on the back of her neck, although last night she’d been up on a stage, dancing, and she’d been lost in the music and Cole.

“We’ve done the standing hippodrome hundreds of times at a gallop.” Arlo sounded reasonable. “We’re not talking about doing the tail drag or suicide drag.”

“Or any of the tricks that aren’t on your list for the parade,” Riley said as she reached for the reins of Spice.

“Including standing hippodrome. You’re not in an arena, and I don’t want a horse spooked on a parade route with families lining the streets decked in their western best and one of you falls and the horse bolts and then what?

You get hurt? A child gets hurt? Your horse is injured.

That’s not entertainment. That’s traumatizing and irresponsible. ”

Both Petal and Arlo looked like she’d struck them, but Riley hardened her heart. This was too critical.

“I’m sorry, Riley,” Petal said, eyes tearing up while Arlo chewed on her lip and stared at her boots. “We were joking.”

“We wanted to get a rise out of you, but we were also pushing a little,” Arlo confessed, looking younger than fourteen.

“We want to show off and get you more clients, but I don’t want Spice to get hurt, and my mom is bringing Beast in a sling thing that she made that matches baby Knight’s sling that my dad will be wearing.

I don’t want my family hurt or someone else’s family because I got a big head. ”

It was the most chastened she’d ever seen Arlo.

She was a great kid, but she’d had a rough patch after her mother passed and before she’d been adopted by Shane and Cross.

It had been a couple of years, and they were all adjusting, especially after Shane had the baby.

Shane had asked Riley to take Arlo on as a pupil for trick riding and barrel racing so that she had something of her own.

Riley sucked in a deep breath, manifesting cowgirl attitude. “Maybe Cole and I should walk the route with you as spotters.”

“Noooooo!” Both girls had been more excited about riding side by side without Riley leading them while they demonstrated a few riding tricks.

Riley remembered being that age—so young and fearless.

Gosh. That made her feel old. But it wasn’t as if Petal and Arlo would be unsupervised.

Her parents were riding this year along with Boone and Rohan—celebrating the Telford Family Ranch’s centennial—older than the rodeo, which was one of the oldest in the state.

“We’ll see,” Riley said. She could stay off the street and just follow the parade if she kept to the edge of the buildings. That way she could jump in if needed.

“Up you go,” Riley boosted Petal while Cole boosted Arlo.

“Let’s review the approved moves,” Riley said as they walked through the packed dirt and mowed field to find their place in line.

“Dead drop,” Petal began, laughing when Riley opened her mouth to protest. “Don’t worry. Riley. We want you to get more clients so we can be your assistants and earn more horse time. We don’t want to hurt ourselves or anyone. We’re not stupid, and we don’t need you spotting.”

“We want to be entertaining, not traumatizing,” Arlo said drolly. “This is our attempt to be cool high school freshmen, not the clumsy idiots drooling on ourselves after a closed head injury.”

Riley blew out a breath. “There’s an image.”

They arrived at the staging area for the parade, and Riley saw that her family was already mounted up and saving space for the two girls, and relief swooshed through her.

With four Telfords, Petal and Arlo would stick to the program and not dare get carried away.

Her mom, Sarah Telford, was the epitome of class and kindness, but she had a side-eye that was wicked sharp.

“Was I ever young and blazing with confidence?” she demanded as her father waved for Petal and Arlo to ride in front of him.

The girls were honored, clearly excited. Her father was a smart man who’d raised four kids and had six grandkids, and now he and her mom were happy, proud and able to take a few steps back on the daily ranch work when they wanted. She didn’t want to give them a moment of dark.

“Double that,” her mom said. “I remember having to ride up and grab the reins of Pepper when you were twelve because you were about to switch up into a standing hippodrome.”

Both Arlo and Petal swiveled in their saddles to stare at her.

“Ahhhh, I don’t remember doing that ,” Riley muttered, feeling her cheeks flush. “Stop teasing, Mom.”

“Wish I was. I nearly had a heart attack, and you were grounded from riding for a month.”

Both Arlo and Petal gasped.

“Take that.” Riley tried to save her dignity and authority while Cole openly grinned.

“A rebel on my hands,” he murmured, nearly brushing his lips along her ear and sending shivers cascading through her. “What a shocker.”

“Behave.” She scowled but fought a smile.

Great. She finally got a wicked grin with the hint of a dimple—the one she’d only seen once while paddleboarding in the ocean, and they’d been swamped by a wave and had come sputtering up together. And now they were in front of her family and a huge chunk of the town.

“Why?” he asked innocently.

Petal and Arlo fist-bumped and wiggled their fingers at each other.