Page 6 of Unforgettable Cowboy (Montana’s Rodeo Cowboys #1)

H ow?

Bailey had the oddest feeling of the world swirling around her. Her knack for thinking on her feet deserted her, as did her ability to attempt a lie.

“Is that Chance Meyers’s missing horse?” Hayes asked matter-of-factly.

She lifted her chin as she faced off with the man. “You don’t want to get involved in this, Hayes.”

“I don’t want my uncle involved in it, either. Does he know?”

“He knows that I want to keep the horse out of sight.”

“And he didn’t ask questions?”

Bailey met his gaze dead on. “No.”

Hayes let out a silent breath. “Sounds like Wade.” His mouth flattened. “You need to tell me what I’m not getting into, Bailey. Either that or move the horse off this property.”

Bailey shifted her weight, glancing down as she sucked in a breath through her teeth.

It was important that she explain this in a way that made sense to him.

If she couldn’t do that, then she very well may be finding a new place to hide the mare in short order.

The tricky part was that she couldn’t read him, had no idea which way he might sway on this matter.

“My college roommate married Chance. She owned a pregnant mare at the time. Dakota was born after the marriage and, as you can see, she’s a pretty amazing animal. Chance and Jenna have split up, and he’s trying to claim Dakota as part of the settlement.”

“Shouldn’t lawyers be handling this?”

“In a perfect world, but Jenna is afraid that Chance—”

“Will do what she did?”

Bailey scowled at the interruption. “She owned the pregnant dam when they married. She paid the stud fee, and therefore she owns the foal.”

“Or not.”

Bailey closed her eyes. Was this how it was going to end? With her calling Jenna to tell her that Hayes had turned the mare over to the sheriff?

“You have no brand inspection. Nothing to show ownership. What if someone asks about her?”

“I’m boarding a horse for a friend,” she stated flatly, before laying a hand on Hayes’s arm. She’d forgotten how solid he was, how solid he had to be to endure years of bronc riding. “Please don’t mess this up.”

His expression remained unrelenting. “Wade needs to know what he’s involved in.”

“It’s not illegal to board a horse. Also, I was given keys and permission to move the horse by the owner.”

Hayes cocked an eyebrow. “Who filed a stolen property report.”

He’d done some research.

“Chance filed. This doesn’t have to involve you, Hayes. Or Wade. He’s just a nice old man who let me keep a horse here while I worked for him. If things go south, it’s all on me. I mean that.”

“Nice old man?”

“You know what I mean.”

If she had any other option, any legitimate hiding place, she’d move the horse in an instant.

That wasn’t currently an option. It wasn’t until she’d had the horse loaded in the trailer and was heading to Marietta, taking the back roads since she didn’t have the brand inspection needed to transport a horse she didn’t own, that she realized Chance might well put two and two together and come looking for the mare, especially since he was competing in the Copper Mountain Rodeo.

That had brought her to Wade’s to ask a favor.

Which he’d granted in exchange for work.

Hayes rested his hands on his plain brass belt buckle. “We’ll go with the status quo, but if any issues arise from this situation, the horse is either gone, or surrendered to the proper authorities.”

“You’re not going to rat me out?” she asked softly.

He gave her an as-if look, making her believe that he didn’t like fellow rodeo competitor Chance Meyers any more than she did. “I’m just trying to keep my uncle from being collateral damage.”

“I think Wade can take care of himself.”

“So did I, then I come back to this.” He pointed to a loose fence rail lightly banging in the breeze.

“You should see my place,” Bailey said dryly. Loose rails were the least of her worries there.

“How long do you see this going on? Are we talking weeks, months?”

“Weeks. I, too, have a life to live.” A nice solo life where the only complication was the occasional friend who needed her to hide a horse. “I’m taking off after the Copper Mountain. I spent most of the summer making stock and now I have a string of gear shows to attend.”

Hayes went silent, studying the ground at his feet in a way that made Bailey’s stomach tighten.

“I don’t like this.” Hayes raised his head.

Bailey almost said that he didn’t have to like it but managed to keep her mouth shut.

“That said, what you do with your horses is your business…as long as my uncle doesn’t get hurt in any way.”

Bailey broke into a relieved smile that quickly faded before she tipped her hand, showing that she wasn’t as in control as she was pretending. “Thank you.”

Hayes’s gaze traveled over her face, lingering briefly on her mouth before shifting back to her eyes.

Oh. My.

The first time he’d looked at her that way had changed Bailey’s life.

The realization that the hot, hot man she was working with, teasing and tormenting in a friendly way, found her as attractive as she found him had been heady stuff.

She swallowed dryly as their gazes held and she knew exactly where his thoughts had gone.

How was it that, without a word, they’d arrived at the same place—the past?

“It’s elephant-in-the-room time, isn’t it?” she asked softly, halfway hoping he’d pretend not to understand. That was not Hayes’s way.

“You think?”

“Yes.” She clasped her hands together as if not knowing what to do with them as she searched for a way to make this awkwardness, born of a ten-year-old mistake on her part, to go away. “I owe you an apology. I handled things poorly when I broke up with you.”

Her words sounded like a speech she’d practiced in front of the mirror.

She hadn’t because she’d never expected her and Hayes to be at a place where she needed to apologize.

She figured that they were both happy to leave the past where it was, but she knew now that was a mistake.

The air needed to be cleared, especially now that he was in on her secret.

“I’d prefer an explanation to an apology.”

“It wasn’t going to work between us,” she said, surprised at how good it felt to say those words. “Not in the long run.”

“Why couldn’t you tell me that?”

“I did.”

“In a note.”

Bailey closed her eyes. She’d rarely backed down from anything in her life, but breaking up with Hayes… “I guess I was afraid that you’d talk me out of leaving.”

“What?”

She lifted her chin. “I watched my mom get talked in and out of all kinds of stuff before Bruce took off.”

“So?”

“I didn’t want to lose myself. Or be talked into things.” To make sacrifices, like her mother had, that would have ultimately hurt her.

Hayes cocked his head, his eyes narrowing as he digested her words. Then he shook his head as if he couldn’t make sense of what she was saying. “I wouldn’t have done that—talked you into things.”

“I couldn’t risk it.”

“We were friends before we hooked up. How could you think…” He let his words trail.

How, indeed? Fear did things to logic.

Bailey put her hands on her temples and squeezed. “I thought all kinds of things. It was a bad time, Hayes.”

“I understand that. I was there.” He folded his arms over his chest, his expression serious as he said, “I wasn’t a danger to you. Not at all.”

Bailey went still as he emphasized the last words. Had she misunderstood his feelings? Totally possible. And how mortifying was that?

But even if his feelings for her hadn’t been strong enough to try to talk her out of bolting, her feelings for him had been frighteningly strong. Strong enough that she didn’t trust herself.

“Okay,” she said slowly, buying time as her brain came up to speed. “I guess I overreacted.”

“To?”

The perfection that was you.

“My own fears, Hayes. I was floundering.” Yet with Hayes she’d felt safe. Like she had someone to lean on. Then she’d started thinking about the price she might pay for that leaning.

“I was totally attracted to you, Bailey.” He smiled reminiscently. “You had that cowgirl swagger that drove me nuts.”

“But you weren’t ready to get serious.”

“I was twenty. Of course not.”

How could she not have seen this?

Heat seeped into her cheeks as she cleared her throat. “It’s good we got this out in the open. It’ll make coming to work a lot easier.”

“Imagine that. Communication making things better.”

It was a jab, but Bailey took it in stride. “What now?” she asked.

Hayes gave her a look that made her heart jump, but his tone was boss-like when he said, “I hope you’ll keep working until I can hire a replacement, as per our conversation this morning.”

Bailey blinked at him as relief washed over her. He held out a hand, his expression still that of an employer speaking to an employee. “Start again?”

“Yes.”

His grip was strong as their hands came together, and the sensation of her fingers being enclosed in his sent a frisson of awareness shooting through her, which was the opposite of what she wanted.

But that was something she was going to have to put up with until Jenna collected her horse and Bailey got on with her circuit of western gear shows.

“Just one thing,” he said as he released her hand.

“What’s that?” she asked, suddenly cautious.

“Don’t get my uncle arrested.”

*

You didn’t exactly lie.

Hayes circled the windbreak, counting the number of broken boards he needed to replace before winter, when the cows would hug the structures as protection from high winds and pelting snow.

Bailey’s truck had already disappeared from sight, leaving the ranch feeling a touch lonelier than before.

At least they’d cleared the air, and he had an answer of sorts to the question that had nagged at him all these years.

He hadn’t been a danger to Bailey’s independence back in the day, not in his way of thinking. Given the chance, he might have pled his case with her, but he wouldn’t have manipulated her into staying with him, because how in the hell would that have been a good thing?

Even though he’d believed he was ready for something serious—a fact he’d just denied; fessing up would not have helped an already awkward situation—he would have accepted her decision to leave.

What else could he do? Bailey had been going through a hard time, dealing with her stepfather’s abandonment, her mother’s divorce. He wouldn’t have added to the drama.

He hoped.

He’d been young and uninformed and inexperienced. He’d also been devastated when she’d left without talking to him face-to-face. But he’d let her go. Hadn’t tried to find her to settle things.

Would he have sought her out if he’d known she’d been at some of the same rodeos he’d competed in? As a rodeo vendor, he was fairly certain they’d shared space in the past, but he’d been unaware.

That’s probably a good thing.

The palomino mare started shifting her front feet before dropping to the ground to roll, giving soft grunts as she worked warm dirt into her golden coat, oblivious to the drama surrounding her. She rose to her feet and shook, sending a cloud of dust into the air.

What was he getting into?

He was taking a big risk for Bailey, agreeing to harbor property that may or may not be stolen. Property that Chance Meyers obviously believed he had a right to, given his stupid social media posts.

Why was he willing to go out on a limb for a woman he hadn’t seen in ten years?

That was a question to which he had no answer.

Yet.