Page 30 of Wild and Unruly (Three Rivers Trevors Ranch #3)

stetson

The past four days have been absolute bliss with Bonnie by my side.

Every day, we worked together on the ranch, her helping me with my training and sticking by my side with whatever work I had to do.

She wasn’t working right now, which meant she was free to do as she pleased, and she chose to stay with me.

That did something to my heart that I wasn’t prepared for.

I watch her move Freckles around the arena, seeing if she can get her to latch and connect with her, and when she does, she takes a plastic bag out of her back pocket, using it to rub all over her, under her belly, up her neck, down her legs, and all the while the little filly doesn’t move except to twist her head and sniff at Bonnie.

I could see love forming between the two of them and ideas formed in my own head faster than I could guess.

“You okay for a minute? I need to check something,” I call from atop the highest post on the round pen where I was watching her work.

She doesn’t give me any kind of look aside from a thumbs-up. I jump down gently, walking into the barn to find my cousin, and when I do, she’s smiling at CT, who stands there hovering over her.

I feel bad for interrupting their moment, but I don’t have a lot of time.

“I want to buy Freckles from you,” I announce, resting my hands on my hips and waiting for their attention.

CT frowns and looks behind me. “Who’s Freckles?”

“That little paint filly,” Dani says softly to her husband, her eyes on me. “Why do you want her?”

“She’s…” I debate if I want to say anything about Bonnie, then decide they’ll figure it out eventually and say, “Bonnie and her are getting along great. I was hoping I could get her trained and she could be Bonnie’s new team roping horse.”

My cousin’s expression melts, and she waves a hand at her face, tears springing forward. I frown at her, wondering why this was hitting her so hard. “That is the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard.”

CT’s brows draw together as he looks to his wife. “Honey?”

“I’m sorry, I’m hormonal.” She continues her hand gesture and looks over at CT. “Are you good with that?”

He looks confused. Hell, I’m confused, but I watch them anyway, waiting for an answer. “Um, yeah. I don’t really care. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine.” She shoos him away and comes closer to me.

I reluctantly tug her under my arm in a hug, glancing at CT for some sort of answer to why this was happening, but he is as clueless as me if his shrug meant anything.

“Stetson, you’ve done so much for this ranch.

You jump in whenever we need you. The least we can do is give you that horse. ”

“I want to pay for her,” I answer, even though I appreciate the gesture. If I don’t pay, then it’s not really a gift.

“Really, Stetson?—”

“Two grand, I’ll sign over her papers to you right now,” CT says before Dani can say anything else, and I give him a nod of thanks.

“Fine,” Dani grumbles, pulling away from me. “I really like Bonnie. I hope she sticks around.”

The comment has me stuffing my hands in my pockets and clearing my throat, unsure how to reply when I don’t have definite answers myself. “Me too.”

With that settled, I head back to the woman I love and see that she’s being nuzzled by the little two-year-old that I just made hers.

I wasn’t sure when I was going to tell her that I bought her, not right away. Maybe as a going away present when she leaves.

She hasn’t explicitly said when she’s leaving.

All I know is that she has to be in Kentucky next week, and because she hasn’t brought up her leaving, I wasn’t going to either.

I was already fucking missing her, and we’ve spent the last few nights in the same bed, domestically creating night routines with each other and then waking up in the morning curled in each other’s arms.

We went back and forth from The Lodge to my apartment, and I let her have that security of her room, even though I wished she would just be with me at my place. It was going to be our place someday, or maybe her apartment in the city would be.

Either way, I wasn’t going to waste time worrying over moving too fast or pushing too hard .

This woman is mine. When she giggles and looks back over to me, the horse still sniffing on her and the sun catching the golden strands that fall throughout her brown hair, I know that no matter what, I will work every day to make sure she knows it.

“You ready?” Bonnie asks me, hip-checking me and giving a teasing smile. I reach for her, wrapping my arm around her waist and tugging her in.

We were situated between our two saddled horses, ready to go warm up and show one last show. At least, this was the last rodeo we signed up for, unsure when the next time we would be together again would be.

I was excited to see how far we’ve come.

It is only our third rodeo, but we practice at the ranch as much as we can.

When we weren’t spending time in bed, with me learning every inch of her body and telling her, even without words, how much she meant to me, we were in the arena working on our timing.

She was a fucking powerhouse.

I knew that if she put her mind to it, she would be one of those women who went all the way to a championship one day if she wanted to. I would be there right there with her if she allowed me to.

I love her writing too.

We spent time looking at her articles, and she showed me some of her favorite ones, letting me get a glimpse of what she did with the Three Rivers article even though she technically wasn’t allowed to do so.

It was fucking amazing, and she was a great writer. But while she was amazing at her job, her hobby and her love for riding and roping were unmatched.

I want to get her to admit it. I want to get her to be able to feel free to get to a point where competing is a big part of her life again.

We stayed away from conversations about her brother, not wanting to add any negativity to our last few days together. I was pissed he threw that mug near her, pissed he spoke to her with such disdain when she did nothing but try and get him help.

He wasn’t my favorite person, but he was one of Bonnie’s, and if this was going to work, he was going to have to step it up. Otherwise, there would be change that needs to happen.

She didn’t deserve to be treated like shit—ever. She was a pure heart, a good person who had a bit of trauma and baggage, but other than that, she was an amazing human being.

My mom was in love with her as a future daughter-in-law, and when I told my mom that a future with Bonnie was on the table, you would have thought the woman had just found a winning lottery ticket.

My family has seamlessly fallen for the woman that I was claiming as my own, only solidifying the fact that she was meant to be mine.

“I’m ready.” I wink and hold up a hand for a high five, my other arm still around her as I watch her blush and return the high five.

“Good.” She winks back and says, “Let’s go kick some ass, and then maybe we can have a trailer repeat.”

I lift my brows when she steps out of my hold. “I’m going to hold you to that.”

“Maybe I’m going to hold you to it,” she sasses back, and I frown with a small smile on my lips. Flustered, she shakes her head and her blush increases tenfold. “I—I mean, I don’t know what I’m saying.”

I chuckle at her fumble and shake my head, loving this part of her that has absolutely no filter whatsoever.

“Favorite thing about you, Bo,” I remind her, heading over to my horse.

We get our horses warmed up. The fairgrounds are full this time of year with weekend tourists. It was fun for people to come and watch these things, not knowing how to do it themselves, but we always appreciated it when people came out just to support our sport.

This was one of the bigger rodeos of the summer, which meant there was a real grandstand with announcers, there were three times as many team roping entries as back home, and we had a lot of extra time to warm up.

Bonnie was like me though, wanting to get them warm with a break in between that and the ten seconds or less that we ran them hard.

We wait outside the show arena on horseback, watching the competition, and I glance over at her, my heart thrumming loud in my ears as I take in her casual blue button-down, straw hat, and gorgeous hair back in a long ponytail.

I reach my hand out for her, and she glances over from watching and smiles at me, aiming the glowing, gorgeous smile that she only uses for me and reaches out, winding her hand around mine as we wait.

I want to say it right now. I want to tell her how much I love her, how I’d move to Mars if it meant being with her.

But fuck, it was so cheesy. And I wasn’t in any position to take her for myself right now, unable to rip her off her horse and take her to the trailer for exactly what she had promised.

Before I can even utter a word, she tugs on my hand and nods to the chutes, telling me that while I was daydreaming of telling her I love her and then rounding out that promise of love with a few hot rounds of sex in the trailer, our numbers were up.

Entering the chutes, we see the time to beat is nine point two seconds.

I raise a brow at Bonnie, and she gives me a determined look back.

This is what I love about working with Bonnie.

She is fun and good at what she does, but when it comes down to the actual showing, she is serious and determined to win.

When I showed with Logan, that wasn’t the case. He didn’t care enough, and that was okay. It wasn’t really his thing, but it was mine.

Finding a partner that fits every single part of my life as well as Bonnie does was slightly frightening. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, even though part of me was desperate for that to never happen for us.

I just want her.

Bonnie gives me a wink, then nods at the guys in the chute. They pull the lever and the cow takes off, Bonnie and I on its tail.