Page 1 of Lucky Cowboy

CHAPTERONE

With the roarof the crowd zinging through her veins, Valentine Bernard situated herself aboard Maybelline, her fifteen-year-old paint mare. Originally from Billings, she’d grown up not far from this particular venue in Rocky Ridge and knew spring in Montana happened to be one of the loveliest times of year.

Not that she saw much outside of the various rodeos and fairgrounds she performed in. Hadn’t for years now. But she didn’t mind much. The lights and glamour of trick riding were as much a part of her as the dirt beneath Maybelline’s hooves. Even when she ended a night filthy and sweaty from head to toe, she made sure her white Stetson with its gold emblem on the front ended up positioned on her head straight.

Once, when she’d taken a pretty brutal fall, she’d torn her glitzy shirt, scraped up each of her arms, and lost at least a dozen rhinestones and sequins. She’d been happy not only because neither she nor Maybelline had been seriously hurt but also because her makeup hadn’t been smudged despite everything.

She’d even smiled for the cameras as if nothing bad had even happened. She had her pride, after all. And that had been shortly after her dad’s health had taken a downturn, causing him to hire another manager to take his place. The man he’d hired had been Biggs, though.

Val cringed from the barest mention of that man’s name.

If she never bumped into him again, it would be too soon.

Besides, she’d learned the hard way that she knew everything necessary to be her own manager. If only she’d realized this sooner, maybe Biggs wouldn’t have been capable of inching his way into nearly every aspect of her life. Maybe he wouldn’t have upped his status with her from manager to boyfriend. Maybe she might not be carrying all the baggage from that—fromhim—that she currently did.

Her stable assistant and employee Mitzi Tidwell patted Maybelline gently on the flank as she brought the horse out of the stall. “Brushed her up all nice for you, Val.”

“Thank you, Mitz.”

With showtime coming right up, Val climbed onto her beautiful mare, then glanced down at her assistant. During this venture of Val going out on her own like this, Mitzi had stood by her side and morphed into her best friend. They’d been through a lot together, both harrowing times and some of the most rewarding of Val’s life. Also, Mitzi was the only other person alive who knew the worst details about the nonsense Biggs had tried to pull.

This had occurred mainly because Mitzi had been the one to detect the two different sets of numbers on Val’s earnings Biggs had recorded as far bookkeeping. He’d kept one on an online software accounting app and the other on an old-fashioned paper ledger.

He’d been skimming money off the top. A ton of money off the top, actually. Yet since she’d never insisted they sign a contract, she now had no real legal recourse against him. She regretted that decision, but why would the man who claimed to love her rip her off?

It had been a disaster from start to finish, one she hated having to live down. But she’d been too young and naïve at the time to understand what kind of man Biggs was. Her one saving grace was that she’d been able to hide what Biggs had done from her father. It’d kill him to find out that the man he’d trusted with his only daughter had been a thief and a liar.

Who knew what kind of damage that jerk could’ve continued to do if Mitzi hadn’t found that ledger and pointed out the discrepancy to her?

Another reason Val had purposely come to this venue in spite of not being here in five years was also due to Biggs. Not only had he been eliminating the smaller rodeos in favor of much larger ones, she needed to attempt to recoup some of those lost funds.

Besides, Val and her dad had always liked the warmth and down home feel of the less sizable rodeos. These tiny little towns deserved to be entertained, too. It felt good to be back amongst these quainter, less massive fairgrounds sometimes. She liked to mix things up, and the love the crowd showed the performers at such events never failed to impress Val.

“Ladies and gentlemen, let’s hear it for the fabulous Ms. Valentine Bernard!” the announcer bellowed her stage name over the loudspeaker, and that was something else she loved. He said every performer’s name as if they were Taylor Swift or something. And that was prior to anyone’s performance.

Val appreciated the effort.

That was part of the reason why she galloped out onto those grounds and gave it her best shot. Not that she didn’t always do that, but she wanted the Rocky Ridge audience to get a great show, especially considering that at least a sixth of them appeared to be kids.

Val could remember to this day the first time she watched a woman trick riding. The shiny turquoise outfit. The stunts. How nimble she’d been. Val had basically been raised on the backs of horses, but seeing that girl trick riding her way into the stadium that time had altered the trajectory of what would become her career.

She’d never ever forget it.

So, as she rode in on her pristine white specialty saddle and rose up to her feet, standing on Maybelline’s back as she smiled at everyone, she made certain to wave to all the little girls in the crowd. Seating herself, she nudged her mare gently with her heels to gain some speed. Val next leaned over on the side of Maybelline, not facing the audience, so that for a moment, it was as if she’d disappeared.

She spread her arms down so that she could drag her hands in the soil—the point of the trick—before edging upright again. Val continued her routine by pushing into her ensuing series of moves. One where she stretched on a leg up in what a ballerina would refer to an arabesque. One called a shoulder stand, where she stuck both legs straight up as she clung to the pommel of her saddle.

And the third one was named a horn spin, where she sat backwards on her horse before she spun back around to sit back in her saddle normally. As always, she flourished her arms and held her form as steadily as possible. The biggest and arguably most important portion of the sport and spectacle was maintaining an eye-catching style, something Val prided herself on.

Deciding it was time to increase the danger, she executed a trick that had her balancing precariously on her back with one leg bent into the air. She knew it looked simple from the outside, but it challenged her equilibrium every single time. Val did another that required her to slide off Maybelline’s backside to jump immediately back on.

As a finale, she completed one last stunt that had her propelling her body down the side of Maybelline to bounce off the ground. Then, she split her legs in a scissor-like motion and landed in the front of the horn of her saddle. That one increased the level of difficulty—and if she wasn’t careful could wind up as a painful fall—but Val adored doing it. The trick made for such a fun and interesting sight for the observers.

The crowd made tons of noise for her from the point that she nailed the stunt until the announcer hollered her name upon her exit. Like always, Val felt pumped up from all the adrenaline, her chest heaving as she patted Maybelline lovingly along her flank.

“Good girl,” she showered her mare with affection. “Such a good, big and beautiful girl.”

One thing about being out there was that she had to focus every cell of her brain on what she was doing at any given instant. This kept her from fretting about her past mistakes, something she couldn’t help but feel grateful for, especially where Biggs was concerned.

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