Page 4 of Lucky Cowboy

Rusty texted him back.

Rusty: Who’s this loser?

Mark: Right now, a person of interest.

Rusty: What’s his story?

Mark: Nothing on the books, but after meeting him in the flesh I can say he’s a walking red flag.

Rusty: Gotcha. Anything else going on?

Mark hesitated, picturing Val Bernard. The woman was the definition of attractive to him with her long and curly light blonde hair, pert features, and fierce amber eyes. Tonight she’d worn in this glimmering hot pink fabric from head to toe—even her boots had been the same shade of pink. She’d been dazzling, and frankly, she’d more than dazzledhim.

A little digging on her, including some video footage that showed her horse had been made up to match her flashy wardrobe choices, showed Val to be a risk-taker with ambition. As a trick rider, she’d also have to be fit as a fiddle and a lover of horses. Two things that ticked off some promising boxes for him.

Not that he should go there. As of this moment, all she was to him was one half of a relatively public squabble that he’d been able to diffuse. Yet he’d definitely felt something while standing right there with her. Something that intrigued him.

Figured that she was the temporary sort. One of those rodeo folk who rode right on through after their performances were over.

Keeping apprised of Biggs’ whereabouts, Mark returned to his normal duties of watching over his beloved hometown. Granted, he hadn’t traveled much outside of the state—hardly at all, in fact—but why should he? Everything he loved was here. His memories. His mother. His little sister.

His father’s grave.

It’d been his dad’s death that had inspired him to become an officer of the law, mostly because that meant following in his footsteps. That hit and run had stolen Sheriff Alec Talbot’s life from him and his family far too early. It’d been that incident that had permanently changed Mark’s path, even if he’d only been eighteen at the time.

He’d been required to step up. To become the man of the house. His mom had been a total wreck of a human, shattered at losing the love of her life and the father of her children. She’d sobbed inconsolably for weeks and weeks. His baby sister Blair had been just as devastated, and as an eight-year-old child, she certainly hadn’t been capable of taking on the responsibility of family leader.

So, Mark had done it.

He’d gone from a carefree teen riding horses and roping calves right here on these very rodeo grounds, to the sole provider for the Talbot family. His dad’s pension and meager life insurance policy had covered things while he attended the Law Enforcement Academy, the same place he’d met and befriended Rusty.

Even now, his mom received payments from his dad’s pension, even if the life insurance had long ago run out. But his dad had been in his forties with fewer years on the job than a traditional retiree, and those payments—while helpful—weren’t enough. They still weren’t.

Because of his family Mark devoted about sixty percent of his time to his sheriff’s duties and the rest to his family. That’d been the case back then and continued to this day. They needed him, and he wasn’t about to let them down.

As dedicated as he’d always be to his mom and sister, he let thoughts of them fade into the background as he sat there in his squad vehicle and played another video of Val performing. It felt all too easy to get caught up in her trick riding competitions, all those sparkly outfits and the expertise it took to perform those stunts on horseback had been something that he’d been impressed by.

Even when he’d been a wet-behind-the-ears rodeo teen himself.

But despite there being other trick riders present in this other much more massive rodeo vid, his gaze stayed exclusively on Val. Trick riders started young, but Val was no newbie. He remembered hearing of her on this circuit a while back. His intel on her showed her to be in competition for over fifteen years now. With her skill level, he believed it.

He told himself that he couldn’t quit thinking about her because she’d suffered a run-in with some idiot today. Some idiot flashing around a paper contract that was likely as not bogus, no less. That she deserved some extra concern and looking after. That was all.

But even after watching all these past reels of Val, even after this particular rodeo concluded its live events for the night, his thoughts returned to her over and over. Although it wasn’t strictly necessary to contact someone after an incident anytime law enforcement was called, he made a note of her cellphone number and permanent address.

Just in case.

Interesting that she lived right outside Billings making her home base less than two hours away. He’d keep a lookout for her, maybe stop by her trailer and ask where she’d be heading off to next. Maybe even ask her if she minded staying in touch with him.

Only so he could keep the creepy Biggs guy at bay, of course. Mark didn’t want her to ever have to see that man’s weak-chinned mug again. His fretfulness for her stemmed from legitimate and professional place. He was simply being thorough.

Or at least, that was what he tried to convince himself.

In truth, Mark hadn’t felt drawn to a woman like this in an extremely long while. Years and years. Maybe even a decade or so.

But then, romance had been off-limits to him ever since he picked up his father’s mantle. He couldn’t in good faith take on his sheriff job, continue to provide and spend all his downtime with his mom and checking up on his little sister,andhave a life outside of that. Given the limit to the hours in a day, it just wasn’t possible.

Men like him had destinies and responsibilities that prevented that sort of existence.

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