Page 5 of Lucky Cowboy

Yet even as he nodded to himself at all these highly correct determinations, Mark found his finger gliding across his phone and bringing up another video that featured the amazing feats of Ms. Valentine Bernard. She had such style and grace as she flew across those fairgrounds, and she never once balked at the stunts that required her to get dirty or muss herself up. Not even the ones that looked awfully hazardous. Especially not those.

She wasn’t afraid of giving it all, then.

He admired that. He admired it even as the thought of her getting injured in any way made his stomach churn. But she was a stranger he couldn’t have. He couldn’t have anyone. Much less a woman who was literally unavailable as she lived on the road all the time.

And that wasn’t even bringing up the complex innerworkings of whatever had been going on between her and weak-chin guy. Biggs. Whatever.

Regardless, as he thought of the man bullying that fearless blonde beauty, Mark’s hackles rose. It’d never cease to infuriate him when a man had such a pathetic amount of confidence that he thought it appropriate to belittle a woman. Particularly one he was supposed to care about.

What kind of decent human being did that?

His hands twitched into fists at the notion of it.

Thinking back on their altercation, Mark half regretted not pummeling the guy. Of course, he would’ve needed an actual, verifiable cause to get away with that. An identifiable reason preferably accompanied by a witness. But Biggs hadn’t done quite enough to justify Mark’s personal brand of justice.

Too bad.

But what was he thinking? One of the chief things Mark had always been known for was his cool head. He could face down the worst of the worst criminals without batting an eye and figure out a method to arrest such people with a minimum amount of fuss.

When he’d first started in law enforcement, his boss had called it compartmentalization. Mark always separated out his emotions from the job, a quality his boss at the time had said was one of his best qualifications for law enforcement.

So, why had that ability suddenly evaporated from his repertoire after a single meeting with one Valentine Bernard?

Dragging the cowboy hat many Montana law enforcement officers donned off his scalp, he drove his fingers through his closely shorn hair. In an attempt to behave like a proper role model for his underlings, Mark had kept it cut military short since taking on such a senior position. But he did occasionally miss how good it felt to have some actual tresses to push his hand through.

Closing out all the open tabs on his phone, he slid his cell into his pocket and did his best to shove Val or any other woman out of his head. He couldn’t and wouldn’t pursue her. It wouldn’t be appropriate, for one thing, and he didn’t have time, for another.

Also, what kind of example would he be setting for his other officers? Hitting on a woman he was supposed to help? That’d make him the lowest of the low. And he had no desire to be considered on the same level as Biggs or his ilk.

Mark inhaled deeply, swallowed, and continued his patrol through the quiet neighborhoods of Rocky Ridge, thankful that things at the rodeo hadn’t escalated into anything too perilous. He’d be on duty tonight until midnight, and although this small town had a low crime rate, sometimes horrible things still occurred. Frequently petty theft or family disputes.

Therefore, he pressed on, eyes peeled and seeking anything out of the ordinary. Just last week, he’d helped to catch a six-year-old who’d in all his youthful wisdom had decided he needed to run away from home. Why? Because his parents had taken away his screen privileges.

Man, these were different times than what he’d been brought up in, and that was despite Mark only being thirty-five years old. Losing a parent so young had made him feel a lot older. Like he’d aged a couple of decades in a single week.

While mourning his father, he basically had.

He motored his vehicle along the handful of more questionable places in town where buildings beside one another backed up to dumpsters or rows of trash cans created havens for the more nefarious. Not that the town had many. It had his frequent flyers like every other community. And now, he found no evidence of anything distressing.

So, he finished out his shift, content to watch his quiet little town stay as quiet as it usually did.

CHAPTERFOUR

Val was wrappingup a rodeo down in Chino Valley, Arizona as she blinked past the heavy fabric draperies and through the horizontal window in her trailer up at the night sky outside. When the rodeos hit close together like they tended to at this time of year, it all became one giant blur. Half the time, she couldn’t tell whether she was coming or going, and if it hadn’t been for Mitzi keeping track of the schedule, she wouldn’t even be able to say specifically where she was.

“We’ll be in Scottsdale on Wednesday and Phoenix all next week,” Val spoke with enough volume for the speaker on her phone to pick up her voice. Gusts of wind kept blowing across this flat stretch of desert. It made Val wonder if a strong enough one might send her straight from here to Oz.

She took off her makeup with her cotton removal pads, enjoying the sensation of cleaning her face. After this, she’d take a shower, even if it wouldn’t be as long or as hot as she’d like it to be. Water resources were often limited at these smaller venues unless she abandoned her trailer to stay in a hotel or motel. This time, she hadn’t.

“Sounds like the regular haul,” her dad commented. He would know. Until a few years ago, he’d gone on all these trips with her.

“How are you feeling?”

“Me? I’m fine.”

It exasperated Val somewhat that her father tended to answer questions like that with a tone of surprise. As if he hadn’t had such debilitating heart issues that it’d required several new medications and one complicated surgery that she’d bitten all her nails to the quick to endure.

“No palpitations or shortness of breath?”

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