Page 39 of The Cowboy Comes Home

“Just ask,” she added before walking toward the fence. Which left him feeling a bit silly for not having thought of that, because it was true. When it became official that he was leavingStonewall, he’d been the target of the entire Hollywood media complex. Compared to that, Last Stand would be a piece of cake. Besides, Jackson already had them on his side, completely, so maybe a little of that could bleed over onto him.

Maybe.

He waited until Nic had mounted the trim little bay she was currently working with and reined him around to head back toward the main ranch barn and corral for a training session. She was, he’d gathered early on, one of the premier horse trainers in the state, and the top here in Last Stand and the surrounding area. She’d already had more people wanting her services than she could take on, and now that she was linked to Jackson, the demand had only increased. Amazing what a famous name would do.

He waited until that famous name had reeled in the peevish pinto to walk over to the corral.

“He calm down any?” he asked, leaning his arms on the top rail.

“Some,” Jackson said. “But I think I’m more tired than he is.”

“Maybe he didn’t sleep last night either.”

Jackson gave him a glance, then turned back to the horse. He unleashed him, and set him loose in the corral. Splatter snorted, gave a half-buck, then trotted off to enjoy his freedom. Jackson looped the long lead over a fence post, grabbed the top rail and came over the fence in that single smooth motion that had become a trademark onStonewall.

Then he crossed his arms and leaned against the post, looking straight at Tucker. “So, did Mrs. Highwater trick you into talking too much? Ask sneaky questions? Tell you a lie to get you to open up?”

He blinked, drawing back slightly. “No. She didn’t do any of that. She was more than nice. She even gave me the chance to change my mind on…the stuff about my mother.”

“Just like she was with me.” Jackson’s mouth twisted slightly. “She’d never make it in L.A.”

“I don’t think she’d want to.”

“Agreed.” He hesitated, then said, “Look, bro, I get it. Believe me, I get it. But it’s done, it’s out, and you don’t have to carry it around locked up inside anymore.”

“I just…I’m not used to pouring my guts out like that.”

“I know. You’re not used to being the focus of interest, either. But you’re back where people remember you now.”

Tucker studied his friend for a moment. “I know I used to ask how you put up with it, but kidding around. Now…how do you put up with it?”

Jackson shrugged. “It’s part of the job, for me. Not so much for you, before, but now—” he gestured behind them to where a van with several children was pulling in the drive “—you’ll be more important to them than I am, because you’ve lived it.”

Tucker stood there, watching as Jackson headed over to greet the arrivals. He’d never thought of it that way, and likely never would have on his own. But the idea that what he’d been through might somehow be of help to the lost, devastated kids who came here made his misgivings about what he’d done fade a little.

It’s not all about you, Culhane.

He wasn’t Jackson, recognizable on sight by half the world it seemed, but maybe, just maybe he really could help.

And when he followed the big star over to the van, he saw a small hand pointing toward him. When he got close enough he heard one of the kids asking the driver, “Is that him, the guy you read to us about? The guy whose dad got killed, like mine did?”

Yeah, maybe he really could.

Chapter Nineteen

Emily stood offto one side, about even with the temporary stage that had been put up in the arena, below the boxes above where the announcers would call the events on the loudspeaker system. She could have made her way to the back, where all the important folks were gathered, but she preferred to be out here among the people who were here to enjoy the rodeo, not the ones who used it as a chance to make a speech. Like the mayor, who had passed her patience-for-politicking level some time ago. The audience was getting restless, catcalls beginning to be heard. Even Lobo seemed bored with the man.

But that changed abruptly when another man took that stage. Last Stand had by now fully accepted Jackson Thorpe as a local, but they hadn’t forgotten his standing as a celebrity either, one who had garnered so much attention for his work onStonewall, but even more for walking away from it. And he acknowledged that first thing.

“Thank you, all of you. It’s nice to feel like I’m talking not to a bunch of strangers, but a bunch of neighbors. As most of you know, I’m here to make an introduction. Not of some guy I just met backstage here, but a guy I’ve known for years. You all know him from before that, as a rodeo star—which I didn’t find out until somebody else told me, by the way, since he sometimes carries humbleness to extremes—but to me he’s the guy who is pretty much responsible for what success I’ve had. He got me my first job on the crew wrangling horses on a film set. You know, in that place on the West Coast that makes things up.”

That earned him a lot of laughs and some exaggerated mock boos, as she was sure he’d intended. She noted what he’d said about Tucker being humble, and couldn’t disagree. But now, after reading Lily’s profile of him, she understood better why it had never gone to his head, why his success hadn’t been about fame and prize money, but so much more.

“So without wasting any more time, here’s the guy you’re all here to see, ladies and gentlemen and kids, four-time national bull-riding champion, the last time won with a perfect score of 100, the man who’s an inspiration to anyone who’s had to overcome…well, anything in life, and my best friend, Tucker Culhane!”

Emily felt her pulse kick up a notch. How crazy was that? The guy half the women in the country regularly drooled over is up there and she just smiles because she likes him and what he’s done to become part of Last Stand. The guy he introduces, long gone from Texas and much less famous steps out, and her response is…well, crazy.

But she couldn’t deny that as Tucker went up the steps and walked over to his friend, she reacted. To the way he looked, his long-legged stride, to the fact that he was able to move like that at all after what he’d been through.

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