Page 2 of The Cowboy's Redemption
“What are you doing?” Tanner asked, curiosity, more than alarm, in his voice.
He thought he had her. That the future he envisioned for them was a foregone conclusion. That he’dwon. She’d never been as angry with anyone as she was with him in this moment.
Anger solved nothing. Actions spoke louder than words. Especially with Tanner.
“I’m leaving,” she said, and snapped the clasps closed on her suitcase.
Chapter One
Dana
Dana adjusted herseat in the saddle. Leather creaked. She kept her eye on the open ride-through gate and the sunny arena beyond, blocked out the distraction of the stock pens on either side of the alleyway, and waited for the whistle to signal the start of her race. Lady trembled between her knees, muscles bunched, ears eagerly twitching. At sixteen years of age, she knew the routine as well as Dana. Better.
That age-earned experience was what Dana needed right now. What Lady no longer possessed in speed her long, barrel-racing career more than made up for, and they were favored to win.
The whistle sounded. Lady shot down the alleyway and exploded into the arena to the wild cheers of the crowd. She took the first barrel like the champion thoroughbred she was. Dana leaned into the turn, the toe of her boot kissing the dirt, and helped to cut the turn close, but not close enough to tumble the barrel. They approached the second barrel and shot it a hair’s breadth too wide. Dana’s confidence in Lady remained. This race was theirs.
By the time they reached the third barrel, however, something was off. A misstep had Lady taking the barrel too wide to recover.
Then, on the home stretch dash for the gate to trigger the end of the ride, Lady flagged. The speed wasn’t there. They blew through the gate and pulled up at the end of the alleyway in a thick cloud of dust. Dana drew Lady around and waited for their time to be announced.
17.351 seconds. The crowd groaned a single, unified, sonic boom of dismay that nearly drowned out the announcer.“Oh! Too bad, Lady Dana. Better luck next time.”
She hated that nickname.
Her heart sank, the joy sucked from the ride for a whole other reason. She’d needed fifteen seconds to qualify for the next round. 14.202 seconds to win. She stroked Lady’s neck, trying hard not to let her disappointment transmit to her horse. The fault wasn’t Lady’s. She’d done her best—as she’d been doing for eleven years now. The sad truth—the one Dana had been doing her best to ignore—was that Lady was ready to retire. The signs had been there awhile.
She slid from the saddle. She’d give Lady a rest for a few days, then exercise her with care, and hopefully, when they rolled into the next rodeo venue on her roster, they’d both be back in top shape. The season wasn’t over for them by a long shot. But there was no question that Lady would need to be replaced, and sooner rather than later. And why shouldn’t she be? She’d earned her retirement. Dana was the one hanging on, and for her own selfish reasons. It meant one more loss in her life—one more change—and those were becoming increasingly difficult to face.
A shadow fell past her shoulder. Hands reached for the reins, tugging them from Dana’s grasp before she could speak up and refuse help she didn’t need. She could look after her own horse, and preferred to do so, but for the past three years, the tightknit rodeo community had been treating her as if she were delicate. Fragile.Broken.
She was none of those things. But she understood why they might think so.
“Great ride,” Chance Avery said, patting Lady’s steamy flank.
“Thank you.” They both knew the ride hadn’t been great.
A fellow barrel racer in the men’s division, Chance had made it plain on more than one occasion that he had a strong interest in Dana and was undeterred by her past. He was eye-catching, for sure. Dana might have been tempted if he didn’t want more from her than she was willing to give, and cowboys on the circuit didn’t gossip worse than church women at a quilting bee. She wasn’t about to be pegged as a man’s property ever again, and that was where a hookup with a circuit cowboy would lead.
She packed her disappointment into a tight little box and slammed the lid. She was private by nature, but after Tanner Shannahan’s very public death in the arena, privacy was a thing of the past. She had so many eyes on her, every minute of every day, even after nearly three years, that she’d forgotten what privacy was like.
She’d also begun to forget what it was like to be intimate with a man, and late at night, alone in her bed, she couldn’t say which she missed more.
“A bunch of us are going out for burgers and beer before the street dance tonight,” Chance continued, undeterred by her cool tone. “We thought you might like to come along.”
“That sounds like fun, but I already have plans.”
“Lady Dana! Mind if I take a picture?” someone asked, and before Dana could say that yes, she did mind, the deed was done.
The woman pocketed her phone. “I followed Tanner Shannahan’s career.Hugefan,” she said. “He was going places. I’m sorry for your loss.”
Dana smiled but said nothing. Offered no encouragement. The woman clearly wanted to talk about Tanner, and Dana did not discuss him. Not with family. Not with friends. And certainly not with a stranger. He’d left her life in a mess, and she’d never forgive him for it.
Which wasn’t what his superfans wanted to hear.
Chance brushed up against her, holding Lady’s reins in one hand, and lazily draped his free arm around her shoulders. Dana stiffened. Her smile fixed in place. Every inch of her retracted, screaming for her to shrug him off. She disliked the show of possession, no matter how good his intentions might be. She’d been down that road once. Never again.
“Thanks,” Chance said, dazzling the woman with charm. “Got to take care of the horse right now, though.”
