Page 25 of Catch Me, Cowboy
After a few rounds and a change of direction, Shelby once again approached the gelding, who was breathing hard. This time he allowed her to rub his face. She unsnapped the lead, snapped it back on again. The horse didn’t move until she put pressure on the rope and then he stepped forward cautiously. Ty opened the gate and she led Evarado through, taking him straight to his pen. Once inside, the gelding waited until she’d unfastened the rope halter, then jerked his head up, yanking his nose out of the halter before he whirled on his haunches and shot across the small pen, nearly taking Shelby’s arm off in the process.
She rubbed her shoulder, then started coiling the rope.
“I can see what our next lesson will be,” she muttered.
“Are you okay?”
“A little irritated to end things like this when it’s too dark to do anything about it.”
His mouth flattened. “I meant your shoulder.”
“It’s fine.” She rolled it as if to prove her point. “Still in the socket anyway.”
“I can’t say I feel great about that horse.”
“Early days.”
“He’s scared, Shelby.” As if she didn’t know that, but he wanted her to think about it.
Scared horses were dangerous horses. At the level at which he rode, the horses were seasoned professionals, just as he was. They seemed to enjoy the challenge of trying to dislodge the man from their back. It was their job, and often, after the whistle blew, they stopped bucking and started looking for the gate. But coming up through the ranks, competing at smaller rodeos, he’d drawn fresh broncs, new to the rodeo. Horses that didn’t know what was happening, or what was expected of them—those horses could hurt a guy.
“My job is to help him move past his fear.”
“I hope your arm remains in its socket.”
“We’ll work on it.” She glanced over at him. “I have roping practice tomorrow, so I need to start earlier.”
“I’ll see if the boss will let me off.”
“I’m pretty certain she will. I’ll tell Gramps to cut it short.”
“So… you and Wyatt Marshall have an entry in the Copper Mountain rodeo?”
“Thanks to Wyatt, we do.” She gave a small shrug. “It’s time for me to face my demons. I tell myself that I’m cool with screwing up”—her mouth twisted sideways—“and sometimes I believe it.”
“I know that feeling.”
“I’m sure you do.”
“Is that a jab?”
“Maybe,” she said with a half-smile.
It felt good to be semi-bantering, but it also felt a touch dangerous.
She gave him a serious look then. “I never in a thousand years thought you’d be back here on this ranch. Never thought I’d be the person who invited you here, but I think this might work out okay.”
“So far, so good.”
She stopped walking and turned to face him. “I’m curious… not that it changes anything now… but if you had it to do over again… would you make the same decision?”
So much for starting fresh.“I could lie and tell you ‘no’.”
“So that’s a ‘yes’.”
Yeah, it was and he was sorry it hurt her. “I had to get it out of my system.”
“At my expense.”
