Page 1 of Austin
Chapter One
“This is mylast stop for the night.” Austin Harding had downed most of his alcohol quota at the American Extreme Bull Riders sponsors’ party that evening, then had one more for the road when he and his fellow bull riders stopped at a dive bar while walking back to the high-rise Reno casino where they were staying. He needed to get back to his hotel room sometime before dawn, ice his shoulder and hip and look at video of the bull he’d drawn for the prelims.
“You said that at the last place,” Gustavo Santos pointed out, his words trailing off as a waitress passed by wearing a modernized version of a saloon girl costume. A fluffy curled feather bobbed on the back of her head, and the black and red dress she wore was cut low at the top and short at the bottom, leaving little to the imagination.
Okay. Maybe one last drink hadn’t been a terrible idea.
“Over there.” T.J. Casey pointed to an empty table in the far corner. “And I’m with Austin. Last stop, Gus.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Gus turned his dark eyes toward the new guy, Josh McIntosh, who’d just qualified for the top tier of the tour, as they made their way through the crowd to the table. “How about you,mano?”
Josh shrugged as they sat down. “I’ll play it by ear.”
“You’ll regret those words when you wake up in some strange place in the morning,” Austin said. Gus was a great guy and a hell of a bull rider, but he wasn’t good about practicing moderation in any area of his life.
A coaster with the casino logo appeared in front of him a few seconds later, and he automatically glanced up at the waitress, who was standing so close that he couldn’t get a good look at her.
“What can I get you guys?”
A memory stirred at the sound of her voice, but Austin couldn’t pin it down. He craned his neck to get a better look, but the angle wasn’t good. Creamy skin, long reddish-brown hair. High cheekbones, full lips. All somehow familiar, even at the awkward angle. The woman stayed stubbornly close to him, her satin skirt brushing against his arm as she took Gage, Casey and Gustavo’s orders.
“And you?”
That voice…
Well, shit.
He moved his chair back so he could get a good look at the woman. “Kristen?”
She looked behind her, as if expecting to find a woman named Kristen standing there, then turned back so that he could see her face. Shelookedlike Kristen Alexander, but her hair was longer and her expression was blank. No hint of recognition. “I’m sorry?”
Austin frowned more deeply as he studied her. Maybe he was wrong…but he didn’t think so.
“You aren’t from Montana?”You didn’t rip me to shreds in front of a crowd at Marietta High School?
The woman’s fingers tightened on her tray as she lifted her eyebrows in a cool expression. “Sorry. No. What would you like?”
He frowned at her, but her expression didn’t change. “Jameson. Neat.”
She turned without another word and headed back to the bar, stopping at tables on the way to check on her customers.
“What was that about?”
“Nothing.” Austin turned his attention back to Casey, but continued to watch the waitress over the bull rider’s shoulder. “She looks like someone I knew once.”
The idea of Kristen Alexander—the woman who’d told him she wouldn’t be seen with him because he was a loser—schlepping drinks in a bar bordered on being crazy. The last he’d heard from her twin, Whitney, Kristen was conquering the world of high finance, but Whit hadn’t mentioned the city where her sister was doing said conquering.
Could that city be Reno?
Even if it was, people who conquered financial worlds during the day didn’t normally moonlight in casino bars at night. Hell, Kristen hadn’t partied even a little during high school. Hadn’t done anything that wasn’t directly related to some sort of an achievement. The woman collected awards the way other people collected loose change. The idea of her willingly putting on the saloon girl getup, hanging her tits out there for everyone to see, was ridiculous. Austin kicked back in his chair and told himself he was nuts. That woman couldn’t be Kristen.
But she sure as hell looked like her.
The discussion segued into bulls as they waited for their drinks. The good, the bad, the ugly. The un-rideable. They were deep into a debate as to which bull was the most dangerous on the circuit when the waitress reappeared and started setting drinks on the table. A Budweiser near Cody’s elbow, the double shot of Jameson next to his. Austin glanced up.
“Are you sure you’re not from Montana?”
Color rose in the woman’s cheeks as her expression went stony in the exact same way Kristen Alexander’s used to—except for the time he’d tipped her over. Then she’d been anything but stone-like. “I’m from a small town in Nevada.”
