Page 11 of All Night with the Cowboy
Tanner sucked in a breath and let go, pushing back into his chair and looking away. He reached for his beer and drained half the bottle.
Lauren was out of bounds. She’d broken his heart once and he was never, ever going to let her or anyone else do that to him ever again.
He shut his eyes as the video started, knowing which one it was. She was watching him take the title the year previous, the crowd erupting into cheers as he rode to victory in Las Vegas. The year before he’d placed second, but that was his year, the day he’d beaten out every other competitor and taken home the biggest prize. He finished his beer as that video ended and another started. He counted down, waited for it, that moment when the crowd went silent. When everything changed. This video was the one that gave him nightmares.
Thump.He could feel himself hitting the ground all over again, his back making contact with the hard surface.Crunch—his ankle making that sickening sound.Rip—his skin tearing open as the horn of the bull had slipped straight through him.
The inside of the jet went silent then and he listened to Lauren put the iPad down. The jet fired to life then and started down the runway, and Tanner shut his eyes again, refusing to look over at Lauren even though he could feel her watching him.
“You having nightmares about this?” she asked in a low voice as she glanced over at him.
He could have lied and said no, but it wasn’t like he was trying to impress her. “Yeah, you could say that.”
“And does it put you off getting back out there?” she asked. “Because I’m guessing, and please tell me if I’m wrong, that the reason I’m here is to get you back up on a bull again?”
He nodded. “Right again.” He paused, looked at her, and tried to read the expression on her face. “You going to give me a lecture about how I should give up and do something safer?”
Lauren held up her hands. “Hey, I’m not your girlfriend and I’m not your mother. You want to make a living climbing onto a bull and having your teeth rattled out of your head? Go for it. This is all about you, Tanner. That’s why I’m here.”
His girlfriend.He winced and finished his beer. “So, talking about being my girlfriend, what have you been doing this past decade? Aside from landing a job in pro sports?” He should have changed the subject, but she was the one who’d brought it up.
“Tanner, look,” she said as he watched her slim fingers clench around the stem of her champagne flute. “What I did to you, the way I ended things, I’ve always regretted how it happened. I think we need to get all that out in the air now instead of letting it fester anymore.”
He shook his head. “Seriously? You think now is the time to take a walk down memory lane?”
Her sigh was loud, and she shook her head. “Maybe we should get everything out now so we don’t have to deal with it again.”
Tanner grunted. “Look, far as I can see, you decided I wasn’t good enough for you or something better came up and you ran for the hills. Some warning would have been nice, but hey, we were teenagers. I don’t know why I expected any different, but I did.”
The look she gave him was pain mixed with shock. Maybe he’d overstepped.
“You know what, how about we start with what you’ve been up to since college,” he said, when a minute later she was still silent. “That might keep things a little more civil.”
Her stare was cool now, and when her eyebrows arched high and her eyes narrowed, he knew he’d struck a nerve. “You want to know what I did after college?”
“Sure. Seems like as good a place as any to start.” Tanner stared down at his bottle and wished he hadn’t drunk it so fast. The attendant wouldn’t be able to get him a new one until they’d finished their ascent, so he should have made it last. “While I was starting out on bulls and trying to heal my broken heart, how were you doing?”
Her laugh was low, and he watched as she sat back and drained her champagne glass until there wasn’t a drop left. “You know what, Tanner? I put on my big girl panties, I worked hard, and I never looked back.”
Chapter 4
LAUREN dug her nails hard into her palm as she fisted her hand. Dammit! Why did she have to let him get to her like that? And why had she snapped back such a snarky reply?
“Maybe we should find a new subject then,” Tanner said, his voice softer than she’d expected. “I know I was a jerk the other day, but right now I’m actually just trying to make conversation.”
She took a deep breath, eyes shut, before facing him. “Yeah, I know. I don’t know where that came from.”
His laugh took her by surprise. “It was pretty darn funny though, I’ll give you that. I’m guessing those kind of pithy statements are how you manage to hold your own with a team of jocks.”
The atmosphere in the plane changed as quickly as it had soured. “You really think it was pithy?”
He grinned. “Don’t go getting a big head, but yeah, maybe I did. Now what do you say about another drink?”
“I’d say it’ll be my last, otherwise I’ll be drunk andthen hungover all on the same flight, and that wouldn’t be pretty.”
Lauren pushed her shoulders down and wondered what the warm, slow feeling spreading through her was. She stared out the window into fluffy white clouds, already imaging how good her second glass of champagne would make her feel.
Relaxed.That’s what the unusual feeling was. She was relaxed! She would have laughed out loud if Tanner hadn’t been seated so close, but she didn’t want to have to explain herself. Instead she just smiled to herself and enjoyed the feeling as the clouds drifted by.
