Beauty and the Bull Rider (Hotel Rodeo #3)(13)

“You didn’t give me your number last night.”

“You didn’t ask,” she said.

“It was an unfortunate oversight that I need to correct,” he said, plucking his phone from his back pocket and offering it to her.

Given little choice, Delaney accepted the phone and programmed her number. “Please come in.” She stepped back, beckoning him inside. “I have some fresh coffee brewing.”

“Coffee would be great, but I’d just as soon unload Diamond first.”

“Diamond?” Delaney repeated.

“The heifer,” he said. “P280 didn’t seem like much of a name to me. ’Course you can call her whatever you like, but I kinda think of her as a diamond in the rough.”

“Diamond is cute, Zac.” Delaney grinned. “I like it.”

“Glad you approve. You want me to go ahead and put her somewhere for you?”

“No. I’ll come with you,” she said. “Just give me a sec to pull my boots on. You want a slicker or something?”

“Nah. I think the damage is done. I can’t get much wetter.”

“Why didn’t you just wait until later?” she asked.

“’Cause I said I’d be here this morning.” His deep green gaze held hers. “I’m a man of my word. I’ve never broken a promise.”

“Even at the expense of good sense?” she asked.

“Maybe too often,” he replied with a chuckle.

“Just give me a sec,” Delaney said. She grabbed her wet drover off the peg by the door, and then stomped her bare feet back into her rubber muck boots. She then led Zac out to the small pasture she’d dedicated to the new arrival. “I thought I’d keep her in this one for easier access.”

“For breeding?” he asked.

“Nope. For loading. I’ll be hauling her to the vet for breeding. I don’t have a herd stud.”

“’Scuse me? I thought you already had a coupla calf crops.”

“I do, but I bred them all artificially.”

He shook his head. “Kinda takes all the fun out of it, don’t you think?”

“But it doesn’t limit me to a single bull. I have the freedom to experiment with different ones. They’ve been using AI in beef and dairy cattle for decades, Zac. It’s why we have the best milk producers in the entire world. Now the same science is making better bucking stock.”

“I understand,” he said. “I guess I’m just old-fashioned in my thinking. I’ll go ahead and back my trailer up if you can get the gate.”

“Sure,” Delaney replied, once more watching him a little too intently as he walked back to his truck. She didn’t understand what was happening. She’d known the man for over eight years. Why this sudden surge of attraction?

Zac maneuvered his rig with ease, backing flush with the gate. Once he gave her the nod in the mirror, Delaney released the heifer from the trailer into her new corral. The heifer looked around in confusion. It seemed like she’d panic, but then she spotted several cows in the adjacent pasture. She bawled a few times. A few of them answered her call. A moment later she noticed the pile of new hay, and headed straight to it. Oblivious to the rain, Delaney climbed the corral panel, where she sat on the top rail watching the young cow contentedly munching.

Delaney exhaled a happy sigh. “Thank you for bringing her to me,” she said.

“No problem,” Zac replied and climbed up beside her. He was close enough that their thighs almost touched. Her gaze drifted once more over those powerful thighs. Everything about Zac exuded strength and confidence. She was assaulted by conflicting urges—the desire to touch him and the urge to shift farther away. She willed herself to do neither.

They sat for several minutes, stealing occasional glances, until Zac broke the silence. “I gotta ask you something. . . .”

“What’s that?” she replied.

“I can’t figure out why you stay out here all by yourself—no family, few friends.”

“I have Rosa,” she said. “She’s all the companionship I need. And the ranch keeps me busy. Eight years ago, when I got half ownership of the ranch, my first thought was to sell it back to Ty and return to my family in Houston. I was already packed up to do just that when I realized what I’d be returning to—the very same life I was so desperate to escape that I eloped with the most ineligible man I could find. The more I thought about it, the less I wanted to go back.”

“Doesn’t it get lonesome?”

“I suppose it does sometimes,” she replied wistfully. “But I like it here, Zac. This place has become my home. Maybe it didn’t happen the way I’d wanted it to, but there was no good reason for me to give it up. Lots of women successfully run their own ranches.”

“But why mess with bulls?” he asked. “I can’t figure out why you chose to do something so difficult.”

“Why not?” she said. “Every bull was once a calf, right? That’s mostly what I’m dealing with anyway, the cows and calves. I don’t keep a herd sire and my oldest bulls are only two years old. If they get too hard for me to manage on my own, I’ll sell them. I’m just hoping to keep them long enough to prove their worth before I do that.”