Heartless: A Small Town Single Dad Romance(38)

Instantly, she’s hopping and kicking, but I squeeze my thighs and drop my heels, keeping her in a tight circle so she can’t explode.

“What a good baby,” I coo at her, even though she’s tossing herself around like a total fool. But not enough to loosen me off her. I refuse to fail in front of these guys. I especially refuse to fail in front of Cade.

He’ll be all annoying and I told you so about it and my ego honestly can’t handle that type of blow

where he’s concerned.

I urge the filly forward, driving with my seat, to send that momentum ahead of us rather than up in the air. And in under a minute, she’s dropped the shenanigans and is cantering around the round pen.

It’s not pretty, but it’s not a bronc show either. I hear the hoots and hollers of the guys around me

—the whistles and the “yeehaws”—but I keep her going, letting her tire herself out. Letting her run until she settles and drops her head.

It takes my all to not turn to Cade and stick my tongue out at him.

You’re twenty-five, you’re twenty-five, you’re twenty-five.

He turns me into an idiot. A bold, drooling, showboating idiot. He’s a challenge and look at me—

I love a challenge.

Eventually the filly breaks to a trot, and then a walk, and I reach forward to run a hand up her sweaty neck.

“Not bad, city girl!” One of the guys calls out, and I peek up, grinning in his general direction, before hopping off.

“Better than any of you fuckin’ dress-up cowboys managed,” Cade bites out, seething from beneath his cowboy hat.

He looks pissed, and the flutter in my stomach at how imposing he is has me wishing he’d take some of that frustration out on me.

“I’m gonna ride like Willa when I grow up!” Luke has climbed up to the top panel of the fence and leans over, eyes glowing with excitement. “She made that filly her bitch!”

“Luke!” I say right as Cade barks, “Lucas Eaton.”

The little boy’s eyes widen as he drops off the fence, like he knows he’s stepped in it now. He takes off into the barn, tiny cowboy boots thumping against the dirt road, without a backward glance.

“You taught him that.” Cade points at me as I lead the filly over to one of the guys.

“Yeah?” I quirk a brow and head toward the man I started out not liking but who I now can’t stop thinking about.

Fantasizing about.

From my side of the fence, I lean close, dropping my voice. “I’m pretty sure of the two of us, you’re the one with the filthy mouth, Cade.”

His hand shoots between the metal panels, fingers hooking through my belt loop to hold me still.

To keep me there, as he breathes down on to me. The whoosh of each exhale caresses my cheek. “You have no fuckin’ idea, Red.”

With one little tug on my jeans, he jostles me and then steps away, spinning one hand up above his shoulders and shouting at the guys. “Let’s go assholes. Break time is over. You’ve been shown up by a prissy city girl. Now prove to me I shouldn’t fire your useless asses.”

I snort. The man really has a poetic way with words.

As I scoot through the fence near the barn where I saw Luke run, one man exclaims toward my retreating form, “God fuckin’ damn. The view out here has never been so good.”

My lips quirk, and I turn to give him a wink, but with two easy steps Cade’s arm darts out and shoves him off the top of the fence where he’d been sitting. The cowboy lands on his knees with a loud bark of disbelieving laughter.

Cade’s not laughing though. “Eyes on the dirt if you plan to keep your job, cowboy.”

I just turn away and smile to myself, because Cade is seething. It’s almost like he’s jealous.

And I think I like that.





14



Cade

Willa: Panties? Check. Bra? No check.

Cade: You’re going to a children’s birthday party. Try again.

Willa: Right. Let me try again.

Willa: Panties? No check. Bra? Also no check.

Cade: The town is talking about you enough as it is.

Willa: Oooh. What are they saying?

Cade: That your panty lines are very defined.

Willa: My god. Did you just make a joke?

Cade: I’ll be there at 6 tonight. Please don’t embarrass me.

Willa: Oh boy. Is that a challenge?

Cade: Bye, Red.

Willa: I do this with Luke when he behaves badly too. Just ignore him. I don’t think it’s going to work on me though.

I pull up in front of the sizeable newly built house where the birthday party is being hosted.

Truthfully, I hate this shit.

Showing up at kids’ birthday parties as a single dad in a small town feels like being locked in a cage full of hungry lions.

Or is it cougars?

I shake my head, stepping out of my truck. Droplets of water rain down the back of my neck, because I rushed out of the shower to get here so Willa wouldn’t be stuck in the cougar den by herself.

I’m not oblivious to how snoopy and pushy people in this town can be. Especially around my family, who they’ve always treated a little like royalty. Like ticks who crawl up out of the shrubs to catch a ride.

Talia happened once and that will never happen again.