Heartless: A Small Town Single Dad Romance(99)

“Why the fuck is everyone hitting me?”

I chuckle as Summer responds with, “Because you deserve it.”

With that sentiment, we pull into the rodeo grounds and the chaos of the Canadian Championship Rodeo swallows us all.

Competing here is a dream that’s been long forgotten. Long shut away as a missed opportunity, something I was too old for—too busy for.

Until Willa sat in that hot tub and dared me to take a shot. Turns out our runs were good enough to qualify us for the finals.

Which means I’m not going to let the fact that my fingers aren’t completely healed stop me.

Blueberry is taking everything in stride from where I sit on her back. Her prickly personality won’t let her be spooked. Every time another horse walks past, she flattens her ears at them, which makes me smile. She’s not a warm-and-fuzzy type of mare, but she’s good at what she does.

We’re kindred that way.

My dad has Luke out in the stands, and the rest of our group is standing beside me in the staging area.

“Are you nervous?” Willa squeezes my leg and peers up at me. The way she glows makes my throat constrict. Her hair is all curled. Her new boots are fuck-me hot and are going to look so good wrapped around my waist later. She’s not showing much yet, but her jeans are extra tight around her ass, and I keep getting busted checking her out.

“Nah,” I reply, smoothing my hand over her hair.

“I love it when you pet me.” She sighs and closes her eyes with a low chuckle.

“Y’all are fuckin’ weird,” Rhett quips from beside us, arm slung over Summer’s shoulders, with a cocky smirk on his face. “I’d tell you not to worry about the buckle bunnies, Willa, but apparently Cade is so into PDA now that he practically broadcasts how taken he is.”

Willa stares back at my brother blankly. “What are you talking about, Rhett? I am a buckle bunny.”

She puts her fingers in the shape of a heart and frames the view through them around my face.

“Cade? Lance? Josh?” The ring steward calls our team’s names, and with a quick wink down at my girl, we’re gone.

Blueberry’s easy strides turn into a prance beneath me, a showy little jog as we enter the ring.

And this ring isn’t just another small-town fair grounds. This is a proper arena, one with full stands and a rowdy crowd here for a show.

This arena is a dream I never thought would come true.

I glance over my shoulder, seeking that flash of coppery hair. And she’s there, smiling, gripping the metal fence panel with one hand, the other slung over her stomach, looking at me like I hung the moon—and for her I would.

I’d do it for everything she’s given me in such a short time . . .

A love Luke has never known.

A reason for me to smile again.

A person to talk to after so many years of silence.

A love I’ve never known. One I’m not so sure I deserve, but one I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to preserve. But I’ll get to that part later.

For now, I turn my eyes back on the pen of cattle and listen carefully as we’re given the number.

And then I get to work because I’m going to make this lifelong dream come to fruition.

The noisy crowd falls away when the buzzer sounds, and the only thing that exists is what’s between Blueberry’s ears.

She cuts. She runs. She turns. She drops a shoulder.

The leather of the reins is warm in my fingers, and I feel like I’m just along for the ride. She’s never performed so well in her life. It’s like she knows this is it. The big show. Our one chance.

In what feels like it took mere seconds, we’ve squared away the cows and I’m looking around myself like there must be more. Like we must have missed something. Everything feels like it’s moving in slow motion, but judging by the way Lance is standing up in his stirrups whooping like a madman, I’d say we’ve done it and done it well.

When the judges post our scores, they confirm my hunch and I’m left shaking my head, smiling like a loon, and searching for Willa.

She’s climbed up to the top of the fence panel and is staring at me with her hands cupped over her mouth, shouting like a crazy person. My crazy person.

Here for me.

Summer is whistling louder than anyone in the arena, and Rhett is grinning and shaking his stupid fucking sign in the air.

But it’s Willa I can’t take my eyes from. I ride straight to her, in the middle of a packed arena, sling an arm around the back of her neck and kiss her.

I kiss her hard. I kiss her to say the things I can’t find the words for.

“I love you, Cade Eaton, and I am so damn proud of you,” is what she whispers in my ear while her fingers trail up the back of my neck.

“I love you too, baby,” is what I get out, just before she pulls the black cowboy hat off my head and plunks it on her own.

Leaning back away from me, she gives me a playful little smirk.

I quirk a brow in her direction. “You know the rule, Red?”

“You wear the hat, you ride the cowboy.” She winks at me, looking fucking adorable wearing my hat. I should have put it on her forever ago. I should have put it on her the first day I laid eyes on her in that coffee shop.

With a twist of my lips and a shake of my head, I turn to ride away and celebrate with my team for a moment because that score is damn near unbeatable.