Total pages in book: 248
Estimated words: 236036 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1180(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 787(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 236036 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1180(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 787(@300wpm)
I don’t regret our night with Marci, not one bit, but it’s what it cost me that hurts. I’ve always had strict rodeo rituals, starting with a good night’s sleep. No sexual gratification. A huge but lazy breakfast. Coffee with a view of wherever we’ve landed while we watch the sunrise, and then it’s off to the rodeo.
But the sun has already risen and there’s no time for more than some microwave oatmeal and a to-go coffee. And while I must admit, I slept well, I definitely did not sleep long.
When I wash my hands and come out of the small bathroom, I run smack into Levi. He scoots around me with a grunt and I move to the kitchen area to start the coffee and oatmeal.
Three bowls, because though Marci is still asleep I’m gonna have to wake her soon, and no woman stays with us and doesn’t get breakfast in the morning. The oatmeal is a meager offering but the coffee might just make up for it. I’m just getting the oatmeal portioned into bowls, and waiting for the pot to finish brewing when she comes up behind me and her arms wrap around my waist.
“Morning cowboy,” she murmurs, kissing at my neck as her fingers trail from my belly button down to the waistband of my boxers.
I’m still busy berating myself for breaking all my rules, so I pull away, placing bowls of oatmeal and to-go mugs of coffee on the kitchen table for her and Levi. Leaving my own on the counter, I head back to the bedroom where I meticulously dress in my nicest wranglers, my lucky rodeo shirt and lucky socks and my favorite boots. I add a belt with an oversized buckle, and grab my favorite hat, though I don’t put it on my head.
“Morning,” Levi says when I walk by again. He’s sitting at the table across from Marci, grinning like he doesn’t have a care in the world.
“Eat your breakfast and hurry and get dressed,” I grunt on my way out the door. I’ll at least get to have the coffee-outside version of my lucky formula even if I fucked the rest of it up.
Right before the door closes behind me, I hear Levi say, “Don’t worry about him. He’s just a little uptight before a competition and he broke his pre-performance rules. Don’t take it personally.”
I don’t stick around to hear what Marci answers because the way I’m treating her is just another reason to be mad at myself.
By the time I finish my coffee, Marci and Levi have joined me outside, with their breakfasts finished and Levi dressed in his rodeo clothes.
Marci sits beside me and presses a bowl of lukewarm oatmeal into my hands. Crap. I’d forgotten about my breakfast.
Another reason to be mad at myself.
Marci
Somehow when I woke up, I didn’t feel panic or regret. At least not at first. Tripp’s in a mood though. And that fills my chest with crushing anxiety, making it feel hard to breathe. The night they’d given me was almost perfect. Or at least far more perfect than anything I’d had in a long time.
And then, just like my greatest fears had taken over, I wake up and everything has changed. Tripp feels like a whole different person than the charming, sweet-talking, no-nonsense cowboy Daddy I’d met the night before.
Levi, however, is exactly the same. While I’m catching my breath in the trailer bedroom, trying not to cry after Tripp goes outside, Levi comes up, wraps his arms around my waist, and pulls me close until we’re cheek to cheek. “It’s just pre-show jitters,” he said. “It sucks, but try not to take it personally.”
I suck in a breath, pull back and glower. “He basically said he regretted everything.”
Levi shook his head emphatically. “He’s just scared. He usually does everything the same leading up to a competition and he’s a bit superstitious about it. He’s worried that not doing those things means he screwed himself.”
“Winning isn’t everything,” I grumble. With all the lessons Tripp had been so eager to impart last night, I figured he’d know that.
Levi agrees. “It’s not everything. He knows it’s not. It’s just… complicated.”
That doesn’t explain anything and it doesn’t make me feel any better.
“Hey.” Levi pulls back, then lifts my face with his hands so that I have no choice but to look up at him, staring into his deep-green eyes. “It’s gonna be okay. Trust me.” He waits a bit, then asks, “Are you coming to the rodeo?”
I hesitate. I hadn’t planned on it. The diner will be busy all day, and rodeos aren’t usually my thing. But I can’t imagine not being there to watch them. “I don’t know,” I answer honestly. I want to call in, but who could I get to cover my shift? Calliope and Sadie had covered me the night before, but as co-mayor, Calliope attended all major town events and Sadie, being from New York, was too excited about her first-ever rodeo. I couldn’t ask her to skip it.