The Bull Rider Meets His Match (8 page)

“Annie's regular sitter.”

“Annie could bring the girls to the store, since it's after hours.”

“I'll tell her, but honestly?” He wrinkled his forehead. “It might be better for the store to have them at Emily's house.”

Lex smiled at that, and Grady thought that he kind of liked making her smile.

“Maybe we could come for a lesson next week, if you have time.”

“I wouldn't mind. You could bring Kristen, too.”

“You do understand that one kid is one kid and two kids are four, right?”

Another smile and Grady decided not to push his luck and try for a third. He held out his hand, “Come on, Katie. We'd better get home.”

Because he wanted to leave a winner.

* * *

L
EX
FOUND
HERSELF
thinking about Grady more often then she felt comfortable with. He pushed his way into her thoughts and she had a heck of a time pushing him back out again. But she managed to get the job done...usually. Working with Annie added complications to the matter: how was she supposed to forget the brother existed while working with his sister?

But she liked Annie and felt comfortable with her, something that didn't happen all that often with Lex. They unpacked stock on Friday morning and prepared for the Fourth of July sale, which was to start on Monday. They had a steady stream of customers and Annie mentioned that she was half-afraid they wouldn't have enough stock to put on sale.

“I love the stuff you make,” she said as she rearranged the jewelry after two older women made a gratifyingly large purchase in preparation for Christmas, a mere six months away. She gave a small sigh as she set down the copper charm bracelet and then picked up a cowboy boot–shaped brooch. “You are talented.”

“My dad taught me,” she replied simply. And those had been good times, just her and him in the basement workshop, sawing silver sheet metal with the handsaw and then drawing the designs for her father to etch by hand. She'd since bought an electric etcher, but every now and again, she got out the hand tools and tried her luck at scrollwork. She'd never be as good as Dad, but trying made her feel closer to him.

“You all have talents.” Annie tilted her head as she picked up the edge of Danielle's grandmother's hand-tatted tablecloth. “And you all contribute.”

Lex shrugged, uncertain what to say. Finally she said, “How would you have time to indulge in a hobby?”

“Good point. But I want to learn to do something.” She set down the tablecloth and smiled as the door opened and an elderly man walked in.

“I'm looking for a piece of jewelry for my wife's birthday. Something elegant, but with a Western flavor.”

“I think I can help you,” Annie said, guiding the man toward the sterling and coral pieces Lex had brought in earlier that month. “These are all handcrafted and one of a kind...”

The man walked out ten minutes later, pleased with the stylized running horse brooch. And Annie thought she had no talents. She was a wonder in the shop, helping customers, working through her lunch hour to rearrange stock. She never seemed to stop, which made Lex wonder if it was a habit born from being a single mother of twins.

“Hey,” Lex said as they closed up shop, “would you like to go to Shardlow's for a glass of wine? You know...relax a little before you head back to your other full-time job? It is Friday, after all.”

Annie smiled and shook her head. “Thanks, but I have to get home. It's not fair to saddle Grady with the twins for too long.”

“I understand.” She didn't agree, but she understood. Mother duties came first.

Annie got as far as the door before she turned back. “I might call him. If there are no emergencies and if the girls don't have him operating on his last nerve.”

“Or if he doesn't have the girls operating on their last nerves...”

Annie smiled, her eyes crinkling at the corners in a way that reminded her of Grady. She'd never noticed that about Annie before. Was it because the woman didn't smile around her all that much? Or because she'd become ridiculously aware of Grady and the nuances of his expressions?

The latter, she feared, which made her stomach tighten. If she continued on this path, she was on the way to becoming yet another bull rider groupie.

A moment later Annie ended her call. “Grady made a slow-cooker dinner, so I'm free to come home anytime.”

“Must be nice to have help around the place.” Lex locked the shop door as she spoke.

“Nicer than I imagined. I mean, beyond getting the wind damage fixed and a lot of little things around the house taken care of, it's nice for the girls to get to know their uncle. Frankly it's nice to have company.”

It was the “nice for the girls to get to know their uncle” portion of Annie's statement that caught in Lex's brain. Grady hadn't been around enough to really get to know his nieces prior to coming home to help with the tornado damage, and she needed to remember that as she was being sucked in by his charm. Annie could have used some help over the years he'd been gone, and Danielle definitely could have used a partner, yet Grady had essentially walked away from both of them to ride bulls.

“How long will he stay?” The words came out of Lex's mouth almost before they formed in her mind.

“He plans on doing some events in the fall and early winter, but he's too far out of the money now to make finals.”

“Events?”

“More exhibitions than real competitions. They usually have them in the bigger cities. Bull versus cowboy. That type of thing. Grady's something of a crowd pleaser.”

They went in through the back door of Shardlow's, and Lex reminded herself that she was doing this to break the ice between her and Annie, not to rag on Grady. “I can see that. He's...charming.”

Annie gave her an odd look, then pulled out a chair and sat. The barkeep arrived immediately and they both ordered wine. Then Annie propped her elbows on the table and said, “Do you really think Grady is charming?”

It appeared to be a loaded question. “Do you mean am I personally charmed?” As opposed to being aware that he easily charmed other people?

“Yes. That.”

Lex considered her next move. To protest too much would be telling—in fact, debating about her response was telling—so she said as honestly and as quickly as possible, “Grady's charm is insidious.”

Annie gave a surprised laugh, her eyes once again crinkling at the corners like Grady's. “That's good. And accurate. His charm is insidious, and it got him out of a lot of trouble as a kid.”

“Yeah?” Now Lex was leaning forward. She moved back briefly as the barkeep set two glasses of wine, one red, one white, on the table, then leaned forward again.

“I bet you have stories.”

“Oh, yes. Many stories.” Annie took a sip of wine. “Unfortunately, I've been sworn to secrecy.”

Lex laughed even while she was tamping down her disappointment.

“So tell me,” Annie said slowly. “Do you get lonely, living by yourself on your farm?”

Lex opened her mouth to say
no
, then stopped. “After my dad died the place was beyond lonely, but I had nowhere else to go.” Her fingers curled around the stem of her wineglass. “I couldn't imagine going anywhere else, really.” She met Annie's gaze. “So, when you start out lonely, how do you know when you've moved past it?”

“Grady said you have a lot of animals.”

“I do.”

“Grady used to do that, too. Collect strays.”

“Are you sworn to secrecy about that, too?”

“No. I believe these stories are fair game. Suffice it to say that if there was a stray anything in a ten-mile radius, it found its way to our door. Drove Mom crazy, because we were on a very fixed income. Grady used to do chores for the neighbors to help pay for the dog food. And chicken scratch.”

“Chickens?”

“We had neighbors—urbanites who were trying out the rural life—who weren't taking care of their flock, so Grady asked to buy them. They became Grady's chickens.”

“Grady rescued chickens.”

“It was nice having the eggs,” Annie said, leaning back in the chair, obviously relaxing for the first time since they went on shift together on Monday morning.

Lex laughed and she, too, felt as if she was relaxing a little. The wine? Or sharing a moment with a new friend? She wasn't sure, but it did feel good to be somewhere other than the farm and the store.

* * *

L
EX
HELD
DOWN
the fort at the store the next day after insisting that Annie actually take a lunch break. While she was gone, Tiffani Crenshaw, owner of a salon two doors down, came in, browsing the jewelry.

“So, what is going on between you and Grady?” she asked as she held up a rhinestone and crystal necklace. “I see his truck parked at your place almost every night when I drive by.”

It was one thing for Danielle to ask what was going on—a whole other thing to have a nosy person who didn't particularly like Lex to ask. Particularly in that catty voice of hers.

“I'm sleeping with him, of course.”

“Excuse me?” Tiffani's eyes bulged a little as her head snapped around.

Lex made her expression as innocent as possible. “It's what you assumed, right?”
Or did you simply want to toss out innuendos and watch me squirm?

“It was just an innocent question,” Tiffani sputtered.

Yeah. Right. Tiffani Crenshaw didn't ask innocent questions. She dug for information and then passed it along. But she was also a customer, and Lex had let her irritation get the better of her judgment.

“I was only having some fun with you,” Lex said in a placating voice, deciding it would be best if she made a stab at damage control. “I'm giving his niece riding lessons.”

“She is,” Annie said, stepping out from the back room through the beaded curtains. She beamed at Tiffani, then said, “By the way, we're going to mark down some of the jewelry you were looking at last week. We can give you the sale price a day early if you're interested.”

If there was one thing Tiffani loved almost as much as gossip, it was a good deal, so off she went with Annie, casting a single dark look over her shoulder at Lex.

When Annie came back, Lex said, “You were not supposed to hear that.”

“I know you're not sleeping with him.”

Lex shifted a little. “I wanted to shut her up. She's so—”

“Toxic?”

“Yes,” Lex said with a sudden smile. “Like a nuclear waste dump site.” She shook her head and picked up a T-shirt to refold it. “I don't think Danielle will be thrilled with my customer relations.”

“Tiffani will be back. She's addicted to sparkles, and you guys have some of the best bling in town.”

The bell over the door rang, and three women walked in. Lex excused herself to go to the back room, and once there, she leaned her palms on the antique business meeting table and let her head drop. There were ill-advised ways to handle a touchy situation, and then there were crazy ways. Engaging Tiffani Crenshaw was the latter.

Ever since Grady came back to town, her world had been off-kilter and she'd had just about enough of it. Once Katie was done with lessons, well, she was done with Grady.

She had to be, for her own peace of mind.

Chapter Eight

On Saturday, Grady and his nieces showed up at the fairgrounds shortly after Lex had delivered her horses to the helpers to saddle. She'd planned to unhitch her trailer and run errands but got caught up in a conversation and before she had a chance to unhitch, Katie caught sight of her, waving proudly from atop Daphne. And then the little girl kept checking to see if Lex was still watching her. What could she do but stay?

Abandoning errands, Lex once again found a seat in the stands so that she could watch Katie. Grady had spent the previous lesson leaning on the fence, chatting with a small group of parents and staying close by in case Katie needed him—which she had—but, of course, that was too much to ask for this week. He spotted Lex and made his way toward the stands just as he had during the first lesson. As he climbed toward her, one of the moms shaded her eyes and nudged the woman next to her. Lex lifted a hand to wave at the woman, who weakly waved back and turned away.

Take that, nosy lady.

“What's going on?” Grady asked as he sat next to her.

“People are watching us.”

“Whose fault is that?”

“Yours.”

“I don't recall initiating any public displays of affection.”

“It wasn't affection,” Lex said mildly.

“Lust? Public display of lust?”

She tipped her sunglasses down. “Must you?”

One corner of his mouth tipped up wickedly. “Oh, yeah. I must.”

She put her sunglasses back in place and made a show of looking through him as if he weren't there. But she was more than aware he was there. She could practically feel the heat from his body. Or maybe it was her body. Whatever, it was disconcerting, but she couldn't bring herself to walk away. Mainly because people were indeed watching them.

Grady leaned back against the seats behind him, the picture of relaxation. “The problem with having been so open about your dislike of me and your disapproval of what transpired between me and Danielle is that it makes our current situation more interesting to onlookers.”

“We have no current situation.”

“Other than you helping Katie, of course.” He directed his gaze back to the arena, where Katie was now slowly jogging along on Daphne, looking a touch nervous, but no more so than many of the other kids. “You really helped her confidence.”

“Stop bringing your niece into this.”

“I'm not sure what ‘this' is.”

“Exactly,” she said from between clenched teeth. “There is no ‘this.'”

The playful expression left his face, and she found herself staring into a set of very serious gray eyes. “That's where you're wrong.”

“How so?” she said on a mock sigh, but inwardly she was in panic mode. Could he read her that easily? Could he tell that being near him was making every nerve in her body go on high alert?

“I heard you said that we're sleeping together.”

“I did not!” Her mouth pressed into a flat line and then she said, “Well... I did, but I didn't mean it. I was being facetious. Your sister was there, for Pete's sake.” She was going to murder Tiffani Crenshaw.

It was Grady's turn to stare coolly at her. “I'll do some damage control,” she muttered.

He scoffed.

“Fine. We'll do nothing. After enough nothing, people will realize that we don't have a relationship.”

“I'm still working on why you'd facetiously tell someone we're sleeping together.”

“Tiffani Crenshaw wanted to know why your truck was parked at my house every afternoon, and I wanted to shock her into shutting up.”

“Well, I guess that backfired.” He glanced over at her. “No chance that what you told her was wishful thinking?”

She rolled her eyes and then focused back on the arena. “Right. I lay awake nights thinking about it.” Which was kind of true, so she felt mildly uncomfortable saying the words out loud.

A brief silence followed, and she hoped that he would drop the conversation—or at the very least change topics. If he didn't, then she would.

“Hey, Lex?” She turned to find him closer than she expected. Her eyes widened behind the sunglasses, but when he leaned toward her, she didn't lean back. Not even when she knew what was coming. Not when he cupped her cheek with his palm, not when he slowly settled his mouth over hers. Nope. She didn't do one blessed thing to keep him from kissing her. She told herself it was because he wasn't going to cause her to lose her cool, but the truth was, audience or not, she wanted to find out if he tasted as amazing as she'd remembered.

He did and for a few heady seconds, she was lost. Grady Owen could kiss, could make her abandon her sense of the here and now and simply lose herself. Forget who he was. Heck, she almost forgot who she was. A split second later, when his hand traveled from her face down to her hip, she snapped to her senses, put her palms on his chest and pushed.

“That's it.” Lex got to her feet, forgetting about not losing her cool. “I'm not engaging in a spectator sport.”

Grady looked surprised. “It's okay if you do it, but not if I do it?”

“There are children present.”

“They aren't looking.”

Sure enough, they were all totally focused on Jared.

“Fine. There are gossipy parents present, and they are looking.” Every single one of them. And they looked away as one, focusing on the arena when she started marching down the steps.

“Since when,” he called, “do you care what anyone thinks?”

She stopped dead, turned back. “You don't know what I care about. What I don't.”

“Maybe I'd like to know more.” He sounded serious, which only made her feel more panicked.

She gave a loud snort. “
That
is not going to happen.”

And this was the last time she was going to let her hormones overrule her head. She had the answer to her question. He was an amazing kisser. Information stored away, no need to repeat.

She stomped down off the bleachers, continued the walk of shame to her trailer then decided, screw it. The sooner she faced things, meaning the interested bystanders, the better. She took a couple of cleansing breaths, then headed over to the group of parents, pasting a smile of sorts on her face, doing her best to ignore the fact that her lips felt swollen.

“Hi, Frank. Gloria.” The owners of an insurance business, who'd graduated high school with her. She didn't know the other parents that well, but had a feeling that Frank and Gloria had filled them in on her history with Grady. “Are your kids enjoying lessons?”

“I'm now being hounded night and day to buy a horse.” Frank gave his wife a small nudge. “We're
so
glad we signed them up, right, honey?”

“Lessons and horses have been the topic of conversation for the past week,” Gloria agreed. “Tiffani says you give private lessons.” She smiled at Lex in a way that was half amused and half congratulatory.

Lex lifted her chin. “Annie Owens works for me, so I gave one of her twins extra help this week.” It was now difficult to tell the sisters apart by posture, and despite being totally irritated at the situation, Lex felt a small upwelling of pride. “It was a favor to Annie, not official lessons.”

Gloria glanced over at Grady sitting alone in the stands. “So your lessons aren't going to...continue?”

The other parents smiled at the innuendo, and Lex felt herself start to slide into defense mode. She'd had enough double-talk and was about to set the record straight in no uncertain terms when she realized that would be really hard to do when Grady had just kissed her in the stands.
Leave it be.
Walk away
. That would be the sensible thing, but she couldn't help addressing the topic directly. “Are you talking about me and Grady or me and the twins?” she asked in a conversation-stopping voice.

“You and Grady,” Gloria said, totally unabashed. “I think you're cute together.”

Lex blinked at her. What was she supposed to say to that?

“Fireworks make for an interesting relationship,” Frank added. The woman standing next to him nodded her agreement.

Lex simply stared at the small group of parents as she realized that Grady had been 100 percent correct when he predicted that there was no such thing as damage control in this situation.

“Glad you think so,” she finally said to no one in particular. “Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to shovel out my horse trailer.”

* * *

G
RADY
WAS
OF
the opinion that he needed to come up with a way to kiss Lex again under better circumstances. If a ten-second kiss was that good, what would it be like if they had, say, thirty seconds...or a couple of minutes...or the entire night?

Probably not something he should dwell on as he drove his nieces home, but it was hard not to.

He didn't think Lex was immune to him. Not when she kissed him back as she had tonight. What she was, was overly self-protective. And maybe torn, because while she purported to dislike and disapprove of him, she'd also started a rumor about them—a rumor that he wouldn't mind turning into reality.

But if they did make it reality, Lex's heart had to be in it. She couldn't be doing it to make a point or win a battle or something. That would be wrong...and he didn't think Lex was the kind to sleep with him for those reasons. She was too honest. With him, anyway. Sometimes he wondered how honest she was with herself. Whatever, the situation left Grady teetering on the edge of frustration...but it also kept the summer interesting.

When they got to the house, the girls dove into their reading. They had until Monday to read the last book of the required twenty that were necessary to receive reading awards from the mayor and partake in the ice cream party and pool party that followed. Annie told him that the contest had become quite a big deal in the town, and because of the grant money received, they were able to give bigger and better prizes each year. This year the names of all the kids who qualified would go into a draw for a bicycle.

What impressed Grady most, though, was that the contest was on the honor system and the girls never once considered skimming a book. Instead they were scrupulously honest, reading every word of every book, before asking him or Annie to sign the paper where they'd recorded title and author.

“I love how earnest they are,” he said after Katie had carefully placed her signature paper in a plastic folder before heading back to the bedroom where Kristen was still reading.

“I know. Too bad people can't hang on to that.” Annie refolded the afghan that lay over the arm of a recliner that had seen better days, then took a seat.

“I think we do hang on to it,” Grady said as he picked up the television remote more out of habit than anything, “but it gets buried under all the other baggage we stack on top of it. We lose sight of it.”

Annie shot him a look. And then she kept looking at him.

“What?”

“That was insightful.”

“Why does that surprise you?” He wondered if he should be amused or insulted. He started clicking through the muted television channels.

“Because you put on that cocky bull rider act most of the time.”

He paused on a sports channel, not bothering to look up as he said, “It's not an act. I'm that good.”

“You're full of—”

“Hey, Mom?” Kristen came into the room, holding two dresses on hangers, one pale yellow and the other a turquoise and brown polka-dot print.

“You were saying?” Grady asked innocently.

“I think you can fill in the blank.” Annie turned to her daughter, and they conferred on which dress was more mayor worthy. Grady noted that she picked the one that would be least likely to show chocolate syrup later—something he wouldn't have noticed a mere two months ago.

Annie settled back in her chair, watching the silent television as Grady continued to flip channels. If he found something worthwhile, he'd turn on the sound. “Quite the rumor going around town about you and Lex.”

Grady's finger stuttered on the remote. Boom, out with the big guns. “The one Tiffani is spreading?” he asked blandly.

Annie shook her head. “No. I was there when that happened. This one involves the grandstands at the riding lessons.” She sent him a look of mock concern. “Do you really think you should be making out in the stands while my daughters are present?”

“They weren't looking.”

“Everyone else was.”

Exactly what Lex had said. And she'd been right. And he didn't regret kissing her one bit.

Grady propped one foot up on the worn ottoman. There really was no fighting this. Not as long as he and Lex continued to spar—and kiss—in public. “You want to hear a secret, Annie?”

“I'm all about secrets.”

“I like Lex.” Her eyebrows slowly lifted at his casual confession. He rather enjoyed that, even though the frustration caused by the Lex situation was once again taking hold. “I can't say that the feeling is mutual, or that anything will come of it, but...I like her.” He spoke with simple sincerity because that was the way things were.

Annie gave a considering nod as she casually twisted the fringe on the afghan through her fingers. “So
that's
why you keep kissing her. Now it all makes sense.”

“She kissed me first,” he pointed out.

“To make a point. Right. I forgot.”

Grady smiled at the irony in his sister's voice, even though he no longer felt like smiling. The conversation drove home the point that he had a problem. This was no longer about winning or losing some battle of wills or saving face or anything like that. It was about being attracted to a woman who could erect a barrier faster than most people could sneeze—which was why it was possible nothing would come of the fact that he found himself more and more drawn to her.