Cowboy, Take Me Away

She claimed Trace’s drink and mirrored his gesture. “Here’s to Mike and his trainer.”

Down the hatch.

She set the empty glass aside and took number two from Mike’s hand, flashing an enticing glance at Trace as she raised the glass. “And to Trace Wolf Track and his impressive horse sense.” Down the hatch.

Glass on wood, she called out, “Bartender! Another round for these two cowboys.”

“Okay, she’s mad now,” Mike told Trace.

“Not anymore.” Skyler gave Mike a perfunctory smile. “If you aren’t having dinner with Earl, you might want to tell him he’s excused.”

“I was coming back.”

“You were on your way back, but you ran into a couple of buddies, and one drink led to another.” She shifted from script reader to instructor. “Earl doesn’t interest me. Nothing about Earl interests me. I had a wonderful time at the rodeo, Mike. You interest me because you’re my son. Trace interests me because he’s … interesting.” She spared Trace a pointed glance. “Earl does not interest me.”

“But he’s got—”

“I don’t care what he’s got. You don’t have to worry about me. Okay?” She shrugged dismissively. “And if this is a celebration, I’m not feeling it.”

“One more oughta do it.” Mike gave a nod for the two drinks the bartender was just setting down near his elbow.

“You know what?” Trace pulled a couple of bills from his pocket and tossed them on the bar. “In the interest of mutual interest—” he turned to Skyler and smiled “—why don’t we hold off and take a walk?”

“What about Earl?” Mike demanded. Trace laid a friendly hand on Mike’s beefy shoulder. “I’d say Earl is your problem, son.”

“Son?”

“You make a date, it’s yours to keep, yours to break.”

“Impressive,” Skyler said. “Who trained the trainer?”

“My dad. Logan Wolf Track is the best there is.” He gestured toward the exit with a flourish. After you. “What’s your pleasure tonight, Mrs. Quinn?”

“Do you dance?”

“Hell, yeah, like nobody’s watching. You know any cowboys who don’t?” He offered his arm. “Mrs.

Quinn?”

“Mrs. Quinn doesn’t remember how to dance like nobody’s watching.” She slipped her hand into the crook of his elbow and smile up at him. “But let’s see if Skyler does.”

Chapter Two

There was a sweet sensuality about the way Trace held her when they danced—not hard, not tight, but close enough to feel the power in his thighs and the heat in his belly and the cool in his carriage. Her body moved with his, riding double on a silky new song. New for Skyler, anyway. She hadn’t danced in ages, which was not a measure of time, but a chunk of life. She felt lighter on her feet than she had in ages, lighter in heart and head. Giddy-light, something a man like Trace would know nothing about. She felt so new she was afraid if she opened her mouth she’d squeal with delight or babble some kind of gibberish and he’d have no interest in a translation. So she kept quiet and rode her senses, her thighs glancing off his, her nose sneaking up on his neck, her ears tuning in to the drums and the steel guitar.

Given the kind of erotic thoughts she’d been having lately, it was probably pretty risky for her to let a man who smelled this good get this close, but she was sure she had the upper hand. She was a woman, after all. She knew how to smell the flowers. Or, in this case, the alfalfa. She knew how to lose herself on a little detour, soak up some unexpected warmth and inhale the greener grass.

Close your eyes and take a long, slow breath. Let the picture draw itself in your mind. Pure, natural manhood.

Now that she knew why Mike had insisted on her coming to Sheridan to watch him put his newly trained calf roping horse to the test, she had to admit, he wasn’t totally off base. It felt good to “meet somebody.” Not Mike’s choice of somebody. Not an internet site’s choice or the choice of a friend worried about her widowhood, but her own out-of-the-blue discovery. Somebody who tapped into her own senses and jangled nerves she’d tried and failed to forget she had. Not that she didn’t like the feeling, but she wasn’t sure she could rein it in if she gave it any slack.

“It was nice of Mrs. Quinn to let me take Skyler dancing.” He leaned back and smiled at her. “Tell her for me next time you see her.”

“Tell her yourself.” She looked up, but not, she realized, as far up as she’d expected to. The way he carried himself made him seem taller than he was.

“Truthfully, I don’t see her. Everyone else does, but I don’t.”

“You’re like that comedian on TV, huh? He doesn’t see skin color, including his own?” He chuckled. “How do you know what everyone else sees?”

“Maybe not you. Who do you see?”

“Right now, I see a woman who’s enjoying herself.”

“Good eye, cowboy.” Wolf eyes. Tawny and teasing, they twinkled with every charming line he spoke. “Would you have fixed me up with Earl Kessler?”

“Absolutely not. And I don’t know Earl Kessler.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what Mike was thinking. He should have fixed you up with me.”

“He shouldn’t be trying to fix me up at all.”

“If he hadn’t, would we be dancing right now?” He raised his wounded brow. “Would Mrs. Quinn have let Skyler come out to play?”

“Mrs. Quinn might have gone out with you herself. You wouldn’t have been able to dance this close, but otherwise you wouldn’t know the difference.”

“Ah, so you do know her.”

“I don’t see her, but she was fifteen years in the making, so I know her.”

He smiled again. “I only dance as close as my partner wants me to. Sometimes it’s like this. Sometimes it’s even closer. But I always know the difference.”

“Instinctively?”

“My instincts are pretty good. I’ve got good ears, too.”

“And you’ve got a good lump on your head.” The knot on the right side of his temple was decorated with Steri-Strips. Without thinking, she touched the outer edge of the goose egg. “Does it hurt?”

“Only when I touch it.” He laughed when she jerked her hand away. “Do that again. Your fingers feel cool.”

She put her hand back in its proper place on his shoulder. “I’ve fallen off a horse a few times, but I’ve never been kicked.”

“I didn’t fall.”

“You were unloaded.”

“I made the whistle. That’s what counts.”

She welcomed the excuse to touch his head again. “This counts.”

“That’s what I’ve heard,” he said, grinning. “I know it draws sharks, but I didn’t realize blood was a chick magnet.”

She laughed. “Hardly.”

“Hardly attracted?”

“Hardly a chick.”

“You’re right. My bad.” He flashed that infectious grin again. “You like ‘filly bait’ any better?”

“Give it up, cowboy. I like you, okay? No bloodshed necessary. Extra points for not calling me a mother hen.”

Trace guided her to the corner booth they’d claimed at the Mane and Tail Tavern, one of Sheridan’s quieter nightspots. Rodeo cowboys preferred Bob’s Place and rodeo fans followed rodeo cowboys. His hand on the small of her back was their only contact point, but she felt him covering her back, head to heels.

“I like you, too,” he said as she took herself from him, only to slide around the vinyl curve of the seat and meet him at the back of the booth. “So let’s get this out on the table. I’m not a kid. I’m not sure I ever was. I was raised by my stepfather, and he was younger than my mother. Still is if she’s alive.”

“You don’t know?”

“I like to think she isn’t.” He toyed with his watered-down whiskey, spreading its sweat ring in an ever-widening circle. “I made up a story about how she was trying to get back to us when she got hit by a train. That’s the only reason we never heard from her again.” He sipped his drink before eyeing her. “How’s that for bloodthirsty? Do I lose points?”

“She just disappeared?”

“She told us she was gonna look for a better place for us. I knew she wasn’t coming back. Logan had adopted us first thing after he married her. He told her he wasn’t goin’ anywhere, and for a while he thought she’d come back.” He smiled wistfully. “He was so damn young.” His eyes suddenly gleamed. “But he was a good father, and he will be again. He just remarried. Took him a while, but, hell, when that man makes up his mind, he doesn’t waste any time. I hope this one works out better for him.”

“Is this one older, too?”

“Older than Logan?” He shook his head. “She’s probably not much older than me. Funny. I don’t remember ever running into her, but turns out she didn’t live too far away. Two different worlds, I guess. Small, side by side and different.”

“Where are they?”

“South Dakota. Logan—my dad—he’s Sioux. Lakota Sioux.”

“You’re not?”

“In name only. He offered his name when he adopted us, and we jumped on it. Who wouldn’t? Wolf Track.” He punctuated a tight-lipped growl with a fisted gesture. “Powerful name.”

“So he’s your true father.”

“Oh, yeah. Taught me everything I know about horses. Not everything he knows, but everything I know.”

“Is he a rodeo cowboy, too?”

“No. He’s smarter than that. Logan’s a tribal councilman, and he’s also a horse trainer. He wrote a book about it and everything.”

“You did a wonderful job with Bit-o-Honey. I can’t believe he’s the same horse.” Skyler lifted her shoulder. “Of course, Mike’s still the same rider.”

“It’s a good hobby for a rancher.”

“He told you he was a rancher?”

Trace nodded.

“Good to know,” she said offhandedly. “He tells me he’s a calf roper.”

“He’s young. He can still be a lot of things.”

“He’d better decide which is the hobby pretty soon, or the choice won’t be there for him.”

“What time is it?” Trace slid his hand over the back of hers and turned her wrist for a peek at her watch. “Almost tomorrow. Big day tomorrow.”

“Bigger than today? You won your go-round today. What’s happening tomorrow?”

His fingers skimmed her palm. “Our first kiss.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. First thing.” He winked at her. “So tell me when it’s midnight.”

“I’m nobody’s timekeeper, Trace. Trying not to be.” She gave her head a quick shake as she echoed her admonishment to him. “Give it up, Skyler.”

“We’re talking past each other here. Look at me.” He waited for her full attention, which she granted. “Right here, right now, you and me. One kiss to start the day. It’s my birthday.”

“Oh.” She smiled. “Well, that’s different.”

“I’m different. Give me a day to prove it.”

“Why?”

“Because …” He glanced at her watch. “It’s midnight.”

“Happy birthday.” She tipped her head and leaned close to bestow a friendly kiss.

He slid his arm around her and met her halfway, raising the ante on her gift by making it interactive, taking her breath away. Her kiss became theirs as she slid her arm around him and smoothed the back of his shirt with her eager hand. She felt trembly inside when he lifted his head and looked at her with a twinkle in his eyes that said gotcha.

“Spend the day with me,” he entreated, and she had to glance away from those glittering eyes to keep from jumping all over the suggestion.

“What’s holding you back?” He raised an eyebrow. “Tell me, and I’ll get it out of your way.”

“I have things to do at home.”

“I’ll help you. Give me one day and I’ll give one back.” She hesitated, and he laughed. He knew he had her, but he offered, “Two. I’ll trade you two days for one, and I’m a damn good hand.”

“Now, that’s tempting.” A crazy idea was taking shape in her head. Lately they’d been popping up like soap bubbles. Crazy notions pushing for bubble-headed moves. She’d made one or two, just to get herself off dead center, and she was about to make another one.

She smiled. “What can I get out of you on those days?”

“What do you need?”

“Mostly horse sense.”

“Well, then, I’m mostly your man.”

“I own horses, condition them, ride them, school them. I’m a natural, really. And I’ve had some spirited horses.” She leaned into her story, trusting him with the girlish enthusiasm that was generally reserved for her horses. “So I thought, why shouldn’t I be able to turn a mustang into a mild-mannered saddle horse? We could learn from each other. Wouldn’t that be interesting?”

“For me?”

“For me. I entered a training competition. But I might have bitten off more than I can chew.” She lowered her gaze to his smirking lips. She could still taste them. “How are your teeth?”

“I’m not missing any, but you’ll have to take the deal before I let you count ‘em.”

She laughed. She liked this man. She truly did. “After two days, can I have an option to hire?”

“Nope.” He leaned back, challenging her with a playful look as he reached toward his glass. “Free agency after three days. Then we renegotiate.”

“Sounds fair.”

“It’s more than sound.” He gestured, glass in hand. “You’re getting a twofer.”

“Can’t pass that up, can I?” She slapped the table. “Okay, I need to rest up for the big day.”

“Oh, no. Today is my day.” He drained his drink and then set the glass aside. “I get to call the shots. You play Hearts?”

“The card game?”

“We’re gonna shoot the moon, Skyler Quinn,” he promised with a charming wink. “We’re gonna make room for sunrise and then watch it together.”

The image made her smile. The image and the challenge. She remembered that shooting the moon meant collecting all the hearts in play, and this man clearly had the knack. But if there was one heart that wasn’t going down on the table, it was hers.

So call your shots, cowboy. The night’s as young as you are, and I’m game.

He lifted a strand of hair from her shoulder and rubbed it between his thumb and forefinger. “What do you call this color?”

“I think the bottle said strawberry.”

“I don’t see strawberries. I don’t see a bottle. But I have seen this color somewhere.” He abandoned her hair and took her hand, drawing her out of the booth. “It’ll come to me.”

“Where are we going?”

“To find some slow and easy holding-you-in-my-arms music. I just danced out of my twenties and I wanna dance into my thirties.” He squeezed her hand. “You with me?”

“Yes, I am.” She squeezed back. She was getting that giddy feeling again, and she was beginning to like it. “I like your style, cowboy.”

“Skill takes you to the whistle, but it’s style that wins the buckle.”

Trace turned off the highway and followed a familiar dirt road to a spot overlooking the Powder River with a long view to the east. He’d found it back in his rookie days, and it was still a favorite place to pull off the highway and catch a little sleep knowing the sun would roust him in plenty of time to get to Casper to make the afternoon show and then head for Denver or Boise. He slept just fine in the cab of his pickup as long as there were no headlights coming at him, no 18-wheelers whooshing past him in the night.

Skyler was asleep. At his suggestion, she’d cranked her seat back and drifted off in the middle of her own sentence. Something about not being able to sleep on the road. He wasn’t going to let her sleep much longer. He’d flipped the center console upright and made way for a close encounter. With the moon on the run, it was the darkest part of a night that would soon be cracked by daylight. If he’d picked the right spot, they were in for a spectacular moment. But in the dark he couldn’t be sure the landscape hadn’t been sullied since his last visit. Miners and drillers were tearing into the Powder River country like some Biblical plague. He wanted this sunrise—his sunrise—to reveal nothing but pristine Wyoming.

But watching the woman sleep was nice, too. He was trying to decide how to wake her—whether to say her name or touch her bare shoulder, maybe her cheek—when she stirred, edging closer, giving faint voice to her soft sigh. He touched his lips briefly to hers and felt the sweet beginnings of a smile. He lifted his head and watched her lashes unveil her eyes, a gradual dawning. The smile vanished momentarily, but then it returned. It was too dark to see it in her eyes, but he knew it was there. He could feel the connection when she recognized him.

“Are we there yet?” she asked sleepily.

“No, but we’re here. I promised you sunrise.”

Her smile broadened as she closed her eyes. “I’ve seen it before.”

“Not this one.” The horizon was beginning to lighten. He released her seat belt and patted the empty leather space between them. “Come on over,” he whispered, and he drew her under his arm as soon as she gave him the chance. She snuggled against him as though he were her favorite pillow. “Tell me about your mustang,” he said. “How long have you had him?”

“Three weeks. I’ve managed to halter him, but that’s about all.”

“What do you want him to do for you?”

“Take me places.”

“Where do you want to go?”

“I haven’t decided. Maybe just down the road.” She tipped her head back without lifting it from his shoulder. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her smile, and he felt favored and strangely honored by her ease with him. “Isn’t that what you’re doing, cowboy? Goin’ down the road?”

He nodded. He wasn’t feeling the hell, yeah he would have given with gusto back … when? A few months ago? A year? The rush that came with the ride was still good, but the road between rushes was getting longer. And something else, something that was beginning to wear on him more than sore muscles and aching joints. He wasn’t ready to name it. Naming it would give it power, and he didn’t feel like putting up a fight, not while this woman’s head was resting on his shoulder. Which felt dangerously sweet.

“Here it comes.” He laid his free hand on the top of the steering wheel and pointed a finger toward a burst of gold spearing through the pinks and purples washing over the jagged horizon. It was a common sight of incomparable beauty. “There it is, Skyler. On the edge of that cloud. I knew I’d seen that color before.” He lifted a curl from her shoulder. “You have the morning sky in your hair.”

“And you …” She sat up and looked him in the eye, laughing. “No, I won’t say you have a silver tongue.”

“I won’t say don’t knock it.” He drew her close and she met his kiss fully, paying him back with interest, forcing him to be the reluctant quitter. “Mmm. That was a knockout.”

“It surely was,” she said dreamily. He liked the sound.

“And it’s only day one.”

“Between us we could cause a lot of damage in three days.”

“Damage,” he said as he touched her hair, “is not my style.”

She gave him a quick good boy kiss and then turned her attention to the buoyant sun. “It’s beautiful here,” she said. But what he heard was moving right along … “This is the kind of place I want that mustang to take me.”

“You picked the right trainer, then.” He drew his arm over her head, effectively taking his pillow back. He was still thinking about those kisses. The first one was great. The second one rubbed him the wrong way. He knew what she was thinking.

Hell, he knew about a lot of things.

“Are you signed up with the Double D Wild Horse Sanctuary competition?”

“Mustang Sally’s Makeover Challenge,” she recited. He nodded, giving her pause. “You’re not already in it, are you?”

“No, but my father is, and my brother was trying to get into it, too.” He shrugged. I’m way ahead of you, lady. “I hear there’s a big prize at stake.”

A moment passed before she spoke again. “We have a deal, don’t we?” From her tone, the shoe that had changed feet was a little tight. “The clock’s already ticking on it.”

He was a little surprised. He’d wanted her company, pure and simple, but he could have sworn her side of the deal was born of a whim. He didn’t mind that her whim affected her need for his skill. She had already seen him make a difference with a horse and she’d soon realize there was more where that came from. Maybe there was more to this arrangement than he’d thought. Maybe there was more to this little dance of theirs, and maybe what had felt like a kiss-off was just a sweet little kiss.

And maybe she was a little more high maintenance than he was used to, but, damn, he wasn’t about to quit now.

He offered a smile. “Trust me, Skyler, I’m a man of my word.”

“Trust me, cowboy, trust me is a line with a definite sell-by date.” She raked her fingers through the hair he’d touched tenderly. “It expired for me a long time ago.”

Don’t ask, Wolf Track.

“Mike gave me the impression your husband was a good man.”

That’s asking, you idiot.

“He was.” She sighed. “He was.”

“If you don’t wanna go back there, I sure don’t mind moving ahead. It’s a new day.” Right. Good luck with that.

“The perfect beginning for a three-day event,” she quipped. “You won’t be competing against your family. I just need a little help getting over the first hump.”

He made the catch, grinning and grateful. “Like I said, I’m your man.”

“Briefly,” she amended with a straight face, and he acknowledged with a shrug and a smile. “So let’s make the most of it. I took this on thinking a horse is a horse.”

“Of course.”

“Of course!” Her laughter sounded girlish, and her eyes glittered in the morning sun like bits of green-and-brown bottle glass. “But he’s a wild horse, and he wanted absolutely no part of that halter.”

“Yeah, but he wants a part of you,” Trace said as he pulled the pickup keys out of the cup holder and plugged one into the ignition. “So he’ll take the halter, the bit, the saddle, the whole crazy outfit,” he continued as he put the pickup in gear. “Just give him free rein when you hit that next hump, and you’ll go—” he made the jump with his hand, arching from gearshift to steering wheel “—up and over.”

“Free rein,” she echoed as she turned to him, her enthusiasm mounting as the pickup bumped and rattled over red clay ruts. “I saw a news clip about the competition and how they’re trying to drum up support for the wild-horse sanctuary in South Dakota that those two sisters have devoted themselves to, put everything they have into it, and I just thought, this is important. I’ve trained horses. I can do this.” Her tone took a contemplative turn. “The wild ones are different, though. You wonder …”

“They’re horses,” he assured her.

“But they seem more sensitive. I swear, that horse can read my mind.”

“That’s a two-way street, isn’t it?”

“Right now he isn’t thinking free rein. He’s thinking no rein.”

“He can’t imagine a rein, so go easy and try to stay one step ahead of him. You’re just as sensitive as he is. You’re a woman.”

“Of course.” She smiled playfully. “I know how to stay a step ahead without letting it show.”

“There you go.”

“Maybe I don’t even need you.”

“Maybe you don’t, but you’re curious about me.” He returned her smile in kind. “It shows.”

Curious didn’t begin to describe where Skyler’s head was. She was charmed, but she hoped it didn’t show too much. She was as keyed up as a kid on her way to a carnival, but when he reminded her they’d be taking in the WYO Fair after he rode in his event, she tried to beg off, saying she didn’t “do dizzy.”

Trace was having none of it. No foot dragging today, he had said. It was a gorgeous midsummer day, and there was a program to get with, a crowd to entertain, a good time to be had. Skyler found herself eager to keep up with him, but something told her she’d better slow down, stay cool, be the grown-up. Childhood was, after all, much overrated.

Skyler had chosen to marry a man twice her age, and she’d worked hard to shed inconvenient youth in favor of sophistication. She’d achieved a certain dignity as Tony Quinn’s wife for fifteen years and his widow for one. Dignity was about all she had left. She was too old to be a buckle bunny, too young to be a cougar and too smart to get herself stuffed, mounted and labeled with a trophy plaque. There wasn’t a man in the big, wide world worth playing the fool for, not one.