Instead, she fixed her gaze on the road ahead. Her own future.
A road without Calvin. Or their baby.
FOR THE NEXT WEEK, Dallas felt as if Lizzie’s words were some ghostly specter, drifting at his side and floating through his head wherever he went. He shouldn’t have said what he had, especially about her standing in town, but for now it seemed wiser to steer clear of her. The day after he’d learned about the baby, he’d decided to enter a small rodeo an hour’s drive from Barren. It would be his first event to test his renewed fitness—he’d been planning this since around the time he first thought about his own rodeo. Now he was ready.
After that, what if he just kept going? You can’t wait to get on the road again, she’d said, which was true. He’d already failed to show up for the interview she’d mentioned, the TV spot. How had he gotten so careless as to make a baby with her? To put Lizzie at the forefront again of more damaging gossip that would threaten any chance to repair the reputation she so valued? He couldn’t stop the thought. The mayor’s ex-wife with a rodeo bum.
They’d both said hurtful things, and Dallas hadn’t tried hard enough to discuss their options. As he carried his gear from his truck toward the outdoor arena in the little town of Serenity, he got a few steely glances from other riders that seemed to say what a jerk he was. “Don’t you belong in Vegas?” one guy called, pitching a cigarette butt into the dirt between them like a gauntlet. “Big shot.”
A second said, “Not much chance, Maguire, for us local boys with you around.”
“I’d say that’s hardly fair,” drawled another.
At the sullen tone of their voices and the hard looks on three faces, Dallas shifted his gear bag from one shoulder to the other, freeing up his stronger left arm, his riding hand. These guys looked eager to beat him to a pulp. Another second, and he might be at the center of an all-out brawl. Wouldn’t be his first fight. Maybe he had that coming to him, one way to work off his guilt about Lizzie.
The three rough cowboys had closed in and were circling him when Dallas heard another, more familiar voice. “Come on, now,” the man said, ambling across the dusty ground. He tipped back his battered Stetson and, to Dallas’s surprise, there stood Calvin Stern. “You never been busted up and had to get on the horse again, Horace? Jake? How about you, Dudley? Just to prove you can?” He half smiled at the group. “Let him be.”
“He took second in the Finals two years ago,” said the first man, practically spitting the words. “There won’t be no competition here. Might as well save my entry fee.”
The second guy motioned toward Dallas’s truck. “I were you, I’d get in that fancy rig then floor it before we teach you a lesson about trying to grab another man’s territory.”
“Y’all need some manners,” Calvin said, again in that same, unconcerned tone.
Dallas tensed. He hadn’t asked for Calvin’s protection, but the muscles had bunched in the other men’s arms, their stances widened to intimidate. Two against three now. One guy’s fist was already raised, and as he charged, Dallas sidestepped the blow.
“No need for this,” he told them, but each of them threw a punch, one landing on Calvin’s shoulder. He winced but returned the insult with a swift uppercut to a jaw. One man shoved Dallas, another Calvin. The fight truly would have been on then, but Dallas put out an arm to block the next attack, then backed away, his hands in the air.
“We go on like this, boys, none of us will be able to ride. You three won’t look nearly as appealing to all those pretty girls at the Saturday night dance.”
The first guy feinted another assault but stopped without moving forward. A slow grin spread across his face. “Point taken. I’d rather ride than spend the rest of the weekend putting liniment on my aches and pains. Tell you what. We’ll all ride and kick your—”
“You can try.” A narrow escape. Hoping he’d read them right, Dallas turned his back to face Calvin. “Let’s set up. Then I’ll buy you lunch. You and I have some talking to do.”
In Serenity, there weren’t many restaurant choices. Dallas and Calvin took their fast-food burgers and fries to his truck. After the first few bites, he eyed Calvin before he launched his own attack.
“This where you’ve been since you left Becca Carter?”
“No, I just drove around the state, here and there, tried my hand at a rodeo in Burnside. Placed fourth,” he said with the tilt of one eyebrow. “You were right. Kind of gets in your blood.”
Dallas didn’t smile. “I thought it might. But why’d you leave Hadley like that too? He’s working double time now.” Dallas had made that worse the week he’d been gone to see his mother. He was doing it again now. He blew out a breath. “I’m disappointed in you, Calvin.” In myself too. And he sounded like his brother.
“I didn’t mean to make things harder for Hadley. Becca either,” Calvin added, “but, man, I panicked. Me, with a kid on the way? And her talking marriage again? I never thought she was serious. Then she lays the baby on me, and all of a sudden I was coming out of my skin.” He dug another fry from the bag. “The open road looked mighty good.”
“How do you think Becca feels?”
Calvin didn’t answer, but Dallas
