They waved right back and gave her nods of respect. One of them gave her a thumbs up and called out, “You had one helluva ride.”
Wow.
“You’re famous,” Annabelle murmured. “Everyone here knows who you are, even when you’re in your human skin. And the announcers keep talking about you.”
“And look,” Mom said, pointing up at the big screen. “They keep replaying your ride between the other bulls bucking.”
A black and gray bull exploded out of the chute, and it was exciting to watch, but this bull didn’t have as much power in its bucks, and the rider held on for the full eight seconds.
“I never ever would’ve seen you ending up here,” Dad said from behind her.
“At a rodeo? Wearing cowgirl boots and a cowgirl hat?” she joked.
But Dad looked serious, and his gray brows lowered over his glasses. “No, I never imagined I would see the day when you were this happy. And this at ease with yourself. My shy girl. You just went out there and blew me away.”
“Blew all of us away,” Annabelle agreed.
“Blew this whole arena away,” Liam added.
Raven’s cheeks were on fire, and she ducked her gaze. Didn’t matter how she’d bucked or how confident she was in herself; she would always be shy. It was just a part of who she was. “Aw, I was just stepping in to help out.”
“I think that boy is special,” Mom murmured. When Raven looked up, her eyes were rimmed with tears. “I always wanted you to find a good match.” She pointed to the chutes where Dead was loaded up and causing havoc, slamming his hoof against the back of it. “That’s a good match.”
And as Raven stood up to watch him buck, anticipating what he would do right along with the rest of the crowd, she thought her mom was right. Who could’ve matched her animal? Hagan’s Lace, as she was now easily calling the beast in her head. Who could’ve looked at her struggle between woman and beast and understood like Dead? And supported her like Dead? And cared about her perhaps more because the animal existed, not less?
Only Dead.
Before she’d met him, she’d accepted that she would never be quite comfortable in her own skin. It had been a hard thing to come to terms with, but now? She watched him thrashing a rider off his back and then looked around at the cheering arena. He’d brought her to a place where she made sense.
She. Made. Sense.
Because he’d looked at her, taken her under his powerful wing, and told her she made sense. And then he told the whole world she made sense, too.
No one could give her a bigger gift.
She didn’t know how she was going to do it, but someday, someway, she was going to repay him.
Chapter Nineteen
This was the part she hadn’t mentally prepared for.
In all honesty, she’d forced herself not to think about it—the goodbye.
She broke the heavy silence in the truck. “Where are you heading next?”
Dead reached over and slid his strong hand around hers. “Lincoln, Nebraska.”
“Whoo, sounds cold.” She shrugged and shook her head. “I don’t really know if it’s cold there. I’ve never been. I’m just…small-talking.”
“We’ll figure things out. I’ll be back near Boise in a couple months on another tour stop. I’ll swing the herd wide, and we’ll spend a couple days near you, okay? I know they’ll be okay with the detour.”
Her lip trembled so she looked out the window to hide how weak she felt. Two months seemed like an eternity. “I would like that.”
His beard tickled her hand as he kissed her knuckles. “You can’t take any more time off work?”
She shook her head jerkily. “I already asked Mona. She can’t spare me for another week, and I understand. We have a very small staff at the shop. She was already so kind to let me off last minute.” That heavy silence was back, the kind that sat on her chest like a fallen tree. “I wish I could stay longer.”
Dead didn’t answer. Only looked at the airport sign they were driving under and rubbed his cheek on her hand as he held it in place.
“I have plants to water, frozen dinners to eat.” She tried joking, wishing she had some magical power to take away the sadness. “And I’ll text you a hundred times a day. I really will. I’m a stage-five clinger now. I’ve learned so much about myself this week, thanks to you.”
He chuckled, but the smile that accompanied the rich sound didn’t reach his eyes. “I see your parents and Annabelle,” he murmured, pulling up to the terminal drop-off.
Annabelle and her parents were waiting by the doors for her and waved when they saw them. Dead parked and hopped out, and as Raven gathered her backpack of clothes she’d collected through the week, they said their goodbyes to Dead. Dad shook his hand and said something low to him, but Raven couldn’t make it out over the roaring in her ears.
This was happening. She had to say goodbye to Dead who’d become a comfort blanket for her over the time they’d known each other.
He’d become an anchor. A lighthouse. A protector. Safety. A confidant. A lover and a friend.
To Raven, he’d become crucial.
When she walked away, Dead would stay behind and keep an important piece of her with him—her heart.
She would have to go home without it.
She would have to go home and walk around pretending like it still beat in her chest. Like she was whole when she wasn’t and, God, it felt like she’d only just learned how to be whole in the first place.
When Dead turned to help her out of the truck, her parents and Annabelle waved, told her, “We’ll
