Desert Heat Read Online Free

ticked past, Patience found herself holding her breath. Her pulse thrummed and her adrenaline pumped so hard her head began to spin. Then, the buzzer sounded and the crowd went wild. Up in the stands, the arena lights illuminated people cheering, throwing empty popcorn cartons into the air and wildly stamping their feet. Dust drifted into the bleachers, covering the fans, leaving them nearly as dusty as the cowboys.
    She returned her attention to Dallas, who grabbed the shoulders of one of the pickup men, slid off Cyclone, and landed neatly on the ground. His chaps flicked against his boots as he made his way back toward the chutes, raised his hat and waved to the crowd. She had watched enough rodeo to know the ride had been spectacularly good. She wasn’t surprised when the score came back at ninety-one points, putting Dallas Kingman in the lead.
    She tried not to be impressed, but there was no use lying to herself. The man was a champion. She could respect that about him if nothing else.
    Shari left her at the fence to watch the rest of the show and went out to the warm up area where Button, Shari’s barrel-racing horse, stood waiting. Patience watched the barrels being driven into the arena in the back of a big Dodge truck. Half a dozen cowboys rolled them out to form a triangle in the center of the ring and the racing was ready to begin.
    Shari was the third contestant. Button roared off the starting line, Shari leaning over his neck as they headed for the barrel to the left. She took him though the first turn, the sorrel’s long body curling perfectly around the barrel without knocking it over—a penalty that would add five seconds to her time—and the horse charged for the second. They made a figure eight, looping around the second barrel, took the third, then the low-running sorrel stretched out for the drive toward the finish line.
    Shari made the run in fifteen and nine tenths seconds, placing her in the top three, which meant she would bring home some money. She was grinning as she blazed past Patience out the gate, knowing she had made a great run.
    When the rodeo, a one-day performance, was over, Patience walked to where her soon-to-be-roommate stood talking to a group of other barrel racers. Shari gave her a welcoming smile.
    “Nice ride,” Patience said.
    “Most of the credit goes to Button.” Shari rubbed the pretty white star on the sorrel’s nose, then turned to the other women.
    “Gals, this is Patience Sinclair, the woman I told you about. She’s gonna be travelin’ with me this summer.” She turned to the riders, introducing each of them in turn. Two of them were from Oklahoma, attractive women in their bright-colored barrel-racing clothes.
    “And this is Jade Egan. She’s from Houston.”
    “It’s nice to meet you,” Patience said.
    The first two women seemed friendly enough. Though eager to get their animals put away, they offered to give her any help she might need with her article and said good-bye with smiles on their faces.
    Jade Egan was another matter entirely. “Patience, huh…? That’s a funny name. I bet your sister’s name is Wisdom.”
    Patience forced herself to smile. “Actually, their names are Charity and Hope.”
    “No kidding. Shari says you’re from Boston.” Jade took in Patience’s newly purchased western clothes and a smug smile appeared on her face. “A little far from home, aren’t you?”
    “She’s doing research, Jade. I already told you that.”
    “Yeah, I guess you did.” Jade moved closer. She was small and dark-haired, her skin unblemished and paler than most of the other women, as if she made careful use of her sunscreen.
    Patience worked to keep her smile in place. “I’m writing about cowgirls—the modern day sort as well as those of the past. Women’s barrel racing evolved from the relay races in the early rodeos. It’s an important part of my research.”
    Jade cocked a winged black eyebrow, her smug smile still in place. “You ever