How to Kiss a Cowboy Read Online Free Page B

and she smiled. They shared the rare experience without a word. She liked that.
    Maybe Brady wasn’t as superficial as they said.
    His voice went low and soft. “I collect moments like that. Rare moments.” He reached over and took her hand, and she was so dazzled—star dazzled, Brady-dazzled—that she let him.
    Moments. Rare moments. She wondered if he knew he’d just created one for her.
    But he was still talking rodeo.
    â€œWhen I get settled just right in the saddle, and I brace my feet and give the nod—I guess that’s my equivalent of your moment, when Speedo starts his run.” He was warming to the topic now, edging forward in his chair and gesturing as he talked. “It’s the possibilities. A thousand things could flow from that moment, and you don’t have a clue what’s going to happen. You could win; you could lose. The bronc could make one of those high, straight-legged jumps where you leave the saddle for a second and float above him, weightless.” He raised his hand, palm down, in the air. “I love that feeling. Or he could sunfish and crash down on you, like that danged Tornado did to my brother.” The hand flipped over, palm to the sky, and crash-landed in his lap.
    â€œHow is your brother?”
    â€œBetter,” Brady said. “He won’t rodeo again, though. Dang bull rolled over on his hand, and he has no grip at all. But he’s married now, and happy.”
    â€œThat’s good.” She shuddered. “He’s lucky he’s alive. That was a terrible wreck.”
    He nodded. “Every time I board a bronc, I feel how little separates life and death.”
    Suze grabbed another beer from the six-pack. Popping the top, she took a long drink. “I try not to think about that when I watch you.”
    â€œWhy not?” He grinned. “Half the crowd’s hoping I’ll wreck.”
    He seemed to have forgotten about the falling star they’d shared, which was all right with Suze. She’d hold that moment for a long time—the way he’d turned and smiled, the way he’d taken her hand. It would become a treasure, like a shiny toy kept hidden away so she could play with it whenever she felt down.
    â€œHow can you know they’re hoping you’ll get hurt and not be—I don’t know, angry or resentful?” she asked.
    He shrugged. “That’s just how it is. So when I get bucked off, I try to dismount slick. I want to land on my feet and tip my hat, like it’s nothing to me. I don’t want to give them that wreck.”
    â€œIt always seems like it really is nothing to you.” Suze flushed. “I mean, I know you want to win as much as anybody, but you’re so good-natured when you don’t score. I don’t know how you do that. I think it’s why you’re so popular.”
    He shrugged. “Rodeo’s the best thing that ever happened to me. It’s my world, the best one I ever knew. If that crowd wants me to get stomped, frankly, I don’t mind giving them a show once in a while. Long as I can stand up and climb back in the saddle the next time my name’s called, I’m good.”
    One part of her was listening to his words; the other part was reading the current that flowed beneath them. Brady had survived an ugly childhood in the foster care system, and an uglier one before that, with abusive parents. He didn’t talk about it, but she knew his real life had begun when Bill Decker pulled him out of the system and onto the ranch.
    She looked up at the trees and stars, and thought how lucky she’d been to be born into this life. Her father might be hard to please, and she sure wished her mother had lived. But she had horses and blue jeans and a country world so wide, she’d never run out of dirt roads and rodeos.
    â€œRodeo saved you, didn’t it?” she asked Brady.
    He was quiet for a long time, looking up at the