“Yes.” He hoped he wasn’t making promises that couldn’t be kept.
“Will you come, too?”
“I don’t know what they would need me for.”
Izzy stared at the ground as they moseyed away from the kids practicing for their horse show and toward the parking lot. She was getting tired, so he scooped her into his arms. “Do they have a camp for bull riders too?”
That question had been on repeat in his mind ever since. Something about it nagged at him.
His phone buzzed in his hand, bringing him back to the present.
Abbs: Meet me at the arena.
He sat up straighter, certain he imagined the text. For two years, he’d waited for a response of any kind, but Abbie’s name never once flashed on his screen. He texted her every night for a month when they first parted ways, begging her to reconsider.
Hands that were normally steady typed out a shaky response.
Logan: When?
Abbs: Now
He contemplated the various reasons she might have to meet him at the arena, of all places, and what struck up this instant demand of his time. He suspected whatever her motives, they included getting more information for that article of hers.
But what if there’s more?
He slipped into the house long enough to grab his keys and Stetson. He could hear Erin down the hall, talking quietly to Izzy about horse camp, and decided to leave a note instead of disturbing what was surely a valiant effort to coax an overstimulated little girl back to sleep.
It wasn’t until he spotted the sheriff parked across the street from the town mart that he realized he’d been speeding through town. He yanked his foot off the gas and let his truck slow on its own. A glance in his rearview mirror assured him he wasn’t being followed. He had no idea what Abbie was up to, and he didn’t want to delay himself from finding out.
He’d dreamed about her texting him, telling him to come back home. It wouldn’t have mattered where in the country he was, he would’ve driven nonstop until he made it to her doorstep. If only she’d asked him. He thought he’d finally closed that chapter of his life at the start of this season on the circuit, but he was wrong. His heart would always feel as though Abbie was home.
The arena that had looked so neglected and rundown for years, even when it was in use, seemed surprisingly clean and flashy. The setting sun caught on the aluminum of the new grandstands, twice as high as the old wooden ones. Even the parking lot sported a fresh layer of gravel and a serious lack of overgrown weeds.
Abbie stood at the fence, leaning against it. A satchel hung over one shoulder, resting against her hip. He was certain she heard him pull up, but her attention was on the arena. He could tell from here that the dirt was freshly graded, definitely something that’d been brought in for this event.
“It’s amazing,” he said to her once he reached the fence. She didn’t startle at his presence, so he kept talking. “This place looks brand new. Even the shark cage is new. Unbelievable.”
“Some things are the same, though.” She brushed back a strand of her hair and tucked it behind her ear. He missed kissing that neck and how she giggled at how his stubble tickled against her skin.
He leaned against the fence, careful to leave a little distance between them. Without it, he might be too tempted to put his arm around her and pull her close. “Why did you want to meet me here?”
“You see where the chutes are?” She nodded forward, but it was hard to see them from this distance. The main gate, though, had a padlocked chain around it. If they wanted in, they’d have to crawl over the fence.
“Yeah.”
“They’re original.”
Thoughts spun through his head as he tried to figure out the real reason she dragged him out here. With how passionate she’d been about him never going back to the rodeo, he didn’t expect her to end up at the arena on her own—or at all, for that matter. “Original?”
“Almost everything else is new, but they kept the original chutes. Shined them up a little bit. Dedicated them to past local riders.”
He swallowed, already sensing where this was going.
“There’s one for your dad.”
Suddenly he had to see it, the urge overwhelming and too much to keep at bay with reason or logic. He hopped the first fence before he had time to consider his actions.
“Logan! What are you doing?”
