But he pushes it back to me. “Keep it. You can return it next time we see each other.”
I stare at him. “But…”I don’t even know who you are.
“Please let me help you,” he says. “I can take you home.”
But I back away. This guy is obviously not Noah, but he’s a football player and a cowboy all the same, and I clearly have proven myself to be a terrible judge of character. If I had any clue at all, I never would have come to this party or crushed on Noah in the first place. And to kiss a total stranger like I just did? I cannot trust myself. Not anymore.
“Don’t worry about me.” I take one last look into his sapphire blue eyes that are so bright they nearly blind me. “I’ll be okay. You’ll never see me again, anyway.”
Carrying his cowboy hat in my hand, I run to my car as fast as I can, turn the key in the ignition, and drive away from the ranch.
And for the next twelve years, I was right—he never saw me again.
Chapter Two
Present Day
Brayden
“Fweet!!!” Standing in the middle of the ranch I plan to buy one day soon, I blow hard on my whistle, and the pack of animals—otherwise known as a high school football team—stop running laps around the field I’ve designated for informal practices.
All fifty-two players, plus the other assistant coaches, turn their heads and look at me. The head coach is sick and left me in charge for the day.
“One more lap,” I say.
A collective groan goes up through the team, but they comply and start jogging past the wire fence separating them from the cows grazing nearby. Due to heavy spring flooding, Wilcox High’s athletic fields are out of commission for a while. So even though Big River Ranch is a town over from Wilcox, it was the best available option, given the fact that I live here and could offer a safe, solid field to practice on. Between my brother, the Wilcox coaching staff, and myself, we had the field chalked and ready to go in no time. For me, less travel has meant more time to ride the ranch and look after everything.
My life is full between riding, herding cattle, and coaching, but I was a player once too. Star wide receiver for Wilcox High. I played alongside my cousins, Colton and Dylan. They’re both now successful stars in the pros.
But most of us don’t make it to the professional level. Some, like me, don’t want that kind of grind and stressful lifestyle, so we never plan for the draft, and some don’t have the talent to make it past tryouts.
Either way, the simple fact is—the vast majority of high school athletes need a plan for when they leave the football field. And that’s really why I coach these kids. I try to be a resource to them, to help them find tutors if they need to pull up their grades, help them figure out what college is best, and make sure they know that most of us aren’t Dylan or Colton Wild.
The other assistant coaches keep talking amongst themselves, and I give their conversation part of my attention, making sure to keep my focus on the players.
As they pass the makeshift end zone on the left, a movement behind the wire fence catches my eye.
I take a step forward.
A woman is bent over at the waist as she picks something up only a couple feet away from the small group of cows hanging out by the fence.
She’s over fifty yards away, but something about her causes my gut to twist in a strange way, and I suck in a breath. Her high heels are no match to the rough terrain, and she stumbles as she digs at whatever the hell she’s doing. Her long chestnut hair covers most of her profile, but her body…it’s perfection. Curvy and tall, and when she stands up straight, I get a look at her face.
She’s…intense. Serious. Almost like she hasn’t smiled in a long time. Her dark cat-eye glasses give her a sexy librarian look.
And she’s…familiar somehow.
Without thinking about it, I raise my hand in a hello, but she’s already turned away. She waves at the cows, and I chuckle as she ducks underneath the ranch fencing and turns the corner.
The trespasser is gone.
“Hey, Coach Wild!” Wes, the captain and starting quarterback for Wilcox High, calls out to me. “We done yet?”
I glance at my watch. Right on time for me to go for a quick ride before heading to my new part-time job, one that will hopefully help me to accomplish the two things that stir my soul: live on my own Montana ranch and still be around football as much as possible.
I need my own land. Having been raised on a six-hundred acre ranch, room to roam is essential for me, and sharing the family ranch with my siblings, especially my oldest brother, would never work. One of us would end up killing the other. Luke and I love each other, but we’ve never lived together well.
I give Wes the thumbs up. “All done for today. See you tomorrow after classes—if you’re late, you know what that means!”
