She stared at him.“Do you know about him or this?”
“Bull riding, yeah.Kings of the rodeo, but this is the AEBR.I was at this show with Cam last month.”He sipped his coffee, and she turned her phone over as if not seeing the freeze frame would block the memory of Cam’s loss.“My mom was a former barrel racer and then after me, she became a horse trainer.She was from Montana, but competed more in Wyoming, but after me, she worked in Texas.She hated Texas but loved the legacy ranch where she worked in the Hill Country.”
Ayana sipped her coffee.“You want to watch another video—the one I think… Tarek Telford was referring to?”She did her best to keep her voice neutral.
Telford put his coffee down on the table, wiped his hands over his face, and then spread his palms over his knees as if bracing for something that would require him to bound up off the couch.
“Or since you were there, do you know what I’m referring to?”
“No.I got a phone call and left right after that ride.I never stay for the awards.I just—” He broke off and spread his hands out on the quartz countertop, and she couldn’t help but notice how large and sexy and elegant his hands were.Inappropriate timing for her hormones, but she was used to controlling them.
“I still enjoy the rodeo—the barrel racing, the buckin’ broncs.All the events.It’s bittersweet, but… my mom did tell me once that my bio dad had been a bull rider from a ranching family in Montana.”
“Not a very good one according to him.Your bio brother is better.”She wanted to lighten his load a little.Get him to smile.
“Cash Hunter’s been on the tour five or six years.He’s been on or near the top the last few years.But I never thought… I’m not sure why Tarek’s making the connection, but we would have had different moms so…”
He brooded, holding the latte but not drinking it.
“Would your mom have more information?”
He shook his head.“She was… I lost her when I was a kid.That’s how I met Cam.He was in college—doing some nonprofit work for his fraternity so he did the Big Brother program, and we were matched up.”
She and Telford were both alone in the world.Who would have thought this rich, polished urban, corporate man would have anything in common with her?
“It’s just… why now?”
“Do you think he’s been looking for you?”
Telford was still.“Maybe…” He pushed his coffee cup away.“Maybe he’s setting me or Cash Hunter up.Maybe he found me because of Cam’s death or—” He broke off, shook his head.
She pushed play on another video at the same event—this one by a local news station.Cash Hunter was in the middle of thanking his sponsors when a woman, who looked furious, determined and disheveled beelined across the arena shouting something.Ayana thought she caught the worddaddybefore the woman shoved something into Cash’s arms, that he nearly dropped.His shock was comical, especially considering it was his child.
Or was it?
Intrigued, she began to google and so did Telford.
“It looked staged,” Telford said.
“Maybe.You think Tarek set it up?It was a huge blindside and very public, at the last event before the finals.”
“Using a baby to hurt someone?”he asked.“That’s not right.And where’d he get the kid?”
Anger simmered in her stomach.She knew that not everyone treated children like they were treasures.
“Cam was planning to buy land in Montana.He wanted a ranch for the family he was planning to have, the legacy he wanted to build.I couldn’t imagine him out of the city.I was the one who’d head into the mountains every chance I got.But he kept talking about ‘we’ like he thought I should join him.Maybe he was trying to push me to head to Montana and see if I could discover any blood family.”
*
He watched hersip her latte like she was truly enjoying it.She scrolled through a few more videos, totally engaged.
The idea came out of nowhere.It was madness.He never operated from impulse.Not ever.What was this madness thinking he should enlist Ayana to help him create a legacy for Cam?Help him approach his maybe family?
Cam would grin his do-it-for-the-plot grin.But setting out for Montana, a wealthy, nonlocal, far from a cowboy man alone would stand out.Make people suspicious.And with his lack of the social niceties, he’d hardly make any inroads.Ayana had charm to spare.But did he want to do this?
Cam had been the easy one in society.Up for adventure.
Like Ayana.
