Page 31 of Buck ’Em Cowgirl

9

Fable

“Harleigh, this is ridiculous.” I laughed as she shoved a few of her things into a bag.

She dropped onto the worn brown couch in her living room, letting out an exaggerated sigh. “You’re right,” she said, throwing her hands up. “We can’t move to Lindley with my truck. We’ll need movers. Think we can find someone in the next couple of days? There’s no point in sticking around if the new job starts⁠—”

“Our job? Harleigh, I can’t work in North Texas,” I cut in, shaking my head. “My life is here. Everything I have is here.”

She gave me a pointed look. “Not trying to be a bitch, I swear,” she said, raising her hands in defense. “Mike was your only family, and, well . . . we both know how that turned out.”

I slumped onto the couch beside her—the couch that had doubled as my bed for the past two nights—feeling like I might sink right through it and into the floor. If the concrete jungle of the city could swallow me whole, I’d let it. In the span of three days, my entire life had flipped upside down, and I didn’t know how to stop it from spinning.

“I can’t move to Texas. I can’t go somewhere I know nothing about.” I turned to Harleigh. “I appreciate you trying to help, getting me a job and everything, but I don’t know what a stock contractor even is. I’ve been to one bull riding event. That doesn’t make me an expert.”

She sighed, leaning back and crossing her arms. “Okay, first of all, I gave myself a raise, so technically, I’m not working for you⁠—”

“Dude,” I laughed despite myself. “I should be working for you.”

She shook her head firmly. “No, you’re smart, Fabs. My dad didn’t throw this at Kline for no reason. He showed Kline your work with Bucking Energy first. You got this job because you deserve it. Kline is obsessed with growing the auctions. He wants more people to watch, more engagement.”

I stared at her, still unsure, but she kept going. “I’ll be in charge of setting up all the auctions. What I need is someone with your marketing experience to handle the branding, the outreach. It’s not just about the ranch; it’s about the bulls, the events, the whole package.”

Her enthusiasm was infectious, but I still couldn’t wrap my head around it. Texas? Bulls? Ranches? It felt like stepping into a completely different world.

“Plus, you got it out of your system, fucking a rider, so it’s not like you’ll be distracted,” Harleigh teased.

I grabbed a pillow and chucked it at her, making her laugh. “You’re impossible,” I muttered, shaking my head, though I couldn’t help the small smile creeping onto my face. “I do appreciate your dad going out of his way to do this for me—seriously.”

“Don’t worry about it. He even lined up a place for you to stay. Kline has a small guest house in the back of his property, perfect for you.”

I stared at her, half in disbelief. This wasn’t just a job. It was a full reset. As daunting as it felt, a part of me wondered if it was exactly what I needed.

I glanced down at my hands, the familiar raw redness from constant scrubbing, then up at her. “The dirt. The cleanliness. I don’t know if I could do it,” I confessed.

She nodded. “I know, babe. But you won’t be alone. I’ll be a few minutes down the road at my dad’s. You’ve got me. You’re not alone in this.”

At the end of the day, that’s what it all boiled down to. I had no family, no Mike—no one to take care of me, no one to show up when things got bad. It was just me, and I had to learn to rely on myself. That was the part that terrified me the most.

I didn’t hate being alone. I feared it. That deep, gnawing kind of fear that sat in your chest and made everything feel heavier—unclean somehow. That sort of fear made it all so much worse, somehow manifesting as a need to be clean.

Working with bulls, it was a dirty job. Although I wasn’t going to be⁠—

“You’ll have an office in the main house.” Harleigh cut in, as if reading my thoughts. “You won’t be out there with them, and we’ll make sure there’s a bathroom nearby.”

I nodded slowly, my mind still spinning.

“What do you have to lose, Fable? Seriously.”

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I’d lost everything already this past weekend. Mike, my job, my sense of stability—it was all gone.

“I need to get my stuff from my old apartment.”

Harleigh jumped off the couch, screaming with excitement. “Does this mean you’ll say yes!?”

I rolled my eyes. “Does the bull rider I . . . er . . . you know, live near you? I know you grew up there.”

She shrugged. “No idea. Doubt it.” She waggled her eyebrows. “But it’s a small town, so if you want to run into him . . .”