Montana Gold. Genell Dellin

since your mother left you all those years ago and it didn’t understand.”

      He leaned back on the railing. It pressed against the pain in his leg.

      “I got over that a long time ago.”

      She didn’t argue, she just looked at him. Into him.

      “If you open up, there’ll be a woman one day who won’t leave you, darlin’. I hope you can find the guts to let her stay.”

      “You’re not making a whole lot of sense, Andie.”

      “Think about it,” she said quietly. “You don’t trust women, Chase. And it’s a shameful waste if you let a lonely childhood keep you alone all your life.”

      He wanted to throw something, hit something, break something. But he couldn’t even move. He hadn’t tried to hold her, and now she was moving on.

      She stood up and held out her cup to him. He took it and set it on the railing next to his, never taking his eyes from hers.

      “An ex-con,” he said. “That worries me a little.”

      She stared hard at him. “I hope you won’t hold his past against him,” she said. “I’d love it if the two of you could be friends. Shane respects and likes Blue, too, but you’ll always be his real daddy. I don’t intend to let you get out of our lives, Chase.”

      He looked at her just as hard.

      “I don’t want out of your lives,” he said. “I’m not gettin’ out no matter what you might want. I am that boy’s daddy and I’m not goin’ anywhere.”

      She smiled and he thought he saw tears in her eyes.

      “I want you to know that the first time Shane realized Blue and I were falling in love, his reaction was, ‘Mom! What about Dad?’ He was so shocked.”

      “Shane’s always dreamed we’d get back together,” he said. “And I have, too.”

      “Sometimes,” she said. “But not very often, I’ll bet.”

      She laughed her husky laugh at the truth of those words. They were true. He couldn’t deny it, so he had to laugh, too.

      Andie Lee held out her hand to him. “Come on, Champ, show me around this place. I want to see the inside of this fabulous house.”

      Chase took her hand. Here she was, the same Andie Lee but not the same. The old lovers time was over for them. His relationship with her was changing, just like everything else in his life. The ground was shifting underneath him yet again, and it wasn’t even nine o’clock in the morning.

      It shouldn’t come as a surprise. Andie had wanted to settle down for a long time. He hadn’t been ready yet.

      He still wasn’t ready. And before he ever did feel ready, he needed somebody who understood the quest and loved life on the road the way he did. Was there any woman in the world like that?

      He slammed the door of his mind on that question, smiled and started to give her the grand tour. A man didn’t get to be a winner by paying attention to whatever he was feeling. Or by worrying about his feelings.

      Being a winner was all about one thing: control. Controlling emotions, controlling fear.

      If he wanted to be the first man in history to win his sixth bareback world championship and his first All-Around title in the same year, he’d better be working up that head of steam right now. He did want the two buckles. He wanted them so bad he could taste it.

      More than he’d ever wanted any woman.

      CHAPTER THREE

      ELLE KEPT ONE EYE on the dog while she arranged her nail stuff around her on the cushions and arm of the hotel room love seat.

      “You’re gonna end up buying that piece of furniture,” Missy Jo said, raising her voice so it’d carry over Johnny Cash’s. She walked to the boom box and turned down the volume.

      “I’ve got towels. M.J., what are we gonna do if he won’t eat?”

      “At least he’s drinking plenty,” M.J. said. “He’s had a shock and that Texas veterinarian warned you he might not eat. Let’s give him until tomorrow.”

      Elle set one heel on the edge of her seat and started putting pieces of cotton in between her toes. “You sound bored with this conversation.”

      “I don’t know why,” M.J. said. “This is only the tenth time we’ve had it in the past couple of hours.”

      “I’m leaving that kibble in front of him until I get my toenails done and then I’m going to go get some cat food.”

      “Good plan,” M.J. said in the same dry tone.

      “I’ve never heard of a dog that wouldn’t eat cat food. Have you?”

      “No,” M.J. said, “and I have been researching that question every free minute I can get.”

      Elle took a second to decide between Bronze Baby and Sandstone.

      “Sometimes you make me so mad,” she said mildly. “It is irritating beyond belief trying to worry when you, as my best friend, are always so sure everything’ll automatically turn out all right.”

      “Not always. Think about it. I tried to tell you this dog would be trouble.”

      “Could we talk about something else?”

      She opened the Bronze Baby and carefully dipped the brush in.

      “Yeah. Chase Lomax. That’s what I want to talk about.”

      Elle kept her head down. She made three straight, steady strokes with the polish to cover the first toenail, and said, “Better not let Rodney hear you.”

      “There you go, trying to be funny when all I’m trying to do is help you be happy. Why can’t you cooperate?”

      Elle raised her head, threw her hair back over her shoulder, and turned to look her friend in the eye. “I’m happy, M.J. I am plenty happy. Haven’t you heard? A woman doesn’t have to have a man to make her happy.”

      Missy Jo came around the love seat and sat cross-legged on the floor so they faced each other.

      “R-i-ight,” she said slowly, nodding encouragement as if to a stubborn child, “but you’ve heard that sometimes it’s nice to have something else in your life besides work. Haven’t you?”

      Elle dropped her head and painted another toenail. She couldn’t listen to this. Damn. Why hadn’t she told M.J. the truth a long time ago?

      Because it’s too scary to say it out loud. What if that truth never changes?

      “I haven’t noticed Chase Lomax ringing my phone,” she said. “And I am not a hermit. I had a date in Austin and one in Denver, too, if you’ll bother to remember.”

      That torched M.J.’ s famous impatience. “I’m talking about a relationship,” she said, planting her fists on her hips. “A give and take where you really care about somebody and he cares about you.”

      Elle put the brush back into the bottle and tightened the top while she cranked up her grip on her temper. She shouldn’t have to put up with this, even if M.J. was her very best friend and, in fact, the only close woman friend she had.

      Except for Carlie, of course, who was almost more a mother to her than a friend.

      “Why are you into this rant?” she asked. “You know and I know that a relationship doesn’t necessarily mean the guy cares about you.”

      M.J. looked stricken and Elle raised her hand in apology. “You and Rodney excluded, of course. What I’m saying is that most of the time it means the woman gives and the man takes and if there ever