full of your calf roping abilities or you’re really just that good. Which one is it?”
“I’m all right,” he said with a small shrug.
“Which means you’re the best there is,” I said under my breath.
His smile pulled higher. “The point is, even if I wanted to rodeo, there isn’t time for it, and at the end of each day, I feel like I’ve competed in my own personal rodeo. It’s not as novel when it’s your life.”
“So why are you here?”
“Because in case you haven’t noticed, there’s not a whole heck of a lot to do around here,” he said, counting the reasons off on his fingers. “Two, because rodeo night is like a family reunion. You don’t miss it unless you want everyone else talking about you. And three . . . I had to swoop in and save the day in case Garth Black forgot to leave that ticket he promised you.”
My eyes narrowed a bit at him. I wasn’t sure if it was because of his number three, or if because I knew number four was that posse of pretty girls still batting their eyes at him from ten rows back.
“Why don’t you like Garth?” I asked, wanting to get to the bottom of it.
Jesse’s shoulders rose and fell slowly. Then those eyes of his flashed with something I couldn’t make out. Whatever it was made me shift in my seat though. “Why do you?”
Answering a question with a question was a familiar defense mechanism. I was its number one fan. “I’m not sure I do yet.”
Jesse’s whole body visibly relaxed. “That’s good, Rowen, and I know I’m probably the last person you want to believe when it comes to Garth, but you should steer clear of him. Really. I wouldn’t tell you that if I didn’t mean it.”
Jesse’s voice and expression held so much sincerity. I didn’t doubt what he said was what he believed, but I wasn’t so sure he was in a position to warn me off guys that were no good for me. I knew what was no good for me, and I was staring at him.
“Says the guy who asked me out and winds up having a girlfriend.” That I didn’t say under my breath.
His eyes didn’t leave mine. “And if you would have given me two minutes to explain everything to you, like I tried a hundred times this past week, you’d be feeling pretty silly making that accusation right about now.”
“The only reason I’d feel silly is because I almost said yes to you.” Those words were out of my mouth before I could stop them.
Jesse’s eyes widened. “Wait. You were?” His forehead lined. “You were going to say yes?”
“No!” I snapped, my voice an octave too high. He gave me a look and waited. “No, I wasn’t.” His look got more pronounced. “I don’t know. And now we’ll never know, so it doesn’t matter anyways.”
“It matters to me.” His voice was soft and almost silent.
Why was I having this conversation? I avoided those kinds of heart-to-hearts the way I steered clear of baby pink in my wardrobe.
“If you don’t drop the whole girlfriend, date, did-I-didn’t-I conversation right now,” I lifted a finger and leveled him with my own look, “I will hop up in my seat and scream ‘OBAMA RULES’ at the top of my lungs.”
That got Jesse’s attention. As it should have. I didn’t need to see the voting cards of the thousands in attendance to know I’d be strung up and left for dead for saying something like that.
There was so much red in the room I could barely breathe.
“You’re funny, Rowen. You know that?” was Jesse’s amused reply. “And by the way, I voted for Obama. I would have the first time, too, if I was old enough to vote.”
I rolled my eyes. Of course he did. The red-blooded cowboy through and through voted for the blue as blue can be Democratic president. The ironies just never ended in Nowhere, Montana.
“You’re such a dichotomy, Jesse Walker.” I tapped the front of his hat so it covered his eyes.
“Whoa. Was that just a ‘dichotomy’ you just dropped on me?” The hat still covered the top half of his face, but his smile and those damn dimples were visible. “How can a girl who supposedly barely passed high school drop vocab like that and think she’s got us all fooled?”
I hated having him next to me as much as I loved it. As far as my relationship with