Marry Me for Real, Cowboy - Valerie Comer Page 0,44

medics ran out with a stretcher and knelt beside Ace’s still body. Then the sirens broke the hush.

That’s when Adam had become aware of Sawyer beside him, his mouth open, his expression contorted. Adam saw himself reflected on Sawyer’s face. How could this happen?

Oh, sure, they knew the dangers. They’d all taken so many tumbles they’d lost count years ago. But this, this was different.

The contestants had gathered in small groups, worried over Ace, waiting for the organizers to decide what to do. The signal had come to resume the rodeo, but no one was particularly into it. The fans’ reactions were halfhearted at best. Not a single rider stuck the eight seconds to challenge Adam’s early score. Sawyer had only made five.

Adam won the coveted trophy. His dream come true but, oh, so tainted.

And now Ace was gone.

Yeah, Adam would go to the funeral to pay his last respects. And if there was anything he could do for Ace’s mother, he’d do it. No questions asked.

Riley stared at the closed door to the office. Adam had just received bad news — she’d overheard Cook’s message — then pushed Riley away. Didn’t he know he needed her?

She wrapped both arms around her middle and paced into the breakfast room before turning back to the open kitchen with the closed office door off to the side.

“He’ll be all right, missy.” Cook filled a huge pot of water at the sink in the island facing her.

Would he? She’d asked Adam a couple of times about the missing trophy. His face had completely blanked as he looked through her. “It should’ve been Ace’s.” He hadn’t told her a lot about the accident, just enough for a rough picture.

The trophy hadn’t appeared in its case. She’d kept an eye for it, but never mentioned it again.

Riley looked at Cook, who’d turned the faucet off and stood watching her across the island. “I don’t know what to say to help him.”

“Sometimes there’s nothing to say. Sometimes a body just needs to get through something on their own, with only God to help.”

She knew about that. Wasn’t that what she’d decided in New Mexico? That she couldn’t trust anyone but herself and maybe God? Yeah, she’d hitchhiked, but she hadn’t let her guard down with any of the drivers who’d picked her up. Only Scotty seemed to think she owed him something further for the ride.

And then she’d prayed a desperate plea in the parking lot of the Golden Grill and taken a chance on the first man she’d seen inside the door.

Adam Cavanagh.

What on earth had come over her? Could she blame God for answering her prayer when she had literally thrown herself at the hunky cowboy? Maybe she could. The method was unconventional, but Adam was a hundred times more of a gentleman than Scotty. From the first second, she’d known she was safe with him.

Bodily, yeah. Her heart? Not so much.

Cook turned to set the pot on the stove. “Are you a person of faith, missy?”

“Yes.” But didn’t a person of faith actually trust God to lead her, guide her, care for her? All that seemed to be part of the package. Riley had gone from jumping on the man himself in the diner lobby to jumping at his offer to jumping to conclusions that the fiction had become reality.

She’d gone and fallen in love with the rodeo cowboy. It was easy to believe it was real when he kissed her. When they talked and joked and laughed, but it was all part of the facade.

When it really counted — when a guy would open his arms for his fiancée’s comfort, he pushed her away. Right. She knew it was an act. Now she just remembered it again.

He was in it for the deed to his dad’s ranch.

Period. Full stop.

She was in it for the fresh start, far from Raul and her parents. Next chance she got, she’d start looking around Jewel Lake to see what the apartment vacancy rate and the job market were like. It was a pretty town, nicer than most she’d seen, but she’d need to be careful not to blow their cover before the public breakup.

That couldn’t be too long coming, could it? Surely Declan would relent soon. After all, everyone commented on how fair he was. Hard, but fair.

The office door flew open and the knob smacked the wall. Adam exited, his face set in stone. He glanced her way without so much as a flicker of