Full Rigged (Lost Creek Rodeo #4) - Rebecca Connolly Page 0,47

fought the battle herself. “I’m sorry I sent you there with my question, though. I wasn’t trying to test you. I care about both Ford and you very much, and I just want to make sure that you’re able to heal the way you need to, and that he is respecting that.”

Brynn smiled at the concern. “It’s Ford, Kells. He’s the Boy Scout, remember? You’re telling me you think he’ll be a problem?”

Kellie paused, considering that. “Point taken. Alrighty.” She slapped her thighs and pushed to her feet. “Let’s get dinner going and get things ready for the meteor shower in a few hours.”

“I’m a terrible cook,” Brynn warned as she got up. “You might regret this.”

“Can you chop, Doc?” Kellie asked with a teasing smile. Her brow suddenly creased as she focused on something behind them. “What in the . . .? Is that Sherlock?”

Brynn clamped down on her lips and looked behind her. Sure enough, the massive gray dog was loping toward them. “Yeah . . .”

They watched as the dog approached them and stopped by Brynn’s side, looking up at her.

Kellie looked at Sherlock, then back up at Brynn. “Interesting.” Her mouth curved in a smile and she turned to go into the house, leaving Brynn no choice but to follow.

She looked down at the dog helplessly. “Timing, buddy. We gotta work on your timing. Come on.”

Hours later, Brynn and the other guests were headed out to the field designated for watching the meteor shower, piled into the back of Kellie’s newly-fixed truck. The sun had just barely gone down, leaving the evening cooler, which had all of them in jackets or sweatshirts over whatever they’d worn earlier in the day.

All of the guests had come, even Josie. She was pretty quiet, but assured them all she was feeling better than she had in days.

For someone as introverted as Josie, spending a chunk of the day with men had to be draining, and given her fears, twice as difficult. The fact that she was coming out with them tonight after a day like that was huge, and a significant sign of her progress in just a few days.

Brynn could only wish for such progress herself.

She hadn’t texted Ford again after their morning exchange, though she’d thought about it at least four times after the breakdown in her session. She’d kept telling herself that there was no point in texting him more when they’d established they’d be seeing each other tonight, but it hadn’t stopped the impulse from recurring.

She’d manage to quiet it, though. By looking up videos of Ford on the internet. Plenty of steer wrestling videos, which made her wonder just how dumb and/or crazy the guy was, and enough of them that she had a fair idea just how good he really was at the insanity.

He was very good.

And she’d watched enough to actually understand a little bit about the event itself, which would prove useful when they went to the rodeo at Lost Creek Days next week.

But the best video Brynn had seen hadn’t been a rodeo video at all, unless you counted the fact that it was posted on Eric’s channel, which bore the name of Rodeo King.

It had been one of the earliest videos on the channel, part of a series Eric had posted about the life of cowboys, and this particular video had Ford sitting at a campfire with a guitar and a cute blonde teenager. Expecting just another wannabe cowboy singing a lukewarm country song, Brynn was startled to find that Ford was a fantastic guitar player and a better than average singer, and the girl singing with him managed an almost eerily perfect harmony. It wasn’t a show-off kind of song for either of them, more bluesy than country, and more bluegrass than bluesy. Some hybrid of all three genres, maybe, but the perfect song for sitting around a fire.

There weren’t nearly as many views on this video as the others on Eric’s channel, and Brynn could not see why. This was some serious talent, something special, and she’d found herself a little breathless and almost teary when it ended.

She’d definitely wanted to text Ford after that, but resisted.

Now they were heading out to the pasture for the meteor shower, and she felt more anxious than she had for most of the dates in her life.

Which was strange, as this wasn’t a date.

Or, if it was, it was the biggest group date she’d been on since she was fifteen,