Betting on Hope Read Free Page A

up and wanted him to do the interview in a local hangout. They thought it would be good PR. Besides that, the Bull Barn just sounded catchy to them. Tru hadn’t minded that at all.
    Shorty was a good friend. All their lives Tru and his brothers had hung out here, listening to their granddad and his buddies tell rodeo stories.
    He was more than happy to throw some good PR Shorty’s way by having the interview at his place.
    “Mr. Monahan, sir,” a guy with a mike stepped from the group across the way and motioned to him. “We’re ready for you. I need to get this set up, if you don’t mind.”
    Tru hiked a brow at Shorty. “Talk to you later.”
    “Don’t be looking all put out over this. I see that beautiful little gal about to interview you. Maybe you should invite her to lunch when this is over.”
    Five minutes ago that had been an enticing possibility, however, now that Tru knew Maggie Hope was a journalist, not a chance. His life was public enough without asking for more trouble. Been there done that.
    He enjoyed his privacy and had given it up only because as a co-owner of the Four of Hearts Ranch with his two brothers, Bo and Jarrod, he needed good publicity for the business. When the trainer of the ranch’s horses was also a champion on a champion horse—’nuff said. A cowboy did what a cowboy had to do to bring in the business. Especially with the debt that had been owed on the place after his dad’s death.
    Tru didn’t let his thoughts linger there too long; it wasn’t a good place to be before he sat down for an interview. There were a lot of folks ’round town who knew what his dad had done. Tru’s jaw tensed thinking about it. Almost two years had passed and his anger was still as hot as it had been the day he’d learned how bad his dad’s gambling had been. Two years since he’d seen the hurt in his granddad’s eyes. Pops had worked his fingers to the bone to build this ranch and watched all of his sons but one die while he was doing it. All but Joe, Tru’s dad, and he’d very nearly destroyed everything Pops had lived for anyway.
    Truth was, it took the united effort of Tru and his two brothers to dig the ranch out of the hole it was in—and they were still digging but had managed some success while paying the debt down. Tru’s part in that equation was the Quarter Horse business and the sponsorship his success had brought to the table. Endorsement money paid bills, and while he wasn’t George Strait, the money he made from his sponsors was a big part of the equation.
    But sometimes . . . like now, he was just weary of the whole thing and wished he could—what? Disappear? Be his own boss and not have so much of his life dictated by his sponsors?
    Or maybe find a wife . . . start a family. His future wasn’t his own right now. His dad had made sure of that.
    Pops’s dreams were in his and his brothers’ hands.
    He pushed the bitter thoughts of his dad from his mind. Now was not the time to let himself be hijacked by things that couldn’t be changed.
    He focused instead on the pretty reporter across the room. Though his insides had warmed at the touch of her hand and the sparkle in her eyes, that was as far as it went. She was a journalist, a profession he just didn’t trust—there was no way on this green earth that he was letting his boots shuffle her way any time other than this interview.
    As if hearing his thoughts, she turned and those soft green eyes shot sparks all the way to the tips of his Tony Lamas.
    Trouble. Tru recognized it like he anticipated his horse’s misstep in going after a calf. He tugged his hat low, met those amazing eyes, and knew straight up he was going to have to fight for focus or he might just forget Maggie Hope was a reporter.

2
    “Back off, bucko,” Jenna Olson warned. Clutching the toilet plunger in her hands like a baseball bat, she willed herself not to puke as she glared at the hefty drunk blocking the exit of the truck stop restroom. Jenna