Crazy for Lovin’ You Read Free Page A

hoping and fantasizing that a miracle would happen and he would notice her. That someday he would wait downstairs for her to get ready to go out with him.
    â€œHow did you wind up in charge of the high school rodeo association?” she asked. “It wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that you were once the state bull-riding champion, would it?”
    â€œYou remember that?”
    â€œYeah, I do.”
    A muscle in his jaw contracted for a moment before he continued. “As you pointed out, I gave up my scholarship to join the pro rodeo circuit. I did okay that first year, although I wasn’t the overall point winner. But I took nationals in Wyoming. I was nineteen. It was a sign to make hay while the sun shines, so to speak.”
    â€œThen what?”
    â€œI rode the crest for two or three years until—”
    â€œUntil what?” she encouraged.
    â€œI had a couple of injuries,” he said as if it was no big deal.
    She decided to mimic his tone and keep it light. “Really? Imagine that. Riding a ton or two of ticked-off bull is hardly more challenging than a merry-go-round at the Texas state fair,” she teased.
    One corner of his mouth lifted. “Yeah” was all he said. “All the hits were to my right leg. The third injury was bad. The doc said one more and I might never walk again—at least not on my own two feet.”
    The words tugged at her heart in spite of all her warnings to harden it. She knew how much rodeo had meant to him. It was all he’d talked about. “Oh, Mitch, I had no idea. I didn’t mean to—”
    He held up his hand. “It’s okay. I managed to take it in stride,” he said with a grin. “Pardon the pun.”
    His smile kicked the butterflies in her stomach into fluttering again. She thought she’d reined them in. Apparently that was something else she’d been wrong about.
    â€œThat still leaves out a couple steps—pardon the pun,” she said.
    His grin widened. “I went back to school.”
    â€œBut your scholarship?”
    He shook his head. “I didn’t need it then. Not like—”
    He stopped, but she knew what he’d almost said. In high school he’d been a poor kid in a foster home until the state turned him loose at eighteen. Then he’d been on his own and needed that scholarship if he wanted a chance at a higher education. That’s why she’d been so stunned when he gave it up.
    â€œSo you went to college?” She leaned back against the counter and folded her arms over her chest. A large space separated them, but it wasn’t enough to blunt the force of his appeal. Or the way he could stir up her emotions without even trying.
    â€œYeah.” He set his tea on the ceramic tile beside him. “I got my degree in business from UCLA. Then I started R&R Development.”
    â€œI’ve heard of it,” she said. The only thing she hadn’t heard was that he owned it.
    â€œYou have?”
    She nodded. “I read the business section of the paper every day. Your company has been mentioned a couple of times for projects pending here in Texas. By all accounts it’s a company to watch.”
    â€œI’m working on it,” he said. “But I missed the rodeo.”
    â€œWho wouldn’t? Everyone should be stomped into the dirt by an angry bull at least once a day.”
    She couldn’t help laughing and he joined her. Rewind ten years—to before everything had gone wrong. That’s how she felt. Putty in his hands. For just aninstant. Just until she shut it down cold. She didn’t ever want to go there again. She was through loving men who loved someone else.
    â€œHow did you get sucked into volunteering?” she asked.
    â€œThat’s an interesting choice of words.”
    Not really, she wanted to say. He was young, a hunk and a half, so many buckle bunnies, so little time. She wanted to say