Crazy for Lovin’ You Read Free Page B

she knew him, at least she had. Ten years ago he was a loner who didn’t play well with others. The high school coaches had courted him for team sports but he’d turned them down flat in favor of bull riding. But she didn’t say anything. She just looked at him.
    â€œOkay.” He crossed one booted foot over the other as he continued to lean against the tiled countertop. “Dev Hart called me.”
    â€œReally?”
    Dev had a ranch in Destiny and had taken over the stock business from his father. He supplied animals to rodeos all over the country. He and Mitch had rodeoed together in high school. She and Dev were friends.
    â€œYeah. We’ve kept in touch. The association was in a real bind when the commissioner resigned. Work and family obligations he said. I don’t have those.” He let the sentence hang there. “Dev thought I might be interested in helping out. Since I have business dealings in the area.”
    So he wasn’t married. All the willpower in the world couldn’t prevent her insides from doing the dance of joy. But she got the feeling there was more, a still deeper reason. “And?”
    â€œHe put the bite on me. It’s no big deal, just temporary. I wouldn’t have agreed to a permanent position.”
    â€œDev must have had some clue that you would even consider doing it.”
    â€œI guess he did.”
    â€œSo what was it?”
    â€œHe knew rodeo saved my life.”
    Mitch wasn’t sure what had made him say that, especially when he saw the surprised look on Taylor’s face. She tried to hide it, and he found it amazingly appealing that she couldn’t.
    There was something about being back in Destiny. More specifically back in this room with Taylor Stevens. He’d been telling the truth when he’d said that he’d hardly known her at first. She had changed—in all the right places. Her light brown hair was shoulder-length and the layers were streaked with gold highlights. Brown eyes full of spirit and intelligence challenged him. She’d been just a kid the last time he’d seen her. That night—
    The longer he stood in this kitchen, back on the Circle S, talking to Jen’s little sister, the more he remembered. Feelings washed over him—frustration, yearning, anger that burned into rage and a feeling of helplessness that he rode like a broken-in saddle.
    â€œSaved your life?”
    â€œYou know as well as I do that I’m a kid no one wanted.” Not even your sister, he thought. “I could have gone either way.”
    â€œI know your background.”
    â€œThat’s a polite way of saying my father walked out before I took my first breath on earth and my mother took off with a construction worker when I was ten.”
    â€œI bet no one’s used that nickname in a long time.”
    â€œRiffraff?”
    Why was she bringing all this up? he thought angrily. Taylor already knew and he’d spent all his life trying to live that down. Didn’t make any damn sense.
    â€œThat’s the one. It’s ancient history,” she said, completely unimpressed.
    He almost smiled. “Not to me. It’s who I am. But I’ve come to terms with it.” That was only half a lie. “But back then, bull riding was all I had. I was good at it.”
    â€œYou were the only person I knew who was meaner and madder than those bulls.”
    He grinned. “Back then I had reason to be. But I learned some important lessons.”
    When he didn’t elaborate, she said, “Don’t keep me in suspense. What did you learn?”
    â€œDon’t nod your head unless you mean it.”
    â€œA bull rider’s number one rule you used to say.”
    â€œI’m surprised you remember that.”
    She lifted one shoulder. “I have a good memory.”
    Unlike him, he finished for her. There wasn’t much good to remember about that time. Which brought him to his