Rodeo Nights Read Free Page B

operation.”
    “Walker.” Kalli kept her voice low, but it stopped both men before they reached the threshold. “Walker, I think we should talk right away about changes we want to implement in the running of the rodeo.”
    “Changes?”
    “Yes. Improvements.” Impatience stirred as he looked at her without answering. “Making it better. Making it run more smoothly. More profitably.”
    “I always heard, ‘If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.’ And I haven’t been hearing any complaints about this rodeo.”
    “Anything can be improved. Anything can benefit from being viewed from a fresh perspective. This rodeo’s no exception.”
    “It’s fine today. Tomorrow’ll be—”
    “Today! You have to look beyond today, or there won’t be any tomorrows. You haven’t chan—” She bit off her words, drawing away from the danger. Widening her stance fractionally, she met his look and spoke levelly. “I will not be satisfied spending a summer simply ‘riding herd’ on this rodeo when I know that with a little effort I could leave it better off than when I found it.”
    In the quiet, she heard the doorknob rattle under Tom’s uneasy hand. She was aware of Roberta leaning against the counter, watching. But Kalli kept her eyes on Walker.
    He’d dipped his head as if in contemplation of the worn floor by the toe of his boot. The thick, dark hair hid most of his face, but in the shaft of evening sunlight that fought through the dusty window, she saw with something like shock that a few silver strands mixed in.
    Then he raised his head.
    She tried to keep her heartbeat steady. No use. It was like some reflex action. One deep look from those blue jay eyes and her blood hammered. But that’s all it was, a reflex. It didn’t mean anything.
    “How ‘bout if you spend a couple days getting adjusted, seeing exactly what the situation is here before you go looking at changes?” he suggested. “Take time to get settled.”
    It was so damned reasonable.
    Answering evenly ranked with her top feats of mind over lungs. “Very well. We can each assess the situation, then get back to each other.”
    He said a little quizzically, “Yeah, we’ll get back to each other,” before heading out with Tom.
    What was the matter with her? Under normal circumstances, she would never rush into a business and start talking about changes before she’d studied the operation. Oh, a few stopgap, easily implemented measures like the computer, but nothing beyond that. Why had she been so quick to jump in here?
    Because these weren’t normal circumstances. Because she’d hated her helplessness standing beside Jeff’s bedside. Because— “Let’s get to work,” she said to Roberta, but that didn’t quiet the final possibility sounding in her head.
    Because she’d needed to feel in charge, in control. Because she had been so strongly reminded of the fear and helplessness of being in love with Walker Riley.
    * * *
    SHE’D BEEN A girl when they were married.
    He’d never fully realized that. Not until he’d walked out of the dazzling sunlight into the dim, dusty office only to be dazzled all over again by the woman she’d become.
    She still made him think of the mountains bathed in sunset. Brown hair tinged with russet, fair skin edged with peach, generous mouth fired with orange. Strength and quiet beauty brightened by fiery light. Her eyes were the color she’d derisively called khaki. He thought the color—silvered, pale brown, flecked with red near the pupils—matched a kind of sage he often spotted along the roadside as he drove from rodeo to rodeo. Every time he saw the sage, he thought of her.
    Standing there in the office, she’d been wearing clothes draped in loose folds. Though not so loose he hadn’t been reminded of curves he’d once known. Not so loose he hadn’t seen the long line of her slender thighs and remembered that though she stood some five inches shorter than his six feet, her legs were so long that when