Two to Wrangle Read Free Page A

been crowned Miss Yellow Rose and was campaigning for Miss Texas.” His eyelids drooped to half-mast as if he were re-watching it in his mind.
    â€œShe was completely out of our league, and we both knew it, but given that Zac and me were always fiercely competitive, we both set out to get her attention. It really wasn’t much of a contest ’cause Zac’d never put himself out for a woman before. The more he ignored ’em the more they flocked to him, but Delaney wasn’t like that. She took a little finessing, which was right up my alley.”
    â€œI’ll buy that. You’re quite the Casanova when you want to be,” Monica said, tamping down a jealous twinge. “So what exactly did this finessing entail?”
    â€œIt started with a two-step on the dance floor of the Stockman and ended a few hours later in the backseat of my truck.”
    â€œThat was fast work,” Monica remarked dryly.
    â€œYeah, well,” he gave a dry laugh. “Unbeknownst to me, she was already primed for some slumming with cowboys. Delaney resented that her rich family had her future all planned out, so she’d decided to take the bit between her teeth that night. All I knew was that she was rich, beautiful, and wanted sex, at least with me. By the time I realized she was a virgin, it was too damned late. We eloped that night. I was twenty-four and she was nineteen.”
    â€œYou eloped that same night?” she asked incredulously. “No wonder it was doomed for disaster.”
    â€œYeah,” he replied with a rueful look. “It was stupid as hell, and we both lived to regret it. Delaney wanted to settle down on the ranch and have babies, but I wasn’t near ready to give up rodeo.” He paused. “She didn’t understand that cowboy doesn’t come off with the hat. It’s in the blood.”
    â€œBut you had a responsibility to her.”
    â€œI did,” he said, “But I wasn’t willing to let anyone dictate my life. I’ve never answered to anyone except Tom, and he mostly let me have my head. I wasn’t ready to play family man. It wasn’t who I was or what I wanted. You can only deny yourself for so long. Restlessness and rodeo won out in the end.”
    â€œYou left her?”
    â€œNot exactly,” he said. “It was her choice. She didn’t want to live on the road in cheap motels, but I did. So Zac and I hit the road again, one rodeo after another in endless succession.”
    â€œDid you cheat on her, Ty?”
    He looked pained at the question. “Hell if I know. I’d like to think I didn’t, but I can’t recall any of it. There’s weeks of my life that are just a blank page. That period wreaked almost as much havoc on my liver as it did on the marriage.” He sighed with a remorseful shake of his head. “We weren’t any damn good for each other anyhow.”
    â€œWe all make foolish mistakes when we’re young and stupid,” she said.
    â€œIf only mine had ended there,” he said.
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œWhether it was guilt or plain stupidity, I didn’t hire a lawyer when Delaney filed for divorce, so she got half my ranch. I went on a real bender after that. One night I entered the arena tanked up on bourbon and Coke—and woke up the next morning in intensive care. That’s when Tom stepped in. He made me an offer to run the hotel since his manager had been hauled off in handcuffs. The Hotel Rodeo was my chance to get my shit back together, but it also allowed me to maintain connections with the people and the world I love. It’s been almost eight years now since Tom saved my life.” He swallowed hard, visibly fighting back the tears.
    It was his look of utter desolation that did her in, drawing her to his side like an invisible string. As much as Monica had wanted to sever the ties that bound her heart to his, shared sorrow only made them