Ace High (Lost Creek Rodeo #6) - Heather B. Moore Page 0,1
Thankfully, Mallory was now talking to the other women and seemed to be distracted from him.
“Looks like you got yourself a date for the rodeo this weekend,” Ryan said with a smirk.
“Funny.” This coming weekend, there was an alumni event with Sam Houston Community College. It was where Lars had gone to school, on an athletic scholarship for rodeo—and where he’d met Ryan and the others that made up the Original Six.
At the rodeo this weekend, riders were coming from all over—former riders—to compete against the current team. It was all for fun, but the fun and games would have a decent competitive edge to it as well.
The arena in Lost Creek was the home base for Sam Houston Community College, and being the first rodeo team of the college had gained the six of them local notoriety. This meant that any time there was a big event in Lost Creek, the Original Six tried to make it.
Over the last few months, the town of Lost Creek had been working on renovations to the arena, and things were coming along nicely. So nicely that now, in August, they were hosting this larger event. Which meant that in another week, the place would be packed with people, and the Six would all be in town as well.
Lars was looking forward to it. He was also using it as an excuse to stay out of Montana for a while longer, despite the Texas heat picking up by the hour, it seemed.
He shoved his hands in his pockets and gazed at the moving water below. The women were far enough away that their voices were only murmurs.
“She’s pretty, and certainly friendly,” Ryan continued.
Lars looked up. Usually, Ryan wasn’t one to push. The other guys in the Original Six had formed a texting strand they called The Chute. Those guys, which included Reid, Ford, Westin, and Eric, had no problem razzing each other about women.
“Miss Mallory certainly is pretty,” Lars said in a careful tone. “Not my type, though. She’s too … too much of everything.”
Ryan chuckled. “Maybe that’s the type you need, Lars. A woman who speaks her mind and gives you a run for your money.”
Lars smiled. “Maybe.” He took another glance at the women down the stream. At that moment, Mallory looked over, too. Inwardly, he cringed. He gave a short nod, then blew out his breath. “Maybe. Just not her.”
Ryan folded his arms. “Keep looking, then, I guess. It’s been over a year since you’ve dated. Samantha was the last one, right?”
“Right.”
“She break your heart so much that it’s never gonna heal?”
Again, Lars was surprised to be having this conversation with Ryan. Yet, he’d been more serious the past eighteen months, ever since his injury that had effectively ended his rodeo career. Oh, Ryan was still involved in everything—in fact, he was a chute boss now—but losing his passion had been hard on him.
“I broke up with her, not the other way around.”
“Oh.” Ryan pushed back his cowboy hat and rubbed at his forehead. “Didn’t know that detail.”
“Never gave it out.” Lars’s gaze followed a stick that had been caught in the current of the stream. He watched it slowly turn before it struck a rock, then it spun quickly, and was caught in the faster current, where it bobbed below the surface of the water. His heart felt like that sometimes. Striking up against a rock, then spinning out of control when that rock was immovable.
He knew Ryan was waiting for more information, but Lars couldn’t give it. Not to Ryan, not to any of the Original Six. They’d think he was crazy, then they’d think he was a fool, then they’d outright roast him. Because the rock that his heart continually couldn’t get past was a woman who they all knew. A woman who was best friends with them all, and who would do anything for any of them, anytime.
But she viewed Lars as one of the guys, one of the bros—a kid brother, even. Lars was not her brother, though, and he didn’t know how he could ever get her to view him otherwise. Of course, he could come right out and tell her …
But he was respecting her space right now. Because her heart was still hurting from her broken marriage.
Yeah … things were complicated.
“You wanna wade in the stream with me?” someone said next to him as she linked onto his arm.