Page 53 of Reckless Skye

When Skye turned back to the arena, TJ wasn’t pumping the crowd or walking back towards the gate. He was standing in the dirt, his grin wide and cheeky – and he was looking right at her.

Chapter 15

By the time TJ got home, it was nearing midnight. He dumped his bag by the front door, kicked off his dirty boots and went looking for Skye.

Instead, he found his parents at the kitchen table, a glass of wine in front of each of them, playing Go Fish. He wasn’t surprised; they always waited up for him after a rodeo when he was home or waited up for his call when he was on the road.

His dad groaned as he pushed to his feet. He pulled TJ in for a rough hug, said, ‘Good ride today.’

‘I almost kissed the bull there for a second.’

‘Almost. But you caught yourself.’ With one last pat on the shoulder, Ryan moved past him for the stairs and his bed.

When they were alone, his mom looked up at him, her eyes full of concern. ‘How do you feel?’

Everything hurt. His bad hip ached, sending a slow burn of sciatica down his right glute and quad. His shoulder muscles were tired and aching. He had a serious case of whiplash. So, all in all, he’d come away lucky. ‘Like a million bucks,’ he replied honestly. Because in bull riding, it could always be worse – and often was.

‘Make sure you head in early tomorrow to see the sports med team.’

‘Guaranteed.’

‘All right.’ She patted his cheek, said, ‘We’re gonna get some sleep. Skye went out to the barn a while back. Think she was a little shaken up.’

‘Why?’ he asked immediately. ‘What happened?’

She tilted her head, very near condescendingly. ‘She watched you ride a bull.’

‘She’s watched bull riding before,’ he argued.

Janey just shook her head and muttered, ‘Men,’ as she walked past him.

TJ didn’t wait. He put his boots and jacket back on and hurried out to the barn to find her.

Skye didn’t hear him come in, but he saw her immediately. She was standing next to Smokey as she brushed the horse, her short blonde hair gleaming in the dim barn light. She was singing, the lyrics of Luke Combs’s ‘She got the Best of Me’, sweet and smooth.

TJ didn’t dare move, just stood there and watched her as that feeling overcame him, the one he’d tried to explain to his dad earlier, that one that left him drowning in the immensity of him and Skye, together.

It was only when she sensed him and spun around, her eyes wide with fear, that he walked forward, both palms up. ‘Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.’

She visibly relaxed, her stiff shoulders dropping, her smile blooming. To his utter surprise – and delight – she murmured, ‘TJ,’ and then let herself out of the stall and ran to him.

She jumped into his arms.

He caught her. Of course, he caught her. She wrapped her legs around his waist and squeezed. And because that feeling was flowing over, he laughed and spun her around.

‘Now that’s a welcome home,’ he said the moment they came to a stop.

Skye sighed. She buried her face against his neck, hiding her embarrassment from him. ‘You were amazing. Insane,’ she added, and finally gave him those big blue eyes. ‘But amazing. When you tipped forward, I for sure thought you were going to fall, and then …’ She puffed air out of her cheeks, shook her head. ‘You were amazing,’ she repeated. ‘Truly.’

Unable to resist, TJ rubbed his lips gently over hers, and when she sighed open, welcoming him, he slipped inside.

Her taste, her smell, her feel, the way she gushed about his ride … Everything about her overwhelmed him. He wanted to bury himself in her, almost as much as he wanted to just keep holding her. Undone by the immensity of feeling, by the newness of it, he pulled back. ‘I’m really glad you were there to watch me today, Skye. It was …’ He thought about how to describe it, but when nothing sufficient came, settled on, ‘New. It was new,’ he repeated. ‘But it meant a lot.’

She braced. He felt her entire body go brittle in his arms. He tried not to internalize it, tried to soothe her with, ‘Stop worrying so much.’

‘I’m trying not to,’ she said and unhooked her legs to drop back down to the floor. She paced away, clearly frustrated. ‘I just … I don’t know what to do. You’re the first, TJ.’ She spun around to face him. ‘And I’m trying to make sense of it, trying to find where my infatuation with you ends and all those other feelings begin.’

‘That makes two of us,’ he said simply.