Wishing on a Rodeo Moon (Women of Character)

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About
Wishing on a Rodeo Moon

Tye is a risk taking,
partying cowgirl, a bull rider at the top of her game, until the night a bull
drops dead and pins her beneath him. With her rodeo career in limbo and bitter
over the loss of her leg below the knee, Tye needs to redefine who she is
without rodeo.

Ten years before she
split with the man she loved over rodeo, but now Jake 's back and offering her
a lending hand.

With his return, Tye
begins to wonder if they can recapture the love they once shared.

However, she's
determined to return to rodeo and Jake wants no part of it. He'll help her get
well, but when it's over, he's the one walking away this time.

Can two strong willed
people find a common ground to heal each other's hearts or will rodeo rip them
apart forever?

Table of Contents

Wishing on a
Rodeo Moon

Excerpt Once
and Always

Excerpt
Heartstealer

Echoes From
the Past

Once Upon a
Remembrance:

Soulmates
Through Time:

Treasure So
Rare:

Two Babies,
a Cowboy and Sara:

Deception

§
Chapter One §

Someday,
that bull would kill someone. Tye Jenkins just knew it. She straddled the top
rail of the bull chute as old Hit Man moved restlessly from side to side.

Tye let
her gaze roam the rodeo yard. Her heart jumped like a young colt on a brisk
morning as she stared, transfixed, at a dark-haired man. Jake Miller. He stood
close by, a cocky look of assurance on his lean face. He was a head taller than
most of the men around him, a stranger in business clothes among mud-spattered
cowboys. His suit looked expensive, not the most common attire down by the
pens. She had never before seen him dressed like that, yet he carried it off
with nonchalance and elegance. He stood, feet planted on ground churned up by
countless boots and three days of rain, his dark head bare to the falling mist.
Tye didn’t try to stop the smile spreading across her face. Only Jake
could pull off a suit at a rodeo in the drizzling rain.

She
hadn’t seen or heard from Jake in ten years, not since that terrible
night she’d left. He’d showed up now, the night she planned to
remember for the rest of her life ― the night she’d make the rodeo
finals. With the bittersweet knowledge of the past firmly in her mind, Tye
sensed it was fitting Jake should be here to see her triumph.

Even
knowing she was short on time before her ride, she continued to stare at Jake.
Why was he here? What was that expression in his face ― a mixture of pain
and want? Tye wiped the mist from her eyes, knowing she was wrong. She drew a
deep breath.

He had
changed, matured, yet something in his eyes remained the same. How long had she
loved that strong face with its wide cheekbones, no-nonsense jaw touched by the
faintest shadow of beard and deep-set eyes of the lightest blue? Her
seventeenth summer she had loved him with a young woman’s vibrancy.
They’d spent endless time together, planning, talking, dreaming. Back
then, Tye had thought Jake could do no wrong.

She drew
a deep breath and looked around. Why was he here? It wasn’t to see her!
He was already drawing attention: she could see some of the girls nudging each other.
Her throat dry, Tye drew a deep breath and then pressed her lips together.
There were a lot of handsome faces like Jake’s, but he had a presence. He
always had. Jake was special, that’s why she had loved him so much, until
she had walked away.

"Tye
Jenkins!"

Hearing
her call, Tye stood up against the metal bars, gripping the top rail tightly.
As she did so the bull in the chute hopped sideways, rattling the metal gates.

Adrenaline
pumping, Tye jerked her gloves on, her gaze sweeping the yard, oblivious to
everything until her glance lit once more on Jake. He was still there. Seeing
him broke her concentration, brought in a flood of memory. Live, intense heat
struck Tye and she closed her eyes tightly for a brief moment in exasperation.
She had gotten over him. Anyone with a lick of sense knew ten years was a long
time to pine over any man.

Deliberately,
she looked away. Rubbing rosin on her gloves and rope, Tye centered her
attention one hundred percent on what she knew of the bull, Hit Man. True to form,
he was bouncing in the chute like a young kid throwing a temper tantrum. Hit
Man shot her a glance now and then, probably to see if his head games were
rattling her. He was one of the oldest bulls on the circuit, but anyone in
rodeo knew he’d give you the ride of your life.

Tye's
heart pounded wildly in her chest and up into her throat as she threw her leg
over the chute and climbed down on the bulky-muscled bull. Quickly, she gripped
the flat, braided rope as the bull lunged from side to side. Dry-mouthed, Tye
wrapped her hand while the bull bellowed. He turned his head and seemed to
glare at her with one eye, then with a quick twist tried to horn her.

"Watch
your legs there, Tye!" someone shouted, but she had already pulled them
up. Tye focused on keeping her feet from being pinned between the animal's
sides and the metal bars. Steadying hands of the cowboys at her back helped her
stay upright as the bull continued to ram the sides of the chute.

Her
fingers tightened on the rope and she gave the signal to open the gate. With
vivid clarity Tye saw the gate swing open, felt the rush of air from her lungs.
Like a race car in its first heat, a ton of Brahma bull exploded into the rodeo
arena; twisting and spinning. His cloven hooves sank into the mix of mud and
manure. He knew his job and damn! he did it well.

The
ornery bull did his best to defy the laws of gravity. He lunged forward, coiled
to the right, came down, whipped to the left and dove again. Tye had watched
this bull and knew what to expect, but every bone in her body was being jolted
to hell and back. She was determined to ride it out and do it in style. As the
bull spun, she spurred him, her concentration intense.

The
clock in her head ticked off. Tye held fast like a winter's burr on a blanket.
Two. Three. . .this was the longest six-second ride of her life. Five. Triumph
began to burgeon in her chest. She had him. Hit Man wasn't getting away.

As the
bull reared his head up, they hung suspended in the air for a moment. Then,
with surely no more than a quarter of a second left, Tye felt him twisting,
going over, taking her with him.

All time
stopped, silence reigned, the cheering crowd disappeared. There was only she
and Hit Man. It seemed to Tye, in that split second of realization that the
bull had won. She tried to throw herself clear, but she couldn't get her hand
free.

They
slammed into bone-chilling mud. Tye felt her head snap sideways, saw the dull
grey sky overhead. Clods of dirt and mud slapped her. She smelled manure, then
sweat and heat rolling off the animal, which lay atop her. When she tried, she
couldn't move, so she lay still, her legs pinned under the dead weight. If
looks could be believed, the bull had dropped dead.

A kaleidoscope of images flashed before Tye. Her first pony,
the mare Daddy brought home from the rodeo. Ribbons on her wall, the first bull
she had ridden. The gate opened and Tye knew again exhilaration mixed with
fear. What a ride. A high like no other.

Daddy, a hard-drinking, fun-loving man. A family man, when he
was home. He had been gone a lot when she was growing up. One rodeo after the
other. Daddy said he lived to rodeo.

Tye experienced again the guilt inside her, but she
hadn’t spoken up, not even when her brother, Ben, smashed the plaque
listing Daddy's rodeo honors. If only she had told her family it was her fault
Daddy had left. If she had tried harder to win more ribbons and trophies, maybe
Daddy would have stayed.

A dark-haired man flitted in front of her, with piercing blue
eyes, so light they looked ghostly. Jake. She had always loved him, never
stopped. But he hated her for what she’d done. His mouth moved, his
beautiful mouth. She didn't understand the words, but they had a calming
effect.

The crazy swirl of remembrances slowed and dimmed as Tye
floated gently.

§
Chapter Two §

Tye
moved her wheelchair into place on the van’s elevated ramp. The motor
whirred as the lift lowered her to ground level, then came the gentle bump:
sounds and sensations that had become all too familiar over the last months.
Gripping the chair’s wheels nervously, Tye assessed her surroundings.
After four weeks in the hospital and another eight weeks at the rehab center,
she found this place as a sight for sore eyes.

Some of
the tenseness eased from her shoulders. She had left her new living
arrangements up to her brother Ben, and he hadn't disappointed her. The ranch
was set right in the heart of Oklahoma, and yet appeared to be in the middle of
nowhere. For a brief moment, as she stared at the modern, one-story ranch house
and dark brown stained barns off in the distance, she was reminded of home. An
ache began to churn below her ribs. Home.

Someday
she would have to deal with the mess she had made of her life.

Tye
thought back to that fearful night three months ago. When she woke up in the
hospital recovery room, Mama had been there. And surprisingly, so had Daddy.

Tye’s
memory flashed to her first glimpse of the empty space where her leg should
have been. In a span of seconds, fear, desperation and finally disbelief had
ripped through her. She would never be the same. Her life was over. Tye
recalled again, with shame, the hateful words she had flung at her Mama.

When she
had finally accepted the fact that her lower leg was gone, she had made a vow:
nothing and no one was going to keep her from returning to rodeo. She wanted it
back with a vengeance. She’d worked hard at her therapy and religiously
performed the exercises.

Just
because her leg had been amputated below the knee didn't mean she was quitting.
Getting to the rodeo finals might take longer than she’d first
anticipated. She had to believe she could make it or she’d go crazy.
Rodeo had consumed her life for so long, there was nothing to fill the void.

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