Chapter Ten

Dolly

D ay two of opening weekend was going strong. If all their rodeos this year were this well attended, it would go a long way to easing the pressure off her to try and get their social media posts to go viral. She was trying to find the courage to leave her home office in the Winnebago and get some more footage of the rodeo. She really should be concentrating on the other athletes in the UPRC, but she was itching to get back into the investigation.

The image of Finn catching her kissing Nash last night played on repeat in her mind like a cruel slideshow. If he told his father… God, Jefferson might remember her from her escort days, and then all hell would break loose. Her stomach churned at the thought. Maybe she should reach out to Jefferson herself, plead her case before Finn spilled the beans. With a decisive click, she looked up his number and saved it, just in case.

Dragging her thoughts away from the dangerous precipice of her past, she turned her attention to the work piled up on her virtual desk. Photos from the shoot with Nash and Donnan still needed editing. As she clicked through the raw images, a smile tugged at her lips. Donnan was undeniably adorable, but Nash… Oh boy, he looked downright sexy in those cowboy boots and tight jeans. Her mind wandered to that stolen kiss, the heat of his body pressed against hers…and Finn clicking on the light in the barn.

Blevins texted her. Stop spending time on losers. I fired all the non-performers. They won’t be back. I want to see some posts on our top athletes in all events.

“Jerk,” she ground out.

She texted back: What about Nash Weaver? Didn’t you see the buzz he’s getting with Donnan?

No one cares about the baby cow. They want action. They want T&A. What’s your sister LeAnn’s number? I think she blocked me.

She was not going to answer that question. If Blevins asked for a T&A shot from LeAnn, being blocked was probably the safest course before Dylan got wind of that nonsense. She screen-shot the conversation for the record anyway, but then she switched off her phone. She needed a break from Blevins. She powered down her computer and put it aside. It was almost time to go meet Nash at the gate anyway.

On her way, she passed by Reba who was in her veterinarian’s golf cart. Reba swung around to pick her up.

“What’s this I hear about you banging Nash in the barn last night?” Reba asked as she climbed in.

“It was one kiss.” Leave it to the rumor mill to blow things out of proportion.

“Uh-huh. Pat tells me you and Nash looked really cozy…” Reba glared at her. “I hope you’re not messing around in Nash’s investigation.”

“I’m helping.”

Reba snorted. “He doesn’t need your help with that.”

Dolly wasn’t so sure about that. “Just between you and me, he told me that Victor Lance knows something about Blevins but is too afraid to say anything.”

“What do you think he knows?” Reba frowned.

“The question is why is he covering it up?”

“Yeah, especially since Vanessa is trying to get him charged with murder. She won’t get it, but it might be manslaughter.”

“Do you think you could talk to Dr. Lance?” Dolly asked.

“Me? No. I don’t think I could control my temper. He could have killed LeAnn. And if Shane found out I was talking with the man who drugged Sverre, he’d be pissed that I didn’t ask him to come along. And I’d never ask him to talk to Victor, because then I’d need bail money.”

“Yeah, I see that.” It was discouraging news, but nothing that she hadn’t expected.

“Just be careful around Nash,” Reba said. “He’s only going to be around until he solves the case. This is just a fun fling for you, right?”

“There’s nothing between us,” she said. But she was pretty sure she was lying to Reba, and she was pretty sure Reba knew that as well. “Has Loretta sold anything today?” Dolly said, changing the subject.

“I haven’t been able to get away to see how she’s doing.”

“I’ll go.” Dolly hesitated. “How well do you know Taylor Keating?”

Reba shrugged. “He’s a nice guy.”

“Is he?” Dolly wanted desperately to believe that.

“I think so. His father is great. And they’ve got a close relationship.” Reba fixed her with a stern look. “Don’t go mother-henning Loretta. She doesn’t need you to butt in on her life just because you’re roommates.”

“Anyone ever tell you that you’re a hypocrite?” Dolly crossed her arms over her chest.

“No one who wanted to live.” Reba reached down and grabbed some dirty hay from a bucket in the back.

“Don’t you dare,” Dolly shrieked, and hopped out of the slow-moving golf cart before Reba could even think about throwing the hay at her. Reba could give unsolicited advice to her about Nash, but it wasn’t okay for Dolly to be concerned about Loretta’s romance? That didn’t seem fair.

Dolly stalked over to where the vendors were gearing up for another busy day. The handcrafts section wasn’t that busy yet, so she was able to sit next to Loretta as she worked on a watercolor painting of Donnan.

“How’s it going?”

“Good,” Loretta said, swirling her brush into a honey-brown color.

“Sell anything?”

“A few paintings yesterday. A couple of kits. I’m not going to be rich anytime soon, but I’m paying the bills.”

“Good.” Dolly wasn’t sure how to broach the subject. Luckily, Loretta beat her to it.

“Taylor and I are just having fun.”

“It’s none of my business,” Dolly said.

“When has that ever stopped anyone in this family?”

That was true. “Does he work with Jackson Blevins directly?” Dolly asked.

“As much as you do, I guess.”

Huh, that didn’t answer any of her burning questions. Dolly tried another tactic. “I hear that he’s going to be handling the new shipment of Mexican bulls that are coming to Laredo next week.”

“That’s his job.” Loretta shrugged. “Bullfighting, bull riding and bull handling.”

“As long as he’s not bullshitting.”

“Yeah.” Loretta gave a half laugh, but concentrated on mixing colors on her palette.

“What does he think of Blevins?”

“We haven’t talked about it. Why?”

“I was just wondering.”

“You were wondering if he was working with Blevins doing something illegal.”

“Shh,” Dolly said. She wasn’t surprised that Loretta knew. She figured Reba had filled her in. “You can’t say anything like that aloud. You could ruin everything.”

Loretta gestured with her paintbrush. “There is no one around.”

“Still, you can’t be too careful.”

“Here’s what I know. Taylor loves bulls. He sometimes rides them. He sometimes takes care of them. Most of the time, he’s in the arena keeping the bull riders safe. When it’s over, he either hangs with his father, with his friends, or lately with me. If there’s something weird going on, I haven’t seen it.”

That was some bit of relief.

“And he’s a good kisser.”

Dolly could have lived without that little bit of information. “Yeah, I saw.”

Loretta didn’t even look up from her painting. “But I’ll keep my eyes open. I don’t want to be fooled again.”

Dolly felt like a jerk. “I’m sorry. I don’t think he’s trying to deceive you. I just don’t know him.”

“And I’m not the best judge of character,” Loretta said, giving her an annoyed look over her shoulder.

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t have to. My track record speaks for itself.”

Damn her sister’s exes. Dolly hoped karma would bite them both on the ass for hurting Loretta. “Those guys were assholes. They were just good at hiding it. That’s on them. Not on you.”

“Maybe Taylor is an asshole who is good at hiding it too.”

“And maybe he’s not,” Dolly said softly, squeezing Loretta’s shoulder in sympathy.

Loretta took in a shaky breath. “I hope not. I really like him.”

Dolly didn’t feel any better when she left her sister, so she made it a point to promo her stall on all the social media feeds. “Hashtag brilliant artist” and “must buy.” She didn’t know if it would drive sales, but it couldn’t hurt.

Her next stop was the will-call booth. She was about to turn her phone back on, but she saw Nash coming up from the parking lot.

“I need the VIP pass for Nash Weaver,” she said to the person manning the booth.

“Sorry, Dolly. He’s been removed from the VIP list.”

“By who?” Dolly frowned.

“Mr. Blevins called in a bunch of people. He said they would try and sneak in the rodeo via the VIP system, so he put a stop to it.”

Of course, by that time Nash was in earshot. “No problem.” He got into the ticket line instead.

“Wait,” Dolly said. “I can fix this. There’s been a mistake. Nash Weaver is one of my models.”

The will-call operator frowned at his list. “I don’t want to get into trouble.”

Dolly fumbled with her phone. She turned it on. She would text Blevins or Shelby and make this go away. But even before her phone came back on line, Nash reached the beginning of the ticket line.

“One please,” Nash said.

“I’ve got this,” Dolly said, wanting to shake her phone, as if that would make it go faster.

“Thanks,” Nash said, taking his ticket from the other worker. He walked through the gate and into the rodeo.

Exasperated, Dolly hurried over to him. “I’m so sorry about that. Blevins has never done that before.”

Nash shrugged. “Doesn’t matter.”

“I could have gotten you in.”

“I’ll expense the cost of the ticket back to Shelby, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“It’s not the money. It’s the principle of the thing. He shouldn’t be sticking his nose into my business.”

“He shouldn’t be doing a lot of things, but that’s why I’m here.” Nash gave her a reassuring smile.

The smile knocked her off-kilter and brought up memories of last night’s kiss in her mind. “Are you feeling all right? I figured you’d be all hopped up about this.”

“It’s just a roadblock to my investigation. To be honest, I’m happy that I don’t have to pretend to be a bull rider. It’s tough being booed.”

“No, I mean not being a VIP. I could have gotten you the pass.”

“Why do I need the pass when I have you?”

He had a point.

“Sometimes it’s easier to just follow the rules,” he said, showing her his ticket.

She resisted the urge to cross her eyes at him. “I was following the rules. Blevins changed them on the fly.”

“He does that a lot, I’ve noticed,” Nash said.

“Yeah,” Dolly agreed. “Well, I’ll fix this for Laredo, don’t you worry.”

“I’m not worried and neither should you. You know what, I want to hold off on the promos for a few hours.”

“Of course you do.” Dolly scowled at him.

“Hear me out. When was the last time you took a lunch hour?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Call it more rule following. You’re entitled to a break for lunch every day. Do you take it?”

“I eat lunch,” Dolly hedged.

Nash just looked at her.

“Usually on the run or while I’m editing on my computer.”

He nodded as if he was satisfied. “Good. You and I are going to have a nice lunch around the rodeo. We’re not going to talk about Blevins and you’re not going to take a picture of your damned hot dog.”

“Who are you and what have you done with Nash Weaver?”

“Nash Weaver, bull rider, is gone.” He held out his hand to her. “I’m Nash Weaver, private eye.”

She took his hand and shook it. The rough callouses on his palms from the bull rope made her shiver when she thought how it would feel on her more intimate areas. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that last night was a turning point for me.”

“You mean in terms of the investigation?”

“I mean in terms of us.”

“Us.” She stopped dead in her tracks and looked up at him.

“I want you. And based on how you kissed me back, you want me too.”

She didn’t know if she was going to spontaneously combust or melt into the pavement. His honesty and frank assessment were both off-putting and on-turning. “Okay,” she said, licking her suddenly dry lips. “What are we going to do about that?”

“We’re going to talk.” He reached down and grabbed her hand.

“Talk?” she said, a little disappointed. She was hoping for more kisses and cuddles. But she took his hand and went with him to get in line for some walking tacos.

They took their impromptu picnic under one of the several pavilions that were set up with long tables and bench seating. Giant fans were set up near the tent’s ceilings and a water mister was at the front and back end.

“Going to be a hot one,” he said as they sat down. It was still early so this area wasn’t as packed as it normally would be.

“So what do you want to talk about?” She shifted uncomfortably as she poked into her Frito chili pie with a plastic fork. She wasn’t ready to bring up the subject of the cheerleader uniform last night and she was hoping he wasn’t going to confront her about Leisure Industries. She wanted to see how serious Nash was about this “us” business. She could lose her job if word got out. And she wasn’t fighting this hard to keep this rodeo afloat so she could be kicked out because of the morality clause in her contract.

Did Nash just want a quick lay and a casual fling? If so, she’d be on board with that, but she wasn’t about to share her heart or her secrets with him.

Or was he in for the long haul? Dolly wasn’t sure they’d be so good together after they got the hot sex they’d been building toward all year out of the way. They were too different. She liked to play hard and fast with the rules and he was the king of rules. But it could be fun while it lasted.

“You never did tell me what had upset you so much last night. That gift that someone dropped off.”

Yeah, and she wasn’t about to tell him now, either. “Oh that…” She gave an artful laugh. “That was just a misunderstanding. It turned out to be something for Loretta. An art book.” The lie came easily to her. “I thought it was porn.”

“Uh-huh,” Nash said.

Jeez, he didn’t look like he believed her. Was she losing her touch or was he beginning to see through her bullshit? Neither was good. Truth was, she was scared of what that cheerleading outfit meant. At the most benign, someone was being an asshole. But Dolly thought that it was more along the lines of something more nefarious. Blackmail? What on earth would she do then? She didn’t have any money to pay off a blackmailer. She’d have to come clean to Nash. Maybe his FBI buddies could help her then. It was just that Nash saw the world in black and white, with no room for gray. Her past was gray, and could very well come back to bite her in the ass at any minute.

She polished off her meal and sprang up to dump the wrapper in the trash. See, this is why she was a workaholic. She didn’t have to think about serious shit like this when she was taking pictures and working as a spin doctor.

“You okay?” Nash said coming up behind her. His hands felt solid and comforting on her shoulders.

“I’m still rattled about Blevins firing you and stepping over my request at the will-call booth. I think it would be best if we just headed down to the Rocky Ridge Ranch’s pavilion and get in some Donnan time. I can distract the workers with a behind-the-scenes interview while you check out his area.”

“Honestly, I think if there was something to find, we missed it. The next rodeo in Laredo is the key event to do a search and investigation. The bulls from Jaripeo Ranch are coming up from Mexico and if Rocky Ridge has something in a secret compartment, they’ll move it on the first day in Laredo.”

Dolly blew out a frustrated breath. “Okay, I guess I don’t have to promo you this weekend. Let Blevins forget about you. Well, now what?”

“Now, you need to stop working so hard.” Nash gently turned her around. “It’s not worth it until Shelby is rid of Blevins. I don’t want to alarm you,” he said. “But this season might be the UPRC’s last, if Blevins keeps up what he’s been doing.”

Dolly pushed down that familiar anxiety. She was no longer a scared twenty-something kid out of a job. She could always live in the Winnebago, if she lost her apartment. She could always mooch off of LeAnn or Reba, if she didn’t want to go back home. She had options.

Being jobless didn’t equate to being homeless anymore and it sure didn’t mean she’d have to consider something like escorting again. She could freelance her PR skills. She could…

“Are you all right?” Nash said.

Dolly forced herself to take a slow drink of her iced tea before answering him. “I’m fine.”

“You look like you’re about to cry.”

Did she?

She blew out a shaky breath. “I know that attendance is down. It doesn’t help that we’ve had more tragedy than a Shakespearean play lately. Ronnie Sunderland’s death, two crazed bulls, and don’t even get me started on the doping and gambling scandal. Seems like Blevins might be driving this rodeo into the ground on purpose. We need to find that evidence against Blevins before he puts the final nail in the UPRC coffin.” She really loved her job and she didn’t want to start over. But more importantly, she didn’t think she could start over again.

“Me. Not we.”

“We’re in this together, buddy. Whether you like it or not.”

“Why?” he asked.

Dolly realized that she was white-knuckled and forced herself to unclench her fists. “This job is important to me.”

“It’s important to Shelby, too.”

She was pretty sure that Shelby would land on her feet if the company went under. Dolly wasn’t so sure about herself. “After I was let go from the football club, I tried a lot of things. And I failed at a lot of things.”

She met his gaze. Nash’s eyes were warm and sympathetic. She wondered if they would turn scornful and hateful if she went into details. She didn’t want to take a risk like that right now. “I wanted to be a YouTuber or an influencer. But I couldn’t get enough likes and followers to make the ads profitable. I really had to struggle.”

“And you’re worried that if you lose your job, you’d go back to struggling?”

That hit a little too close to home for her to deal with just now. “Do we have to talk about this, right now? I thought we were going to get away from Blevins for a bit.”

“Sorry,” he said. “You’re right. I’m breaking my own rules. It’s a hard habit to get out of, switching from business to pleasure.”

“I think I’d like to concentrate on the pleasure part of it.”

She was rewarded with that sexy grin again.

“You’re going to be all right,” he said, and stood up. He pulled her to her feet and brushed a kiss over her forehead.

Dolly’s breath caught. Time seemed to stop. She could put her hand on his shoulder and stop him from moving away. She wanted more. It would be so nice to lose herself in a kiss and see where it led. But did she want to start something without knowing how he was going to react if he found out she’d been an escort?

“How do you know?” The words were hard to force out, but she was getting lost in his intense gaze.

“Because I won’t let anything happen to you or to Shelby.”

She lifted her hand and touched his cheek. He closed his eyes and leaned into it with a soft smile on his face. “Let’s take the day and spend some time together.”

“It’s the second day of the season,” she choked out. “I can’t take the day off.”

“If I know you, you’ve already scheduled your posts for today.”

She had. But she had also wanted to do some live action shots.

“And I can cover for you with Shelby.”

Dolly put a hand over her heart. “Nash Weaver, you’d lie?”

“See what a bad influence you are on me?”

“No, but I’d like to.”

“Well then,” he said. “Why don’t we head out to my motel?”

“I’ve got a better idea. Let’s hit the Winnebago. That way if something does require my attention, we’re right on site.”

“I admire your dedication,” he said.

“Is that all you admire about me?”

“Not by a long shot.”

The day was looking up. And with Loretta busy in vendor row selling her paintings, Dolly was looking forward to having a few hours to make some of the fantasies she’d been entertaining over the last year about Nash come true.