Fall for Me (Cowboys of Crested Butte 1)

Liv hadn’t gotten a penny of the purse in Woodward, not that she’d expected to. She’d be lucky if she’d earned enough to get her membership card before December.

“Wha

t do you want to listen to on our ride, baby?”

“Who’s my favorite band?”

“CB Rice.”

“Um, no. Isn’t that weird, to listen to your own music? What do you do, sing along?”

Ben laughed. “Kidding, Liv. So, who?”

“Let’s listen to a country station for a bit.”

Ben hoped she didn’t see him roll his eyes.

“I saw that.”

Liv mapped out the events she’d compete in for the rest of the season. There were a couple of events in Colorado in August, and one in Idaho. In September, she’d be in Albuquerque and Salt Lake City.

“Is that it for September? If it is, you could come see me for a couple days.”

“Well, there’s another event, in Kansas City, but it’s cards only.”

“You’re speakin’ a foreign language now, sweetheart.”

“I’ll be on a permit until I win a cumulative total of one thousand dollars. Then I’ll get my membership card.”

“Yeah? I’m sure you’ll win that much before Kansas City. Aren’t you?”

Liv turned her face toward the window, and Ben put his hand on hers. “Scoot over here, closer to me. That’s what bench seats are for.”

She did, and he put his hand on her thigh. “You can do it. I believe in you. You gotta believe in yourself if you wanna fill yourself up.”

“Okay, I hear you.” Liv stared out the window, quiet for a few minutes. “In October I’ll be in Tulsa, and then the second half of the month there are two events in Texas. One is top thirty only, in Waco. And then Rock Springs is top twelve in the Mountain State Circuit.”

“There you go. See? You believe in yourself.”

“What’s your schedule?”

Ben’s eyes got wide and he stared at her with his mouth open. “What? You haven’t been on our website? You haven’t memorized our schedule?”

She couldn’t remember the last time she had.

“Pull it up on your phone.”

Ben would be on the east coast until the middle of September, and he didn’t have more than one day off at a time between now and then. The second half of September he had three days off, before they went to Texas and back to Denver. After that, he left right away for the west coast, where they’d be until the end of October. They didn’t have any tour dates scheduled in November, and they wouldn’t until after Christmas at the earliest.

“I guess I’ll see you in November.” She looked out the window again.

“Where are you?”

“We don’t have to figure this out right now.”

Ben took a couple of deep breaths, trying not to let her see him do it. He needed to learn to let go. He didn’t need to know right this minute when the next time he’d see Liv would be. It would be hard, but if he wanted this thing to work between them, he had to get used to them being apart more than together. At least for the time being.

“I think I will try to sleep for a little while, if you don’t mind.”