“Yeah, I’m serious. Dead serious.”
“Where would I work?”
“You can work from home. You can work wherever you want.”
“Where do you work?”
Lyric told her she spent most of her time traveling. “I’ve been thinking about moving to Colorado.”
“Yeah?”
“Yep.”
“I might have a place you can stay.”
Blythe’s parents had a rental house in Palmer Lake that had recently become vacant. She and her dad were supposed to get it ready for the next tenant. Maybe it was time for her to move out of her parents’ house, and between the two of them, she and Lyric could probably swing the rent. And if her parents offered it to them for free, Blythe wouldn’t take them up on it. It was time she learned to live on her own and make her own way.
“So what’s the job pay anyway?”
The next night, Tucker was sitting in the box, waiting for the rodeo to start. Billy told him Liv and Ben would be here again tonight, and Renie was coming with them. No one expected Blythe to come along, so he was welcome to take her seat.
He’d just pulled out his sketchbook when the hair on the back of his neck stood up. He looked, and there she was, a couple of levels up, with the girl she and Renie had been with the night before. Interesting development.
Maybe Blythe’s father hadn’t come to get her at all. The girl had disappeared right after Blythe had gone missing, and no one saw her again. It was obvious what had happened.
He watched Blythe pull out a notepad while the other girl chatted up a couple of cowboys. The cowboys left, but the girl kept talking and Blythe kept writing. A minute later two more cowboys walked up, and the process began again.
“Do you know who that lady is?” He asked a guy sitting in the row behind him.
“Where?”
Tucker pointed.
“Yeah, that’s Lyric Simmons. She hosts RodeoChat. She posted somethin’ on Twitter earlier sayin’ she be here tonight with her new sidekick. Guess that’s her. That Lyric’s got a good head on her shoulders.”
Last night he and Jace had argued about Blythe but, eventually, came to an agreement. They’d both back off and let her make the next move. Neither would contact her, neither would pursue her. But now, seeing her, Tucker wondered if he’d be able to keep up his end of the deal.
He looked up again, and she was looking right at him. He tipped his hat, and she looked away.
“Did he see me?” she asked Lyric.
“Yep.”
“Is he heading this way?”
“Nope. He’s just sitting there. Looks like he went back to whatever he was doing before he saw you.”
“Interesting. Maybe he got the message. I don’t want anything to do with him or his brother.”
“Careful what you wish for, I always say.”
“What about you, Lyric? You think they’re so hot, why don’t you go after one of ’em?”
“Don’t think that hasn’t crossed my mind. I’m gonna wait and see how this thing with you plays out. Then…who knows? That Jace Rice is mighty fine. You’ll get no argument from me about that.”
“What about Tucker?”
“Girl, there isn’t a woman with eyes who wouldn’t see that Tucker’s your man. You haven’t figured it out yet, but he’s it.”