The Cowboy Next Door by Brenda Minton Page B

nodded. She didn’t want to talk, not here, with hundreds of people surrounding them, eating popcorn or cotton candy and drinking soda from paper cups.
    â€œAre you okay?” Louder voice now, a little impatient.
    â€œI’m great.” Lacey leaned back on the bleacher seat. “My sister wrecked my house and she’s passed out in my bed. The cowboy that lives down the lane treats me like an interloper. I’m living in his grandparents’ house, and he doesn’t want me there.”
    â€œHe brought you tonight.”
    â€œHe did. I’m a charity case. He felt bad because Corry broke my dogs.”
    Bailey nodded. “He’s about to ride a bull. But since you’ve sworn off men, I guess that doesn’t matter to you?”
    â€œI have a reason for swearing off men. I’m never going to be the type of woman a man takes home to meet his family.”
    â€œLance has problems, Lacey. That isn’t about you, it’s about him.”
    â€œIt is about me. It takes a lot for anyone to understand where I’ve been and what I’ve done. I’m ashamed of the life I lived, so why should I expect a man to blindly accept my past?”
    â€œYou’re forgetting what God has done in your life. You’re forgetting what He can still do. You’re not a finished product. None of us are. Our stories are still being written.”
    â€œNo, I’m not forgetting.” Lacey looked away, because she couldn’t admit that sometimes she wondered how God couldforgive. How could He take someone as dirty as she felt and turn them into someone people respected?
    She worked really hard trying to be that person that others respected.
    The bulls ran through the chutes. Lacey leaned back, watching as cowboy after cowboy got tossed. Each time one of them hit the dirt, she cringed. She didn’t really want to ride a bull.
    â€œJay’s up.” Bailey pointed. Taller than the other bull riders, he stood on the outside of the chute. The bull moved in the chute, a truck-sized animal, pawing the ground.
    â€œI really don’t want to watch.”
    â€œIt isn’t easy.” Bailey shifted Rachel, now sleeping, on her shoulder. “It doesn’t get easier. Every time I watch Cody ride, I pray, close my eyes, peek, pray some more.”
    â€œYes, but you love Cody.”
    â€œTrue. The cowboy in question is just your neighbor.”
    â€œExactly.” Lacey laughed and glanced at Bailey, willing to give her friend what she wanted to hear. “He’s cute, Bailey, I’m not denying that. But I’m not looking for cute.”
    â€œOf course not.”
    â€œI’m not looking—period.”
    â€œBut it is okay to look.” Bailey smiled a happy smile and elbowed Lacey. “There he goes.”
    The gate opened and the bull spun out of the opening, coming up off the ground like a ballet dancer. Amazing that an animal so huge could move like that. The thud when the beast came down jarred the man on his back and Jay fell back, moving his free arm forward.
    The buzzer sounded and Jay jumped, landing clear of the animal, but hitting the ground hard. The bull didn’t want to let it go. The animal turned on Jay, charging the cowboy, who was slow getting up.
    A bullfighter jumped between the beast and the man, givingJay just enough time to escape, to jump on the fence and wait for the distracted animal to make up his mind that he’d rather not take a piece out of a cowboy.
    Jay looked up, his hat gone. His dark gaze met Lacey’s and stayed there, connected, for just a few seconds. Warm brown eyes in a face that was lean and handsome. And then he hopped down from the fence and limped away.
    â€œBreathe,” Bailey whispered.
    Lacey breathed. It wasn’t easy. She inhaled a gulp of air and her heart raced.
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    The rodeo ended with steer wrestling. Jay watched from behind the pens at the back of the arena, still