And Then You Dare (Crested Butte Cowboys Series Book 5) by Heather A Buchman Page A

head?”
    “Nothing, why?”
    He reached out and rubbed
her shoulders. “You were relaxed for a minute. Now you’re all tensed up again.
What happened?”
    “Break’s over. Back to
business.” She turned away from him, and was almost up the porch steps when he
caught up to her again.
    “You got somethin’ against
kids?”
    She felt the heat rise in
her cheeks. “Kids? As in your two children? Or as in you Bullet? I have no
problem with the former, it’s the latter that makes me shake my head.”
    “What’s that supposed to
mean?”
    “Never mind. None of my
business. See you later Bullet.” Tristan closed the front door behind her,
leaving him standing on the porch.
    ***
    “Shit,” he kicked at the dirt. Between last night and just
now, he’d felt Tristan easing up on him. When he took her hand, she’d come
along willingly. She was smiling when they lay in the grass. And when he rested
his hand close enough that his pinky touched hers, she hadn’t moved it away.
Even when Grey barreled on top of him, she hadn’t tensed up. It wasn’t until
his phone call that she moved away from him.
    It hadn’t occurred to him that she didn’t know he had a
daughter too. Was it really so bad that he did?
    “Damn judgmental woman,” he mumbled.
    “Damn, damn, damn,” Grey sang as he ran around Bullet’s legs.
    “If I said a hundred words, you’d pick out the only curse
word, and make that your song, wouldn’t you Grey?”
    His little boy smiled when Bullet picked him up. “Vroom,
vroom?”
    “Yep, that sounds good. Time for you and me to go for a ride.”
    Bullet strapped Grey into the buddy seat. “I gotta get away
from here for a bit.”
    ***
    “Where’s he goin’?” Lyric asked Tristan.
    “No idea. He got a phone call about meeting someone. Something
about picking up his daughter.”
    “Finally. I called Pearl’s mother this morning and gave her a
piece of my mind. He hasn’t seen his daughter in almost two months. That wasn’t
the agreement. Not even close. But that isn’t where he’s headed now. She lives
in Texas. It’ll take a bit more plannin’ for that meet up.”
    Tristan didn’t care. She’d given too much thought to Bullet as
it was. She didn’t want to know any other details about his life. Her first
impression had been spot on. What you saw with Bullet was what you got. Twenty
new riders were plenty for her to sponsor this year. Adding one more wouldn’t
be happening.
    “Course callin’ her Pearl only made her mad. But I don’t care.
She can’t keep his little girl from him.”
    Tristan wanted to put her hands over her ears. She didn’t want
to be curious about Bullet, or his kids. “Why did calling her Pearl make her
mother mad?” Dammit. Why had she asked?
    “Her name is Hannah.”
    “Then why does he call her Pearl?” Tristan shook her head
again. She was getting further into his business rather than out of it. What
was wrong with her?
    “He wanted to name the baby Pearl. Her mother didn’t agree.
That was after he knew for sure the baby was his. I doubt he gave much thought
to it before the DNA test.”
    He needed a DNA test to know the baby was his? Jeez. It was
even worse than she thought. She often wondered if the bull rider who broke her
heart had any kids. Probably. He and Bullet were so much alike. Hadn’t she
learned her lesson the first time?
    “I can’t do this,” she said more to herself than to Lyric.
“We’ve got a meeting.” Tristan huffed off in the direction of the lower level
of the house, where the meetings were taking place.
    Two hours later, the contracts were signed. Liv helped her
record the measurements of the barrel racers. Lyric was helping Jace record the
bronc and bull riders.
    “Have you shown Lyric your new designs?” Liv asked quietly.
    “No, just you so far. I don’t know…” She’d pulled her sketch
book out a half dozen times to show Lyric, as well as some of the barrel
racers, and then put it away moments later. Were