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“We ate hours ago. Some of us don’t sleep half the morning,” she said.
He’d probably been partying at the Blue Falls Music Hall until late. On rodeo nights, the place was filled to bursting with cowboys looking for a cold beer, a few spins around the dance floor and maybe a night with a pretty woman.
She couldn’t knock the place. She enjoyed an evening out dancing and hanging with friends as much as the next person. But for some reason the thought of Jason picking up a woman and spending the night with her, then a few hours later strolling onto her ranch to speak to these innocent kids rubbed her the wrong way.
He lowered the bag and shrugged. “It’s never too late for pastries.”
Angel grinned at Sloane. “I have to agree with him there.”
“Aren’t you two going to introduce us?” her oldest brother, Neil, asked as he descended the steps, followed by Ben and Adam.
“That’s Jason,” Daron piped up. “He’s a steer wrestler.”
“Is he, now?” Neil eyed Jason like he did every man who came within close proximity of either of his sisters.
Jason extended his hand for a shake. “Jason Till. Your sisters invited me out to talk to the kids about the rodeo.”
“Sister, singular,” Sloane said under her breath, drawing a curious look from Daron and a couple of the other kids.
Neil took Jason’s hand, and even from where she stood she could tell big bro had made sure Jason knew just how strong he was. A glance at Ben and Adam showed they were doing a pitiful job of hiding their amusement.
She rolled her eyes. Okay, the scene ceased being funny and strode right into annoying. She wasn’t a damsel in distress and she didn’t need her brothers’ protection. She didn’t have any statistics to back it up, but she sincerely doubted guys who posed a threat showed up with a bag of fresh pastries.
“All right,” she said. “Pastries for everyone.”
The kids squealed and jumped up and down, making her smile and ending the testosterone-off.
She motioned everyone to the campsite in a shady area beyond the barn. The circle of tents surrounded log benches and a fire pit. Flying from a small flagpole was a blue flag with white lettering that said Camp Rocking Horse and sported the outline of the ranch’s brand. The kids seated themselves on the logs, and Jason squatted in the center of the circle. She refused to notice how snug his jeans fit his backside in that position.
Yeah, right. She’d have to be dead for that to escape her notice.
“Okay, who likes cherries?” Jason asked.
Phoebe’s hand and that of another girl named Ginny shot into the air.
“Good thing I got two, huh?”
He handed those out, followed by a variety of other Danish and doughnuts. When only one child remained empty-handed, he shifted his attention to Brent, the quietest of the bunch. His story hurt Sloane’s heart, and she’d had to fight the urge to simply wrap the little boy in her arms and tell him everything would be okay. Of course, she couldn’t know that. She got these kids for a weekend, to give them a little light and fun in their lives, a different environment. But then they had to go back to their group homes or to families that had problems of one sort or another. She’d never counted on seeing them leave being so difficult.
“What do you like, little man?”
Brent shrugged.
“Can I tell you a secret?”
“Okay,” Brent said in the small voice she’d only heard a few times.
Jason leaned in toward Brent a little. “The best one is still in here. It’s my favorite. Want to see what it is?”
Brent glanced toward her, and she gave him an encouraging smile. The boy returned his gaze to Jason and nodded.
Jason pulled a pastry from the bag and placed it on a napkin in his palm. “Behold, the cruller.”
He said it with such awe and reverence that one would think he was displaying Excalibur rather than a piece of fried dough.
Angel leaned in next to her and whispered. “He’s good with them.”
Sloane couldn’t disagree, but even that annoyed her for some reason.
After handing the cruller to Brent, Jason turned toward where Angel and Sloane stood.
“What about you ladies?” He glanced down into the bag. “I’ve still got glazed doughnuts and a couple of apple Danish.”
“Doughnut, please,” Angel said.
He gave the doughnut to Angel, then shifted his questioning gaze to Sloane.
“I’m good.”
Beside her, Angel made a frustrated sound. “She’ll take a Danish.”
When Jason extended the pastry toward her, she almost kept her arms crossed. But she realized she was being unnecessarily prickly and accepted his offering.
“Thanks.” When he placed the bakery bag down on an empty log bench, she pointed at it. “Aren’t you having something? It’s only fair since you’ve foisted a ton of sugar and calories off on the rest of us.”
He patted his stomach. “Oh, trust me. I had plenty on the way out here.”
Could have fooled her. Though he was wearing a button-down shirt that wasn’t formfitting, she’d bet good money there was a nice set of solid abs lurking beneath the cloth.
Irritated at the direction of her thoughts, she took a giant bite of her Danish.
Jason sank onto the bench. “So, who has questions about being a rodeo cowboy?”
“How long have you been a cowboy?” Alice asked.
“For as long as I can remember. I started mutton busting when I was four years old.”
“What’s mutton busting?” Daron asked.
“It’s where you ride a big woolly sheep. You wrap your legs around the sheep’s body,” Jason explained, making a circle with his arms, “and hang on to the wool with your hands and see how long you can ride without falling off.”
“That sounds like fun,” Brent said, surprising Sloane so much she was sure her eyes widened. It was the first time Brent had said anything without being asked a direct question.
“It was. It’s how kids get interested in the rodeo.”
“Are we going to do mutton busting?” a boy named Enrique asked. There was such a light in his dark eyes and excitement in his question that Sloane hated to burst his bubble.
“Sorry, but no.”
“Why not?”
She glanced at Jason to find him watching her, also waiting for the answer to Enrique’s question.
“We don’t have sheep, for one.” Not to mention the safety equipment and the level of liability insurance that such an event would require. Or the money for any of those things.
The looks and sounds of disappointment rekindled her irritation, not at the kids but at Jason for bringing up the topic in the first place.
Okay, so he was just answering a question, but still. What kid could resist the idea of riding a big, fluffy sheep? Heck, she would have totally done that as a kid if the opportunity had been there.
“I’m sure you’re going to be doing a bunch of other fun stuff this weekend,” Jason said.
Sloane gradually relaxed again as she watched the continued exchange between Jason and the kids. He never acted as if any of their questions were stupid, and he didn’t talk down to them. It made her wonder if he had kids of his own. He didn’t wear a wedding band, but that didn’t mean anything. Some of the rodeo guys were probably like sailors with a girl in every port.
By the time her mom rang the bell signaling lunch was ready, Sloane had learned that Jason was from Idaho, he’d been competing as a professional since he was eighteen and he’d had six broken bones thanks to his career choice.
Angel herded the kids toward a couple of picnic tables next to the grilling station near the house.
“Are you eating with us?” Phoebe asked as she slipped her little hand into Jason’s.
He smiled down at the girl. “I don’t think they planned for the extra mouth to feed.”
Sloane huffed at that. “You’ve never met my mother and her penchant for making twice as much food as needed.”
“Please,” Phoebe said.
“Well, how can I say no to such a nice invitation?”
Phoebe’s lips stretched into a huge smile, and damn if Sloane didn’t have to fight to keep from doing the same thing.
Phoebe shot off toward the picnic area as if she hadn’t eaten both a hearty breakfast and a midmorning pastry.
Jason chuckled. “Sweet kids.”
“Yeah. And resilient.”
He gave her a questioning look.
“They all come from tough backgrounds. Some are from struggling, low-income homes. Several are in foster care for one reason or another. All of them have had to face more than they should at their age.”
“That’s sad.”
“It is. They seem to like you though.”
“And that annoys you.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.” He grinned at her as he grabbed a ham-and-cheese sandwich and a couple of her mom’s homemade oatmeal cookies.
“Sorry. I just don’t know you, and these kids’ safety is my responsibility.”
“So this has nothing to do with the fact that your sister is trying to set us up?”
“Well, there goes my hope that it was obvious only to me.”
“It’s not a bad idea. I’m a decent guy.”
“Perhaps you are, but you’re also going to be long gone by tomorrow night.” And her record of picking guys to date was far from stellar.
He nodded. “Fair enough.”
Well, that reaction was unexpected. She’d thought he might try to encourage her to live a little, have some harmless fun. She wasn’t a fuddy-duddy and wasn’t on the hunt for a forever kind of guy, but she also wasn’t hot on the idea of being with a guy who’d no doubt been with several women before her and would be with several afterward. She wasn’t judging that choice. It just wasn’t for her.
Of course, she often doubted a serious relationship was for her either. She’d seen at a young age what loving someone too much could do to a person. The one time she’d believed she might have a future with a guy, she’d been proven wrong in a way that still stung years later. The relationships since then had really ended before they started.
They walked toward one of the picnic tables. Though her father and Neil had ridden out partway through Jason’s Q and A with the campers, Ben was still keeping an eye on things from outside his saddle shop. And it was a safe bet that Adam was lurking nearby, too.
“I’m guessing your brothers have scared off a number of dates for you and Angel over the years.”
“They try, the annoying brats. But Angel and I can hold our own.”
“That does not surprise me.”
“You don’t even know us.”
“Call it gut instinct.”
They sat in silence long enough for each of them to eat their sandwiches. She listened to Daron at the opposite end of the table talking to a couple other boys about how he could ride a sheep all day and not fall off. He was so animated that she had to hide a smile behind her hand. Beside her, Jason chuckled.
“That one is full of personality,” Jason said.
“Yep.”
“What’s his story?”
“From a single-parent home, the youngest of six kids. They struggle to get by.” And how heartbreaking was it that Daron’s story was one of the happier ones?
She noticed Brent watching them silently from the other table. “I think someone is a fan.”
He glanced in the direction she nodded. “Hey, Brent, can you help me out? I have more cookies than I can eat. You want one?”
Brent slid off his seat and came to stand at the end of their table. Jason handed him one of the cookies that Sloane had no doubt Jason could eat with no problem.
“Do you have to be big to ride in the rodeo?” Brent asked.
“Not all the time. One of the toughest bull riders I know isn’t much bigger than you.”
Brent’s eyes widened.
