Rodeo (BBW Cowboy Romance) (BBW Western Romance)

Publisher’s Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Copyright © 2013 Monster Media LLC

Chapter 1: Growing Pains

Everyone at some point of their lives finds themselves at a crossroads scenario. The usual question is do you follow your heart, or do you follow your head?  I suppose the obvious answer would be whichever proves to be the strongest influence.

Losing both my parents at such an early age had already instilled a vigorous sense of independence in my character; this mustn't be confused with ingratitude towards my grandparents, who both raised me because that's the last thing I would want to suggest, but, I always felt a sense that I was on my own. 

I was just six years old when my parents were tragically killed in a car accident, to be honest I don't really remember too much about it apart from the sense of drama it created at that time.  I certainly wasn't damaged or scarred by the incident and what memories I have of them both are extreme, fond memories, but being so young there was little time to form anything too reflective.  I probably rely on my grandparents' stories rather than my own actual recollections. 

We had always lived with my grandparents in the country, they owned a farm and had worked it all their lives since my great-grandfather had passed away.  It provided work for both my parents which a lot of my friends found unusual coming from one working parent families.  The farm was spacious and was set in equally spacious surroundings; the house itself was the first building you came to when you drove into the drive, more often than not visitors would already be greeted by Dolly our 'not so welcoming' Collie dog but once she even realised that her bark was definitely worse than her bite she resumed her position on the entrance to the driveway, awaiting her next victim.

Driving along the lane on the run up to the farm were fields to the left, these too belonged to my grandparents and gave the horses plenty of exercising space and nourishment throughout the day.  The stables themselves were at the back of the land, three separate buildings, two of which each had 4 stables and the other had two stables and the tack room.  This was my favourite place on the farm, the smell of leather and Saddle Soap mingled with the earthy aroma of straw and hay always comforted me whenever I felt a little down, plus the horses were far better company than the cows and sheep, a lot quieter too.

Even though I hadn't been affected too much by my loss, there were times when I missed not having a mother around.  I always imagined how we would have been good friends, sharing the workload and ganging up against my father; pretty much as me and my grandmother did with my grandfather but it wasn't my mum all the same.  So, in times of gentle reflection I would often take myself off down to the stables and spend some time offloading my thoughts onto the ponies.

Following my parents' deaths I didn't suffer a great amount of upheaval in my life other than them not being around anymore.  It wasn't like I had to move house or schools or adapt to making new friendships, everything was as it was, minus my mother and father.  I suppose in my own little way I missed them but my grandparents ensured I wanted for nothing and that included plenty of love and attention.  My grandmother would often talk about my mother and how alike we were so there was always a little piece of them and their memories to be enjoyed.

I don't think there was any surface space available in the farm that wasn't laden with photographs, every day I would see smiling pictures of my mother and working photos of my father, both happy in their own right and if my grandparents tales were anything to go by, they were very much in love and had cherished every moment of their time with me when they were alive. 

It goes without saying that I missed my mother most of all, I think that would be a natural emotion for any daughter to feel having lost her mother, I missed out on shopping trips, motherly cuddles and most of all the friendship that I see has developed between my girlfriends and their mothers.  My grandmother tried her best, God bless her, and I wouldn't criticise her parenting skills for one single moment but she wasn't my mother, the woman who had, regardless of pain and hard work, brought me into the world and nurtured me safely along the way.

It was difficult at times due to the generation gap.  My grandparents were used to such a simple way of life and any kind of change to their routine sometimes caused friction but I sincerely think that due to the fact that they were such a good team themselves, they were able to cut me some slack and realise that growing up without my parents wasn't such a picnic for me either.

Despite my general happiness and well-being I was persistently haunted by nightmares.  Following several years of this determined millstone my grandmother decided to take me to the doctor to see if there was something wrong with me, of course there was nothing wrong at all, it was a normal part of growing up and a normal part of me dealing with a tragic event in my life.  The diagnosis was; I was just a normal kid.

Life was by no means easy living at the farm, my grandparents kept a tight ship and with all the land to maintain and the vast amount of livestock they had, there was always plenty to do.  School work always came first, they both insisted on this but as soon as the ink was dry on my schoolbook pages I was expected to muck in like the rest of them.  If there wasn't housework to be done there was a horse to be cleared out, eggs to be collected or cows to milk and feed, it was a never ending cycle of activity.  Thankfully I loved animals and they loved me, I was constantly being berated for sneaking food out of the kitchen and into the barn for the farmyard cat, not until my grandmother warned me I was actually leaving scraps for the rats and that all I was assisting in was the fattening up of them, from then on I stuck to waiting for the cat to come to the kitchen door before feeding her with boiled ham. 

So, as for my upbringing, I have no complaints in that department; I was raised well, had plenty of freedom and I was surrounded by animals; plenty of plus points following such a sad beginning but, there was another plus to where we lived and that was the fact we lived next door to the Silver family.

Ray and Sue Silver owned a working ranch.  Each business went hand in hand and each family had grown close over the history of living next to one another.  It was told that when my parents were alive they spent most of their precious free time with the Silvers.  The same applied to me and their son, Tommy.  Growing up, Tommy and I had shared very little else other than companionship and typical childhood tomfoolery but as we both grew into our teenage years we found ourselves spending more and more time together, growing very close.

I think it was around my fourteenth birthday that I'd begun to see Tommy through a slightly different pair of eyes; the fluttering in the pit of my stomach and the redness of my cheeks when he paid me a compliment told me that I'd started to develop a little crush on him which wasn't hard considering Tommy was such a sweet, gentle guy.  Slightly older than me, I'd always looked up to Tommy, possibly considering him to be the older brother I'd never had but once these different feelings had surfaced it was time for me to understand that it was now a little more than brotherly affection.

Hormones are naturally flying all over the place at 14 and due to lack of experience it's not always simple to know what to do with them, I wasn't particularly close to anyone other than Tommy at the time so it wasn't like I had a girlfriend to discuss this with or compare stories with.  My best friend was indeed Tommy and had I been having these feelings about someone else I would have most definitely discussed them with him.  I remember the first time it happened, a tingly, excited feeling somersaulted inside me and it immediately made me question its appearance.  Tommy had merely taken his shirt off in the hot weather and continued with his work, at that time he would have been sixteen; his body (which hadn't caught my eye up until then) was developing in all the right places, he was becoming muscular and strong and coupled with his blonde hair, deep, brown eyes and tanned skin, for me and I'm sure for plenty of other girls, he was quite the Adonis.  From that very moment I remember being captivated.

The problem was I didn't know what to do with those thoughts, was I to keep them suppressed inside in fear of them causing Tommy to ridicule me, reject me or even worse stay away from me. Or would the kind hearted, sensitive Tommy I knew and cared for understand my feelings and deal with them accordingly? It wasn't a risk I was particularly prepared to take but thankfully I didn't have to.

It transpired that Tommy had been having similar feelings. Once the initial surprise had worn off I was able to tell him exactly how I felt and I can't tell you how much relief I felt knowing that he felt the same.

Shortly after we'd finished our duties on the farms we'd gone down to the bottom of the land and jumped into the lake, this was something we did at the end of most days if the weather was permitting but on that particular day Tommy's behaviour was different.

Running on ahead of Tommy I'd already beaten him to the side of the lake and was stripping myself down to my underwear, however as I looked back I saw that Tommy was holding back and as my clothes peeled themselves away from my hot, sweaty skin, Tommy's eyes were intensely scanning my body.  I've never been a classically slim girl, in my teens there was sadly a lot of puppy fat going on which I wasn't altogether happy with but I've never really been brought up to be body neurotic, I've been taught to be happy with myself no matter what my size or shape.  Working on the farm alone kept me fit so it wasn't due to any kind of laziness that I was larger than girls my age, it was my genetic make-up and I was content with that.

I had fast become more developed than the rest of the girls at school and I was probably one of the first girls, if not the first girl to wear a bra.  This was something that had created a great amount of 'unwanted' attention at school, I was by no means shy but that kind of attention was definitely the kind I shied away from.  Unfortunately, developing breasts before anyone else was a cross I had to bear.

That day, by the lake was the first day I'd noticed Tommy paying me any kind of personal attention and although it made me feel slightly nervous it also excited me and yearned for what was about to happen next. 

We'd both been just as eager to get to the lake that day, the sun had been beating strongly since the crack of dawn and no matter what tasks had been set for that day, working in the direct sunlight was a chore in itself.  It was the beginning of the school summer holidays for me and Tommy had finished first; he popped his head over the adjoining fence to see what I was doing.

Hurry up Blondie or we'll miss the lake, he joked.

Shut up Tommy the lake isn't going anywhere. I was just about to bring in the last of the horses. Once Blue is in, I'm ready.

As the stable door closed, Blue took one very disgusted look at me and with a flick of his tail turned his back on me, I would have normally taken more time with his re-stabling, paid him some attention and talked to him for a while,