Free And Then You Kiss (Crested Butte Cowboys Series Book 3) by Heather A Buchman Page B

answering him. When Tucker didn’t follow, he turned around and waited.
    “Did you wanna get into the rodeo or not?”
    Jace flashed his credentials to the cowgirl sitting at the door. The look she gave the two of them let them know they could’ve gotten in fine, credentials or not.
    “Where is she?” Tucker asked again.
    “What makes you think she’s here?”
    “She’s here.”
     
    Jace wanted to tell him that if he thought he knew so much, he could damn well find her for himself. His anger wasn’t directed solely at Tuck. He’d been the dumb ass who’d told his brother he planned to see her. He might as well have waved a red cape in front of one of the bulls. Of course that got Tucker on the next plane. Of course. Why had he been so stupid?
    Last night he’d practically begged Blythe to give him a chance. The chance he wanted was to make her forget about Tucker. Now the only chance he had was a fat one.
    ***
    Blythe’s view was unobstructed when she saw Jace come through the door, with Tucker behind him. Tucker followed his brother’s gaze, and looked straight at her. And damn him, he smiled. She couldn’t help herself; she smiled back.
    The crowded arena was loud enough that they’d had to raise their voices to hear one another speak, but Blythe no longer heard any of it. The din quelled to background noise.
    “Holy shit,” she heard someone say. It might’ve been Lyric. “Damn, those two are hot.”
    “Mmm hmm,” Blythe murmured. It was precisely what she thought when the two climbed out of truck, the first time she saw them.
    They looked so much alike, yet so different. Jace was all cowboy tonight. Tucker had on a dark turtleneck sweater, which from a distance looked rich and soft. His jeans were snug, yet he moved with perfect grace. She couldn’t tell from where she was, but she guessed he had on the same black boots he was wearing when she met him. His hair wasn’t that long, but it was much longer than Jace’s.
    He looked like an artist, or maybe a writer, or a professor. At the same time, he fit in perfectly in the rodeo setting. He moved with the ease of a man accustomed to being around broncs and bulls.
    Her gaze shifted to Jace, who looked as though he’d been able to read her thoughts, and knew they had nothing to do with him. Disappointment carved grooves in his brow; his eyes darkened, and lost their fire. The story his face told was that of a man defeated.
    Blythe wanted to comfort him, tell him it would be okay, but the man standing next to him, his brother, made that impossible. Even from a hundred feet away, Blythe was willing to do whatever Tucker asked of her. There wasn’t any question in her mind. No one had ever affected her this way. Not even Jace.
    ***
    There she was. Not close enough to touch, but almost. He wanted nothing more than to jump the fence and walk straight through the arena to her. The shortest distance between point one and two; the quickest way to her. But he couldn’t get his body to move.
    It was as though a part of him was acutely aware that once he moved, once he walked to where she was, once he touched her, his life and hers would irrevocably change.
    His face still held a smile. He couldn’t help himself. Seeing her made him happy. And she smiled back. How long had they been staring at each other from this distance? He couldn’t say. Not so long that her eyes began to question. They still held transfixed.
    He turned, keeping his gaze on her while he weaved his way in and out of the crowd. She watched him, and began to walk in his direction. They would meet in the middle.
    God, he liked that about her, that she wouldn’t simply stand and wait. She’d come to him too.
     
    It was all she could do not to run. It was too crowded to run, but that’s what her body longed to do. Soon, seconds maybe, he’d wrap his arms around her. The walk to him seemed impossibly long.
    He was still a few feet away when she stopped. What was she doing? This was not a