Free Catching Calhoun by Tina Leonard Page B

limelight.
    “Well, you are an ole lime,” Olivia told the horseaffectionately, rubbing under the horse’s mane. “And look at all that light you get tonight.”
    She held back the curtain, telling herself she wasn’t scanning the crowd for Calhoun. Why would he be here, anyway? That cowboy with his flowery and earnest words was long gone.
    Verbal foreplay. She petted the horse’s neck. “All I wanted was to know that I wasn’t afraid, you know. That’s not wrong, Gypsy. And you know what? With the right man, I might have been a good wife.”
    Gypsy tossed her head.
    “Oo-la-la,” Olivia said. “Aren’t we the fiery miss tonight?”
    She swung up into the saddle, as Kenny and Minnie waited by the curtain.
    “Good luck, Momma,” Minnie called.
    “Good luck, Gypsy,” Kenny said.
    Olivia rode into the ring, her heart nearly stopping as she realized that, not only was Calhoun still in town, but he was sitting in the audience.
    With a life-size portrait of Kenny and Minnie staring down at her from beside him in the fifth row.

Chapter Seven
    Ignore him, Olivia commanded herself. Don’t look at the portrait, either.
    But what mother couldn’t look at a portrait of her angels? She’d never had a portrait of her kids before. A few photographs were scattered about the motor home, but still…a portrait.
    She sneaked another look.
    Calhoun tipped his hat to her.
    Minnie and Kenny slid into the seats next to Calhoun, oohing and aahing over their painting. Olivia couldn’t hear them, but the joy was clearly expressed in Minnie’s round mouth and wide eyes and in Kenny’s little shove to get a closer look.
    Calhoun grinned at Olivia.
    She turned away quickly, focusing on the act. Gypsy shifted underneath her, impatient to begin.
    I very nearly missed my cue, Olivia realized. That crazy cowboy was disrupting everything in her life!
    And yet, the disruption had felt wonderful—for a moment.
    “Nothing lasts, Gypsy,” she said. “Let’s go!”
    They spun around the barrels at top speed, fringe flying and Gypsy’s mane bouncing. In and out, they traversed the barrels as the announcer called their names. Briefly, Barley appeared in the arena, bowing to the crowd, then he was gone.
    If Olivia didn’t know the gag so well, even she wouldn’t know where he’d gone. She pulled on her mask with a flourish for the audience, patted Gypsy’s blinders and let the horse move forward.
    The Star Barrel didn’t contain Grandpa, although Gypsy poked her nose in there, then shook her head at the audience, to their delight.
    The Flame Barrel didn’t contain Grandpa, and Gypsy lifted her head, giving the crowd a big, wide-tooth grin. It was really a lips-pulled-back-from-teeth expression, but she could do it so well, it looked like a cartoon smile.
    That left the Sparkly S barrel, and now Gypsy catered to the crowd, prancing up to it and giving it a knock-knock-knock with her hoof.
    Grandpa cried, “Ow, ow, ow!”
    Gypsy smiled at the crowd again, letting them in on her joke. She stuck her nose down in the barrel, letting out a loud, “Neeeeee!”
    Then she cantered over to the other side of the arena, and Olivia took off her mask to pass apples to the kids from baskets that had been placed there as part of the act. Of course, it was Calhoun’s side of the audience, so both her children wanted apples,and he reached for one, too, with a whispered, “I was playing, too,” while Olivia knew Grandpa was doing the barrel switch.
    It was all going to plan except for Calhoun.
    Darn his oh-too-sexy smile. It was guaranteed to lure a girl’s heart right out of her chest.
    Gypsy took an apple in her mouth, walking it over to the Sparkly S barrel. She looked in the barrel, then stared at the crowd. She looked in the barrel again, then back at the crowd.
    They called, “He’s in the Star Barrel!”
    So Gypsy ate his apple, which made everyone laugh. Without missing her cue, she walked over, backed up to it and tipped the Star