That he was jealous of her gentle touch was understandable. Only a fool wouldn’t want to get close to Lucy, so at least he recognized that he had grown smarter over the past little while.
“You know,” he said, a thought hitting him. “B.J. has a good idea. Learning to wrestle a calf would be good for you. It would help you with your reflexes and make you more comfortable being around the cattle.”
She looked at him for the first time. He felt the spark of electricity that arched between them all the way to the tips of his boots.
“I’ll do whatever you cowboys think I should. You may make a cowgirl out of me yet.”
“It won’t be hard,” Joseph said, grinning affably. “If you just change your sledgehammer skills over to cowboy’n, you’ll leave us in your dust.”
That got hoots, and she made a cute face at them all.
“Then let’s get to it,” Rowdy said, needing action rather than sitting in the saddle mooning over what he couldn’t have.
* * *
Climbing from the top rail, Lucy felt glad. Sitting there trying not to stare at Rowdy had been hard. But the boys were so sweet and she was determined to make them proud of her.
Wrestling a calf sounded perfect. At the moment, she had so much pent-up frustration about the entire situation that her life was in she could probably milk a wild cow and wrestle a bull at the same time.
Of course, she thought a little late, after she was already in the pen with the calf and Rowdy, that she was doomed. Goodness, her senses were in overdrive standing there beside him.
“Okay, I’m going to hold him. What you need to do is lock your elbow like this.” He held his arm crooked to illustrate.
“Like Wes had me,” B.J. called. “You just don’t give the calf a knuckle to his noggin.”
Lucy laughed despite her nerves. “Okay, I’ll remember that.”
“Once you have him like that, lean back and he’ll flip with you. A bigger calf is going to be harder but if you put your determination into the elbow lock and twist he’s going to do just what you ask.”
Looking up, she got lost in his eyes. Her throat cramped and she couldn’t speak. She nodded instead and ripped her gaze from his and back to the calf.
“I can do this,” she said, accepting the challenge. Wanting the challenge. “I don’t need you to hold him.”
“Show him you’re the boss.”
A roar of agreement went up from the boys gathered tight around the pen.
She laughed hesitantly and shot Rowdy a glare. It was his fault after all. The man smelled of leather and something so tantalizing she wanted to lock him in a neck hold. What was she thinking? “I’ve got this.”
He grinned and waved an arm. “Go for it,” he said, backing out of the way to lean against the fence panel, arms crossed and a too-cute-for-words expression on his face.
She took a step toward the calf and suddenly there was no standing still. The animal bolted toward the fence, faked left then turned right. She went left and landed in the dirt. A roar of laughter erupted behind her. Gritting her teeth, she was up in a second. The animal might be small but it was quick. Something bigger might have been easier than this. But she was not going to let it get the better of her.