White Rose Author Teri Wilson

Rodeo Redemption by Teri Wilson

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A Former Rodeo Queen

Josie Turner spends her days at the local dog grooming shop pampering the pooches of Angel Springs, Texas. When rodeo season rolls around again, the townfolk are excited about who their new Rodeo Queen might be. Josie, on the other hand, finds herself reminded all too often about a night she’d just as soon forget.

A Former Rodeo Cowboy

Luke Anderson lived for three things – riding, roping and rodeos. Until the day he met Josie Turner, the girl who gave his life meaning, and whose heart he was destined to break. Now, ten years later, he returns to Angel Springs to find the town hasn’t changed much, but the girl he left behind has become a stranger he hardly recognizes. What, he wonders, will she think of him, and the man he’s become?

A Rodeo Weekend

Determined to break through the wall Josie has erected around her heart, Luke must face his demons while at the same time helping Josie overcome hers. With the whole town cheering them on, can Luke mend Josie’s heart and can one rodeo weekend help them both find redemption?

Excerpt:

Josie Turner’s gaze flitted to the quote hanging askew on the powder blue wall of Josie’s Poodle Parlor. She frowned. “I would rather be a beggar and single than a queen and married,” it read. The frame around Queen Elizabeth I’s words still bore an angry tilt, as if it had been slapped up there yesterday rather than nearly a decade ago. Josie fought the urge to straighten it. Most days, she forgot about the quote altogether.

Today was not one of those days.

“Here he comes.” Ruth Davis, Josie’s young grooming assistant, peered over the top of the white Maltese perched on her grooming table and out the front window of the salon.

Josie didn’t need to ask who he was. She turned her back to the window and ran a comb through the silky ears of the Cocker Spaniel she’d been working on all morning. “He’d better not bring that cigar in here.”

Ruth frowned and continued staring outside. “How’d you know he had a cigar?”

“The same way I knew he would show up here this morning. Some things never change.” Josie didn’t need to mention the particular significance of this day. There wasn’t anyone in town who didn’t know it was the official opening day of the Angel Springs, Texas Rodeo Queen Pageant. But just in case there was one clueless soul out there, the Angel Springs Herald headline screamed the big news in bold black letters.

The tinkling bell on the front door announced Cooper Dotson’s arrival. That and the deafening sneeze of Josie’s pug, Remedy, who was curled in her usual spot at Josie’s feet. Josie sighed in irritation and turned around, prepared to chastise Cooper for bringing that blasted cigar into her salon. “Cooper, I’ve told you time and again…”

Her voice trailed off when she spied him standing there with his huge cowboy hat in his wrinkled hands, no cigar in sight. Finally he’d learned. But the ever-present cloud of cigar smoke surrounding him was enough to trigger Remedy’s allergies. She sneezed once more, spraying Josie’s foot.

“Mornin’, Josie. Ruth.” He nodded at them both and fiddled with the brim of his hat. Then, he turned his back to the framed quote on the wall.

The move irritated Josie to no end. Cooper knew as well as everyone else in town why she’d hung it there, right below the photo taken of Josie when she herself was crowned Angel Springs Rodeo Queen. Even though she was a small town Texas girl, Josie harbored no illusions and was well aware that being Queen of England and Rodeo Queen were not one in the same. The sentiment fit, though, so up on the wall it had gone. She’d even banged the nail into the wall with the narrow heel of her creamy white wedding shoe.

“How can I help you today?” Josie pasted a sweet smile on her face, like she didn’t know the exact reason for his visit.

Cooper cleared his throat and squirmed, as if the long ago image of Josie behind him, with her big hair and even bigger Rodeo Queen tiara sparkling on the brim of her pink Stetson, was burning a hole in his back. “Well, Josie, as I’m sure you know, today is a very special day.”