Rule #1: no hooking up with anyone else. Rule #2: don't get attached. Rule #3: no one can know.

Hannah Harlow, top barrel racer, the one to watch.

I don't feel like that anymore; all I feel is numb. My smile has faded, my heart is shattered, and all I see when I close my eyes at night is the silhouette of a dark cowboy I know nothing about.

This summer is my chance to keep my head down and get back on top, just in and out of the arena, then onto the next rodeo. That all changed the second Dean Wilder walked up those steps and stood across from me. Dressed in black from head to toe, he looked like the cowboy from my dream. When he tilts his head up and those storm cloud eyes land on me, all I can see is the man who turned my world upside down with four simple words: there ya go, darlin'.

Dean Wilder, unstoppable bare-back bronc rider.

That's the title I've given everything up for. People know by now to keep their distance, and that's how I prefer it. I ruin everything I touch, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to reach out and do a hell of a lot more to Hannah Harlow. I've got a rule of my own; she will end up with me. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but one day soon, she will be mine again. But the one thing I'm keeping from her might be the thing that makes her disappear again. She's got me hung up, and I'm trying my hardest to rope her in forever.