4. Isabelle
CHAPTER FOUR
isabelle
W elcome to night one of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo!” the announcer boomed as roars from the crowd filled the arena.
I’d never been to the NFR before, but Ellison had convinced me to go because Colter was competing. Not that it took much convincing on her part. Cowboys were hot…and there were a lot of cowboys in Las Vegas right now.
She officially introduced me to Colter’s group of friends earlier that morning.
“Guys, this is Isabelle, my best friend. Isa, these are the guys. Colter, as you already know, Mikey, Hayden, Jake, and Reid.” One by one, they all tipped their hats and shook my hand.
“Pleasure to meet you, Isa,” the last one, Reid, said as he did the same.
When I looked up at his face, his eyes meeting mine, heat immediately rose to my cheeks. Holy shit, this is the most gorgeous man I’ve ever seen.
“Nice to meet you too.” I tried my best not to stutter, or even worse, drool over him, before dropping his hand.
I couldn’t tear my eyes away. He was a cowboy version of Finnick Odair from The Hunger Games , except with honey-colored eyes instead of green. In other words, he was every middle to high school girl’s fantasy come to life.
Ellison gave me a knowing smirk, and I shot her a dirty look before Colter and Reid ran off.
A woman walked by our seats in the most extra outfit I had ever seen. There were sequins everywhere , and not only that, her boobs were practically hanging out of her top.
“Isn’t that a little…fancy for a rodeo?” I raised an eyebrow, although I did admire her sense of style a tiny bit. It took a lot of guts to go out in public like that.
“The NFR is basically rodeo fashion week.” Jake chuckled from his seat next to me. “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
Right after he finished his sentence, he pointed out a pretty blonde wearing an orange and purple slip dress, teal fur jacket, orange knee-high boots with lightning bolts embroidered on, and an orange cowboy hat. The turquoise jewelry she was decked out in clinked together as she strutted past us.
“See? Western influencers, you know?”
“Apparently.” I blinked, trying to adjust my eyes to the bright colors. “But damn, if I would have known I’d have packed more than what I did.” I looked down at my plain white blouse and denim jeans, suddenly feeling very underdressed even though plenty of people were wearing similar things.
“It’s all right, Is, we can go to Cowboy Christmas and you can shop your little heart out,” Ellison replied. “You could spend a few days there, it has so many different vendors. ”
I locked pinkies with her as I said, “Deal.” What was a Vegas trip without a little shopping?
The first few events went by in a blur, and before we knew it, it was time for Colter and Reid to compete.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got the fifteen best roping teams in the world tonight! You’ve seen a few of them compete already, but now we’ve got a duo from up in Silver Creek, Montana! They’re standing at number five in the world right now, folks! Colter Carson and Reid Lawson!”
Ellison and I cheered as the boys whooped and hollered for Colter and Reid.
Colter backed up his horse into the box on one side of the small pen-like structure Ellison explained to me was what the steer would run out of, and Reid backed his horse into the other side.
I was completely enamored with what was happening in front of me. The world seemed to still as Colter nodded his head and the steer was released. The boys took off like bullets, Colter catching the horns with ease and Reid following close behind.
“Three-point-nine seconds for Colter Carson and Reid Lawson!” the announcer cried.
“Is that good?” I asked, grasping Ellison’s arm with excitement.
“That’s one of their best times so far this year,” Hayden answered.
I looked at him, a little bit surprised. I think that was the first thing I’d heard him say since Ellison introduced us.
“He doesn’t say much. He surprised me, too, when I met him,” Ellison whispered to me. “He’s super sweet, though. Just quiet compared to everyone else. ”
I leaned toward her. “To be fair, I don’t think that’s very difficult in a group like this one.”
We watched the remaining teams rope, each one coming up short on Colter and Reid’s time. They ended up winning the first round, adding thirty thousand dollars each to their earnings.
When Jake told me how much money they would earn from today, my jaw dropped. I couldn’t wrap my head around it as, “Holy shit. That’s a lot of money,” spilled out of my mouth.
“I think this is a great cause for celebration. We should definitely hit the clubs tonight,” Mikey suggested before he was quickly shut down by Jake, Ellison, and Hayden.
“No one’s stopping you from going, but I don’t think Colter or Reid will be down for that,” Ellison pointed out.
I couldn’t decide if the Las Vegas Strip was better at night or during the day. At night, at least, the city lights made for quite a view, but you also had people trying to give you tickets for the clubs, which, of course, Mikey had been jumping at every chance he got. He’d been trying to get all of us to go with him for the past four days, to which we all gave a firm no . His reasoning was that Colter and Reid deserved to have a little bit of fun because they were performing really well and hadn’t stopped winning since the first night. And his reasoning was always accompanied with a suggestive eyebrow wiggle or wink.
Colter and Ellison were walking ahead, leaving me between Mikey and Reid. Jake and Hayden walked behind us, and I felt a little bit like a celebrity, having a group of tall, muscular cowboys walking with me. Well, besides Mikey. He was only about six inches taller, compared to the foot Jake had on me.
“So, where are you from, Isabelle?” Reid looked down at me, slowing his stride so I could match his pace. I hadn’t really had much of an opportunity to talk to Reid, or Colter, since the day I flew in because of how busy they were.
And no one had prepared me for how exhausted I would be. Admittedly, I was usually asleep before Colter got back to the hotel room.
“I’m originally from the DFW area, but I went to school in Austin. That’s where I met Ellison,” I replied. “Then when we graduated, she moved back home, and I found a job in Houston.”
Even with Reid walking slower, I still had to increase my pace to keep up with him.
“What do you do for work?”
“Right now, I’m working in marketing for a few bookstores around the area. Mostly social media, but occasionally I’ll help with signings and other events,” I explained.
“That’s actually really cool.” He tucked his hands into his pockets.
“Yeah, I really enjoy it. Reading is one of my favorite things to do. It makes me feel like I can escape for a moment and let the world around me pause. There’s no stress—no worries—because nothing else matters while I’m flipping through those pages.” I looked away for a moment, my cheeks flushing with warmth at how excited I sounded. “That’s stupid, isn’t it?”
“No, I get it. That’s what rodeo does for me. It’s refreshing, being able to only focus on one thing and forget about your problems.”
I glanced at him with curiosity. “Most people tell me reading is dumb, or at least, to them, the books I read are. They aren’t real, so what’s the point?”
“Anything that makes you happy—makes you who you are—isn’t dumb, Isa.”
I blinked a few times, utterly speechless.
“Whatcha two talking about?” Mikey nudged me with his elbow before I could respond to Reid.
“I was telling him what I do for work. I run social media accounts for bookstores.” I repeated the condensed version of what I told Reid.
“What kind of bookstores?”
I couldn’t tell if he was baiting me into a joke or not. “Just your normal bookstores. Most are independently owned, and that’s the big difference from, say, Barnes for what reason, I wasn’t sure. But then the door clicked open to a confused looking Ellison and Colter.
“Hey, guys?” Ellison greeted us, drawing out her words.
“Mikey?” Colter asked.
“Mikey.” Reid nodded, and Colter opened his mouth in a silent ah . Reid pursed his lips, nodded at Colter and Ellison, and slipped out the door.
“What was that all about?” Ellison gestured at the door over her shoulder with her thumb.
I shrugged. “I don’t know? I asked him about how he got into rodeo and he kind of talked about his family, but then said he had to go.”
Ellison and Colter exchanged a knowing look.
“What?” My eyes widened. “What did I do?”
“You probably didn’t do anything. Reid just has a weird relationship with his family,” Colter explained. “It’s not a big deal, really. Don’t worry too much about it.”
“His dad wasn’t around a lot and…” Ellison trailed off.
“His mom was around, but she wasn’t exactly present,” Colter finished for her.
Shit. I didn’t know what that was like. My parents were both in my sister’s and my life. They were high school sweethearts and had been together for almost fifty years. In my eyes, they were the truest example of love, the type I wanted to find for myself. Granted, they had their problems, like all marriages did, but they never fought in front of us.
Whatever Reid went through, though, clearly bothered him. A pit of guilt grew in my stomach, even though I didn’t necessarily do anything wrong.
“I-I didn’t know.” I bit my lip.
“He doesn’t talk about it a lot. It’s okay,” Ellison reassured me.
“If you say so…”