23. Reid
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
reid
C olter and I stood by our trailers, getting our horses ready for our next competition.
“Next weekend’s the big day.” I started making conversation as we brushed down the horses. “Are you ready for it?”
“Oh, yeah, definitely. I’ve been waiting for a long time, man,” he replied with a grin.
I walked around Phantom, keeping a hand on him so he knew where I was, and started brushing his other side. “Well, let’s make sure we win this whole thing so you and Ellison can have a nice long honeymoon and not worry about the standings.”
He nodded in agreement. We were sitting fine in the world standings, but things could change rapidly.
The Livingston Roundup was the largest rodeo in the state of Montana in terms of prize money, so these next few days would be really important for us. We’d need to be at the top of our game.
As we continued to tack up our horses, Isa and Ellison walked over to us .
“Here, Sparky.” Ellison handed a bottle of water to Colter.
“Thanks, Blaze.” He pecked her on the cheek.
Ellison pointed her thumb at him. “He hasn’t drank water all day, I’m sure. Making sure he stays hydrated so he doesn’t pass out.”
I bobbed my head. “Makes sense. Thanks for that. Wouldn’t want my header to fall off his horse.”
Colter winced a little, probably thinking about the accident he had a couple years ago when he was thrown from his horse during practice.
“I didn’t get you anything. This is for me.” Isa laughed, playfully rolling her eyes as she unscrewed the cap on her bottle of water and took a drink.
I stole it from her when she was done, taking a gulp before she could pull it away from me.
“Hey! You’re going to get your germs all over it!” she complained, crossing her arms and screwing up her face.
“You’ll be fine. It won’t hurt you.” I winked as I handed her back the bottle.
“I’m sure you’ve shared germs with worse people,” Ellison teased.
I furrowed my eyebrows at her comment as I tried to push down the jealousy from thinking about Isa kissing someone else.
She wrinkled her nose and made a show of wiping off the bottle opening with the hem of her shirt. But she glanced at me—for a split second—and a glimmer of amusement flashed in her eyes as the corner of her lip twitched upward.
“All right, well, we should probably find our seats, yeah?” She clapped her hands, looking toward Ellison, who wasn’t paying her any attention .
“Hmm?” Ellison turned her head away from Bullet.
“Seats?” Isa tilted her head toward the grandstands.
“Damn, you really want to get away from me that badly, huh?” I teased, not missing the rosy streaks forming across her cheeks.
Colter and Ellison exchanged a look of what seemed to be amusement, but then Ellison linked her arm with Isa’s and pulled her away to find their seats.
“What?” I muttered when I realized Colter was staring at me.
“Nothing, man.” He pouted his lips slightly, sucking his cheeks in as his eyes flicked to the side.
“It’s obviously not nothing,” I grumbled.
“You’re right. It obviously isn’t.” He gave me one more long look before turning his attention back to Bullet.
I didn’t know what he meant. Well, I mean I did, but… It was friends joking around with each other. Platonic flirting… That was a thing, right? I went back to tacking up my horse, trying my best to forget about the crush I’d been harboring for Isa since last year.
A warm breeze swept through the arena, and I grasped the crown of my hat, pulling it off my head to wipe the beads of sweat off my forehead.
I lowered my head, raising only my eyes as I took a few shallow breaths. Sweat trickled down my back, and flashes of last year’s NFR cycled through my mind.
That’s over and done, Reid. Focus.
I made sure to do my pre-performance routine this time, superstition creeping up my spine. It probably wasn’t as deep as I made it out to be, but it was the same concept as a football player wearing the same socks for every game, or fans sitting in the same seats to watch a game at home. If you broke the tradition and lost, it was hard not to think it could have been because you changed things up.
I wasn’t willing to test the theory again.
“You good?” Colter asked, to which I fervently nodded, even if it was only a half-truth.
“I’m ready to get out there and win this whole thing.” My head swam with nerves, but if I pretended I wasn’t bothered, it would be reflected in my performance, right?
Whatever makes you feel better.
“Folks, that was our last steer wrestler for the afternoon! We’ll be moving on to the team roping event next, and we’ve got a couple cowboys from our neighbors over in Idaho to kick us off. Let’s give them a hand, shall we?”
I rubbed my fingers together, trying to ignore how clammy my hands had gotten in the past thirty minutes.
Colter put a hand on my shoulder, and I gave him a look of gratitude before closing my eyes and inhaling.
The arena under my feet. The sun on my back. Colter’s hand.
Popcorn from the concessions. Horse sweat.
My eyes opened. The grandstands.
That was all it took to get me back down to Earth and calm my nerves. I was lucky to have a friend—and roping partner—like Colter. We knew each other well enough that he sensed when I needed help grounding myself, and he was always there.
“Six-point-two seconds!” The announcer called out the Idaho team’s time.
I looked into the grandstands closest to us, trying to see if I could spot where Isa and Ellison were sitting. It didn’t work, and I huffed out a breath of air.
“What’s up?” Colter raised a brow.
“Just looking around,” I replied, shrugging him off. “I’m good, man. I’m fine.”
He pointed across the arena to the right of us. “They’re over there. It’s okay, it helps me to know where Ellison is too.”
“What?” I’d never told him I was looking for Isa.
Colter had already started walking toward Bullet, though, so he could mount the horse and be ready for when our names would be called. I followed, dragging my feet along, even though this was the very thing I lived for.
I just didn’t want to let Colter down. Again.
“Four-point-nine seconds!”
I pumped my fist at our time. Perfectly executed, fast, and enough to put us at the top of the leaderboard.
Colter tipped his hat at me as he led the steer down the arena to the alleyway. I followed, coiling up my rope as we went. I looked to the stands where Isabelle and Ellison were. Isa was standing and cheering, and I grinned at the sight.
I rode up next to Colter as he turned around at the end of the area.
“I knew we had it.” He nodded at me.
I tipped my hat, and we continued riding until we were out of the arena.
“What a run, boys!” Mikey wrapped his arms around our shoulders, forcing us to slouch slightly .
“Thanks, man.” I gave him a tight smile.
“Only one thing that would make the week going into your wedding better, eh, Colter?” He waggled his eyebrows, and I rolled my eyes.
“I’m not going to the damn strip club with you, Mikey.”
“You’re no fun, Colter. But that’s not what I was thinking anyway. I think we should all go to the bar tonight. Ellison and Isabelle too. Celebrate a little. Let loose before the stress of wedding week,” he explained.
“That may be the first good idea he’s ever had.” Colter nudged me with a chuckle.
“Mikey has a good idea? Has hell frozen over?” Jake walked over and punched Mikey on the arm.
“I have plenty of good ideas!” Mikey protested.
“Your last ‘good idea’ almost got you killed,” Hayden scoffed as he joined the conversation.
“I outran the thing, though, didn’t I?” Mikey threw up his hands.
His great idea was to see how close he could get to a bison we found wandering around. We all warned him, “Haven’t you seen all of the news articles of people getting gored by bison in Yellowstone?” but he did it anyway.
“You barely outran it, and you’re lucky we didn’t leave you,” Colter pointed out.
“We should have left him.” I rolled my eyes.
“You guys love me too much. It would have weighed on your conscience. Besides, if I’m dead, who’s going to entertain you all?”
“Our stress levels would certainly decrease.” Hayden side-eyed Mikey, who, in addition to his stupidity at times, was generally an unlucky person. But in the same breath, he was lucky—probably the luckiest unlucky person we knew.
“Shouldn’t you be getting ready to ride?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’ll be back.” Mikey stuffed his hands in his pockets as he walked off, leaving us all shaking our heads.
After the rodeo had finished, we all piled into the pickups to head to the bar. Mikey wanted to go to the college bars in Bozeman, but we told him we weren’t going to haul the horses all the way through the pass, nor leave them.
Mikey, Jake, and Hayden were near the back, and Ellison, Colter, Isa, and I were sitting up at the bar with our backs to the countertop.
“I think this was nice, going out with everyone tonight,” Isa said.
“I think so too. It’s good to have a little break from everything going on. Not have to worry about anything,” I agreed.
“I’m surprised you two haven’t gotten sick of each other, yet, you know with working together so much for the wedding,” Colter joked.
“Nah, I don’t think I could ever get sick of Isa,” I blurted out before I could stop myself. I caught a glimpse of Ellison’s face and her look of mischief before she flicked her eyes to Colter.
“We’ve actually made a pretty good team.” Isa shrugged, our shoulders barely brushing with the quick action. “I, for one, think you wouldn’t have been able to do all of this without our help. The guest list probably would have been five hundred people if we hadn’t been there to help narrow it down for you guys.”
They all laughed, but my mind was still locked on Isa. It hadn’t really occurred to me how close we were sitting until that moment. Her stool was pushed close enough to mine that our knees would touch if I relaxed enough, but I didn’t dare move mine further away.
“Wait, do you hear that? I think Mikey’s getting into a fight again. Come on, Colter, we should, uh, stop him.”
“I don’t hear—” Colter looked toward the back of the bar.
Ellison shot him a shut up glare and pulled on his arm, leaving me and Isa alone.
With the two of them gone, Isa was able to swivel her stool to face the bar, and she rested an elbow as she sipped her drink.
“They’re so unsubtle.” She rolled her eyes.
“What do you mean?” I asked, turning my chair and resting my elbows on the bar next to hers. Our arms weren’t touching, yet a tingling sensation moved up my body at our proximity.
“They seem to think there’s something going on between us.” She shrugged, pulling her arm away. “But obviously, there’s not. We’re…friends.”
Right…
She didn’t seem so sure, but what was I supposed to do? Correct her?
“Mm-hmm. Friends.” I took a large gulp of my beer.