27. Eli
Chapter 27
Eli
T he security guards led Colt and I into the labyrinth beneath the grandstands until we reached something that looked similar to a locker room. The place was pretty much deserted except for three men all dressed in suits and crisp white cowboy hats.
“Colt Dawson,” the one in front said. He was a heavyset man with thinning gray hair that had the air of someone in charge. “You feel like explainin’ why you decided to strike a man in front of God and everybody out there in the arena?”
Colt, looking more like a kicked puppy with every passing second, glanced over at me then up at the man. “No sir. It’s personal.”
The man looked at him long and hard. “You’ve been a good rider Colt,” he began. “One of the best. But I think it’s time you thought about steppin’ down.”
I watched as Colt flinched, but he didn’t look up.
“This story is gonna be plastered all over every rodeo magazine by sun up tomorrow. I doubt anyone will be askin’ you to ride in their arena anytime soon.” He sighed deeply, adjusting his belt. “And I’m gonna have to remove you as our featured rider for the rest of the session. I’m sorry, son.”
“I understand, sir,” he replied, his head still hung in shame.
“Now,” the man sighed. “I’m gonna leave you two to sort out your differences. Can I trust you two not to kill one another?”
“Yes, sir,” we both nodded.
“Uh, if you want to make sure,” I offered. “There’s a man and a very ornery looking woman with a braid waiting for me. Can you send them in?”
He looked at Colt. “That okay with you, son?”
Colt nodded. “I know ‘em. It’s fine.”
“Alright. We’ll leave you to it then.” He gestured to the guards. “Come on boys. Let’s get back to work.”
As the door closed behind them, the silence in the room grew thick and heavy. Colt slumped onto a bench, his broad shoulders hunched forward. I leaned against the lockers, unsure of what to say or do. However, I was acutely aware of the pulsing pain in the side of my face where he’d struck me. Turned out Colt knew how to throw a punch.
Finally, Colt spoke, his voice barely above a whisper. “I'm sorry, Eli. I didn't mean for things to go down like that. I… I shouldn’t have hit you.”
I sighed, running a hand through my hair. “Yeah, well, it did. And now you've gone and messed up your career.”
Colt's head snapped up, his green eyes flashing with a mix of anger and hurt. “You think I don't know that? Christ, Eli, I just lost everything I've worked for my entire life.”
“And a good thing too,” I shot back. “Because if you’d gotten on that fuckin’ bull, you would’ve died!”
Colt looked up at me, but he didn’t argue. I could tell he wanted to, but he knew I was right.
“Your ribs are killing you, aren’t they?” I asked, kneeling down in front of him. “I saw you reaching for them more than once.”
“Y-Yeah,” he muttered before he paused. “Can… Can you help me get this vest off?”
I let out a long sigh. “Yeah.”
Slowly I managed to work Colt out of his padded vest. When it was finally off, he took a deep breath, wincing immediately. “Shit,” he cursed, clenching his eyes shut. “Fuck that hurts.”
“Of course it does you big fucking idiot!” I snapped, tossing the vest aside. “Your goddamn ribs are broken.” My anger flared back into life in an instant. “What the fuck were you thinking?”
Colt's jaw clenched, his eyes flashing with defiance. “I was thinking about proving everyone wrong. About showin’ them I still had it in me. That I was still worth somethin’.”
“By getting yourself killed?” I retorted, my voice rising. “That's not proving anything, Colt. That's just being reckless and stupid.”
He looked away, his shoulders slumping. “Maybe I am stupid,” he muttered. “Stupid enough to think I had a home in Sagebrush. That you’d leave that fancy corporate world behind for someone like me.”
The hurt in his voice made my anger deflate. I sighed, sitting down next to him on the bench. “You're not stupid, Colt. You're just... wrong.”
“Fuck you,” he muttered.
The anger came back as I whipped around, grabbing him by the front of the shirt. “You are wrong!” I yelled, tears forming in the corners of my eyes. “I didn’t take the job!”
He stared at me, his eyes wide. “You… You didn’t?”
“Of course not, you fucking idiot!” Tears were streaming down my face now as I placed my hands on his neck, pulling him close. “That’s what I was trying to tell you that night! I wanted to tell you that I got the offer and that I was going to turn it down! But then my dad… and you ran off and wouldn’t speak to me… again! Suddenly everything was just like last time and all I could do was sit at home and think you hated me!” I was sobbing now, not sure if I wanted to punch or hug him. “And then when Caroline finally understood and was going to talk to you about it, you ran off and tried to get yourself killed to prove some reckless, stupid point!”
Colt's eyes widened, a mix of shock and disbelief etched across his face. His hands trembled as he reached up, cupping my tear-stained cheeks. “Eli, I... I didn't know. I thought... God, I'm such an idiot.”
“Yeah, you are,” I choked out, but there was no real heat behind my words. I leaned into his touch, my anger giving way to exhaustion and relief.
“I'm so sorry,” Colt whispered, his forehead resting against mine. “I jumped to conclusions. I was scared of losing you again, and getting left behind, and I... I fucked everything up.”
I let out a shaky breath, my hands sliding down to rest on his chest. “You're not the only one who fucked up. I should've made sure you understood. I should've chased after you or something.” I looked up at him. “Why didn’t you tell me about the rodeo offer?”
“I tore it up. I didn’t think it mattered.”
“Yeah, well…” I let out a long sigh. “Maybe we should just tell each other things now, huh?”
Colt's lips quirked into a small, pained smile as he nodded. “We're quite the pair, aren't we?”
I couldn't help but let out a watery chuckle. “Yeah, I guess we are.”
For a moment, we just sat there, foreheads pressed together, breathing each other in. The anger and hurt that had been building for weeks seemed to dissipate, leaving behind a fragile sense of understanding.
Suddenly, the door burst open, and Caroline strode in, her braid swinging behind her. “Well, I'll be damned,” she drawled, taking in the scene before her. “You two finally stopped bein' idiots long enough to talk? I wasn’t sure if I’d find you in here taking more swings at one another.”
I pulled back slightly, wiping at my eyes. “Something like that.”
Caroline's gaze zeroed in on Colt's hunched form. “And you, you big fucking dope. What the hell were you thinkin’? Runnin’ off like that? Punchin’ poor Eli here when he’s just tryin’ to save your stupid life!”
Colt winced, both from Caroline's words and the pain in his ribs. “I know, I know. I messed up.”
“Damn right you did,” Caroline snapped, her hands on her hips. “And now you've gone and gotten yourself kicked out of the rodeo. What's your plan now, hotshot?”
Colt's shoulders slumped even further. “I don't know,” he admitted quietly.
I placed a hand on his back, feeling the tension in his muscles. “We'll figure it out,” I said softly, surprising myself with how much I meant it.
Caroline's expression softened slightly. “Well, I reckon you can still teach at my school even though you’re a washed up old has been.” Her words hurt him, but he accepted them with a nod, nonetheless. “But first things first, we need to get you checked out, Colt. Those ribs ain't gonna heal themselves. You ain’t doin’ shit for at least three months.”
“Three months?!” he cried.
“You want the teaching job or not?!”
He leaned back against the wall, letting out a long sigh. “Yeah. I ain’t got nothin’ else.”
“Good. Then three months it is.”
Another figure stepped out from behind Caroline, surprising Colt. Dustin had spent the past two days driving across Texas and all of Houston for Colt. He looked exhausted but thrilled as always to be anywhere near Colt. He really was his biggest fan.
“I’ve got a doctor lined up to check him out before we leave,” he said, answering Caroline’s demands. “They’re gonna do an x-ray up at the hospital and get him all patched up.” He glanced over at Colt, giving him a nervous wave. “Hi. Good to see you again.”
Colt nodded at Dustin, a mix of gratitude and embarrassment on his face. “Thanks, man. I appreciate you comin' all this way.”
I watched as Dustin's cheeks flushed slightly at Colt's acknowledgment. It was clear the guy was smitten, and I felt a twinge of jealousy despite myself. I knew Colt only had eyes for me.
Caroline clapped her hands together. “Alright, enough chit-chat. Let's get this rodeo clown to the hospital before he keels over.” She turned to me, her brown eyes softening just a fraction. “You comin' along, Eli?”
I glanced at Colt, who was looking at me with a mixture of hope and uncertainty. Despite everything that had happened and how angry I was with him, I knew I couldn't leave him now even if I wanted to. “Yeah,” I said, standing up and offering Colt my hand. “Let’s get my boyfriend to the hospital.”
Colt froze, his hand halfway to mine. “B-Boyfriend?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “That’s what I said, dummy. You already know I love you, so we might as well be boyfriends, right?”
Colt's face broke into a wide grin, despite the fact that I’d just spoken his longest held secret out loud. But he didn’t seem to care. “Yeah,” he said softly, taking my hand and letting me help him up. “I reckon we might as well.” He paused. “I love you too.”
Caroline rolled her eyes, but I could see the hint of a smile tugging at her lips. “Lord have mercy, you two are gonna be the death of me. Come on, let's get a move on.”
As we made our way out of the locker room, Colt leaned heavily on me, his arm draped over my shoulders. I could feel the heat of his body against mine, smell the familiar scent of leather and sweat that always clung to him. It was comforting, in a way, even as I worried about the extent of his injuries.
Dustin held the door open for us, his eyes darting between Colt and me. I gave him a grateful nod as we passed, trying not to feel guilty about the disappointment I saw flash across his face. Apparently, he liked Colt a bit more than I thought. But instead of jealousy, all I felt was pity. The poor guy was probably hella disappointed.
The walk to the parking lot seemed to take forever, with Colt wincing and grunting in pain every few steps. By the time we reached Caroline's beat-up pickup truck, he was pale and sweating.
“Alright, cowboy,” Caroline said, her voice gruff but tinged with concern.
“Yeah. I’ll be fine,” he grunted.
We helped Colt into the back seat of Caroline's truck, but I couldn't help but notice how pale and clammy he looked. The adrenaline from the fight and our emotional confrontation was clearly wearing off, leaving him in obvious pain.
“Easy there, big guy,” I murmured, sliding in next to him. Colt leaned heavily against me, his breathing labored.
Caroline hopped into the driver's seat, with Dustin taking shotgun. As she started up the engine, she glanced back at us in the rearview mirror. “Y'all buckled in? This ain't gonna be no smooth ride.”
“We're good,” I called back, wrapping an arm gently around Colt's shoulders. He nestled into my side, his eyes closed tight against the pain.
However, the moment we got onto the main road, I felt Colt go totally limp against me. I reached down patting his cheek, fear spiking in my chest.
“Colt? Colt!” I looked up, meeting Caroline’s gaze in the rearview mirror. “Drive faster! Go!”
She punched it, her tires screeching as we tore through the outskirts of Houston toward the nearest emergency room, Dustin shouting directions as he held on for dear life. Meanwhile I cradled Colt against me, my fingers entwined in his red hair.
“Don’t you fucking dare leave me you big idiot,” I muttered, tears flowing down my cheeks once more as anxiety threatened to overwhelm me. “I love you too much for that, Colt.” I held him tight. “Stay with me.”