Chapter 15 Lina
lina
“Sage!” I cried, skipping and running into the arms of one of my best friends. “What are you doing here?”
“Kale told me what happened.” She held my shoulders, pushing me away from her to look at me.
She was a sight for sore eyes, dressed in cutoff shorts that showed off her long, brown legs and a crop top that gave a peek of her belly button piercing.
Her thick, curly, dark hair was piled into a messy bun, as usual.
But her amber eyes were sad, and her signature red lips were turned down in a frown as she took me in from head to toe, making sure I was all in one piece. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. We’re good,” I told her, but I don’t think I was convincing anyone, at this point. I was only trying to convince myself. “Come on, we need to celebrate my win.” Better just to brush it off, enjoy my friends and family, and get a nice little buzz to take the edge off.
I pulled her with me across the sticky wood floors of The Watering Hole, the dirtiest little rodeo bar this side of the Rockies, in Prineville, Oregon.
It was as old as the earliest pioneers who’d settled here.
Pretty sure the floor still held the dirt of the first cowboys who stomped through.
There was even an antique cash register the size of a barrel atop the worn bartop that still clanged when you pulled the lever, just as it had a hundred years ago.
The night was still young and the crowd had yet to fill the tiny space, allowing the ancient stereo system to rattle the walls with classic country.
Looking over my shoulder, I checked to see if Dad and Reed still trailed behind me. I was concerned that maybe it wasn’t okay for Reed to come into the bar with us, but he was a big boy and could make his own decisions on that. Right? He had so far. He was just doing a job, right?
Christian and Kale were already at the bar, and we stepped up to join them.
“Did you see how I jumped off that fucker?” Christian asked Sage when we reached them, his eyes shining hopefully at her like a child seeking praise.
Sage barely glanced at him. “Yeah, you’re lucky you didn’t get a horn in your ass.” She turned to the approaching bartender. “Pilsner, please.”
“Make that six,” Kale jumped in, ordering for us.
“Oh, bottle, please,” I added quickly. We could never be too safe.
Especially now. I glanced back over at Reed, who settled at a table with Dad, remembering what he told me about how many days he’d been sober.
Was that accurate? My chest tightened at the thought, and I cleared my throat in an attempt to stuff the feeling way down deep.
“Actually, make that five. He’ll have a Coke. ” I shot a thumb over my shoulder.
The bartender nodded, heading to the cooler.
“This fine ass?” Christian continued, examining his own butt. “Nah. It’s impenetrable. Rock hard, baby. Wanna feel it?” He turned around, showing off his ass to Sage. It really was a nice one. The chaps always helped.
“Ew. Gross. No, thank you.” Sage inched away from Christian, holding out her hands for the drinks being passed over the bar by the bartender before Christian practically pushed his rear end in her face.
I took a bottle from Sage, sipping it. The wheaty, refreshing taste hitting the back of my tongue. “You’re saying you haven’t even been tempted to touch it?” I teased my friend. “Not even a little bit? He does have a nice ass. You’d be lying if you didn’t think so.”
“Thank you, Lina.” Christian nodded at me appreciatively.
“Any time, buddy. Besides, I thought for sure the ice would have broken after a few months of watching Arlo.”
“You know our Sage. She’d hate to admit she wants me, but I’m growing on her.” Christian winked her way.
“I’m not yours, and there’s no part of me that wants you.” But her eyes shifted away like she was trying to cover up the lie.
I attempted to hide a smile behind my drink.
There was nothing I’d want more than to see my two friends finally hook up.
I knew Sage. She was the yin to my yang, complete opposites.
She needed time to think and feel safe, and then she needed even more time.
But in the last few years that I’ve known her, I’ve never once seen her date or heard her mention anyone she was interested in.
Sage spent the majority of her time either in her art studio she hoped to one day turn into a gallery, or working her ass off at The Rooster.
I was thankful she now had Arlo. It got her out more, and she seemed less lonely than she had been.
“We’ll see about that. Listen up!” Christian hollered at the near-empty room, his arms outstretched, the full beer sloshing foam over the edge. About a dozen patrons turned to stare.
“Oh, God.” Sage ducked her head, her hand covering her face. Her freckled, bronze cheeks pinkened.
I wasn’t hiding my smile anymore. I loved this!
Like one of those sports announcers calling Jude’s fight, Christian belted, “I vow that by this time next year, not only will this woman”—he pointed at Sage, who was now trying to hide behind me—“touch my ass, but she’ll like it. And not only will she like it, but she’ll beg to do it again.”
“Oh, my fucking God,” Sage whispered, shrinking even more behind me.
“You sure you don’t want to fuck that?” I asked over my shoulder, stifling a laugh.
“No,” she groaned.
“Oh, this is pure gold.” Kale had his arms crossed over his chest, a smug look on his face.
“Fuck off, Kale!” Sage stepped away from me, glaring at her brother. “And you,” she said, thrusting a finger in Christian’s face. “Embarrass me again, and your dog-sitting duties are over.”
Christian dropped his arms, hiding his own grin behind his beer as he took a gulp. “Aw, we can’t do that to our baby. He’d miss ol’ paw too much.”
“Ugh! He’s my dog, and I’m pretty sure you would be the one who would miss him. So don’t act like this is some joint-custody arrangement.” Sage spun on her heels, grabbing the rest of the drinks like she was working a shift to take them over to my dad and Reed.
“You know how to get under her skin,” I told Christian.
He bit his knuckle like it was slowly killing him as he watched Sage walk away. “It’s just our foreplay.”
Kale patted his buddy on the shoulder. “My sister’s a hard nut to crack, so the fact that you can get any reaction out of her is a stroke of genius.” He chuckled. “Keep it up, and I bet you’ll eventually break down her defenses. She might even like you one day.”
Christian sighed like a lovesick puppy. “I’m never giving up.”
“You know I got your back.” I winked at him, leaving the boys to head over to where Dad and Reed were hunched over the table, looking deep in conversation now that Sage left them to peruse the jukebox.
Dad’s back was to me and Reed’s eyes flitted up, noticing me, then shot Dad a warning glance.
“… drought.”
I halted right behind Dad at the dreaded D word every rancher feared. Oh, he was in trouble now. My eyes bore into Dad’s back.
“She’s right behind me, huh?” he asked Reed, knowing full well that I was looming with my hand on my hip behind his chair.
Reed only nodded before taking a sip of his soda.
“Come on, Dad, what the fuck? When were you going to tell me?” I blurted out.
Dad slowly turned in his seat, like he was scared to look at me. I was pissed. I hated when he kept things from me because he didn’t want me to worry, and he knew better.
“I even asked you on the phone the other day for an update on the ranch, and you very conveniently left out that little tidbit.”
He gave me a sheepish look. “The last thing you need to be worried about is what’s going on at the ranch. You have to focus on the circuit. And now, knowing what this asshole is willing to pull … you need to just worry about keeping your guard up.”
Reed bowed his head, hiding his face from me beneath his cowboy hat. That only confirmed what I already suspected from him. Of course Dad, and probably Jude, too, were keeping him apprised as to what was going on at the ranch––and with his daughter, Penn.
I shook my head. “You keeping things from me, too, Reed? About my family ranch?”
“Now that’s not fair, Lina,” Dad chided, fully turning around in his seat to face me. “Don’t put this on him.”
“You’re right. I shouldn’t put this on him.
He’s too damned chickenshit to say anything he really means.
” Reed’s head shot up, his brown eyes nearly black.
In the dimly lit bar, they felt as though they were burning right into me.
I didn’t really mean it. Reed was a man of few words, but he never once gaslit me or sugarcoated the truth.
More than once, I could tell he stopped himself from saying what he really wanted to say, though, and I liked challenging him.
I tapped my toe to keep the rest of my body from fidgeting.
“Let alone, tell me something that you were keeping from me. At least he’s smart.
He knew it should be coming from you, not him. ”
“Lina––” Reed tried to interrupt.
I flipped him off to silence him.
“I’m not some delicate flower, Dad. You know that. Don’t think all of a sudden that you need to protect me from the truth. You and the ranch are far more important to me than winning the finals. If I need to drop out––”
“Don’t you dare finish that statement.” Dad gave me a stern look, like I was about to be sent to my room.
“For one, you’ve committed to this, so you’re going to finish it.
Larsens don’t bow out. And second, I’m your father and I love you, but sometimes you don’t need to know everything.
I’m a grown-ass man who raised you and Jude to be great adults, so don’t question my decisions. ”
“Fine. Then don’t fucking keep things from me.”
Dad’s throat bobbed as if he were swallowing down more secrets. I narrowed my eyes on him.
“If I come home and find out you’re keeping more shit from me, I swear to God, Dad, I’m going to flip the fuck out.”