Chapter Twelve #3
His whole family was making their way toward her through the crowd.
Ada and Gus, Cole and Aftyn, Seth and Ryan.
Behind them came Johnny and Serena, walking close together that made Naomi smile.
And behind them Rowdy and Curly and the rest of the ranch hands, hats in hand, grinning like they’d come to watch one of their own.
Everyone pressed close and wished her luck, hands on her boot, on Vader’s neck, voices warm and certain.
She looked at all of them and thought that she’d never felt less alone in her life.
When her name crackled over the loudspeaker Vader’s ears snapped forward and he danced beneath her, ready.
She leaned down, found Ethan’s eyes one last time, and kissed him.
Then she straightened, gathered her reins, and rode toward the alley.
Vader knew. She could feel it as he moved under her, coiled and focused, his whole body tuned to what was coming. He’d been here before, maybe not this arena, but this moment. The noise, the dirt, the electric anticipation in the air. He knew what it meant.
Naomi kept him collected as they moved into position, her eyes on the light, her body quiet and still above him. The crowd noise faded to a low roar at the edges of her awareness. Everything narrowed down to the alley ahead, the light and the three barrels waiting beyond it.
This was the part that separated a good run from a great one.
Timing the approach, building speed without breaking the plane too early.
Cross the electric eye before the timer started and it was over.
No time. Disqualification. Everything she and Vader had worked for gone in a single mistimed stride.
She’d done this a thousand times. She gathered herself, felt Vader gather beneath her, and began to move. The green light flashed and they flew.
Vader hit the alley at full speed and the crowd noise disappeared entirely.
First barrel.
She felt him rate himself perfectly, his hindquarters driving under him as he wrapped around it tight and clean, her inside leg guiding him through the turn without touching the barrel, and then they were out of it and driving hard for the second.
This was the one. The one that had beaten him before, the one where he’d drop his shoulder and lose both time and composure. She felt him start to lean and she sat deep and lifted her rein, just enough, a whisper of a correction, and he found himself and came around it clean.
She heard the crowd react, but it was distant and meaningless.
Third barrel.
He was running on instinct and trust now, both of them were. He took it wide and tight all at once and only a horse who truly understood the pattern could, and then they were in the home stretch, and she was asking him for everything he had.
He gave it.
She crossed the line, stood in the stirrups and Vader thundered past the electric eye and she brought him around in a wide arc, his sides heaving, and the arena erupted.
She didn’t know the time yet. She didn’t need to. She knew.
The announcer’s voice broke through the noise.
“Folks, that is a new arena record. Naomi Austin on Vader with a time of—”
The rest of it got swallowed by the roar of the crowd.
Naomi dropped her face to Vader’s neck and laughed and cried at the same time, her whole body shaking, her hands buried in his mane.
She managed to say, “Good boy. Good, good boy.”
She straightened and turned him back toward the gate and saw them all.
Ethan’s family on their feet in the stands, Ada with both hands over her mouth, Gus clapping slowly and proud. Cole and Seth hollering at each other like they’d won something themselves.
And Ethan.
He was at the gate, waiting, his hat in his hand and something on his face she’d never seen before and would never forget.
She rode straight to him. He reached up, pulled her off the horse, into his arms and held her.
“That’s my girl,” he said into her hair. “I knew you could do it.”
Naomi laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him, right there at the gate with the crowd still roaring and she didn’t care who saw it.
His family closed around them before he’d even set her down.
Ada pulled her into a hug that said everything without a single word.
Gus shook her hand with both of his and looked at her the same way he looked at his sons, like she’d always belonged in the circle.
Cole touched her on the back, Aftyn hugged her, and Seth lifted her off her feet briefly before Ryan pulled her away for a hug of her own.
Johnny pressed his hat to his chest and bowed elaborately until Serena elbowed him. Rowdy, Kurt, and Curly stood at the edges grinning like proud uncles.
Naomi moved through all of it laughing, squeezing hands and blinking back tears she refused to shed twice in one day.
She found Ethan at the edge of the circle, watching her with that quiet expression she’d come to love more than almost anything.
She went to him and he put his arm around her. She leaned into his side and looked at the people surrounding her.
She was on cloud nine. She knew that. But it wasn’t the win that had put her there, not entirely.
It was this man beside her and these people around her who had taken her in without hesitation and made her feel like she’d always had a place here.
A place she would gladly stay for the rest of her life.