21. Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter twenty-one
“Neon Stars,” (cowboy lullaby) Morgan Wallen
T he shared ride back is equally as cozy and uncomfortable as the shared ride there, but now that I know I have double the amount of time ahead of me I try not to think about how good Eric smells… or how comfortable he is to lean against… or how perfectly I fit in the space between his shoulders.
Denis has an extra pep to his step now that he’s not holding a bunch of metal pieces. He’s still got the tools, but he’s carrying less than half of what he originally hauled. Too bad he doesn’t have a saddle though. That would have just been too convenient. I would have loved to see Eric try to ride him back; he could use some humble pie.
We’re about to stop for lunch when I see movement out on the horizon. As it gets closer, I see it’s two horses, one with a rider and one without. By the time I’m finally able to make out the features of who’s headed our way I hear Eric from behind me let out a few choice words and we pick up the pace to meet them halfway.
“California! Eric! I got Roper! Sorry it took so long to get out here. Shame you guys had to share a horse and all, had to be a real inconvenience. But we saw Roper run up and then Mom needed help with something and then Trevor got in a tizzy about something stupid and then the rain happened and I couldn’t—wait, why do you look so pissed, Eric?”
“Grumpy gills over here has had this look on his face the entire trip, don’t think you’re special there, Dean.”
I think I hear a mumbled “I have not” from behind me as Eric dismounts from Star and walks up to greet Roper. I hear him whisper something in the distance as I also try to remove myself from the saddle, but I am notably less graceful about it seeing as the soreness is reaching a crescendo.
Dean storms up beside me as Eric takes Roper and the horse Dean was riding over to the river and whispers-yells to me, “What happened? I thought we had the perfect setup. I mean come on! Your horse running away? I couldn’t have orchestrated that if I tried! I delayed coming out here as much as I could, but it’d be suspicious if I didn’t at least try so—”
“Dean! Stop. There is no plan, he could not be less interested. I was right.”
“How is that possible? We did everything right!”
“I hate to break it to you, but you’re not Cupid.”
“But he likes you, I know it. You must have spooked him, what did you do?”
“Excuse me! I did nothing.”
“You must have done something, the sharing a horse thing works like nine out of ten times. And a shared tent too? In the rain? I thought I was going to come up to wedding bells or something. I mean, why did Roper run off in the first place?”
“Rattlesnakes.”
“Oh shit, did they bite you?”
“Would I be standing here if they did?”
“Fair point.”
“But I don’t know. All I know is that one moment he was his friendly, fun self…and he did sort of accidentally call me ‘baby’ but it was definitely in a friend sort of way because the next moment he helped me off the horse and I watched the wall go up in his eyes—”
“Oh man, I was afraid of this.”
“Oh great, let’s hear it. What’s your theory now?”
“He loves you so much that he’s scared and pulling away.”
I lift my hands up in frustration and walk away. Dean is deluded. “Wait! Mia, come back here and talk to me, I know I’m right!” he whisper-yells again, this time heavy emphasis on the yell.
“That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”
“I knew this would happen, I just knew it,” he says to himself more than me. “He’s not going to let himself live until he wins that damn rodeo. Any chance you’d stick around until it’s done?”
“Listen, I love your family, I really do. The thought of disappointing them breaks my heart. And Eric is a great guy, any girl would be crazy not to fall for him. I just don’t do the whole Great Gastby ism thing—”
“The what?”
“The build before the girl instead of with the girl. I’m looking for a partner in life, not someone who wants to independently build a life without me. We’re just not compatible that way. I need someone who wants to work with me, not for me.”
“That was poetic.”
“Occupational prerogative.”
“Is it also your occupational prerogative to use big words that make you sound snooty?”
I punch him in the arm as we walk the other horses to the river to get some water. Eric is stroking Roper’s nose like he’s a safety blanket while he looks between Dean and me. The crease between his brows deepens marginally, but that’s not saying much since it’s been there for three days.
Now that I’m on my own horse again, the ride back to the ranch is much more pleasant. We have the rest of today and then a short bit tomorrow, but at least I have all of my stuff.
At least, I thought I had all my stuff.
We ride up to our camping location for the evening and I immediately get to digging through my stuff and notice—with deep suspicion that Dean has something to do with it—my tent is missing. I make my way over to where he’s standing a little too casually by the fire and reach up to grab him by the ear before he cuts me off.
“Oh yeah, Mia, I meant to tell you I left your tent back home.” His voice is only loud enough for me to hear, and I want to slug him.
“Dean Randall, you’re a chicken-shit.”
The look of shock on his face is genuine, and I almost feel bad. “I can’t believe you went there. You know what those words do to me!”
“Well, I’m half sorry. But you’re giving me your tent.”
“No can do, sweetheart, I didn’t bring one either.”
“You didn’t think this through, did you? Because I will be taking the singular tent while you have some sibling bonding time with your brother by the fire. Stop playing Cupid.”
The look of triumph immediately falls off of his face, and an hour later I prove to be the victor of the situation, sitting comfortably in my tent, cozied up in the sleeping bag I dearly missed.
Until it starts raining again.
And then I find myself in a very small tent sandwiched between Dean and Eric, and I know…I just know Dean is taking up more space than he needs to in order to push me closer to Eric. Which would be all fine and dandy if it wasn’t so cozy.
The next morning we all wake up a little stiff from being cramped in a space that’s entirely too small for three adult human beings, but we’re all getting a little barn sour and since we’ll make the rest of the trek home today we pack everything up in record time and hit the trail. Roper seems a bit smug himself, as if the horse was in on Dean’s shenanigans. There’s an extra bounce in each step he takes.
We make it back just in time for lunch, and Nancy has a spread of warm food on the table and a fire going in the fireplace. I could hug her. And I do. Except I know she’s also in on the charade everyone’s trying to pull over my head so I’m holding a smidgen back, but I can’t actually be mad at her. The woman is impossible to be mad at.
Eric keeps to himself most of the time we’re back, and I’m somewhat relieved to know that his standoffish demeanor isn’t exclusively directed at me, but I can’t help but think about the way he was with his family last week and feel a little bit responsible for the negative shift.
The rest of the table is deep in conversation about the upcoming Fourth of July Rodeo. It’s a whole county affair that is apparently quite the big deal. It’s a rodeo just for fun—nothing able to qualify—a pie contest, horse parade, and the whole thing ends with a local concert that almost always leads to dancing, according to Christine. There’s a lot of coordinating to do, and I feel a little more excited than I probably should be to be in on all of the preparations. I’ve done a wide variety of Fourth of July celebrations, but I’ve never done anything that sounds like this.
And obviously I need a good outfit, so I go see Penny first thing the next morning. She’s more than invested when I tell her everything that happened while on my camping excursion. She and Dean are cut from the same cloth because she truly can’t believe that we left the whole trip not further in love or “at least married,” in her words.
“You know for someone who doth protest a little too much about liking Dean, you guys think on the same wavelength. He said the same thing.”
“Mia, that ship has sailed, the train has left the station, the cart is off the rails. There is no future that includes me and Dean Randall in the same sentence.”
“That’s mighty big talk there, little britches, care to elaborate?” I may have told Dean he couldn’t play Cupid, but I’m not smart enough to take my own advice.
“Trust me, we wouldn’t work.”
“Penny, my dear friend, I beg to differ.”
“How can you be my dear friend if you’re trying to leave me at the end of the summer?”
“Don’t change the subject, why don’t you think you and Dean would work?”
“I don’t… I don’t know—”
“You hesitated.”
“Listen, Olaf. I have enough worry in my life. I don’t need to worry about the guy I’m with having wandering eyes.”
“Penny. When’s the last time you had an honest-to-God conversation with the man?”
“It’s been a while, sure—”
“And can you really be so naive as to not see how he looks at you—”
“I try not to make eye contact, and he’s usually with another girl—”
“And does he ever go out with anyone twice?”
“No…”
“And have you ever wondered why that is?”
“No…”
“All I’m saying is that if you’re going to try and throw me at one Randall, all I ask is that you think about Dean just a smidgen.”
Feeling as though I’ve done my Good Samaritan duty for the day, I let Penny help me pick out a simple summer dress that will go well with my red boots. Now that they’ve saved me from a rattlesnake bite, I’ve grown even more attached to them. They’ve become my new personality. I don’t know how they’ll translate when I get back to California, but the state is all about free expression anyways, so I don’t think I’ll run into any upturned noses.
Not that I really want to point out that I’ve determined cowboy boots are my new personality, red or not. I feel at home in the stupid boots, and I don’t want to think about that too much.