4 - Johnny
4
Johnny
This rodeo was going to be different.
I’d been on the rodeo circuit for a few years now, traveling between the big three in Houston, Fort Worth, and Denver. It had become mundane, in the way that all routines were mundane. I drove the trailer down to Houston, competed in that rodeo, then packed up all my gear and drove to Fort Worth to do it all over again. Then when that was done, it was back to Colorado for that rodeo.
Drive, unpack, rodeo, pack up, drive. Sometimes I met women at the rodeo. Sometimes I took them out for a drink, and occasionally more than a drink. It all blended together.
But Sophie was anything but mundane.
From the moment I saw her standing outside my trailer, I was entranced by those light blue eyes. It was like they could see directly into my soul, warming me from the inside-out despite the cold January chill. And after she left, when Eli and I resumed our argument, I couldn’t bring myself to care about trailer space anymore. Sophie was the only thing my mind could focus on. She was a very attractive woman, with long legs that went all the way up, but it was her face that I kept seeing when I blinked my eyes. Perfectly heart-shaped, with pouty lips that were begging to be kissed.
She was handing out fliers for a local bar. I normally didn’t hit on women while they were at work. Only an asshole would pursue a woman who couldn’t walk away because she was doing her job. That was the kind of thing Eli did, blissfully unaware of the implications.
But Sophie? God damn , I couldn’t stop myself. As soon as I had finished unloading all my gear, I hot-tailed it straight over to Billy Bob’s, paying the cover charge without a second thought.
I didn’t intend to track Sophie down like a stalker, but the moment I walked through the front door, the woman she was with earlier—Liz—came running over to me and told me which bar I could find her at. “She’s totally into you,” Liz said happily. “She likes to play hard-to-get, but keep at it and you’ll wear her down.”
I could work with that. I knew all about playing hard-to-get. I preferred it to the direct approach. Less pressure on everyone that way.
And it was working… until Eli showed up.
I nursed my beer, traded joking insults with him, and then said my goodbye. “The rodeo lasts all month. Maybe I’ll see you around, Sky Eyes.”
It was a line, but it was a good one. No pressure. Maybe we would see each other.
But as I walked away from the bar, every instinct in my body was screaming at me to turn back around and ask her out in earnest. To cast aside the hard-to-get game I was playing and just be direct, like Eli.
I made myself keep walking, though. I couldn’t win her over tonight no matter how hard I tried, but I could lose her tonight. I needed to be patient.
For those baby blue eyes that I could imagine drowning in? I could be patient.
Billy Bob’s was a massive place, with dozens of segmented areas that all kind of bled together. As soon as I left Sophie’s bar and rounded the corner into another area, I found Eli standing there on his phone.
“Great work back there, Elijah.”
He groaned when he saw me. “I would’ve done better if you weren’t sitting there, ruining my game.”
“I didn’t see any game back there. Just desperation.”
“Whatever you say.” He shoved his phone in his pocket and turned to me. “You’re just upset because you know I’m going to win.”
“She’s not going out with you, even if you win the rodeo,” I said. “She wasn’t serious.”
“Probably,” he admitted. “But it will give me an in with her. I can joke about it. She’ll be laughing so much that she’ll forget whether or not she was serious in the first place.”
“She’s not like the other women you seduce.”
“First of all, I don’t seduce women,” he argued. “I’m a lover, not a fighter.”
“Well, you love a lot of women at the rodeo.”
He frowned at me. “That’s not fair. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were callin’ me a man-slut.”
“I am, indeed, calling you a man-slut,” I said dryly.
“And I know she’s not like the others. She’s…” He got a faraway look in his eyes. “She’s not the kind of girl you have a rodeo hookup with. She’s something special.”
I blinked at Eli. “Yeah. That’s what I was going to say.”
“Then we’re in agreement. Whoever wins the rodeo wins her heart.”
“She wasn’t serious…” I began, but he was already walking away. “Where are you going?”
“To tell Sawyer.”
I groaned, but followed him across the room to the ax throwing area. There were three lanes separated by walls, with wooden targets at one end and baskets of axes at the other. A Billy Bob’s employee stood watch to make sure nobody got hurt.
That employee was currently arguing with Sawyer.
“I told you,” the black-clad man growled, “I don’t need axes. I brought my own.”
“But you don’t have axes!” the employee insisted.
“I have something better.” Sawyer’s hands flashed across his belt and inside his coat, and in the blink of an eye he was holding four throwing knives. He fanned them out like a deck of cards. “I’m using these.”
The employee looked like he wanted to argue more, but then Sawyer tossed one knife to his free hand and then flicked it across the lane with alarming casualness. He repeated the motion three more times, throwing the final knife with his left hand. Across the lane, all four knives were stuck into the wooden target at the bullseye.
“Knives are fine,” the employee said with a gulp.
Sawyer was already ignoring him, striding down the lane to retrieve his knives.
“Hey!” Eli went running over to him. “I can see you’re already making friends.”
Sawyer gave him a glare that could peel paint, then walked back to the throwing spot.
“Maybe we shouldn’t bother him while he’s…” I warned.
Sawyer’s head snapped in my direction. “While I’m what?”
“While you’re busy,” I replied.
“I am busy,” he replied gruffly. “In case you two were wondering when to fuck off.”
“I promise to fuck off real soon,” Eli said in that charming twang that seemed to win people over wherever he went. “Just wanted to let you know about a wager we’ve got going with the fine woman at the previous bar. Whoever wins the rodeo gets to buy her a drink.”
“Why,” Sawyer said slowly, “would I care that Chris Appleton is going to buy that woman a drink?”
“No!” Eli complained. “Stop acting like he’s going to win easily. You don’t know that.”
Sawyer shared a brief look with me. In the three years I had known the man, it was the closest thing to camaraderie we had ever shared. Like Eli, Sawyer was my competition at the rodeo. We were all in the same events, and were more or less evenly matched, depending on the day. But while I had a fondness for Eli that came close to what some might call friendship, I didn’t share the same with Sawyer.
Sawyer didn’t make friends.
“Chris Appleton is going to win easily,” Sawyer said in his easy drawl. “Better start aiming for second place, kid.”
“You seemed interested in Sophie,” Eli said, “so I wanted to let you know. She’ll go out with whoever wins.”
“I don’t play games,” Sawyer said, sending another knife at the target. It hit the bullseye, as did the one after it. “You can leave now.”
“I bet you’d play games if it meant going out with Sophie,” Eli pushed. “I saw the way you looked at her when she turned around to pour your whiskey.”
Sawyer flicked his hand again, but this one flew wrong and struck the target with the handle rather than the blade. It bounced back toward Sawyer, coming to a rest at his feet.
But he was staring daggers at Eli.
“I think it’s time for us to go now,” I told Eli. “Good luck in the rodeo, Sawyer.”
The man continued glaring at us as he bent down to retrieve the knife. Afraid that he might send it in our direction, I grabbed Eli by the arm and dragged him away.
“What the hell was that?” I demanded when we were safely away.
“Sawyer’s always such a grump. I wanted to tell him what Sophie said. I thought it might cheer him up.”
“He looked like he wanted you to be the target of his next knife throw.”
“He wouldn’t do that,” Eli said. “Right? I mean, he’s real mean and all, but actual violence…”
“I wouldn’t try him again,” I said. “I’m heading back to the trailer. Yours had better be on the correct side by morning.”
“You think you can win her over,” Eli said slowly. “Don’t you?”
I opened my mouth to tell him no, I wasn’t going to play these stupid games. But all I could think about was Sophie’s piercing gaze, eyes narrowing at me in playful suspicion. I couldn’t wait until the next time I saw her. I was looking forward to it more than the rodeo itself.
“Yeah,” I said. “She’s mine.”