14 - Johnny
14
Johnny
Today had been a rollercoaster of a day.
Waking up with an atomic bomb of a hangover.
Catching naps all day in a vain attempt at getting my body to feel anywhere close to normal.
Fucking up the bronc riding competition, my best event.
Telling Sky Eyes that I was going to leave her alone.
It was all an important life lesson. I shouldn’t let distractions get in the way of what I was here to do, which was compete in the rodeo. If I performed poorly, my ranch would send one of the other employees to the rodeo next year. That was, quite literally, my worst nightmare.
I meant what I said to Sophie. It wasn’t a game; I wasn’t playing hard-to-get. I was doing the one thing that was so taboo in the world of dating and romance: bluntly telling someone the truth.
Then she came running after us as we left Billy Bob’s, apologized to me, and invited me to join her when she got off work.
“You have to fucking do it,” Eli said after we had ditched the two random women who tried flirting with us as we left.
“I literally just told her I needed to focus on the rodeo,” I replied.
“So fucking what?” Eli insisted. “You already blew the Saddle Bronc riding competition. If you don’t go out with Sophie, that failure will be in vain.”
I turned a suspicious eye on my competitor. “Yesterday, you were trying to out-drink me to impress this girl. Now you’re convincing me to take her out?”
“I call ‘em like I see ‘em,” he replied. “She’s totally into me, don’t get me wrong. I still think I can win her over before the rodeo ends, especially once I break out my secret weapon . But you’ve got a shot now, and I’d hate to see you blow it.”
“This is downright wingman behavior.”
“What can I say? I’m a good guy. A hero, some have said.”
“Who’s called you a hero?” I asked.
He ignored the question and stabbed a finger into my chest. “She’s not like the other girls we’re always flirting with at the rodeo. She’s something different. She’s special . I know it, and I can tell you know it, too. So what the hell are you waiting for?”
Eli drove back to the cowboy camp, but I took a walk around Billy Bob’s. Walking always helped me think, and the chill January air felt good on my skin after the warmth inside the honky tonk.
Sophie’s offer felt like a pity-invite. She felt bad that I’d blown it at the rodeo, and was trying to assuage her guilt. That wasn’t the way I wanted to earn a first date with a woman. It made me want to get in my car and drive back to my trailer without a second thought.
But she had told me about her ex last night. I didn’t know Sophie that well, but she seemed like the kind of woman who rarely opened up about her personal life. Yet she had shown me a sliver of the person she was, a glimpse at her soul. I’d been speeding toward drunkenness at the time, but I distinctly remember her face—she looked surprised that she had told me.
There was a spark of something there.
“Damnit,” I muttered, glancing at my watch and heading for the employee parking lot. I had to wait half an hour, but eventually Sophie and her friend came walking out. The parking lot lights were behind her head, giving her an angelic halo in the evening fog. I felt my breath seize in my lungs as she turned those penetrating blue eyes on me, flashing with surprise, then joy when she recognized me.
I shot my shot, inviting her to dinner.
“She can’t tonight,” her friend answered for her. “She’s going home to put on pajamas and watch—”
Sophie elbowed her in the ribs. “Dinner sounds great. I’m starving.”
For some reason, I had still expected her to reject me, even though she was the one who invited me out after her shift. I shook off my surprise and said, “Great! First, I need to run back to my trailer and feed my dog. But I can meet you somewhere after that…?”
“I love dogs!” Sophie said. “What breed?”
“He’s a mutt, but I think he’s mostly Yellow Lab,” I said.
Sophie’s face brightened. “Can I come with you and meet him? I promise not to scrunch his face too much.”
I grinned. “Sure.”
Sophie said goodbye to Liz, then followed me back to my truck.
“I have to warn you, Dusty is mighty protective of me,” I said. “He might be stiff-tailed when he sniffs you out, but he’ll warm up after a few minutes.”
“I love it when dogs are jealous,” she said. “I used to have a Great Dane who would try to force his way between me and my boyfriend whenever we hugged. We had to exile him to the other room whenever we… got intimate.”
I grinned. “Oh yeah, I know all about sexiling. I have to sexile Dusty whenever I have a lady caller over.”
She chuckled to herself. “Sexile. I like that.”
As we drove back to the rodeo camp, I started to wonder about her intentions. Did she really want to meet Dusty, or was she making an excuse to come back to my trailer? I was pretty sure it was the former, but I was second-guessing myself now.
Eli was right about one thing: Sophie was special. She wasn’t the kind of woman you had a one-night stand with. That had been my intention when I first hit on her after she handed out fliers, but now? I felt like I had a big old crush on the woman. If she were a woman back home in Colorado, I would have definitely wanted to take it slow.
I was only in town for three weeks, though.
“I never get used to the smell here,” Sophie said as we hopped out of the truck next to my trailer at the rodeo camp. “Somehow it’s worse than the actual interior of the rodeo.”
“I don’t smell a thing,” I said.
“The scent of animals and manure is probably permanently stuck to the inside of your nose,” she teased.
“You’re probably right.” I paused next to the trailer door. “Dusty isn’t aggressive, but like I said, he’s protective. Just give him his space while he sniffs you and tries to decide what he thinks.”
I opened the door, and Dusty leaped out. He rubbed his head against my leg affectionately, then realized that I wasn’t alone. He whirled toward Sophie, tail stiff as he began sniffing her. I knew it would take a few minutes before he warmed up to her.
But then it was like a switch went off in his brain. Dusty’s tail wagged so fast it was a blur as he shoved his head between Sophie’s bare legs, all eighty pounds of him wriggling happily as he made a figure-eight between and around her legs.
“You had me fooled!” she said, crouching down to scratch both of his ears. “You made me think he was protective, but he’s a big sweetheart. Yes, you are! You’re just a big puppy!”
I removed my cowboy hat and scratched my head. I wasn’t pulling a prank on Sophie—Dusty was protective. In fact, he rarely warmed up to women at all.
The dog glanced at me as if he could read my mind, then returned all of his attention to Sophie’s scratching fingernails, preening happily.
“I’m going to take him on a quick walk around the camp until he does his business,” I said, glancing down at her short shorts. “If you’re too cold, you can wait here…”
“And miss Dusty’s walk? Never.” She flashed me a smile, took the leash out of my hand, then clipped it onto his collar and took off down the pathway.
Grinning to myself, I jogged to catch up.
“Yeah, lots of good smells, huh?” she cooed at Dusty as we walked down the rows of trailer camp sites.
“He hates being on leash,” I explained. “Normally, he has free run of the entire ranch back home.”
“Is it your family ranch?” she asked.
I shook my head. “I’m just a ranch hand. Horseshoe Ranch is owned by another family—we’ve been working for them for three generations now. My dad was a ranch hand there, and his mom—my grandma—was a horse handler before that.”
“Tough job for a woman,” she observed.
“Especially back in the sixties,” I agreed. “But she was a tough woman. Worked until the day she died, at ninety-four.”
Sophie sighed wistfully. “That’s the way to do it. Have a job that keeps you active later into life.”
We passed one trailer campsite where a rodeo competitor was brushing down his horse. When he spotted me, he turned and called out, “Tough day, Johnny. You’ll get ‘em next time.”
“Appreciate it, Abe,” I replied. “Hopefully you and I finish one-two in Steer Wrestling.”
We continued our walk in silence for a bit.
“Listen,” Sophie finally said. “I’m really sorry for getting you drunk last night.”
I glanced sideways at her. “I’m a grown-ass man. I knew what I was doing.”
“I used a dirty trick on you,” she continued. “I usually save that fake-liquor-bottle for real assholes who are harassing me.”
“So what does that make me? A fake asshole?” I joked.
Sophie’s blue gaze swung my way. “You’re not any kind of asshole. Which is why I feel bad. I shouldn’t have deceived you.”
I waved to another cowboy we passed and smirked to myself. “You didn’t deceive anyone. I knew what you were doin’ with the bottle.”
She blinked in surprise at me. “You did? Then why did you agree to go shot-for-shot with me?”
“Because,” I replied, “it was worth the price to learn a little bit about you.”
“You thought so at the time, you mean,” she clarified.
“Right,” I said. But as she led Dusty along the path, I decided that it was still worth the price. Even considering how I performed at the rodeo.
I wasn’t going to say that to Sophie, though.
A distant expression came over Sophie as we circled the rodeo camp. I wondered what she was thinking. When we returned to my campsite, I said, “All right, now I’m starving. I haven’t been able to keep much food down all day, but I think my stomach is ready.”
“Good,” Sophie said with a wide grin. “Because I know just the place. Dusty can come, too. And I’m buying.”