11. Isabelle
CHAPTER ELEVEN
isabelle
LAST JULY: HOME OF CHAMPIONS RODEO, RED LODGE, MT
I sat reading a book in a foldable lawn chair in front of the fire pit by Colter and Ellison’s trailer. Ellison was doing something on her phone, and the guys were playing some game where they ran past each other swinging their ropes and tried to catch the other person’s foot to make them fall.
A loud thud made me look up from what I was reading—a cowboy romance, which I thought was quite fitting for the occasion.
“Ow! You fucker!” Mikey cursed as he lay rubbing the back of his leg.
“Oh, shut up, you were the one who wanted to play this in the first place, asshole.” Reid rolled his eyes and then extended a hand to pick Mikey up off the dirt.
I accidentally let out a laugh, causing Mikey’s head to snap in my direction.
“You wanna try, Blondie?” he taunted, his rope swinging over his head.
“I’ll go against you, Michael.” Ellison looked up from her phone, a devilish glint in her eyes. Ellison was competitive. And she was most definitely a better roper than Mikey.
Mikey grumbled something that sounded a lot like, “I’m not going to lose to a girl,” and tossed his rope aside.
“That’s what I thought!” Ellison called to him, flipping him the middle finger when his back was turned.
One thing I’d learned from spending time with Ellison and the boys was that they all treated each other like siblings. They were one big family, which wasn’t something I’d really experienced with my other friend groups.
I got up, setting my book aside, and walked over to Mikey’s discarded rope to pick it up.
“So, you do want to try?” Reid teased.
I looked at him, squinting my eyes in the sun. “What? You think you’re gonna rope me?”
He shrugged. “Probably. I was gonna teach you first, though. Wouldn’t want you to embarrass yourself.” Then he winked, taking the rope out of my hands.
I crossed my arms, waiting for him to show me.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re gonna rope with your arms crossed like that?”
I uncrossed my arms to make a what? gesture with my palms up.
“Well, come on, now, Lawsy, she’s gonna need a rope. Why’d you take it from her?” Colter laughed as he came over, snatching the rope back out of Reid’s hands and placing it in mine.
Reid rolled his eyes. “Well, I was gonna show her first and then give it back, smartass.”
“Didn’t look like it,” Jake chimed in from where he was standing over by the other trailer that he, Hayden, and Mikey were sharing .
There was no need for all of the guys to bring their own horse trailers when they weren’t traveling long distances. And even when they were traveling far, they still tended to share. So Hayden and Colter brought theirs, and the rest of us split up between the two. Colter, Ellison, Reid, and I would all be staying in Colter’s trailer for the rodeo. Luckily, it had a pullout couch and the table converted into a bed, so Reid and I didn’t have to share. That would have been awkward.
“You want to be target practice for her?” Reid called, to which Jake shook his head. “Didn’t think so, so shut it.”
“It can’t be that hard.” I rolled my eyes. I swung the rope over my head dramatically, like I’d seen people do it in the movies.
Both Colter and Reid started laughing.
“What? That’s basically what you two do.”
“Ouch,” Ellison said with a laugh from her lawn chair.
“First of all, you don’t even have a loop right now, so unless your goal is to whip someone, that needs to be fixed.” Reid once again took the rope from me, unraveling it and showing me the knot at the end. “See this? That’s the honda.”
He then flipped the rope so it ran through the knot, forming a loop. As he pulled, he widened the loop, making it look more like how it did during rodeo competitions.
“You want it to be pretty big,” he explained as he adjusted the rope to his liking before showing me. “Then you hold the rope down here, away from where the rope runs through your honda, and that’s your spoke.”
I wasn’t going to lie, most of what he was saying was going over my head, but I kept listening to him. He was a good teacher, so I had to give him that.
“When you swing the rope, you only use your wrist, not your whole arm, otherwise your rope’s going to get all wonky. And then you watch the honda to know when to throw it at your target.” He demonstrated by tossing the rope at Jake, who was walking over to Colter.
“Ay! What was that for?” Jake yelled as he got caught in the rope.
Reid shrugged. “Easy target.”
“I bet we’ve got a roping dummy around somewhere,” Hayden suggested from behind me. “Let me grab it.” He didn’t wait for a response after his offer, already heading over to one of the trailers. Sure enough, he pulled out the “dummy,” which really was just a plastic steer head attached to a bunch of PVC pipes.
“Isa, here.” Colter tossed me a thin, black cotton glove.
“What’s this for?” I inspected it. It looked like a normal glove you’d wear in the winter, but it was summer, so I didn’t know why he was throwing a glove at me. “Where’s the other one?”
“You only need one,” he replied. “It’s for roping. Put it on your right hand.”
All right. I slipped the glove on my hand as Hayden set up the roping dummy in front of me.
“Here you go, Short Stack. Give ’er a whirl.” Reid winked as he handed me the rope he had used to catch Jake. He’d adjusted the loop already— thank God —so I didn’t have to.
I stood, giving myself enough slack between the coils of rope in my left hand and the loop in my right, like Reid had instructed, and slowly swung the rope over my head. It was a lot harder than it looked, especially trying not to use my whole arm. I gave it a half-assed toss and—shocker—I missed .
“Don’t say anything.” I side-eyed Reid when he walked over to me.
“I wasn’t going to. It wasn’t bad for your first time, swear.” He stuck up his pinky finger as though making a promise. “Pull it back in, try again.” He really wasn’t making fun of me, instead encouraging me to keep practicing as the other guys stopped watching and occupied themselves with other things.
Ellison was still sitting in her chair, but she wasn’t paying attention to us anymore.
I pulled the rope back in, trying to adjust the loop like he had shown me. But every time I tried to flip it, it got tangled up even more.
“Need help?”
I nodded, and Reid grabbed the rope from me, expertly creating a loop.
“You make it look so easy,” I muttered, slightly annoyed, even though he was literally a professional.
“Lots of practice, Short Stack. Here, let me help you.” He handed me the rope and stepped around me, positioning his body so he was behind me.
As I lifted my arm to do the whole swinging the rope over my head thing again, he put his hand under my tricep, pushing on it slightly to lift it higher.
“That’s where it needs to be,” he murmured next to my ear, my spine tingling at the slight warmth of his breath.
Focus, Isa, dammit. I blinked a few times, trying to train my vision on the roping dummy ahead of me.
I started swinging the rope, and he grabbed my arm again, holding it still so it was only my wrist doing the work. It made swinging it a bit awkward, but then I got used to the feeling .
He removed his hand, but my arm still burned like a brand, a phantom touch lingering in his absence.
Who knew roping lessons were so attractive?
“All right, now throw it like you mean it.”
I focused on the honda knot, watching my target, the small plastic horns, and threw the rope. It soared through the air, seeming to hover in slow motion, before dropping over the dummy’s head.
“Now pull to take the slack out!”
I did, and the dummy moved closer to me as the rope tightened around it. I caught it? What the fuck? I started laughing, probably looking like a maniac, at the fact that I caught the dummy. “Am I ready to get on a horse now?” I joked.
“One day.” He grinned, and a smile tugged on my lips.
“Ladies and gentlemen, who’s having fun this Fourth of July?” The announcer’s voice rang throughout the arena as clapping and cheers erupted from fans of the rodeo.
There had to have been at least seven thousand people in attendance tonight. The grandstands were packed, and even the standing room only sections looked full. It was truly an experience here in small town Montana.
“We’ve got a couple Montana boys up next in the team roping. They hail from Silver Creek. Let them hear you, folks! They’re two-time NFR qualifiers, and they came home with the average championship last year. Colter Carson and Reid Lawson!”
I jumped up from my seat, cupping my hands around my mouth to amplify my cheers. It was just me and Ellison in the stands tonight. Mikey, Jake, and Hayden were also competing, so they were down by the chutes.
Jake had already competed in the steer wrestling, recording a time of four-point-six seconds, and Hayden had roped with a partner he drew. They had a decent time of five-point-three.
The crowd continued to cheer as a Luke Combs song blared through the speakers around the arena. I tried my hardest to see Colter and Reid by the roping chutes, but there were so many people blocking my view—a downside of being short.
The music kept playing as the steer was released, and Colter and Reid swiftly followed after. They had always been incredible to watch, even if this was technically only the third rodeo I’d seen them perform at. But it made a difference when the NFR lasted ten days and this rodeo lasted three. Tonight was the final night of Home of Champions; it always ended on the Fourth of July.
Colter caught the steer’s horns perfectly, his horse making a wide turn to give Reid access to rope the legs. He swung his rope a few times then threw the loop, expertly roping the hind legs.
“Atta boys!” Ellison cheered as the announcer called out their time.
“Four-point-one seconds, folks! Now that’s how it’s done!”
Even though I’d learned team roping was a quick event from watching the boys, I still found myself in awe every time they performed. It was almost like a choreographed dance, each movement strategically planned out to the tenth of a second. Missing your cue could mean the difference between winning it all and coming in second or third .
Ellison looked over at me and gave me a wide grin, like she knew exactly what I was thinking.
We watched the rest of the rodeo, and Mikey rode to eight seconds, scoring an eighty-seven. His bull was mean, but he’d always told me that was what he wanted. “The meaner the bull, the higher the score.”
They’d be giving out championship buckles soon, but Ellison stood and took my hand. “Let’s go down to wait for the guys, yeah?”
I nodded as I stood and followed her down the stairs of the grandstands. The guys would probably stay another night here, but Ellison and I had to drive to Bozeman so I could fly back to Texas early in the morning.
Once the awards were handed out, the guys found us pretty quickly.
“Hey, Blaze.” Colter pulled Ellison in for a hug, kissing the top of her head.
“Gross, get a room.” Mikey pretended to gag as Jake shielded Hayden’s eyes.
“Quit that!” Hayden swatted Jake’s hand away from his face.
Reid and I just laughed, watching their antics.
“Congrats, Cowboy. That was a pretty good ride,” I said with a smile.
He smirked, taking off his hat and running a hand through his hair. “You think so, Short Stack?”
“I may not be a rodeo expert, but I know a good roper when I see one.” I winked. “You looked good out there.”
Ellison and Colter wrapped up their conversation, and the other guys had already started walking out of the arena to go to the trailers.
“You ready?” Ellison asked me.
“Yeah, I’ll be right behind you.”
She nodded and took off with Colter, hand in hand.
I looked up at Reid through my eyelashes. “Wait, so, how tall are you exactly?”
“Six foot,” he replied. “How tall are you?”
“Ah, so you’re five-foot-eleven, then.” I ignored his question and instead took the opportunity to mess with him a little.
“No, I’m six foot.” He screwed up his face.
“It’s okay, you don’t need to lie to compensate. I get it.” I smiled and patted his shoulder as I walked past him, hearing him grumble, “I’m not lying,” from behind me.
I believed him the first time, but I couldn’t resist poking fun at him.
“I’m five-foot-two by the way!” I called over my shoulder as I continued walking to Ellison’s pickup.
I could practically feel his eyes burning into my back. I needed to come back to Montana. And soon .