Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
hayden
PRESENT DAY
The second day of competition went well. Keenan and I placed fourth in the lineup with a decent roping time. Sierra, once again, swept the competition. The last time I checked, she was sitting thirteenth in the world for barrel racing.
The NFR was never a guarantee, but I held out hope that this would be her year.
After Pendleton, we’d have two more multi-day rodeo events to compete in.
Then it was the waiting game. It was unlikely that I would make it as a header—unlikely for Keenan, too, as a heeler—but I was content with seeing Sierra live out her childhood dream.
In the stands or in the arena, I’d be cheering her on regardless.
After the rodeo concluded, we took the horses back to their “horse hotel” and then decided to meet up with the rest of our friends for dinner, finding ourselves at a steakhouse.
“So, when are you going to convince your girlfriend to finally move up to Montana?” Colter teased Reid.
He shrugged. “I told her the house is hers whenever she wants to move. Even offered to build her a library in one of the guest rooms so she didn’t have to get rid of her massive collection.
Things are going really well with the bookstore, though, so it’ll probably be another year.
Who am I to tell her to shift her career goals when we’re always on the road anyway? ”
Mikey nodded in agreement. “June is the same way. Although, I’m sure if you asked Isa to move, she would in a heartbeat. Juniper would probably tell me to fuck off and then wait another six months after she’d already planned to move.” He let out a boisterous laugh.
“She also just moved, though,” Ellison pointed out.
“Yeah, but you know she’s talked about going back to school. I don’t know when it’ll happen, but it’s in the back of her mind. I can’t imagine she’ll leave her current job anytime soon, though. Working in this kind of research lab was her dream job.”
Jake looked at me and Sierra. “So, Sierra.”
My jaw ticked in anticipation for what he was about to ask.
She perked up, raising her brows at him. “Hmm?”
“You sick of living with Hayden yet?” he joked, nudging me with his elbow. “Or are you planning on getting the hell out as soon as you can? You know, if you ever need to get away from him, I’m building a guest house.”
Her face paled, and my stomach churned.
“I-I,” she stumbled over her words. “I’m very grateful that Hayden’s letting me stay with him.” It was both an answer and a non-answer.
The rest of the group nodded, although their stares were a bit blank as they seemingly tried to decipher the energy between me and Sierra.
Truthfully, they weren’t wrong to be confused; this whole friends-but-not-really-friends thing Sierra and I had going was fucking confusing to me, too.
As much as I wanted her to stay—for good this time—I’d already asked her to stay once.
Convincing her to stay again would be like catching lightning in a bottle, but I was willing to try, even if it meant I got struck instead.
“How is the guest house going, by the way?” Colter asked.
“It’s coming along. I’m hoping to have the framing and everything done before the first snow hits, but you never know what the weather will do.”
Reid and Colter nodded like they were old farmers discussing the weather and crops.
Jake continued, a sparkle of pride in his eyes. “We’re close to working on the roofing and siding, so I think by the time spring rolls around I’ll have a second house, boys.”
The guest house had been his secret project throughout the summer. I’d only found out about it recently, but it turned out he’d started work on it in late July and never told anyone about his plans. I thought Colter had been helping him with it some but was sworn to secrecy for whatever reason.
To be fair, though, none of us really went out to Jake’s property. We all hung out at Colter’s ranch or Reid’s place since he had an arena. I used to go over to Jake’s occasionally, mostly to carpool since his place was between mine and Reid’s, but that was before Sierra moved in.
“Well”—Ellison clapped her hands, changing the subject when conversation about Jake’s construction project lulled—“I know it’s still early, but we’re having everyone over for Thanksgiving this year.
Our first official Silver Creek family Thanksgiving.
You’re more than welcome to come, Sierra.
You, too, Keenan.” She looked at my girl and my roping partner before she flicked her eyes to the rest of us.
“I expect the rest of you to be there and to bring something. Beer, wine, a dish.” She raised her brows at Reid at that.
He was probably the best cook out of all of us.
“We’re making it a tradition now. No one’s spending Thanksgiving alone anymore. ”
If you were a bystander, you would never have expected to see a bunch of cowboys biting back tears from welling in their eyes, but looking around the table, I noticed just that.
Mikey chuckled on a sniffle, breaking the momentary silence. “Look at you, Firecracker. Taking in all us strays. Never would have expected all this from you.”
“How’d you think she ended up with me?” Colter’s eyes gleamed with pride for his wife. “She’s always had a soft heart underneath that tough exterior, haven’t you, Blaze?”
When I first met Ellison, she was guarded and struggling through grief and her own mental health struggles. Not that she didn’t have her struggles now, but she had a whole army behind her—we all did. But somewhere along the line, Ellison had taken on sort of a caretaker role for all of us cowboys.
It was what I loved most about our group of friends.
Sure, we had each other’s backs in the beginning, but watching my friends meet their better halves and heal along the way gave me hope for me and Sierra.
Colter, Reid, and Mikey used to hold things in—I think we all have—but in the last few years, the women in their lives slowly chipped at the walls they’d built up, while simultaneously breaking down their own.
They showed them that vulnerability was their greatest strength, not an ailment.
“You’ve got us all mushy, Ellie. Only you.” Reid shook his head with a smile.
Sierra turned her head toward me, and I offered her a soft grin. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many men cry all at once,” she whispered with a giggle.
“Not even when you made a bunch of those dudes from Great Falls cry at that rodeo?” Keenan teased, and her face flushed.
“They deserved it,” she muttered.
“Hold up, what are you three whispering about over there?” Jake perked up.
“Sierra made a bunch of teenage boys cry when we were younger.” Keenan shrugged, despite Sierra shaking her head in an attempt to get him to shut his mouth.
Mikey laughed, and Ellison’s eyes widened.
“What?” she gasped.
“Looks like you’ve got some competition for being the scariest, Firecracker.” Mikey was still laughing. “Man, does that mean we’ve got three Rottweiler girlfriends in the mix?”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Ellison scoffed.
“You know, you’re protective and not afraid to punch dudes in the face, but then you’re all lovey and cuddly with Colter,” Mikey explained his thought process. “Colter’s a golden retriever, and you’re a Rottweiler.”
She didn’t look super convinced, but she still nodded. “Hmm, okay. As long as you don’t call me a feral kitten, I’ll take being a Rottweiler.”
“I need to hear this story, though. How did you make them cry? Did you punch them? How old were you?” Jake leaned forward on his elbows.
“You want to tell the story, or do you want me to?” I raised my brows at Sierra, a laugh threatening to surface.
Sierra rolled her eyes. “Since Keenan has never been able to keep his mouth shut, I guess I’ll tell it. Long story short, we were at a rodeo, and these bronc riders were talking shit about Hayden, so I told them off.”
“Yeah, that’s the SparksNotes version of it, Skippy. You gotta be more detailed. Tell them exactly what you said.” Keenan laughed.
“I don’t know what he said about Hayden, but it wasn’t very nice, so I just told him he looked about as smart as he was good at riding broncs. He was the worst bronc rider in the association.”
Both Keenan and I raised our brows, looking at her with expectancy to continue.
She sighed, her eyes rolling toward the ceiling.
“Okay, and then I may have dislocated his kneecap because he didn’t think I was strong enough to beat him up and tried to kick my feet out from under me, but assault is a crime, so, for legal reasons, that’s a joke.
If anyone asks, he took a really bad fall off a bucking bronc. ”
Jake coughed, almost choking on his drink. “Damn, that’s brutal. Remind me not to get on your bad side.”
She grimaced, her face contorting with discomfort at the attention. “It’s really not that big of a deal.”
“I’d take it as a compliment, Skippy,” Keenan reassured her with a chuckle. “You’re loyal. Maybe sometimes to a fault, but I’d rather have a friend who’d defend me to the grave than someone who lets people drag me through the mud.”
“Well, I feel like you get enough shit as it is, Kee. You don’t need strangers giving you a hard time, too.” She smirked, mischief gleaming in her eyes where embarrassment once reflected.
“Nah, I think it’s just ’cause you love me.”
“I’ll give you that one. I’d love you even more if you’d buy me some peanut butter cups, though,” she teased.
The rest of the group had diverted into their own conversation, leaving the three of us in our own little world. Guess they had just wanted to hear Sierra’s story.
“You and your peanut butter cups.” I shook my head before turning my attention to Keenan. “Remember that time you couldn’t make a decision on what to get at the gas station?”
He scratched his head. “Uh, you’re going to have to be a bit more specific there, Hazey.”
“The day we went to Ranger’s,” I elaborated.
“We went to Ranger’s a lot,” Sierra mumbled.
I groaned, rolling my eyes. “The time we went to Ranger’s and you got something different than you get every single time. Then we went to the gas station, and you dragged me in even though Sierra said she forgot something and had to go back. Is that specific enough for you?” I huffed out a breath.
“Oh. That time. Yeah, I remember that.” Keenan nodded before stuffing a fry in his mouth.
Sierra’s face paled, and my brows pinched together.
“You good?”
Although her eyes glazed over a bit, like she wasn’t fully here, she nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.”