Chapter 6 Cal #2
“So why take the chance?” I understood risk. Rodeo competitions always involved possible injury, but it was also how I earned my keep. What I didn’t see was why she’d taken the risk when there were other options to raise money.
“We’ve had a lot of smaller fundraisers already but the only attendees were locals.
While they were great, at the rate we were going, it would take us more than five years to pull together enough money to start the process—to say nothing of how long we’d have to fundraise to complete it.
We’ve done the math and talked it out. A rodeo is the best single fundraiser to realistically generate the money needed as quickly as possible. If it’s successful.”
The waitress came and put plates in front of us. Mine was the burger and fries while Amy had a half turkey sandwich and a salad. She picked up her fork and waved it at me. “Which is why we’re going to do whatever it takes to make the weekend such a success that it becomes a town tradition.”
I liked the determination I saw in her, and so I raised my Coke in a toast. “To a successful rodeo.”
She tapped her glass to mine and drank. “Thanks. And thanks for thinking on your feet quickly during the interview. Are you really retiring?”
“I plan to, but I’m not leaving the circuit completely,” I said, hesitating slightly. I hadn’t told many people this next part. “I’ve got an offer from Rodeo Sports Network to be a commentator.”
“You’re giving up competing?” She speared a forkful of lettuce and cucumber.
“Late last summer, I was riding a horse that was a bit on the temperamental side. Didn’t play well with others.
My next ride was team roping and I was the header, while my partner was the heeler.
Don’t know exactly what happened, but the steer got loose and rammed my ride.
I ended up getting tossed. It’s a career hazard, but the older I get, the harder it is to get up off the ground.
Working for the network is a good alternative. ”
Or so I’d told myself when I’d agreed to a contract, a generous contract that would have me in a cushy booth and not risking my back and knees. I knew it was time to make the change, but I wasn’t as enthusiastic as I should be about the offer.
“You don’t want to do something else with your life?” she asked.
“The rodeo’s my home.” The only other career path I’d ever considered was opening a school to train kids for the rodeo, but that required staying in one place, and I didn’t do that.
She rolled her eyes, but a smile was on her face. I liked to see her happy, and I was forming a little plan to prevent another morning like the one we’d had. It was a risk, but what the heck.
“Suppose you tell me about Luke,” I suggested, “so I can try not to be too much like him.”
“Oh, I don’t think that’s—” Her face had immediately blanked.
“Come on, give it a try,” I coaxed. It took another minute or two, but she finally gave in when she realized I was doing this to hopefully make things easier on her going forward.
“Well, he was the high school football star,” she said, “and went to college in LA on a football scholarship. That’s where I met him.”
“I’ve been all about horses and riding competitively my whole life. No football for me. Never touched one,” I said, earning a small smile from her. “What else?”
“Luke hated to cook,” she said it as though it were a confession, “even the simplest thing like eggs.”
“I gotta admit that I eat out more often than I eat in, but I don’t mind cooking.
In fact, when I have a kitchen to use, I like to make the most of it.
I’m no chef, but I’ve not sent anyone to the hospital either.
Truth is, I like to eat, so I learned to cook well enough to actually enjoy what I could make for myself.
No one wants to be around me when I’m hangry.
That’s what they call it, right? Hangry? ”
“That’s what it’s called. Although it surprises me that that would be a problem for you. You seem so level headed and calm.” She was teasing me, reminding me about my grouchiness from earlier. That was a good sign.
“See? The food is working.” I leaned closer and whispered. “I’m thinking of ordering a second burger, but I don’t want to look like a glutton.”
She laughed then, and I loved the sound.
She had a beautiful laugh, which went with her beautiful smile, and her beautiful…
I stopped myself from traveling too far down that path since she was my surprise half brother’s widow, which made her the definition of hands off.
But it shouldn’t prevent us from having fun while we worked together.
“He loved sitcoms,” she said, returning to my challenge, “the more ridiculous the better. He’d watch them for hours.”
“I can’t stand the laugh tracks.”
“Me either,” she agreed. “What do you watch?”
“I’m a drama guy. I like to watch it and read it.”
“Luke never read anything. As a matter of fact, I wrote more than one of his papers during college because he hadn’t done the reading.”
“I think people who don’t read are missing out.
My usual picks are thrillers and detective stories.
I like them to be dark and fast-moving.” I was never without a book.
There was usually one in my truck and a couple in my suitcase.
I’d even been known to read at the arena while waiting for my event.
My fellow competitors ribbed me about that, but I didn’t care.
Reading was part of the household I grew up in and I enjoyed it.
“You have unexpected depths,” Amy said and this time, I laughed.
She took a drink of her Coke and seemed to consider her next words before she spoke.
“I’m curious, and I’m only going to ask this once.
And please tell me to mind my own business if you like.
” I felt a prickle on the back of my neck.
What the heck was she building toward? “Would you like to meet your mother and your half brothers?”
I felt my face freeze. That had come out of left field.
Or had it? It would be natural to meet the family I never knew existed when I was in the same town as they were, I supposed.
“You don’t have to,” she said quickly. “I did tell Laura about you last night. I hope you don’t mind.”
I wanted to know if my mother had expressed an interest in meeting me, but I didn’t ask. I’d lived thirty-two years without knowing her and wasn’t sure it was necessary now.
“And there’s Henry, my son,” Amy continued. “He’s six, in first grade and way excited about it. I guess you’d be his uncle.”
“I’ll meet them,” I said. I didn’t know why it mattered that I know her son, but it did. I knew Luke had left behind a child—had read that in the obituary—and now I found I couldn’t say no to the opportunity of coming face-to-face with the little guy.
If I had to be introduced to the rest of my biological family, that seemed fair, too.
It was a small town after all, and it was better to meet them in private and on purpose versus running into them on the street where everyone would stare.
From what I’d read, one of my brothers managed the ranch and the other was the sheriff.
I wouldn’t be able to avoid them at the rodeo, not even if I tried.
“I’ll set it up,” she said, seeming pleased. “I can’t promise what their reactions will be, but they’re good people, so I hope—”
“I understand.” It wasn’t going to be easy for any of them to make my acquaintance and I felt the same way. Some things just came naturally, but meeting family you’d only just found out about? That was something else entirely.