Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chance
“ T hanks again for inviting me up to the suite, Chance. I know things have been a little—awkward—since everything happened.”
Stephanie sneaks a glance across the room. I’m sure she doesn’t want me to see, just like she doesn’t want me to notice any of the other times she did it, but she can’t hide it from me. I’ve known her too long to hide something like that from me.
“I told you, what happened has nothing to do with me. I stay out of shit like that.”
“Even when it involves your best friend?” she asks with a smile.
“Wyatt doesn’t tell me what to do—or who to talk to.”
My eyes look up and lock with Dakota’s across the room. She’s laughing with Wyatt and raises an eyebrow at me before turning her attention back to my friend.
I don’t miss the concern that crosses her face when she first spots me with Stephanie. I hate that she would doubt me, but I don’t blame her. This is the first time I’ve ever regretted my past. I don’t want there to ever be a time when Dakota doubts me, no matter how justified it may be.
“So, do I get to meet her?” Stephanie asks playfully.
“How about now?” I turn and grab our drinks from the bar. Handing Stephanie hers, I turn and grab Dakota’s wine before making our way over.
We cross the distance of the suite, greeting Dakota and Wyatt as they whisper about something he doesn’t seem too happy about.
“Do I want to know?” I ask Dakota as I pass her the wine.
“Nothing to worry about,” she answers with a smile.
“Dakota, I’d like to introduce you to Stephanie King. Stephanie, this is my girlfriend, Dakota.”
“Girlfriend? I heard you were engaged.” Stephanie shakes Dakota’s hand but turns to me.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Everything with Dakota being real is so new; I forgot we are supposed to be engaged.
“It’s still so new. Takes a while to get used to,” Dakota says, shooting me a glare that said she won’t forget it later.
Stephanie turns her attention to Wyatt and drops her smile. “Wyatt.”
“Stephanie,” he grunts, barely looking her way.
Seeing my friend so uncomfortable shouldn’t bring me joy, but it’s a little payback for the hell he put me through when this whole shitshow started. Sure, it meant that I ended up with Dakota for real, but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy watching him try to act like Stephanie isn’t in the same room as him.
“I brought Stephanie over here because she’s a vet that works with the rodeo when it’s in town. She also heads up a group in the area that works with local shelters to rescue animals or rehabilitate them if the owners can’t,” I say to Dakota, ignoring the ‘ fuck you’ glare I’m getting from Wyatt. He didn’t know I had invited her, and he certainly doesn’t know I am hoping that she and Dakota will talk about possibly working together.
“That’s amazing. I would love to hear more about it.” A genuine smile crosses Dakota’s face, and it gives me a sense of pride knowing I’m the one that helped put it there.
“I’m hoping you’ll do more than just hear about it. Chance here tells me you’re looking to help with a problem I’m having with a so-called farm that we believe is neglecting animals. I would love to see if that’s something you would be interested in helping us with.”
“Yes, I would love to speak with you about this.”
Dakota lets Stephanie pull her aside, but not before mouthing a silent ‘ thank you ’ to me.
“Did you actually just do a good deed?” Wyatt asks, taking a sip of his beer.
“Fuck off,” I grit while sipping my whiskey.
“Did you have to do it with my ex?”
I smile. “That was just an added bonus.”
“Fucker.”
We make our way over to the viewing area and for the first time since we got here, I can feel myself relax. The sponsors all came through with support, the riders and animals all came without issue, and we have a record-setting attendance. By all accounts, the rodeo has been a success. What’s the most shocking the most to me is that none of it matters as much as it would have last year. Now, the only thing that feels like real success to me is having Dakota for real, and that scares the shit out of me.
I push the thoughts aside and focus on the cowboy lowering himself down inside the chute. His hand wraps around the bronc rein as the horse moves under him, anxious to get out.
I sympathize with the horse.
“What do you figure?” Wyatt asks, nodding his chin at the arena.
I watch the way the rider sits on the wired horse. “The bronc looks like a wild one and the rider looks a little green. I give him three seconds.”
“I don’t know if you’re being an ass or generous with this one.”
“You know I’m always right, though.” I take another sip of my whiskey, not taking my eyes off the duo.
With a nod of the rider’s head, the chute opens and the horse bursts out. The energy and screams from the crowd drift through the air, and for the first time in a long time, I find myself excited to watch the event. Every buck of the horse reminds me of coming here and standing next to my dad, cheering on the riders and the animals. But he wouldn’t watch from all the way up here; he would always be down in the stands or roaming around the back talking to the riders and handlers. He would only come up to the sponsor’s suite to shake hands and have the obligatory drink before returning down to the grounds.
And what do I do my first year running it? I hide in the suite.
“Well damn, nearly three seconds on the dot. How the fuck do you do that?” Wyatt asks.
“Sixth sense, I guess.” I down the rest of my drink, focusing on the burn as it slides down my throat.
Wyatt spent just as many rodeos by my dad’s side as I did. We watched the same riders, cheered for a lot of the same animals. I don’t know what it is that makes me different, but I’ve always been able to tell which one would win. A lot of the time, it’s the animal.
“I need to get out of here.” I hand Wyatt my empty glass, not waiting for a response.
Searching the room, I brush through the crowd until I reach her, taking her hand, startling her.
“Chance, hi,” she breathes.
I look into her striking green eyes for a moment before turning to Stephanie. “Sorry to cut this short, but there’s something I need to show Dakota.”
“Of course.” She smiles at me before turning to Dakota. “Thanks for giving me your number. I’ll get in touch soon.”
Dakota gives a hurried wave as I pull her from the suite.
“Chance! What’s happening? Where are we going?”
I must seem like a maniac, pulling her through the crowd without reason, but I just can’t handle being in there when I know that’s not where I’m supposed to be. Not where Dad would want me to be.
I don’t know if it’s the rush of having pulled off this fake engagement or seeing what it takes to actually put this on and the pride in the result that goes with it, but I now see why Dad didn’t want to be cooped up in that suite the whole weekend like I have been. It’s not only getting to meet the people who put it on face-to-face, but it’s the rush of seeing things at ground level. The energy around the riders and animals as they wait for their turn in the arena.
I remember being a boy and feeling the buzz in the air while I walked around the off limits areas, seeing what the audience couldn’t. The cowboys that needed to be mended but were too tough to say they were in pain, no matter how bad the injury was. The way the animals needed to run to work off the energy after a ride.
Bursting through the doorway that keeps the separate suites from the general admission stands, I stop and let myself take it in for a minute. The chatter and cheers from the crowd roars through the space as another rider prepares to leave the chute. The smell of beer and barbecued meat fills my nose as I close my eyes. I want nothing more than to show Dakota the rodeo that I grew up with. The one that I loved until I thought I was too old to enjoy it once I started to see the business side.
“Chance?” Dakota’s worried voice and hand on my arm pull me out of my thoughts. “Are you okay?”
I open my eyes and look down at her. “Yeah, I…” I look around, not knowing how to explain this to her. Everything has changed so quickly in the last year; it’s been a long time since I’ve felt everything was ‘right.’ With my dad dying, taking over the ranch, needing to run the rodeo, plus everything with Dakota, I realize that I’ve been everything but ‘okay.’
“Chance, you’re worrying me.”
I pause and look over her shoulder. “You need pulled pork.”
“Sorry?” My answer only adds to the concern that’s etched across her face.
“It’s the best in town. I made sure Buck came back with his truck.”
“Buck and the truck?” She tilts her head and studies me before lifting her free hand and placing the back of it against my forehead. “Are you feeling alright? How much did you have to drink?”
“No, nothing like that.” I shake her off. “He’s got the best pulled pork you’ll ever taste. He’s been coming to the rodeo since I was a kid.”
I lead her through the crowd and get in line.
“But the events?”
“It’s the rodeo clown show now. We’ve got time. Unless you want to see grown men tell bad jokes and shoot free stuff into the crowd.”
“What comes next?”
“Mutton Busting”
“And that is?”
I look down at her, eyebrow raised. “You really haven’t been to a rodeo, have you?”
“I mean, I came once with Addie when I first moved here, but we didn’t really do much other than drink and watch the hot cowboys.”
“You what?” I know she has a past, but I don’t want to think of her as being anything like a buckle bunny or even just hooking up with one of the guys on the circuit. The relaxation that I’ve achieved is quickly being replaced with wanting to punch out any rider that may have even been in the same room as her all those years ago.
“Relax, cowboy, I never went after any. Anti-buckle bunny, remember?” She laughs, pointing at herself.
“Right.” I feel better hearing her say that, but I can’t help almost breaking a tooth with the way I’m grinding my jaw together.
“So tell me,” she says, moving closer to me and laying her head on my shoulder. “What is Mutton Busting?”
“Kids riding sheep.” I let out a loud exhale, letting the relaxation back in.
“Aw, that sounds really cute!” We take a few steps closer in the line. “What else is there?”
I think back to the schedule that I approved just a few days ago. “Barrel racing and then the bulls.”
“Barrel racing is the women, right?”
“Yup.” We take another step in line.
“Why did you want to leave the suite?”
Normally the number of questions she’s asking would drive me crazy. I never liked having in depth conversations with the women I was seeing. Hell, there wasn’t usually a whole lot of talking going on at all for our time together, but with Dakota, it’s different. Part of me likes that she wants to get to know me. It’s been so long since anyone has even tried that I almost don’t know what to do with it. The old Chance would say ‘fuck it’ and walk away, but I can’t do that. Not with her. I want her to get to know me. The real me, not the one I put on for the guys at the ranch or the one for the people in town. The real me. The only other person who knows this side is Wyatt, and even he doesn’t know everything.
“My dad would never spend more than one event up in the suite. He’d only go to placate the sponsors and pay his dues. The rest of the time, he was out here with the crowd or behind the gates.”
“He sounds like he was a good guy.”
I look up at the sky, squinting at the bright sun. “He was. We didn’t always see eye-to-eye, and I hate the fucking awful house he built just to impress people, but he was a good man.”
“I wish I met him,” she whispers as she gives my hand a squeeze.
“Oh, he would have loved you,” I chuckle, thinking of how much he would have fucking loved watching her make me squirm or standing up to me. He always hated the women I was seen out with and the ones he saw at events. He always wanted me to be with someone like Dakota, someone he knew wouldn’t put up with my shit.
“And your mom?”
“Don’t worry, she’ll love you, too. But you don’t need to worry about that anytime soon. She doesn’t come around here much anymore.”
We stand in silence for the rest of our wait. I didn’t expect to feel a weight lifted off me by sharing the small snippets of my life with her, but I feel it. Maybe this asshole I’ve been for so long was just because I was missing someone to share with. Someone to have at my side and appreciate me for who I am, not because of who my family is.
Maybe I just needed to be with someone that made me feel free.
My shoulder is knocked, as someone passes by me and spills beer all over my shirt. Dakota jumps back, still holding my hand, and manages to miss most of the liquid.
“Fucking hell, watch where you’re going.”
I lift my eyes and feel the need to pour the rest of his beer all over him.
Nope, guess I’m still an asshole.