Chapter Thirty-Two
We were almost late for the rodeo that night.
Between how hard we had laughed at the table and how slow we all ate, the rodeo had already started before we were all loaded in the trucks.
Reluctantly, I had to jump out of the truck and wave to the Nash family to get to the booth on time to give the announcer the sponsorship script for the night.
I was panting hard by the time I made it back to my usual spot behind the chutes and spotted Billy. “Hey!” I waved.
She waved enthusiastically back. She was wearing the brightest yellow dress I’d ever seen and striped tights. “Okay, Texas is freaking heaven,” she declared.
I chuckled. “Yeah?”
“Honky tonks full of cowboys?” She moaned. “I could live here.”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying your trips,” I laughed. “Are you tired of traveling?”
She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Heck no. I’m gonna legit cry when this is over!”
Me too.
“Well, if I ever have another assignment where I need a photographer, I know exactly who I’m calling!” I whispered as the crowd quieted for the National Anthem.
“Yes, please!”
“Please, stand up, take those hats off, and place them over your hearts.” The announcer said as the horse and rider with the American flag rode into the arena. The young singer gave a beautiful performance of The Star-Spangled Banner, and I felt tears threaten as Ellie’s face popped into my head.
If I missed her, I couldn’t imagine what Jimmy was feeling right now.
“Tonight we celebrate a country we’re proud to live in. Let’s hear it for little June!” He encouraged the audience as the song finished.
“Look at that dirt, folks. It’s been soaked in the sweat and the dreams of legends for decades. Tonight, fifteen of the world’s Top 20 athletes are in the house. They’ve driven through the night and bled in the dust just for the chance to HEAR YOU ROAR!”
The crowd screamed and whistled in response, ready for a two-hour adrenaline rush from the cowboys.
“From the rankest bulls in the Hill Country to the fastest horses on the circuit, we’ve got the power. From the heart of the Texas Panhandle to the bright lights of the NFR... Amarillo, are you ready to get Western?!”
“Ally!”
I spun around to look at the first chute. Colton was rushing up behind me. He was dressed in his chaps, spurs, vest, and already had his gloves on tight. “Hi!” I practically screamed.
He threw his arms around my middle and spun me around. “I needed a kiss before the ride.”
Not a problem at all. I kissed him hard and fast, knowing any second he’d have to climb on the horse. Right as he set me down, I slid a small paper into his hand.
He gave me a confused look and flipped it over. Then, in an instant, his face lit up and a huge grin took over his face. “Oh, Ally, this is perfect.”
It was horribly embarrassing, picking a picture of myself, printing it out on Jo’s printer in the trailer, and giving it to him, but it’s what he had asked.
He grabbed my hand and squeezed it. “Thank you. You have no idea how happy this makes me,” he said with genuine honesty.
“Get out of here, Cowboy!” I ordered, my cheeks burning, knowing that Billy was watching this whole ordeal.
“I’ll see you after the ride?” He asked as he slid the picture into his hat.
“Of course!”
He was beaming, his whole face lighting up. “Good to see you, Billy,” he said politely.
She was staring, a flirtatious look on her face. “Looking good, Nash.”
He gave me a confused look and ran off to finish getting ready.
I lightly smacked her. “You have no shame, do you?”
“Not an ounce,” she admitted. “All right, what do we need tonight?”
I looked through my notes on my phone. “This is high stakes, so I only want to focus on the cowboys and girls that are in the top twenty and wearing the Agri-Corp vest. Other than that, we won’t worry about it.”
“Got it.”
“We’ve got some big names sliding on the bubble. We’ve got men like your number ten in the world, fighting to hold onto that Top 15 spot with everything he’s got. The pressure is high, the ground is fast, and the stakes? Well, they don’t get any higher than this.”
There was a loud bang in the chute beside us.
Billy and I turned to see Colton climbing on the horse. His wrists were wrapped in the thick athletic tape as he shoved his hand under the rigging. He was nodding at the cowboys around him, but I knew that look in his eye. He was in his own world; everyone around him didn’t exist right now.
“Let’s hear it for the number ten bronc rider IN THE WORLD!” the announcer boasted, “Colton Nash!”
He nodded sharply at the gate, and it was thrown open.
“Jitterbug” erupted out of the pen, launching immediately six feet in the air. Colton’s body snapped like a rag doll in a hurricane. His head whipped toward his spine, making me dizzy. Cold sweat covered me from head to toe.
Every time the horse’s hooves hit the dirt, the impact traveled up Colton’s arm and burst in his chest. I could hear the grunt of air being physically forced out of his lungs even over the crowd and announcer’s screams.
My hands were shaking. I clenched them into fists to make them stop.
Five seconds into the ride, the horse shifted its weight midair. Colton’s seat slipped. He hung off the side, his hand still trapped in the rigging, his head now inches away from the metal fence the horse kept brushing against.
I stopped breathing, my vision tunneling.
If he fell back any farther, he would slam into the fence, which would either kill him or, at the very least, be life-threatening.
I gripped my stomach, unable to move.
“Miss Ford?” I could vaguely hear Billy yelling at me.
The crowd was screaming so loudly that it was vibrating the arena.
The buzzer roared, and the pickup men swooped in like cavalry. Colton was able to release the riggin, and his body fell into the dirt with a heavy, sickening thud I felt in my teeth.
Was he okay?
Oh my gosh, he wasn’t getting up.
I needed to go get him.
Somebody call an ambulance!
I was half a second from storming into the dirt when he finally pushed himself to his feet.
The crowd cheered as loudly as they could. He raised his hands triumphantly, and they lost their minds, shrieking for him.
He tapped his head twice, with two fingers, a crisp, silent salute, before turning all the way around to send it right to me.
I clutched my stomach, spun on my heel, and threw up in the dirt.
Luckily, Colton didn’t notice. He was busy staring at the replay, his twitching fingers at his side as he awaited the announcement of his final score.
“Let’s hear it for Colton Nash, eighty-two points!”
The crowd cheered, but Colton didn’t celebrate. He spat a mouthful of the Amarillo dust into the dirt and started unbuckling his chaps.
“Miss Ford, are you okay?”
I was still leaning against the fence, hovering over my vomit.
I sat up, wiped my mouth, being as subtle as I could to kick a pile of dirt over the puke.
“Yes, Billy, I’m fine.” I wiped the sweat away from my eyes and shot her a smile.
“Sorry about that. I must’ve eaten something that didn’t agree with my stomach. ”
Billy didn’t look convinced. Her green nails were on my arm. “You looked like you were gonna pass out that whole time.”
Colton was climbing through the fence, shaking his head. I rushed to him and threw my arms around his body. He slowly raised his hand and placed it on my back, his body quivering.
“Are you okay?”
He put his chin against my temple. “Eighty-two,” he muttered.
I released him to look up at his face. “You could’ve died, Colton. I’m just glad you’re okay!”
He creased his brows together. “I need to get at least ninety at the next show to be confident enough to go to Sioux Falls.”
He saw his ride as a damper on his scores and paychecks.
I saw it as a miracle that he was alive.
“Colton, you can practice, it’s okay. I’m just glad nothing horrible happened to you out there.”
He wanted to argue, I could see it in the way he clenched his jaw, but instead he tucked my hair behind my ear with a gloved hand and nodded. “You bet I’ll be practicin’ tomorrow.”
“How much did she ask for?”
I blinked hard.
It had been maybe an hour since I retired to the trailer, my adrenaline from the horrible day finally crashing. Colton was still reeling from his rough ride and wasn’t ready to go to sleep.
I had showered, gotten into my pajamas, and was unconscious within seconds of hitting the pillow.
I’m not sure what woke me, but the question had piqued my interest. I shot up and glanced out of the tiny window.
The Nash family was sitting around the campfire in their chairs.
“Ten grand.” It was Colton who answered that question. Someone must’ve left the door to the trailer open or something, because their words were as clear as a bell.
He was finally telling them the horrible story of my mother and my reunion/goodbye. I scooted to the edge of the bed so I could get closer to the window. “She asked for it like she was asking a favor, like nothin’.”
I was so glad Colton didn’t know I was listening. He’d put on a brave face in the trailer house, and then with the chaos of the rodeo, we hadn’t had a second to breathe, so I wanted to know what he really thought of it all.
“Okay, she asks Ally for the ten grand,” Alan was asking, leaning toward Colton, “then what?”
Colton’s hat was hanging on the back of the chair, and he was running his hand through his hair.
“She shoved her, like, hard. I got up and tried to ask if we could sit and talk about everythin’, but she lost it on me.
She thought Ally had brought me to attack her, or somethin’, I don’t know, she was just screamin’. ”
Dennis was shaking his head in disbelief.
“Then?” Jo asked, sitting next to her son with her hand on his.
Honestly, after all this, I wouldn’t be surprised if Jo didn’t want me to date her son. She had said this afternoon about how I was good for him, but after hearing all about how insane my mother was, I’m sure that’d change her mind.