Page 11 of The Pieces We've Lost

Oh, God, she probably thinks I’m trying to hit on her. Nice, Colt.

“I don’t have time for this.” She rolled her eyes and pushed past me, bumping my shoulder in the process, andstarted to march away, shaking her head a little bit in annoyance.

“Wait, I’m sorry I—” I started to apologize, but she was already gone, lost in the sea of people crowding the dance floor.

I debated going after her, but decided that would raise more questions from the boys than anything. I was already pretty far behind them because I had gotten caught up in a crowd of girls in pink cowboys hats when we walked in. One of them had grabbed my arm and insisted on buying me a drink, which I declined several times. I was honestly surprised Mikey hadn’t stopped to talk to one of them.

I made my way over to the bar to catch up with Mikey, Jake, and Reid, still thinking about the interaction with the girl. Something about it caught her off guard. I could see it in her face.

“Carson, what happened to you? How’d you get so far behind us?” Mikey asked when I found a spot next to them.

“I ran into this girl, no big deal,” I replied.Please don’t ask questions. Let me get away with this, just this once.

“What? Well, where is she?” He threw up his arms expectantly.

“No, I mean literally ran into her. Or I guess she ran into me. I don’t know where she went. She disappeared.” I looked around, but my attempts to find her were futile.

I wished I could find her in the crowd, though. There was something about her that drew me in, intrigued me. Maybe it was the intensity in her eyes or the way she had her sights so focused on where she was trying to go. Most people would consider her rude, that she wasn’t being aware of her surroundings and had a bad attitude, but I didn’t see it that way. For some reason, I kind of admiredher determination and that made me curious. The majority of women here, clearly demonstrated by the group of girls from earlier, would have seen me as a trophy and tried to flirt—save a horse, ride a cowboy or whatever—but not her. I wanted to know more about her.

“Man, that’s too bad.” Mikey sighed and turned to order from the bartender.

It is too bad.

“All right boys, here’s to ridin’ and ropin’ and bringin’ home the goods, however you see fit.” Mikey handed us all shots of Pendleton whisky and raised his glass.

I raised mine in acknowledgment and shot it back.

“Back to that girl, Carson. Did you get her name?” he asked.

“Yeah, what did she look like?” Jake added.

“Did you get her number? What did you say to her?” Reid asked.

The boys kept firing questions at me, not giving me any time to answer.

“She have any friends here?” Leave it to Mikey to be thinking about that.

“Guys, I told you, she literally ran into me. We didn’t talk. I didn’t get her name. I told her mine, but I had blurted something about her eyes and she didn’t want to talk to me.” I finally got a word in, but I started rambling.

“Wait, what did you even say, man?” Reid chuckled.

“Nope. No, I’m not giving you guys any ammo.” I denied them the opportunity to hold this over my head for the next five years.

“It’s just like you to scare off a woman, Carson,” Mikey teased. “Wait, how did you even manage to run into a girl but not get what she looked like?”

The problem was Ididget what she looked like. Theimage of her carved itself into my brain, refusing to leave my head. Words couldn’t do her justice, and I also wasn’t about to give Mikey any ideas. Knowing him, he would go look for her and then either hit on her or embarrass me, and I wasn’t on board with that.

“It doesn’t matter. She’s not even here anymore. Let’s just get on with our night.” I was bluffing, hoping they would change the subject.

“Man, Colter, you’re no fun.” Mikey loved to get involved with everyone’s personal life. I was starting to think he needed a new hobby. Maybe he could take up bird watching or something.

“Jake, you’re competing in a couple days. How’re you feeling, buddy?” Reid changed the subject, thank God.

Jake was a bulldogger and also did tie-down roping, but for this specific rodeo, he was only competing in tie-down.

“I’m just ready to get out there, you know,” he replied.

That was the general consensus among the guys who hadn’t competed yet. Waiting was the worst part about rodeos like this.

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