Page 19 of The Pieces We've Lost

I scrunched my nose at her message. Classic Isabelle. She was always thinking about the latest celebrity gossip. It was usually entertaining, but this time I was having a crisis.

What? No

The guy from the bar who I ran into? He’s here. And I just saw him again

Isa

OMG WHAT

He wants me to meet him at The Corral tomorrow at ten

Isa

you HAVE to go ells

it’s a SIGN

i mean what are the ODDS

I ignored her last texts.

“Oh, good, you’re back. I was worried I was going to have to come look for you,” my mother joked when I got back to our seats.

“I would have found my way back eventually. Don’t worry about me, Mom,” I reassured her. I knew she would worry about me anyway; I was the only one she had left.

“The energy in this place hasn’t changed. Every year, it’s so consistent,” she murmured.

I couldn’t tell if she was talking about the rodeo itself or about the night of the accident. The hardest part of the night was over. We had watched the steer wrestling, well I had seen part of it at least, and there were no injuries. The only events left were barrel racing and bull riding.

I didn’t have anything to say to her, so I stayed quiet. I was just trying to get through tonight so I could get back to my normal life, sans rodeo and sans cowboys who couldn’t take a hint. Especially cowboys who couldn’t take a hint.

I thought about Colter’s invitation. It would be rude not to go, right? But also, what business did I have getting to know a cowboy from Montana who was going to leave in a week? Then again, maybe if I did go meet up with him and talk to him for a half an hour—tops—then I wouldn’t have to see him ever again.Surely, he wouldn’t keep bothering me. He would go about his business roping cattle and I would go about mine.

My mom would tell me to go. She thought I kept myself cooped up in the house enough as it was. I could hear her now. She would say,“Ellison, life is too short to not get out and live. I’ll be fine here for a couple of hours, go enjoy yourself.”

“All right, I’ll go,” I grumbled to myself, not realizing I said it out loud.

“What was that, Ells?” my mother asked.

“Nothing. Someone just invited me to go get coffee tomorrow morning,” I told her.

“Oh, you should go. Life is too short to not get out and actually live.”

After the competition was over and I was back home, away from the prying eyes of fans and my mother, I texted Isa.

My mom also thinks I should go

Isa

you actually told her about the cowboy?

Of course not. I accidentally started talking out loud and she asked me what I was saying so I kind of had to tell her that someone asked me to get coffee

Isa

i mean you could have just lied

Yeah, but what kind of daughter would that make me?

---