Page 49 of The Pieces We've Lost

“Wasn’t planning on it,” I quipped.

“Good to see you here. I didn’t know if you’d actually hold up your end of the bet,” he teased.

“Trust me, I keep my promises. Those are sacred to me,” I responded.

If there was one thing my parents taught me, it was that you never break a promise. Most promises were made only to be broken, but not mine. Not ours.

“Noted. Where’s your seat?” he asked.

I pulled out my phone and navigated to my wallet app to find my ticket. “Um, section 322, row twelve, seat twenty-one,” I read it off to him.

“Those aren’t bad. How’d you swing that?”

“StubHub.” I shrugged. Finding a ticket that wouldn’t break the bank was difficult, but I managed to snag one of the last tickets that wasn’t in the nosebleeds and wasn’t going for three hundred dollars or more.

“Well, if I could, I’d have you right down there with me, in the action seats. So you can be up close and personal.”

“Maybe next year.” I winked.

“Is that a promise?” He raised his eyebrows at me. I would be a fool to promise him something like that,especially after telling him that promises were something I kept.

“We’ll see, Sparks.” I couldn’t guarantee that, not yet. A year was a long time. Even as his face fell a little, looking like I had just run over his dog or something, I couldn’t bring myself to make the promise.

“Stick around after everything is over?” He dropped it, changing the subject to the here and now.

“Yeah, I can do that.” I was trying to play it cool, even though my heart was screaming,Of course I’m going to stay!

For the first time in years, I was feeling something other than grief. If I was what kept Colter feeling alive, then I didn’t know how to describe what he was for me.

“Good. I’ll see you in there.” He leaned in to kiss my cheek, and the featherlight touch from his lips sent a chill down my spine, leaving the spot warm and burning long after he lifted away.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

colter

She sucked in a breath as I lightly pressed my lips to her cheek. I needed to go, as much as I hated the idea of it, but if I didn’t, this entire stadium would see my attraction to Ellison. And as much as I wanted to claim her as mine, sporting a semi for everyone to see was not the way to do it.

I gave her a parting wave and went back to find Reid. It was now about twenty minutes until showtime.

We’re going to win this.I repeated the affirmation in my head over and over until I stepped onto the arena floor, finding Reid leaning up against a gate behind the roping chute and boxes.

“You good? Ready for this?” he asked, seemingly knowing I was just with Ellison. If he sensed a wave of distractedness coming off of me, he didn’t say anything. He knew that when the time came, I would be on my A game. We trusted each other.

“Ready as I’ll ever be, bud.” I patted him on the shoulder before leaning up against the fence next to him.There was this weird feeling deep in my stomach, one that seemed to flutter in and out, but I ignored it.

About twenty minutes later, the lights went low in the stadium and spotlights kicked on overhead. The sound of an electric guitar and drums filled the stadium as the introduction of Cody Johnson’s “Welcome to the Show”started to play.

“Ladies and gentlemen, you’ve been here with us the past nineteen days. You’ve seen these cowboys and cowgirls ride their hearts out on this arena floor, all for the opportunity to increase their winnings by $50,000 and take home a gold buckle and custom saddle. Let me hear you!Are you ready for championship night?”

The crowd erupted in screams and whistles. The excitement was comparable to the NFR.

“Let’s get ’er done.” Reid grinned.

Waiting was the hardest part. I’d said it before, but it never got easier. With every moment of anticipation, it seemed that both excitement and nerves grew. It was important not to let nerves overtake you, but I had never had any issues with them before.

“All right, folks. We’re moving on to team roping. We’ve got the ten best cowboy duos from the preceding weeks!”

Reid and I were near the end of the lineup. We weren’t last; the team from Oklahoma had been given that spot. But we weren’t first either, which had been reassuring.

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