Page 52 of The Pieces We've Lost

All that mattered right now, though, was Colter and Reid. The camera panned over to them, Colter’s face stillfrozen in what I couldn’t tell was shock or disbelief or pride or a mix of all three. Reid nudged him, and he followed so they could mount their horses and take their victory lap.

I watched him with adoration as he took off his cowboy hat and waved it around. I didn’t think he could see me in the crowd, but as he looked up and smiled, I knew it was all mine.

After the bull riding had concluded, they brought all of the champions onto the arena floor to announce their names one more time and award them their prize money and buckles. A lot of people took this opportunity to exit and get a head start to avoid traffic on the way home. I wasn’t too worried about traffic. I was planning on being one of the last people out of the stadium again.

I walked down the steps of the bleachers with the intention of meeting Colter down on the floor. As I was walking, I overheard a deep, masculine voice talking in a not-so-hushed tone.

“Those fuckers from Montana should have never won. There’s no way they roped that quickly, this is bullshit. The officials just want to make us look bad because we had made it so far last year.”

I continued walking, and the voices got louder. Dash and Wayne were standing next to one of the arena entrances talking shit about Colter and Reid.

They paused their conversation as I walked past, and I could feel Dash’s eyes burning into me. One of them, I didn’t care who, let out a whistle, and it took every fiber in my body to not whip around and serve whoever it was anuppercut. I wasn’t some buckle bunny they could objectify and take home as a consolation prize for losing.

Colter was stepping out of the arena right as I got close enough for him to see me. I couldn’t control myself, I ran up to him, straight into his arms, pulling him in.

“You looked good out there, Sparky.” I smiled up at him.

“You were my good luck charm.” He winked.

“So…” I started, wondering if we were going to address the inevitable. The fact he was leaving in the morning. “This is it, then, isn’t it?” I looked away, not wanting him to see the tears that stung behind my eyes, the ones that threatened to betray me and fall. There was no chance I was going to cry over a man—a cowboy, no less.

“Hey, look at me.” He cupped my chin gently, pulling my head back toward him, forcing me to look him in the eyes.

“What?” I murmured.

“I meant it when I said I wasn’t going to lose you. I may be leaving, but I’m not going anywhere. We’ll still talk, if that’s something you want.”

“Promise?” I hated the way I sounded—childish, like a lovesick teenage girl.

“Promise. You can’t get rid of me that easily.” He laughed and held out his pinky.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

colter

We made it to Arizona. Going to be here a few days, then hitting the road again to go over to Las Vegas.

Blaze

Good luck, Sparky

Ellison had no idea how much those three simple words meant to me. With Sophie, especially toward the end, it was a battle to leave for rodeos. There were always questions like, “When will you be back?” or “Can’t you skip this one?” And when I told her I couldn’t because it was my career, she’d end up giving me the silent treatment or demand that every free moment I had was spent talking to her. So it meant the world to have someone supporting me.

The small fear that Ellison could potentially react the same way if we did make our relationship more official did pop up in my mind, but that would just be something we’d have to discuss in depth later. My gut was telling me thatshe wouldn’t be like Sophie, but there was still the small part of me that felt insecure.

A week had passed since the end of the Houston Rodeo. We would be in Arizona for a few days, make the trip over to Vegas, and then go up to Utah. It would be a long month ahead of us before going back to Montana for a short break during the Bucking Horse Sale, and then another month of traveling before the Home of Champions Rodeo in July. We all knew what we had signed up for, though, when we decided to pursue this career.

I missed Ellison. The past week, we hadn’t talked much because of how busy the boys and I were on the road and her work on the ranch. We had done our best to keep in touch, sending texts every once in a while to check in, but I didn’t want our friendship, relationship, whatever this was, to fall through the cracks just because we weren’t in the same state.

At this point, the guys knew how much I liked Ellison and they were relentless in giving me shit for it too. Reid was really the only one who knew about my underlying fear of losing her, though. He knew about my insecurities, my fear of not being enough.

I opened up my phone and looked back at my string of text messages from the past week with Ellison.

Monday

Morning, Blaze.

Blaze

---