Page 81 of The Pieces We've Lost

“Thanks, Is. What would I do without you?”

“You’d be perfectly fine, but thanks for the confidence boost.” She giggled.

That morning, Colter wanted to go for a ride, just a slow, easy one to get out of the house and get his riding legs back.

“How are you feeling, really?” I asked him as we rode almost shoulder to shoulder down the trail. I checked in with him as often as I could, wanting to see if there was anything I could do to help him.

“Getting cleared to do more things was nice,” he answered, but I could sense he was still holding back.

“But?” I pushed a little, but ultimately I wasn’t going to make him tell me what he was feeling. I was just encouraging him to talk to me.

“But I’m still nervous about the possibility of not being able to compete and leaving Reid high and dry for another rodeo.”

“For what it’s worth, you’ve been following the doctor’s orders and you’ve been getting better every day. We can only hope for the best, but I have confidence you’ll be cleared to go,” I tried to reassure him, hoping I sounded confident enough.

“Thanks, baby.” He smiled, even if it was only a half-smile.

We rode in silence for a while, enjoying each other’s company and the mid-day summer air. He showed me all of his favorite spots on the land he owned, and then we decided to ride back.

When we reached the clearing of wildflowers from a couple weeks prior, I was the one who dismounted my horse and went over to him.

“What are you doing, Blaze?” he asked, confused.

“Just trust me, Sparky.” I winked, and he got off his horse and followed me. I walked to the middle of the field of flowers and lay down on my back, looking up at the sky.

He followed suit, looking over at me, a melancholy look in his eyes.

“When I was younger, my dad and I used to lay down in the middle of the yard and cloud gaze. We would try to identify the most ridiculous things we could,” I explained to him as I pointed up at a cloud shape. “See, that one looks like a bear on its hind legs.”

He smiled at me before pointing at the sky. “That one kind of looks like a, uh, bird.”

The cloud he pointed at looked more like a blob, but he was getting the idea. We lay there for a while, pointing out shapes and giggling like kids.

“Thank you for that.” He took my hand and twirled me around when we finally stood.

We rode back to the house, cracking jokes and telling stories about our college days.

“Reid and I actually met Mikey at a bar.” He chuckled as he recalled the story. “He was sitting at the bar by himself and called us over to talk to him. If you could imagine him ten-times worse than he is now, that was him then.”

I snorted, trying to imagine an even more outspoken, flirtatious Mikey.

“Somehow, despite us being ropers and him being a roughy, we ended up becoming friends. He gets on my nerves sometimes, but he’s as loyal as they come.”

I told him the story about how Isabelle and I met and his eyes gleamed with amusement and his personality shone through. Colter was so caring, and sensitive, but in a good way. He felt everything and wore his heart on his sleeve, and I wanted to feel everything with him too.

We sat on the couch after we had taken care of the horses, my head in his lap. He ran his fingers through my hair.

“Colter?” I looked up at him.

“Yeah, Ells?” he asked.

“I’m proud of you and I know you’re going to come back from this.” I sat up, and he cupped my face with hishands, brushing his thumb over my cheek before leaning in and kissing me with more force than he had in the past few weeks. We had slowed things down since his injury, but his eyes still burned when he looked at me.

“I want you,” he whispered into my mouth as his tongue wrestled with mine.

“I want you too,” I mouthed back, and he lifted me up, carrying me into the bedroom, never separating our lips for more than a breath.

He laid me down gently on the bed and pulled off my top. I grasped the hem of his shirt, pulling it over his head.

---