Page 72 of Austin
Chapter Fourteen
Three days later,Austin woke to the sound of someone pounding on the door of his Cheyenne motel room and realized he’d overslept. He’d stayed longer in Marietta than he’d originally planned, wanting one last evening with Kristen before hitting the road for Wyoming.
“Coming,” he called as he rolled out of bed and pulled on his jeans. Ten minutes later he and Kelly were on their way to a fast food breakfast.
After a jolt of coffee, he noticed that Kelly seemed to be more upbeat than usual, which was saying something.
“What gives?” Austin asked. “You’re almost cheerful.”
“Finally heard from Melissa this morning.” Kelly smiled a little as he said his wife’s name.
“Ah,” Austin said. He didn’t know much about Kelly’s time after he left Marietta, other than the fact that he hadn’t been able to hook up with his wife in Fort Collins, because she’d been visiting a sister in Nebraska.
“Yeah.” Kelly’s smile faded as he picked up his coffee, but he still looked like a different guy. More relaxed. More at peace. Maybe he’d have a happy ending after all. “She’s coming to Cheyenne so we can do some talking. We’ll drive to Pueblo together.”
“That sounds good.” Austin didn’t mind losing a travel partner who was working things out in his life.
“She wants to have a kid.”
Austin’s head came up at the announcement, but since he didn’t know what to say, he stayed silent.
“The problem is that she won’t get pregnant while I’m riding bulls and I can’t convince her that this is our best option for getting onto our feet financially.”
And let’s not forget that you love riding bulls.
Austin focused on his coffee, but couldn’t move past the question that pushed itself forward in his brain. “Did she know how much bull riding meant to you when you guys married?”
“I was riding full-time, so yeah. I’d say she had a hint.”
“Tough one,” Austin said, unwrapping a breakfast sandwich. He’d seen the situation Kelly described in more than one bull-riding relationship. Had seen it play out on a lesser level in his own life.
Kelly dug into his paper bag. “No easy solution, but we’ll work things out.”
“You think?” The words came out before he thought.
Kelly frowned at him, as if to say “why the fuck are you raining on my parade?” Before Austin could apologize, he said, “Yeah. I do. We love each other.”
Austin bit into the sandwich and chewed instead of letting more words fall out of his mouth. As Kelly had said, no easy solution, but Austin wished him the best. He didn’t envy him the shit he and his lady had been going through, but it was part of the game. Part of being involved in a difficult career full of uncertainties. A career that every bull rider he knew was grateful to have.
A careerhewas grateful to have.
Could it ever mesh with Kristen’s career?
That was the unusual part about being with Kristen these past few days. She’d seemed happy to just be with him, while he, Mr. Here and Now kept wondering about the future.
And he felt comfortable with her. Almost too comfortable.
Belong-together comfortable.
He had no idea how to handle it. No idea where their relationship was going. Kristen didn’t want to talk, and his guess was that it was because if they did talk, they’d have to confront hard issues. She wasn’t ready for that, probably because it meant facing facts…and it may mean saying goodbye for real instead of letting things get even more serious.
Neither of them were ready for that.
*
Bonnie Alexander pulledthe teabag out of her cup before leveling a look at her eldest daughter. Things were still a touch stilted between them and Kristen got it. Truly she did. She, the perfect child, the child they never had to worry about, had gone off the rails. She had to rebuild trust, which was a slow process.
“You have no idea when you’ll hear for certain about the job?”
