Authors Note

Sorry for being so long. Finals are over though so all is good. My computer's totally died this time and I had a bunch of chapters started and I no longer have them but I'll try to get a couple up this week and next. Enjoy the chapter!

Review!

-Steph

RODEO STONER

Chapter 5: The Rodeo

Thursday

I'm not a terribly big fan of rodeos, but it seems that they are practically mandatory when you're out west. And it wasn't like I hadn't tried to get out of it… because I did. But mom and dad wouldn't hear of it.

Lou was sitting next to me in a fresh-out-of-the-box cowboy hat, trying to look like she fit in, but I don't know how many real cowboys (or cowgirls) she thought wore pink hats... we could only be thankful that she opted out of getting the one with the tacky rhinestones on the brim. Mom and Abbey had gone to get popcorn and dad was fiddling around with the settings on his camera. And me? Well I found myself sitting in the way too crowded bleachers, listening to 'Life is a Highway' shake through and vibrate the metal bleachers, and squinting through the seven o'clock setting sun. Oh, I know, it's my idea of a good time too.

Mom and Abbey returned shortly and mom gave me the at-least-try-and-look-like-you're-having-a-fun-time look. I crossed my arms over my stomach with a huff and slouched over. Western tradition or not, rodeos didn't seem to be on the same page as me regarding animals rights and I'd be damned if I was going to have that kind of fun. I had no problem with the barrel racing or anything but the calf tying? Not really. And the bronco or bull riding wasn't my favorite but, as far as I knew, they didn't deliberately frighten the animals. But if they did, I'd have a blast of a time throwing them off my back as well. Power to the animals.

In the middle of the way too elaborate—at least in my opinion—entrance ceremony—yes, complete with scantily dressed woman on horseback—that Lou jumped to her feet and jostled my head from its resting place in my hand.

"Adam!"

I blinked once, and then groaned. Did that guy have to be everywhere we were? My answer was, apparently, a yes since I looked up and saw Adam waving enthusiastically back to Lou. Adam bounded up the riser stairs and took a seat in row behind us. Two rather nerdy looking guys in flannel and wide brimmed hats followed behind Adam a bit slower.

"Hey," Adam said to Lou, leaning forwards. "I didn't know you guys were going to be here tonight."

"We wouldn't have missed it," Lou said back, with a flutter of her eyelashes. I rolled my eyes.

"Hey, I like your hat," Adam said and he tapped a finger against the pink brim.

Lou giggled. "I had to try and look like I fit in," she said.

This was just getting disgusting. Or so I thought. Adam eyed Lou up and down and, with a grin, said, "Lookin' good." Correction, now it was disgusting.

"So, Tim," Adam turned to address my watchful father. "Did you enjoy Yellowstone today?"

"It was great," dad said.

"Yeah!" Abbey leaned over dad, looking excited with her waving pigtails. "We saw a… we saw a mommy mouse and a baby mouse! Together!!"

"Awesome," Adam said in what I'm afraid he thought was a good children's voice. "Maybe you'll see a bear tomorrow." Abbey's little mouth formed into in awed 'o' and her eyes opened wide. Abbey was quickly distracted from Adam's absolutely enthralling—note my 'subtle' sarcasm—tales of his Yellowstone adventures, and turned to watch "the pretty horsies" once more.

"So, Adam," dad said. "You ever entered in one of these rodeos?"

I turned away to cover a laugh. Lou shot a brief glare in my direction and I coughed once and scratched the back of my neck. I turned back to hear Adam's reply, lightly drumming my fingers against my lips in an attempt to mask my smile.

"No sir," Adam said, his eyes flickering to me briefly. I smiled at him and his eyes shifted back to dad. "I'm not really the rodeo type—" I caught dad's eyes over Adam's head and was rewarded with a small shake of the head and a look of mirth shinning in his gray eyes. He looked back at Adam before Adam looked away from Lou and appeared to be paying attention. "—but I've been here a few times this summer. The Cody Stampede is one of the best rodeos, or so I hear. Rick and Kara were supposed to come tonight but something popped up back at the ranch at the last minute so they gave their tickets to me and my buddies Frank and Dave," he gestured to the two guys sitting next to him.

"That was kind of them," Lou said.

"Yeah," Adam said. "Rick and Kara really are great. It's a shame that some people don't show them the respect they deserve."

"Hmm," I said before Lou could speak. Deliberately refusing to take the bait Adam was laying, as I knew Lou was about to, I said, "So what are your favorite rodeo events?" I let out a couple of 'hmms' as Adam launched into his answer and analysis of the different events to look like I was paying attentions. I really didn't care so I turned back to the arena and vaguely watched the proceedings of the single calf roping division. It was one horseback rider and a calf… I'm still not exactly sure what the objective was to do… I'm thinking it was something along the lines of vaulting off of a galloping horse and tackling a calf to the ground… or, well, that's what it looked like anyway. Me, personally? Well I was routing for the calves.

I was still watching halfheartedly, and tuning out the conversation still going on between Adam, dad and Lou, when I saw a flash of color by the starting gate-thing. I lifted my head and looked closer. It was a big, blue roan horse, it's coat gleaming in the setting sun muscles rippling through the sheen. Even out here, blue roans were a minority and I'd never seen one that color. It really was almost blue when the sun hit it. The horse lifted it's magnificent head to the wind with pricked ears and it's jet black mane lifted in the wind.

I craned forwards in my seat to get a look at the roans mysterious rider and almost toppled over onto the middle-aged, beer bellied guy in front of me, who was, believe it or not, sipping from a plastic cup of frothing beer.

Instead, I opted for the safer method and stared a hole in the guys back. All I could tell was the following: he had wide shoulders, dark hair brushing the bottom of his neck and was wearing a black, short sleeved button-down shirt with light grey plaid and dark jeans. He wasn't wearing a cowboy hat, a bandana, cowboy boots or any sort of leather but… that didn't mean anything. Not necessarily. I'm sure that plenty of people didn't wear... and did wear… oh my. And I'm sure that Cody is just bursting with people who have wilted roses tattooed up their arms.

It just couldn't possibly be… I mean, no way.

But then the guy dug his heels into his horses sides and the horse performed an jaw dropingly tight and speedy circle. I gasped as the sinking sun lit up the guy and his horse. There really was no mistaking that face.

I watched with, I'm afraid, an open mouth, as the horse and rider—who will remain nameless because that is just not possible on any accounts—trotted to the starting-gate. The horse floated on the ground and the guy barely moved in the big, worn western saddle.

I looked around to see if anyone else was seeing what I was but dad and Lou were still engaged in conversation with Adam and Abbey was occupying mom by telling some sort of story around the popcorn that her little hands were shoving in her mouth. So much for actually watching the rodeo…

"And our final entrant in the group is a rookie we've seen a handful of times here this summer. He's been showing some talent but has yet to turn out a real sold, consistent round. Let's all welcome—"

I was literally—literally—hanging off the edge of my seat waiting for the announcer to say the guys name when an earsplitting screech arouse from my right. I must have jumped a good foot in the air.

"What the hell, Lou?" I gasped, clasping a hand over my racing heart.

Lou's bright blue eyes narrowed at me and she shrugged. "A bug flew in my face," was her answer. I rolled my eyes and turned back to the arena only to see the roan horse and (still nameless) rider trotting out of the arena. Damn event that took barely seven seconds to finish.

"And a disappointing round for entrant 115, called Ty for short," the announcer chuckled gravely at his joke but I just gaped at the departing horse and rider. "Since Ty failed to complete the task, he will not pick up any points this time around. And that concludes the singles calf roping for tonight and we congratulate—"

My eyes were still fastened on the disappearing backs of the roan horse and… Ty. Was there really any possible, miniscule chance that that guy could have been the same Ty that I'd only seen stomping around the ranch with a rather emo outtake on things?

Well, I straightened in my seat and rubbed my hands against my jean clad thighs. There was only one way I could find out. I quickly stood up and gave mom and dad a vague excuse about needing to use the bathroom before I was jumping, or tripping, down the slick stairs and dodging people as I flew down the ramp that led up to the stands.

I'd always said that if you wanted to know something, you should go out and find it out yourself… rather then relying on announcers to keep the volume on their microphones loud enough and elder sisters to restrain their screeches. Because that just didn't seem to be working out for me at the moment.

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Annnnd… cue the James Bond music… now.

I wondered fleetingly if anyone actually abided by the sign that said "Only trailers and competitors beyond this point" as I dodged casually around the chain that held that sign. Considering that no one really had a reason to mosey around behind the scenes if they didn't actually have to… I'm guessing that that's a no. The only people back by the trailers were cowboys and cowgirls who were taking care of their horses. Except for the pack of kids that was playing "wild horsies" I had to jump out of the way for or take the risk of being flattened by sever-year-olds in cowboy boots who thought they were wild mustangs named Spirit.

As I surveyed the barren stretch of dry desert that was crowded with trucks, trailers, horses and cow-people, I wondered just how I was supposed to go about finding one person. All I knew was that the guy I thought I was looking for drove a black pickup. Yep, because there weren't many of those around—again, note the sarcasm.

As I strolled through the lines of trailers, I realized I really did not fit in at all. In fact, I stuck out like a sore thumb in my clean jeans, blue tee-shirt and sneakers. I was the needle in the haystack, if you will… except… yeah, just ignore that, it didn't make much sense. Well, it does if you switch around the traditional meaning of—

"Oh… dear. Sorry, carry on," I spoke hurriedly and jumped away from the couple that was doing some pretty dirty things behind one of the trailers. I practically ran away, vowing that never again would I actually look behind one of the trailers that was parked just far enough away from all the other trailers that any other person would totally get was meant to be left alone. I shook my head wildly, silently berating myself for being so naïve and stupid and, at the same time, trying to clear the image from my mind. For gods sake, they hadn't even noticed me! What kind of people do that in public? Couldn't they have posted a sign or some—

"Hey! Watch it!" a male's raised voice alerted me that I had stumbled once again upon something that I shouldn't have.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry," I apologized in a hurry, trying to decided if I should look at the person that I had interrupted or run away. I was leaning towards the latter option when a scuffed and thoroughly worn in Converse appeared in my line of vision, which was still focused resolutely on the dusty ground. I looked up without thinking and gasped. It really was him. Anyone that could forget that dark hair and chisel face and those emerald green eyes… and that chest… and that fine—

"It's you!" I snapped back to reality and snapped my mouth shut. His emerald eyes were blazing and his chest visibly moved up and down beneath his fitted shirt. One hand held a battered black lead rope against his thigh. His face didn't look like it could decided whether or not to be surprised at seeing me there of all places and of all people and anger.

"Umm," I froze. I hadn't actually thought about what was going to happen if I had found him. What do people say in these sorts of situations anyway? I assessed my options rapidly and decided that I had two pretty basic ones: I could take a pointer from Lou and flirt myself silly with him or I could… run away. Again, I was leaning just a smidge towards the running away one.

"Hello?" the black lead rope flapped through the air a few feet in front of my face and I took several hurried steps backwards.

"Um, right, sorry," I said quickly still backing up. Ty stayed where he was, looking just flat out annoyed at the moment. "I didn't mean… I just wanted… to see… if… I'm not… I wasn't… I mean I… right, bye."

And then I did the only thing I could, I turned around and fled the scene only to… only to run smack into a hard chest a couple meters away. I jumped once more and, already mumbling hasty apologies, looked up to see who I had run into this time around. For a moment, all I could see were dark, hauntingly familiar emerald eyes.

I froze and stared for a moment. I looked slowly over my shoulder, wondering if I had just met Superman or Clark Kent or something because this was just weird. Except that Ty was still standing there, the lead rope dangling from his hands… only now he look livid and his hands were clenched into fists. I looked back at the guy I'd run into and noticed that he was a fair deal bigger and dressed in a suit that looked very out of place. This man, though he shared some of Ty's features was clearly not Ty. He was with a tall, slender woman and a boy about my age that looked utterly bored and loathed to be where he was.

Once again, for possibly the fifth time in ten minutes, I assessed my options. "Umm right, sorry… I didn't mean it… and… I'm going… now." And then I ran. What else is a girl to do?

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I returned my seat admits my family out of breath and most likely red in the face. Mom and dad were engaged in conversation with a couple sitting in front of us. I think they were discussing the Grand Tetons, the place where we were going next.

"Are you alright?" Lou looked at me questionably.

"Um, yeah," I said quickly, ignoring the looks I was getting from her and Adam. "There was just a, uh, long wait at the restrooms and I really didn't want to miss the… uh…" I looked quickly towards the arena in time to see coarse ropes snake and pull taught around a calves neck and hind legs. I winced as the calf hopped limply between the two horses and riders. "The, um, roping… thingy."

a/n: once again, I'm SO sorry for the wait but I'm going to get some stuff up this week! TUP and WP tomorrow maybe. I think I just had to get over some writers block but I really wanted to write and I enjoyed writing this so… I hope you guys liked it! Sorry if it wasn't worth the wait or what you were expecting but I'm going to start updating things again!! Leave a REVIEW to tell me what you think!! Thanks for reading!! –Steph

P.S. GO REAL MADRID!! CHAMPIONS OF SPAIN… AGAIN!! And, Sergio, I'm in Spain with you in spirit… why can't YOU come to the U.S. instead of Beckham?? WHY????