These were the strangest party preparations that Anicka had ever seen. There was no setting out of tablecloths and flatware, but coolers of beer and a small cooler of "Mike's Hard Lemonade" for her. If it was her mom there would have been brightly colored tablecloths and paper lanterns hung in the rooms and outside.

"You don't like beer? I thought everyone liked beer." Travis shook his head as if that was unthinkable.

"I hate it, I guess I'm not a very good Mexican, but at least I like tequila," she replied. There were also a few bottles of hard liquor set out but Travis told her most of the attendees at the party would be drinking beer. Rita was also cooking barbeque wings and taquitos, and other finger foods. "If you drink the way this crowd does, you'd better have plenty of food," said Rita. She was from Sinaloa, her family had come to the states when she was young. It was nice for Anicka to have someone to speak Spanish with. Her mother had made sure that her children were fluent, and they used it more than English in their house. Even her father spoke Spanish, though his was Castilian. Her English had a soft Spanish accent that if you listened for it you could hear.

Travis spoke only a smattering of Spanish, like almost everyone in Texas. She'd say something to him in Spanish to tease him and enjoy the blank look on his face if he didn't understand. Then she'd translate what she said, and he'd repeat it, trying to imitate her accent. It was a little game that she liked play, a harmless one and Travis was slowly learning more Spanish. At least Rita understood her and when they were together they almost never spoke English.

Rita also was a wizard in the kitchen, and she knew many of the dishes Anicka had learned to fix from her mother. Having Rita here made her feel slightly less strange, it was like having an aunt or a friend of her mother around.

Candy was standing and salivating at the sight and smell of so much food. Anika reached in the tray and pulled out a wing. "Here," she said, "You can have this but no more. I'll feed you your dinner in a little while. Let's walk down to the barn and surprise Travis, that should remove harm from trouble's reach."

She snapped the leash onto Candy's collar, and they went out and down the long drive to the barn. Candy sniffed everything, it was all new and she needed to learn her new territory. Anicka was trying to think of the best way to confine her to keep her away from the guests. The pup would use her soulful brown eyes and the almost irresistible German Shepherd head tilts to con someone into giving her treats.

They were halfway to the barn when Travis came driving up. "Wanna ride, sweetheart?" he asked, and Candy came immediately to the driver's side. "Whoa," he said, "I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to your mother." The dog just stood and wagged her tail.

"Well," said Anicka, "I was trying to take her for a walk but now that she's seen you and the truck she is going to want a car ride. C'mon girl, get in the back seat." She put her dog in the truck then climbed in.

"I don't know what it is about dogs and car rides. She likes to go for walks but as soon as she saw you she was ready to get in." Anicka smiled as she said this, "She's well behaved but I think she'd abandon me for anyone who'd let her get in a car."

"Does Rita have everything ready?" asked Travis, and she nodded.

"Yup, all the finger food and snacks are ready to set out when people start arriving. The beer is in the cooler and she's showed me the trays to fill with ice to put the beer in. I'll set out the food after I figure out a place to put my dog for the night. The food won't be safe around her, it's too much of a temptation. Besides that, she'll look at people with her big brown eyes and they won't be able to resist giving her a snack. Sometimes I even find it hard to resist her, and I know her ways.

"Yeah," he laughed, "Dogs are con artists. Why don't I go back to the barn and get her crate and we can put her in our room? We can check on her and let her out once in a while, but let's keep her away from the party."

When they got back they made love quickly but sweetly, "So I don't look at you and want to drag you upstairs," explained Travis, "which I'm going to want to do anyway." They showered and got dressed. Travis whistled to show his approval of the white lace blouse she wore with her blue denim cutoffs.

The guests started trickling in around between seven and eight. Some of them she knew, they were from his crew or from the friend or two of his that she'd already met. Many of them she had never seen before. There were girls wearing jeans or shorts and cowboy hats, and good-looking cowboys in tight Wranglers and Stetsons.

Most of crowd seemed like they were much younger than Travis, although older than her. At first he introduced her, but then he started circulating amongst the crowd. "Go around the room and try to meet people," he told her, "I know you're shy but I'm sure they'll understand." She felt vulnerable standing alone, but then she did as he'd suggested and she started moving around the room, forcing her to introduce herself to talk to people she didn't know.

At first she was hesitant, and her feet seemed glued to the floor, but everyone was friendly and a few gave her knowing looks when she told them she was living with Travis.

Then she was saved when she heard her dog barking. She'd forgotten to give Candy her dinner, an unforgivable sin. She went upstairs and fetched her, not forgetting to attach the leash to her collar. She brought her into the kitchen and filled her bowl and Candy dug into her food.

"Oh, what a pretty German Shepherd," one girl said, "Is she friendly?"

"Very," laughed Anicka, "But don't get between her and her food. I should have fed her earlier, but I forgot. I'll have to take her for a walk in about half an hour, but I'm trying to keep her away from the party. One look from those big brown eyes or maybe a head tilt or two and she'll con you into feeding her, which she doesn't need."

The dog wolfed down her kibbles then looked at Anicka who was not impressed. "No," she told her sternly, "You are not a party guest, you eat too many treats, and you'll have a stomach ache." She took her outside and shut her into little garden space that she had found. She'd leave her there for an hour then took her back upstairs and put her in her crate.

The party was starting to get going, although it would be much later before it was in full swing. People were drinking beer and eating the food Rita had so carefully prepared. Travis had found a large bag of corndogs and a deep fryer and would fix them when his guests had fortified themselves with copious amounts of beer.

She pulled a "Mike's" from the cooler. There were more people here than she'd hoped for, but at least everyone seemed friendly. Any conversation she heard seemed to revolve around horses or cattle or rodeos, but she didn't mind. She hadn't had any experience with that yet, but her goal was to get good enough at reining so she could start competing in the shows.

Travis had told her that he was going to put Matt in charge of training her. She didn't mind, Travis had a short temper and had more patience for horses than he did for people. She was perfectly capable of snapping back at him when he'd start to chew her out, which was funny. She could read him, and she knew him, or was getting to know him. She wanted to learn to do things the right way, and she wanted his approval. She wasn't a slacker and they both knew it.

She was eager to learn reining because once she was good at it she wanted him to teach her cutting. It was more complicated than simple herding, and she never tired of watching it. Travis had cowboys that excelled at roping and cutting, and she could watch for hours. This was the real magic of rodeo, reining was just to show off.

There were no horses at the party, so people were occupying themselves with eating, drinking, and dancing. Travis had loaded his CD players with several of his favorites so the music never seemed to stop. The puppy had been out for long enough so she took her upstairs and put her in the crate. 'No more nonsense from you," she told her, "Stay here and be good." The puppy lay down and crossed her paws, placing her head on top of them. "No, I won't fall for that," Anicka told her, "Be good and there'll be treats for you in the morning. "

When she went back downstairs she discovered that Travis had gotten a game of "Hold 'em" going. Uh oh, she thought, I bet this is the strip poler he warned me about. Knowing Travis I know he's probably going to cheat, but I'm better at cheating than he is. I don't know if he can stack the deck but I wouldn't put it past him to use a trick or two. Guess I better rescue the ladies if I can.

His friend Matt was standing and watching. "Hi," she said and stood next to him, "Looks like I'm going to have to step in, is he cheating yet?"

"Not yet," said Matt, "But I'm sure he's planning to if I know Travis. Think you can do something about it?"

"I know I can," she answered, "But I'm much better at cheating than he is. I'm going to turn this around and hopefully only embarrass him a little."

The problem with Hold 'em was that it was an expensive game to play if you played for money. If you were playing strip poker you could find yourself without clothes sooner than you think. The pile of clothes was growing and soon a few young ladies were going to find themselves buck naked. Time for her to step in.

Travis was dealing the "River" and the "Turn", and it was time for the players to reveal their cards. Her eyes caught him dealing a fifth ace, it was time for her to act.

"Travis, if you're going to cheat don't make it so easy," she swept up his cards. "Five aces? That's tacky, I can cheat better than that. Ladies, take your clothes and we're going to start again." She swept up the cards, ignoring his objections and stuck the extra ace in the pocket of her shorts. Now, if she could only find a way to stack the deck against Travis, but maybe Karma would teach him a lesson.

"Since we're starting a new game, I'll be the dealer. Since I'm not playing I don't have a stake in this." She dealt the cards around the table, one at a time. Travis had made the mistake of sitting on her left, so he was the first blind and he had to ante in. The big blind sat across the table and she matched Trais's bet—her cowboy hat. "Here comes the flop," she said and dealt out three cards face up, "Anyone care to bet?" she asked.

The girls were feeling emboldened, but no one made another bet. Anika dealt the "River" then the "Turn" and it was time for everyone to show their cards. One girl had three of a kind, another beat her with a full house. Travis only had a pair of twos and without a word stripped off his shirt.

"I bet you're happy now," he growled, and her reply was to start giggling. "You better be careful or you won't get those kittens I was going to give you."

"Hey," she retorted, "I didn't cheat, I didn't even stack the cards. You lost fair and square, which is more than I can say for the way you were winning before."

"She's got you there, Travis," said one of the girls, "She got you without cheating. You weren't exactly being fair with us."

He shook his head, "Well, I got caught, but it was all in fun. Anyone up for another game?"

When Anicka wasn't dealing she couldn't cheat, but luck was on her side. She won the next two games then bowed out. Travis followed shortly after that and the game ended.

He put his arm around her waist, "I forgot you're a card shark, how did you win those two hands?"

"Luck, dumb luck," she replied, "When are you going to fix those corn dogs, everybody's got a pretty good buzz on."

"Guess I should get them out, you wanna help?" he looked at her with his blue eyes—corn dogs was not what was on her mind.

"Why not? After that I'm going to put my bikini on and join the crowd. This is a great party, Travis, are they always like this?"

"Most of the time," he replied, "We're all single so there are no husband or wives to worry about. Someday the kids will start popping up and things will start changing. In the meantime, we work hard so we party hard."

Ever think about kids, she wanted to ask him, ever think that there's another way to do things? You can't act like a kid forever.