Love For The Ride

Chapter 3

Grayson's POV

"Jackson, wake up." I say shaking my best friend awake.

"Five minutes." He says turning over.

"I've given you thirty. It's not my fault you drank a lot last night. Now get up or we'll be late."

"You mean we'll be on time?"

"Yeah, well."

He sighs and heaves himself out of the bed. He quickly gets dressed and grabs his one suitcase and makes his way out to the truck. I grab my bag and walk out. We make our way to the site of the rodeo. I see one other truck is already here. It's the truck Sophia and Ella are in. I see Sophia getting a couple cups of something and walking across the field. I get out of the truck and notice she is slightly dancing with earbuds in her ear. Jackson comes a round and nudges me. "She has no idea we are here, does she?"

"Apparently not."

"Let's try to find Ella see if there is anything we need to do." Jackson says.

"You never told me what you two talked about last night."

"It's not important." He says looking out towards one of the sections of land.

"Come on! Work with me here man!" We hear someone yell. We walk towards the person and as we get closer, we see it is Ella struggling with a huge black horse. She lets go of the reigns. "Fine! Stay there you big baby." She walks over to a barrel and picks it up easily and puts it in the back of a loading trailer. The horse runs up behind her and tries to nudge her. She avoids it and turns towards him. "Oh, now you want to work with me, huh?" The horse snorts at her and she scoffs. "I did not ask for your attitude Zeus." The horse goes to walk past her and she grabs hold of the reigns and easily swings herself up. The massive animal stops. "You've been riding this morning." She leans down at him. "We are going home for little bit. Work with me, okay baby?" The horse neighs and she leads him towards the trailer. She rides him in then walks out with a triumphant smile on her face.

We walk over to where she is and she sees us. "You two made it! Everyone else will be here soon."

"Was that the horse you race?" Jackson asks.

She nods. "Yes. That was Zeus. He gets a little moody when we are putting him back in his trailer when we are leaving a location."

"Obviously."

"So, what do we need to do?"

"Just start taking down the railings and things. Max will be here soon with the hauler to put them in"

"Alright." We go to turn to start.

"And boys?"

"Yes?" We both say.

"Welcome to our family." She says smiling slightly.

"Thank you." I say.

Later that night, we are pulling up into the new town. From what Max, who is about fifty years old, tells us is the town we are in is Ella and Sophia's hometown. It's some small ghost town type area called Laneville in Alabama. It only has one or two stores. The rest is literally all fields and lakes. It's beautiful. Or at least, what I've seen of it is. Jackson and I switched at the last stop and is now driving. My phone starts to ring so I pick it up. "Hello?" I say groggily seeing as I was half asleep.

"Hey Grayson. It's Sophia."

"Oh! Hey."

"The others are about to split off to go to their houses and stay. You and Jackson are welcome to keep following us and stay at Ella's place if you want."