Right Back On

One

"Charlie, I'm headed out! See you at the rodeo?"

"Yeah. Drive safe!"

I clattered down the wooden steps of Tommy's trailer house and held my cowboy hat down against the hot wind on the way to my pickup.

It was a Saturday in August and the heat was already making the hair stick to my neck.

With the AC and the country radio going full blast I cruised down the familiar road towards Kellan Dace's house.

Blake was standing on his spacious front porch, shouting and waving her arms when I pulled up.

After some internal debate, I decided to go see what all the fuss was about.

"Um, am I interrupting something?" I stood cautiously at the bottom of the steps.

The little brunette stopped ranting long enough to shove a few pieces of coarse hair back into her braid and give me a small wave.

"Just go hook up the trailer. We'll finish this later," she muttered to Kellan, stomping in my direction.

I quirked an eyebrow in question. "What was that all about?"

She glanced over her shoulder at her very disgruntled blonde cousin. "He's trying to boss me around."

I struggled to hide my smile. Blake and Kellan were almost always fighting about something so this little tussle didn't faze me. In all honesty, I found their stupid arguments kind of endearing. Oakley, on the other hand, despised them.

"Aw, Blake, it's just because he loves you!" I wrapped an arm around her stiff shoulders and squeezed.

She rolled her eyes. "No, he's just trying to control my life and gets mad when I won't let him."

"What's he trying to control?"

"There's a live band playing tonight after the events get over and I wanted to stay for it. He said we couldn't because you probably didn't want to."

I was a bit taken aback to have been the subject of argument. "I don't know. How about we see how today goes and decide later?"

She shrugged, wrinkling her freckled face. "Whatever."

"Aw, don't let that get you down. We have a rodeo to get ready for!"

She began giggling. "Since when are you this excited to rodeo?"

"Since I wanted to stop being the center of attention," I winked. "But seriously, we should go catch the horses before Oakley gets here."

Blake nodded and readjusted her white cowboy hat. "Okay."

The closer we got to the pasture the easier I could see a familiar blue roan bobbing his head over top of the fence.

"Hi, Winston. Did you miss me?"

"He seriously likes you more than he likes Kellan lately," Blake commented, elbowing me in the ribs. "And so do I."

I rolled my eyes. "That's just because you live with the idiot. He's not so bad if you don't."

"Blake! Coda! Wait for me!"