Big Girl Boots

Ten

I groaned loudly and flopped my head back onto the bench seat of Kellan's pickup. "Are we there yet?"

"Blake, we've literally been driving for twenty minutes," my cousin sighed, glancing away from the road to give me a dirty look.

"You said it'd take twenty minutes to get there!"

Both blue orbs rolled back into his head. "That was an estimate."

"Well, get better at estimating!" I cried. A person would think I'd be used to sitting in a vehicle for hours at a time since we traveled so much, but I couldn't bring myself to enjoy it.

Coda smiled shyly up at me from where she was huddled by the passenger door. Her earbuds were in, but I knew she could still hear my whining. Usually, she thought it was funny.

I'd been careful to keep my mouth shut about the whole deal between her and Wyatt, which had lessened the strain between us immensely. For the most part, things were back to normal at our house. Though she seemed to have drawn back into her shell a little bit, I figured she'd come around once she worked through everything.

"We're almost there," Kellan commented, pointing out a highway exit a short distance away. It was marked by a green sign that said Winchester.

As we swung onto the badly paved road that would take us into town, my eyes lit up. Hanging right over the top of the entrance was a giant replica of a Winchester rifle. "Woah!"

"Right?" Kellan grinned, making a left turn onto what was more of a dirt path than a road. The tire ruts were so deep that my teeth rattled as we rolled along. I wondered how many people really came to this event, and was stunned to see rows upon uneven rows of vehicles. Most of them were old, dented, rusty, and plain beat up, but they were there all the same. Lots of people had a dog or two yawning in their flatbed pickups while the owners stood around and drank cheap beer.

"So this is it?" I drawled, letting one side of my mouth lift up in a smirk.Though we'd never been to this rodeo because it was so small and so far away, we'd heard of it.

As far as I could tell, all of the events were held in a pretty makeshift arena. I was told that it'd been built in the eighties by a local couple. Ever since the WSRRA began sanctioning it as an open rodeo in 1992, it had been dubbed the World Famous Winchester Rodeo.

"Yup. You guys ready to see if it lives up to the name?" Kellan's blue eyes were alight and he even smiled when we found a decent parking spot.

I nodded and waited impatiently for Coda to open the passenger door. His shiny black Ford stood out, especially parked next to a beat up brown Toyota that had more dents than a golf ball and at least three cracks in the windshield.

"Whew, buddy, you might wanna lock up this time. I feel like somebody'd be liable to steal it," I whistled, holding back laughter as my cousin's face morphed in panic.

"Fine, grab your stuff," he replied, impatiently holding a finger over the door lock.

I plucked my hat from the dashboard and strode back to the trailer, checking my phone on the way. Dustie was supposed to be coming to ride Dax, who we'd hauled with our three horses. When I saw no messages, I shoved it in my back pocket and wrenched open the trailer door.

Upon swinging it open, I found Dax, who was tied on the left side of the second compartment, with a lead rope looped up and over his right ear. His big, dark eyes looked more confused than scared as if he was asking me why he'd gotten himself all tangled up. That horse was known for playing with ropes because he just couldn't leave anything alone, and I couldn't help but laugh. "Dax, you have problems."