Tracy snorted her drink out her nose. “You do! She’s right!”
“Shh, shh, she’s comin’,” Sally whispered, hiding the banner they were hooking up to the flag pole for the end show.
Lou stepped up grinning furiously. “Y’all ready for our final show?”
“Mmhm!”
“Yep!”
“Waitin’ on you!”
Lou’s mouth made a surprised little ‘o’ shape at their in-unison response and her brow furrowed, but she moved past them with a shrug and untied Mr. Socks, who was waiting patiently for his favorite rider.
Tracy and Sally followed, their mounts also waiting patiently. Chet handed the rolled up banner pole to Sally.
“You ready?” she asked him with a wink as Lou rode out with a gallop, circling the arena in show-girl style, the fringe on her chaps flying freely.
He grinned nervously, nodding, then paused Sally with a hand on her knee, his eyes looking unsure for a moment.
“She, uh…She will say yes, won’t she?” he asked, his heart in his throat.
Sally smiled gently. “She’s been waitin’ for you to ask for ayearnow, Chet. She’ll say yes.”
He let out a huge sigh, scratching under the edge of his hat as he stepped back. He nodded.
“Alright then.”
Sally tapped her heels to Flank-Steak’s sides, joining Tracy and Lou in their arena ride-around. The three went through the familiar routine, dancing their horses through the various steps, until Lou hopped off to perform her infamous speed-lasso jumping trick. Her horse was led away off to the side so he wouldn’t get any ideas.
While Lou was busy leaping back and forth over the lariat like a cricket on crack, Tracy and Sally unrolled the banner behind her.
The crowd began hootin’ and hollerin’ all over again, though it took a moment for Lou to realize it wasn’t their usual reaction to her hyperactive activity. She paused, looking around until she finally spotted the banner rolled out between the two horsewomen.
“What in tarnation?!” She put a hand to her hip…and then she read the banner.
WILL YOU BE MINE, LLEWELLYN GRACE?
Her face froze in shock and she looked around wildly.
A brief moment of the Wedding March played over the speakers, and Chet rode back out on Lou’s horse, pausing in front of her and tapping his heels to give the signal for Mr. Socks to bow down on his front legs.
Chet held up the microphone, “Llewellyn Grace, I gotta ask you a question…”
“YES!” Lou shouted, not even letting him finish.
The crowd laughed.
“Ya gotta let me finish, woman!”
“NO!”
Lou rushed up to him, jerked his foot out of the stirrup and mounted up behind him. She knocked his hat off and wrapped herself around him so she could kiss him awkwardly from behind, in the same saddle.
When Chet could breathe again, he tipped the microphone up one more time.
“So do ya want the ring, then?”
“GIMMEE!”
