hayden
PRESENT DAY
Our impromptu fishing trip seemed to work, because by the time we had to get back on the road for the next rodeo, a little bit of Sierra’s spark appeared to have come back.
She came out of the house as I was packing up the pickup and horse trailer. A baggy T-shirt hung loose off her shoulders, and she had on a pair of bootcut Wranglers.
“Morning,” I greeted her.
She shielded her eyes from the sun. “Anything I can help you with?”
“If you want to grab Lucky’s tack from the shed and load it into the horse trailer, that’s about all I had left to do besides loading the horses. We’ll be set to hit the road pretty shortly. Are you packed up?”
She threw out a thumbs-up since she already had her back turned to me, making her way over to the tack room.
Our trip to Oregon was one of our longer ones, lasting a full week before we immediately drove over to North Dakota.
This was also one of the few trips we’d be boarding ourhorses at the rodeo site and staying in a hotel nearby. Since Sierra normally stayed in her trailer at an RV park, she hadn’t been able to book a hotel, but I’d booked a double queen room. Jake was going to stay with me, but given the circumstances, he got booted to Mikey’s room.
We’d also be leaving Pancho behind on this trip. Liv had offered to dog sit while we were gone, so on the way out of town, we’d have to drop him off at her house. He was already waiting in the backseat of the truck. The windows were slightly rolled down, so he was peeking his nose out.
“Ready to go?” I double-checked with Sierra after she dragged two duffel bags and a backpack out of the front door. “We’re only going to be gone a week, you know.”
She dropped the bags on the ground, huffing out a few labored breaths. “I’d rather be prepared and not need everything than need something and not be prepared.”
I lifted one of the bags, thinking it’d be easy to toss it into the back of the pickup, but it was heavier than I expected. “What the hell do you have in here? Bricks?”
“No, just my entire rock collection,” she deadpanned, rolling her eyes.
“Well, at least we’ll have something to hold down the bed of the truck,” I teased, tossing her second bag into the bed.
“Anything can happen on these types of trips.” She shrugged. “If we somehow happen to get stranded on the side of the road, I have plenty of layers.”
“If you say so. All right, Princess, let’s get on the road.”Thatnickname earned me a glare sharp enough to cut through bone.
She climbed up into the passenger seat, sparing me one more glance over her shoulder as she scolded me. “Nevercall me that again. I can handle Skip, but Princess is too far.”
“Noted.” I chuckled as I shut her door and made my way over to the driver’s side.
The plan was to meet up with the rest of the group in Missoula, but a few hours into the drive, our text group was blowing up with notifications.
The Silver Creek Cowboys (and Ellison)
(plus Isa and June)
Jake
Not gonna make it in time to meet up guys
Ellison
What happened?
Jake
Flat tire. Had to stop in Livingston
Colter
