I clutched my stomach, spun on my heel, and threw up in the dirt.
Luckily, Colton didn’t notice. He was busy staring at the replay, his twitching fingers at his side as he awaited the announcement of his final score.
“Let’s hear it for Colton Nash, eighty-two points!”
The crowd cheered, but Colton didn’t celebrate. He spat a mouthful of the Amarillo dust into the dirt and started unbuckling his chaps.
“Miss Ford, are you okay?”
I was still leaning against the fence, hovering over my vomit. I sat up, wiped my mouth, being as subtle as I could to kick a pile of dirt over the puke. “Yes, Billy, I’m fine.” I wiped the sweat away from my eyes and shot her a smile. “Sorry about that. I must’ve eaten something that didn’t agree with my stomach.”
Billy didn’t look convinced. Her green nails were on my arm. “You looked like you were gonna pass out that whole time.”
Colton was climbing through the fence, shaking his head. I rushed to him and threw my arms around his body. He slowly raised his hand and placed it on my back, his body quivering.
“Are you okay?”
He put his chin against my temple. “Eighty-two,” he muttered.
I released him to look up at his face. “You could’ve died, Colton. I’m just glad you’re okay!”
He creased his brows together. “I need to get at least ninety at the next show to be confident enough to go to Sioux Falls.”
He saw his ride as a damper on his scores and paychecks.
I saw it as a miracle that he was alive.
“Colton, you can practice, it’s okay. I’m just glad nothing horrible happened to you out there.”
He wanted to argue, I could see it in the way he clenched his jaw, but instead he tucked my hair behind my ear with agloved hand and nodded. “You bet I’ll be practicin’ tomorrow.”
“How much did she ask for?”
I blinked hard.
It had been maybe an hour since I retired to the trailer, my adrenaline from the horrible day finally crashing. Colton was still reeling from his rough ride and wasn’t ready to go to sleep.
I had showered, gotten into my pajamas, and was unconscious within seconds of hitting the pillow.
I’m not sure what woke me, but the question had piqued my interest. I shot up and glanced out of the tiny window.
The Nash family was sitting around the campfire in their chairs.
“Ten grand.” It was Colton who answered that question. Someone must’ve left the door to the trailer open or something, because their words were as clear as a bell.
He was finally telling them the horrible story of my mother and my reunion/goodbye. I scooted to the edge of the bed so I could get closer to the window. “She asked for it like she was asking a favor, like nothin’.”
I was so glad Colton didn’t know I was listening. He’d put on a brave face in the trailer house, and then with the chaos of the rodeo, we hadn’t had a second to breathe, so I wanted to know what he really thought of it all.
“Okay, she asks Ally for the ten grand,” Alan was asking, leaning toward Colton, “then what?”
Colton’s hat was hanging on the back of the chair, and he was running his hand through his hair. “She shoved her, like, hard. I got up and tried to ask if we could sit and talk about everythin’, but she lost it on me. She thought Ally had broughtme to attack her, or somethin’, I don’t know, she was just screamin’.”
Dennis was shaking his head in disbelief.
“Then?” Jo asked, sitting next to her son with her hand on his.
Honestly, after all this, I wouldn’t be surprised if Jo didn’t want me to date her son. She had said this afternoon about how I was good for him, but after hearing all about how insane my mother was, I’m sure that’d change her mind.
