His lips were smooth and soft, his tongue warm and teasing, his hands in my hair and tracing my face, his strong body hovering over mine.
Colton Nash was everything I could’ve ever wanted, and he was everything I would ever need.
I could be there for him for one more rodeo.
Then I’d be his number one fan in the finals.
And then? Then I could start breathing again.
Chapter Forty-One
After tossing and turning almost all night, praying I wouldn’t wake Colton, I spent almost the entire drive to Sioux Falls asleep.
We had given our goodbyes to Alan, Dean, and Jimmy at five, before they headed out for a mere four-and-a-half-hourdrive back to Guthrie. Colton and I climbed in the backseat, and I was out.
I slept for eight hours.
Which meant we still had another ten hours of driving when I woke up.
The Nash family was obviously used to these kinds of drives, all doing their own activity–Dennis listening to a book, Jo crocheting something, and Colton listening and watching the scenery fly by.
I was lucky to have some work from other projects that my team had emailed for me to finalize. I think I would’ve bailed and hitchhiked to the nearest airport if I didn’t.
It was a long, long, boring drive.
We pulled into Sioux Falls, South Dakota, around midnight, and even though I had spent the last eighteen hours sitting, I was exhausted.
Luckily, Colton’s event didn’t require its own horses, so we sent them back with the boys. Which meant we didn’t have tounload horses, find a pasture, and keep them watered and fed for the rest of the trip.
On the other hand, it meant they took the other trailer, and that Joe, Dennis, Colton, and I all had to share one. I had no idea if they knew we had been sleeping in the same bed the past few weeks, but with only one master room and one pullout bed, it was inevitable.
Not that I would ever complain about his body next to mine.
Usually, he slept in a spread starfish position on his belly, but that night in Sioux Falls, he tucked himself right behind me and kept himself as close as he could to me, holding me all night.
He was competing in the ride of his life tomorrow; he was scared, and I was terrified.
Chapter Forty-Two
The Sioux Falls arena was…intense.
An indoor stadium, huge LED screens, four times the size of the one in Oklahoma, polished concrete tunnels, professional locker rooms, and the crowd, an astounding ten thousand people, would be watching, not including the cameras broadcasting the show to every honky tonkin the country.
All eyes would be on Colton for eight seconds.
We were alone in a medical room behind the locker rooms.
Earlier, Jo had watched Colton sneeze and grab his ribs in pain and had gotten worried. She called in a favor and asked a doctor to meet him before the show, not letting him get on a horse until someone with a medical license said he was okay.
I hugged her tightly after that.
Colton was sitting on the table with his shirt off.
The doctor in Wranglers and boots had just left.
He had done a full physical exam, even checking inside Colton’s mouth and in his ears. In the end, he had put his hand on Colton’s shoulder and told Jo she had nothing to worry about.
Colton had bruised his ribs, which was obvious, but they were not broken.
