She shrugged as she licked her ice cream, her adorable pigtails swinging with her. “Never lived anywhere else, so I couldn’t tell ya.”
I chuckled. This girl was wise beyond her years. “That’s a good point.” I licked my own ice cream, closing my eyes to enjoy every bit of the flavor. “Oh my gosh,” I moaned.
Ellie was giggling, chocolate syrup dripping down her chin. “Ally, have you never had ice cream before?”
I laughed with her and dramatically licked my cone again. “It’s beenwaytoo long since I have!”
She dramatically licked hers back. “That’s a disgrace.”
“So, Ellie, do you want to be in the rodeo like your dad?”
She popped the marchino cherry in her mouth, twisting off the stem between her teeth like I used to.
The cowboy boots and hat, the pigtails, the freckles, slap some blonde hair on this little girl, and she’s Allegra, twenty years ago.
It was eerie.
“I don’t know. My mamma was a rodeo queen for a while. I think that’d be fun! But only if it doesn’t get in the way of my singin’ career!”
“Oh yes, of course. That does come first.”
“Obviously.”
“Obviously,” I said in the same tone. “Do you like watching your daddy in the rodeo?”
She was stirring the chocolate syrup around the bottom of the bowl she had devoured. “Yes, but it’ll be fun when he’salways home. Do you like watchin’ Uncle Colt ride in the rodeo?”
I crunched on the last of my waffle cone as I thought about how to answer this innocent, adorable little girl.
Yes, I had so much pride in Colton when I watched him ride; it made my heart want to burst.
No, I was so terrified he was going to get hurt, I thought my soul would explode.
It was so complicated, too much for the little girl in front of me, wiping her face with the back of her arm. “I love watching him do what he loves,” I finally responded.
“But it’s scary?” She asked with blue puppy dog eyes.
I clenched my jaw and put my sticky hand on hers. “It can be scary, huh?”
“My daddy loves to ride the bulls, but when he falls off,” she clutched her chest, much like an elderly woman, “man almighty, it makes me never want to watch again!”
“It’s hard to watch the people we love get hurt, isn’t it?”
“Really hard.”
Really hard.
~~~
Colton set my bags in the backseat of his truck, yelling something to his dad as he did. He laughed and shut the door.
I sat in the front, dressed in casual jeans and a tank top. The Oklahoma heat was starting to exhaust me. I had gotten used to Chicago seasons, average summers, and harsh winters. This southern heat was too much, even for a former Texas gal.
I just prayed I hadn’t already sweat through my shirt.
“Are you ready?” Colton asked as he climbed into the driver’s seat.
Colton had been asleep when I got home from ice cream with Ellie last night. I was disappointed. After getting to kiss him over and over for two days straight, each minute without his lips was torture.
