Page 62 of Rough Ride

“Don’t encourage him,” Johnny interrupted. “He’s already got an ego wider than a longhorn. If you give him a crowd of cheering rodeo fans, he might explode.”

Eli glared at him. “And here I thought you were becomin’ morefriendthanenemyon the frenemy spectrum.”

“That’s what you get for thinkin’,” Johnny answered.

“I don’t know,” I teased. “You two arrived at the same time. That’s friendship behavior. Especially if you drove together.” I stared at them pointedly.

Johnny looked away and said, “Our trailers are parked next to each other. It just made sense for us to share a ride.”

“Of course it did,” I said in a patronizing tone, turning away to help another customer. That happened to be in the same direction as the stage, where the employee I had talked to earlier was still setting things up. I waited until he was looking in my direction, then flashed him a quick thumbs-up.

He nodded once. Game on.

For a little while, it was a normal night. Customers flirted with me. Eli made jokes about where he was going to take me on our date, grinning at Johnny every few seconds to twist the knife. Johnny was true to his word though—he only shrugged, and showed no real sign of jealousy.

Finally, at ten o’clock on the nose, the background music dimmed and a voice came over the loudspeakers. “Now playing on the stage…”

“This ought to be good,” Eli muttered, twisting in that direction.

You have no idea, I thought.

“When he’s not strumming his acoustic guitar,” the loudspeaker boomed, “he’s gripping the pommel of a horse. That’s right: your musical guest tonight is one of the performers in the Fort Worth Rodeo. Please give a big Billy Bob’s welcome to Eli Hawkshaw!”

28

Sophie

Their reactions were everything I could have hoped for.

All the color drained out of Eli’s face. He stared at the stage, completely still, like his brain was in the middle of rebooting.

Johnny glanced at me,immediatelyrealized what had happened, then doubled-over the bar with laughter.

That seemed to unfreeze Eli. He twisted to look at Johnny, then regarded me with confusion. Slowly, understanding crept into his eyes.

“You asshole,” he said with a slow smile.

I gave him a shit-eating grin. “Why, I don’t know what you mean.”

“Is this for last night?” he demanded. “You’re gettin’ me back because I’m making you wait for our date?”

I batted my eyelashes. “That’s one theory. Are you going to play? The crowd is getting antsy.”

The packed room had erupted in applause when Eli was announced, but now there was a nervous chatter as they staredat the empty chair on stage, illuminated by a single spotlight. If he didn’t play, this whole thing would backfire on me.

“You don’thaveto play,” I teased. “If you’re too scared…”

It was easy to see that comment ignited something inside Eli. He scoffed and said, “I’m a lot of things, Sophie darlin’. But scared ain’t one of them.”

He pushed back his stool and strode right up to the stage, ignoring the steps and leaping right up onto the wooden platform. The crowd cheered at the sight of him, and he doffed his cowboy hat with a flourish.

“Evenin’, y’all. Only my good friends call me Eli, but tonight, I’ll make an exception for y’all.”

“You ought to be practicing for the Steer Wrestling event!” someone near the stage shouted.

Eli picked up the guitar and sat on the chair. “Is that you, Abraham? I’m surprised you can walk after the kick you took in the arena the other day. Ladies and gentlemen, can I get a quick round of applause for Abraham Jackson? He finished second-to-last in the Calf Roping competition last night, so he needs all the encouragement he can get.”

That drew cheers and a few whistles from the crowd.

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