Page 34 of The Chances We Take

“Of course! This is going to be the best weekend ever. It’s Ellison’s last rodeo.” I winked at the cheesy theme weobviouslyhad to use. It was a no-brainer, considering she was marrying a cowboy. Even if it was slightly ironic, since it definitely wouldn’t be herlast rodeo. “I can see why Colterwanted to propose to you out here. It’s like a scene straight out of one of those travel guides.”

“It was one of his favorite places growing up,” Ellison explained.

“Yeah, we used to come up here to the lake all the time for the Fourth of July holiday before he started competing in rodeos. He spent so much time in the water, we thought he was a fish,” Caitlin, Colter’s sister, chimed in. She’d been able to sneak away from her family to come celebrate with us before the wedding, which I knew Ellison really appreciated.

Ellison had five bridesmaids in her wedding party: me as her maid of honor, Sloane, Erin, Caitlin, and Cora Mills—the wife of one of Colter’s roping buddies, who she had gotten to know pretty well in the past couple years.

“We’ve got dinner reservations at six thirty, so make sure you’re ready by then!” Sloane ordered. She and I made a really good team, so I was glad I asked her to help me plan this. She was definitely more organized than I was; I was the creative dreamer, and Sloane took care of the budget and the analytical side. She was a lot like Ellison in that she was able to tell me what was realistic and what would be a bit of a stretch. She also handled all of the itinerary things and scheduled our reservations.

Sometimes I wondered why Ellison didn’t make us co-maids of honor, but I think Sloane knew she and Ellison weren’t as close as we were. She was still more than happy to jump in and help with any tasks, though. Honestly, all of the girls were. I didn’t know Cora or Cait before now, but I knew I’d have lifelong friends in them.

I looped my arm with Ellison’s, and we practically skipped through the house to get ready for dinner and going out tonight.

“More tequila shots!” Ellison called out to the bartender.

He nodded at her and poured them for us swiftly, sliding them across the bar.

Erin lifted her shot glass and screeched out a toast. “Here’s to me.” She pointed to herself.

“Oh, lord.” Sloane covered her mouth, suppressing a giggle. We all knew where this was going, but we weren’t going to stop her.

“And here’s to you!” She pointed to the rest of us. “And here’s to the man Ellison is going to screw for the rest of her life!” She cackled the end of her toast as a flush of red spread across Ellison’s cheeks.

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that about my baby brother.” Cait laughed before she threw her shot back.

“Cheers, ladies!” Cora raised her shot glass and clinked it against mine and Sloane’s glasses.

I took the tequila shot and then sucked on my lime, the tartness of the juice balancing out the bitterness of the shot, leaving only the burning sensation of the liquor as it traveled down my throat.

“Guys,look!”Sloane pointed to the back corner of the bar. “They have amechanical bull!”

“Ells, youhaveto do it!” I cheered, grabbing her arm and pulling her along with me.

“You guys,” she groaned.

Erin started chanting her name, and the rest of us joined in, probably making fools of ourselves in this barlike we were college kids again. Whatever, it was Ellison’s night and we weregoing to have fun.

“Okay, okay! Fine! I’ll get on the bull! But you guys have to do it too.” She put up a hand to stop us as she playfully rolled her eyes and got in line to ride the bull.

I held back a giggle as the line started to dwindle down and Ellison was up next. She had insisted on wearing shorts and a white bodysuit instead of a white dress, to Erin’s and my dismay. But looking back, it was probably a good thing, because there was no way Ellison was going to get on a mechanical bull in a minidress.

The guy who was currently riding was barely hanging on to the short rope as the machine whipped him around, spinning to simulate a real bull.

His friends were all hooting and hollering on the opposite side, cheering him on and telling him not to fall off, but the operator turned up the machine, flinging him onto the padded floor.

“Yay, Ellison! You’re up!” Sloane giggled as she pulled out her phone to record.

She shot us a pleading look, as if asking if she really had to, and Cora gave her an encouraging thumbs up as Caitlin waved her along. She sort of half-rolled her eyes and puffed out a breath before nodding to the operator and climbing up.

The opening riff of “Here for the Party” started shortly after Ellison got herself situated and nodded at the operator to start the machine. A few whoops came from the bar attendees; they probably noticed we were here for a bachelorette party with the sashes I convinced Ellison to let us wear.

“Fine,” she had sighed, giving in to my pleas. “Only as long as they aren’t the super cheesy, cliche ones.”

“Of course! There’s no way we’d get the super basic ones, right, Sloane?” I had winked at Sloane knowing we were going full out and would have ones with individual titles and not justTeam BrideorBridesmaidon them. I had known Ellison would love me regardless of what I got for the party.

I did at least let her pick what was on her sash. She vetoed the ones that saidLast Hoe DownandBride’s Last Ridebut deemedGettin’ Hitchedto be semi-appropriate.

I had told her it needed to fit the theme, and she conceded. Besides, all the rest of the sashes were somewhat cowboy themed. Mine hadMaid of Dishonor, and the rest of them saidGettin’ Rowdy,Whiskey Girl—which really wasn’t true for any of us except Ellison—Hot Mama—for Cait, of course—andSouthern Belle.

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