Page 39 of The Chances We Take

“Just hanging out. Colter and Ellison aren’t here. They went to go do something, I’m not sure what,” I explained.

“Man, it’s hot out. I need a nap.” Mikey flopped down on the couch between me and Isa as she shrank away from him and, consequently, away from me. He outstretched his arms and wrapped them around our shoulders. “Hey, handsome.” He winked at me, and I rolled my eyes.

It never failed that whenever Isa and I had a moment alone in person, someone interrupted us.

“What are you guys doing here?” I asked, hoping my tone didn’t have much annoyance in it.

“Looking for people to hang out with. We get lonely without you and Colter.” Jake jutted out his lip, pretending to pout.

“You three have each other, no?” Isa raised an eyebrow in amusement.

“Yeah, the three musketeers. Hayden, Dumb, and Dumber.” I smirked.

“Mikey’s the dumber one, right?” Jake teased. “I mean, he’s probably got a little bit of brain damage up in that noggin of his from all the falling off bulls he does.”

“Hey! At least I don’t need a saddle to be able to hang on for eight seconds!” Mikey retorted. Even though Jake didn’t saddle bronc ride anymore, it was a known fact bull riders and bareback bronc riders gave them a lot of flak. Something about it being easier with a saddle. I wouldn’t know, and I didn’t think I wanted to find out. I liked not having brain damage.

“You two argue more than a married couple.” Hayden smacked Jake.

“Well, just wait until Colter and Ellison get married and we can be the judge of that,” Mikey fired back.

“I’d rather pay money to see you get married,” Isa muttered.

“We can make that happen.” Mikey turned to wink at her, and it took everything in me not to smack him across the head.

She just flipped him off. “Yeah, right. I wouldn’t marry you if you were the last person on Earth, Michael Tucker.”

“I don’t blame you, Isa. Hell will freeze over before Mikey would ever get married,” Jake chimed in, to which Mikey shrugged.

“Can’t help it. Women want me and men want to be me.”

“All right, well, since you so desperately wanted people to hang out with, let’s go do something instead of sitting around all day. I’m sure Colter has some work you could do around here.” I stood, letting Mikey’s arm drop.

“Ah, come on, Lawsy, you’re no fun,” Mikey complained.

“We’re going to be spending all weekend together at the rodeo fucking around. I’m sure you can entertain yourself until then.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

isabelle

The rodeo we traveled to this week was located in a small town tucked away in the mountains of central Montana. The next couple weekends were a small taste of what life was like for the guys, except normally they were constantly on the road, not just leaving on the weekends.

I had to admit, though, these trips were a nice break from all of the wedding planning we had been doing. There wasn’t a lot left to do, just last minute tasks and preparations, but after a year of it all, I think we all deserved some weekend getaways. It was also nice to get out of Silver Creek, because there was only so much you could do in a tiny town like that. And while Miles City was close—only about a twenty minute drive—it was still a small town itself.

After the branding—and especially horseback riding with Reid—I was beginning to imagine what it would be like to live out in the country rather than in the city. Out here in Montana, it was at least two hours to the nearest big city, and four hours to a large airport. But it had apeacefulness to it, a type of serenity you couldn’t find where I was from.

I sat up in the grandstands with Ellison, Caitlin, and Cora. After the bachelorette party, Erin and Sloane went back to Texas, since there was still a while until the wedding and they didn’t have flexible jobs like I did.

Cora’s husband, Wyatt, had traveled up here to compete in the rodeo, even though it was smaller than the ones he normally competed in. Cora explained that it was easier for him to be traveling here and be close for the wedding than drive a day or more to come from whatever out-of-state rodeo he was at.

The rodeo was in full-swing, the bareback riding and saddle bronc riding having already happened, and they were starting the tie-down roping. Jake’s event.

“Folks, up next we’ve got a local cowboy. He grew up around these parts, and he’s back to compete today! Jake Flynn!” the announcer introduced Jake as he rode his horse into the roping box.

I turned to Ellison. “I didn’t know Jake was from here.”

“Yeah, he grew up here and went to college at SGU with Colter. They were in the same graduating class,” she replied.

---