Page 7 of Crashing the Altar
So when she said she didn’t remember drunkenly confessing thatIwas the man she wanted to be with on her twenty-first birthday, I’d kept my mouth shut rather than fill in the gap in her memory. Considering she vomited all over herself, me, and my car only moments later, it was more than likely that it had been that liquor talking, even though my heart wished her words had been true.
Penny:I miss you. Doesn’t feel like my birthday without you.
Late April meant rodeo season. Shit, more than half the damn year was rodeo season. And until my father decided to hand over the reins of overseeing the breeding ranch he’d built from the ground up to his only son, I was relegated to spending the spring, summer, and early fall months on the road, carting our bucking horses across Oklahoma and our northern neighbors, Kansas and Nebraska, for competition.
Unfortunately, that also meant I missed Penny’s birthday more often than not now that I was the team lead on the traveling crew.
I’ll beg the boss for some time off next year so I don’t miss your 30th. Since we don’t know how many more good years you’ll have after that. *Sticking tongue out emoji*
Penny:Jerk. *Eye roll emoji*
Any big birthday plans?
Penny:Nothing crazy. Just dinner and cake at the house with my parents and your family, minus my favorite Sullivan.
If I knew my girl, she had her lower lip pushed out in a pout as she typed those words. My own lips curved into a smile, knowing the surprise I had in store for her today.
It’s my job, Penny.
Penny:Yeah, I know. I just hate thatyou’re gone so much.
Me too. Maybe I’ll see if I can squeeze in a few days at home before we head up to Kansas in mid-May.
Penny:I’m gonna hold you to that, cowboy.
Yes, ma’am. *Cowboy hat face emoji*
I’ll let you go to celebrate. Call me later?
Penny:Yeah, there’s actually something I wanted to talk to you about but don’t want to do it over text.
Hope filled my chest. What if she had meant what she’d said on this same day eight years ago? Could there really be even the tiniest chance that she returned my feelings? That we might have a real shot at being something more than “best friends?”
Fuck, I didn’t just want something more. I wantedeverythingwith Penny.
Sucking in a deep breath, I blew it out slowly. I had to play this cool. There was no point in getting ahead of myself. Knowing my luck, she’d want my help in convincing our dads to let her add to her menagerie of random farm animals she treated as pets. At last count, she had three pigs, twelve chickens, two sheep, and a goat. It was only a matter of time before Sullivan Ranch became a damn petting zoo.
But she knew I couldn’t say no to her. I’d never been able to, and I wasn’t about to start now. Even if she said she wanted a turkey—those things freaked me the fuck out—I’d stand by her side and help make the sales pitch to Jett Sullivan and Wade Atkins.
Sounds good. Have the best day, Lucky, and I’ll talk to you tonight.
Shoving my phone into my pocket, I pushed through the door to the florist on Main Street in Rust Canyon. Penny had no clue I was in town; she thought I was off in Guymon, nearly four hours away in the panhandle.
I couldn’t wait to see her face when I surprised her by showing up at her birthday celebration.
There were a few cars parked outside the Atkins homestead situated on a plot of land on Sullivan Ranch. Wade was my father’s foreman and had been since the day Dad bought the property before my older sister was born, over thirty years ago now. The two of them had worked side by side, not only building the business together but their respective houses. The Atkinses might not have their name twisted in iron atop the front gate, but this ranch was as much theirs as it was ours.
Hopping down from my pickup with flowers in hand, I jogged up the front porch steps and let myself inside.
A flash of copper hair caught my eye a split second before my sister, Aspen, came into view. When she saw me, her blue eyes that matched mine widened, and her mouth dropped open before she clapped a hand over it, muffling her words.
“Oh my God. Tripp.”
If Aspen was this shocked to see me, I could only imagine Penny’s reaction.
My gaze dipped to her rounded stomach, and my heart swelled. “Snowcap, look at you.” My big sister was my second favorite person, only behind my best friend, so of course, I’d given them both special nicknames.
When I’d left for the rodeo circuit a month ago, she hadn’t even looked pregnant yet. But now she sported the cutest little melon-sized belly, where my niece was growing.
