Authors: Carolyn Brown
“I know how hot it’s getting and how dirty it is. But it will get cooler come winter and I can wash the dirt off at night.”
“Good. Now tell us about Rye. Is he any good in bed?” Greta asked slyly.
Austin smiled. “I still don’t kiss and tell. Right now he’s in Mesquite at the rodeo where he’ll be every single weekend until August. We both work so hard all week that we don’t have time to see each other and then weekends he’s at the rodeo so there’s not much to tell.”
“So go to the rodeo. Dance a little, both vertically and horizontally.” Molly winked.
She giggled. “You two make me laugh. Last time I did a dance like that I got into big trouble.”
“Tell us,” Molly said.
“Only if you don’t tell Oma Fay.”
Molly crossed her heart and held up two fingers.
“Okay then, I had a big hickey when I went home for Mother’s Day and Mother spotted it. I thought she was going to pass out right there under the crystal chandelier. She told me it was low class.”
Greta giggled. “It is but hell, it’s damn sure fun gettin’ them, ain’t it?”
“Except when you get a cramp in your leg and have to get up and jump around like a one-legged chicken at a coyote convention. And when you kick your partner out of the bed and he hits his head on the nightstand and makes a bump and it bleeds.”
Greta put her spoon down and slapped the table so hard the salt and pepper shakers rattled. She laughed until her wrinkles were flooded worse than the Red River in the springtime.
“Did that really happen?” Molly got the hiccups.
“It did and you can’t tell.”
“Oh, Greta, we’ve got secrets. Now when Oma Fay calls with something really big we can say that we know something we can’t tell because it’s a secret that Austin trusted us with. And she’ll think we know they went to bed and we ain’t tellin’. Ain’t life wonderful? We’re so damn glad you moved back to Terral that we could…” She paused.
Greta finished for her, “That we could piss in our boots and call it lemonade.”
Austin got the giggles at that. “Okay, girls, I’ve got to get this finished. I’ve still got to iron my jeans and Gemma is picking me up at five to go to the rodeo. Think I ought to see if I can get this hickey renewed?”
“Good God, don’t ask us a stupid-ass question like that, girl,” Molly said. “You know the answer before you even ask.”
Gemma knew all the back road shortcuts to get to the Resistol Arena in record time. It reminded Austin of getting around in Tulsa where she knew which streets to avoid, which ones had more red lights, and what parking lots to use as a detour to get from her apartment to the oil corporation building in the center of Tulsa.
Gemma made a right-hand turn on Rodeo Drive, a left one into the Hampton Inn parking lot, and hooked a spot not far from the front doors.
“Impressive,” Austin said.
“I’ve been doing this since I was sixteen. Daddy let me drive down here in the summer to get my big city training. Passed my driving test the first time out, which is better than most Ringgold kids do. We have no red lights, few stop signs, and very few curbs in Ringgold so it’s not easy to get any training. We all start driving when we can see over the pickup steering wheel, but passing the test is another thing.” Gemma got out of the truck, opened the back door, and removed her suitcase.
“Are you really riding tonight?” Austin pulled her suitcase from the other side of the backseat of the truck.
“Yes, I am and I get to ride in the opening ceremonies. You’ll like that. It’s quite a production.”
Austin looked for Rye when they rolled their suitcases into the Hampton. He’d said that he’d be busy with the stock and couldn’t see her until after the ceremonies but she’d hoped he would surprise her.
It didn’t happen.
“We’re going to have to rush more than I like. Momma’s waiting to leave until we get here so she can show you the ropes this first night. It won’t take me twenty minutes to get into my finery for the opening ceremonies. I’ll take my riding britches with me and change in the restroom.” She led the way to the front desk where room keys waited.
“Call Momma’s cell phone when you get ready. I’m not going to wait on you since I’ve got to find Daddy and make sure my horse is ready for the ceremonies.”
“Horse?” Austin managed to sneak in a word.
“He brought my horse this week. He’ll bring her back home on Sunday since this is the only week I ride in the opening ceremonies and there ain’t no way I’d leave her down here all summer. She’d get fat and lazy. See you after I ride. Keep your fingers crossed. I really want to win tonight.”
“Why?”
“I need the points for the championship rides,” she said. “Here are our rooms. Mine is next down the hall and Momma’s is right beside that.”
“Okay, then I’ll see you later.” Austin was suddenly nervous. She was out of her element completely.
Business, she knew.
Watermelons, she was learning.
Rodeo? It was a foreign language.
She opened the suitcase in her room, hung her clothes in the closet, used the bathroom, hoped her nervous bladder didn’t act up right in the middle of Gemma’s ride, refreshed her makeup, brushed her hair, and then called Maddie.
“Hi, kiddo. It don’t take you long to get ready. I’ll be in the hallway by the time you open your door.”
Austin picked up her purse and found Maddie already in the hall with a smile on her face. She wore a bright pink satin trimmed shirt, snug fitting jeans with a silver laced belt set off with a rhinestone buckle, and pink boots.
“You ready? We’ll walk over to the arena. Cash is already there. He’s a clown tonight. Can’t wait for you to see him in his cut-off overalls. The man never did have much meat on his legs and now that he’s past fifty, they are even skinnier. He makes a real good clown.”
Austin followed half a step behind Maddie. “What does a clown do?”
“They distract the bulls or broncs while the cowboys get away and they generally entertain. Cash loves it. He used to ride the broncs until he got too slow. It about killed him to give it up but then he found out he could clown and he’s really good at it. Makes enough to pay for the hotel rooms and puts him back into the excitement of the rodeo.”
Two people were in the elevator when the doors opened. A little girl dressed in jeans, a pink shirt emblazoned with rhinestone longhorns on the front, and scuffed up cowboy boots and her mother who was dressed for a rodeo but didn’t take Austin’s eye like the little girl did. The little girl looked up with bright blue eyes set inside hot pink and silver face paint and smiled at Maddie.
“Nanna,” she whispered.
“No, but I’d love to be,” Maddie said.
The mother smiled. “You would remind her of my mother. She’s only seen her a couple of times. My father is military and they’ve been stationed in Germany ever since she was born.”
“How sad. They are missing a princess growing up,” Maddie said.
“Yes, they are but such is life,” the mother said as the elevator doors opened.
“I want a whole house full of those and I can’t get a single one of my kids to cooperate.” Maddie sighed.
“Girls?”
“Either or both. I’m just ready for grandchildren. It’s not a long walk and our seats are reserved.” Maddie pointed at a building when they left the hotel. “That is the 8 Second Club. Cash paid the dues for the family so make Rye take you there to eat after the rodeo.”
“Rye made me watch a movie by that name the other night. I don’t know anything more about rodeos than what I saw in that movie. I’m feeling a little out of place.”
“Like maybe you need your spike heels instead of them boots,” Maddie laughed.
“Yes, ma’am. Exactly. Like I’m the clown and trying to be something I’m not.”
“Going to the rodeo is like going to the opera. Either you love it or hate it. After tonight you’ll catch the bug and want to be here every weekend or you’ll never come back.”
“I love the opera. Get emotional every time I go.”
“Then you know what I’m talking about. Loved it the first time you sat in the balcony and didn’t understand a word of the songs but felt the emotion down to your toenails, didn’t you?”
Austin nodded.
“So did I. Cash hates it.”
“How about your children?”
“Gemma said she’d rather spend the afternoon in an outdoor toilet as go back. Raylen and Dewar snored through their first visit and never went back. I got Rye to go twice but it’s not for him. But Colleen, now there’s a girl who loves it as much as I do.”
Austin sighed. Wasn’t that just the luck?
The excitement was a living breathing entity that wrapped itself around Austin’s shoulders like a mink coat on a bitter cold day. From the moment she walked through the gates and up into the stands surrounding the arena her heart raced. The smell of dirt, horses, and bulls and the noise of the crowd surrounding her all mixed together to stir her emotions even before she looked up to see Rye coming across the arena with his tall Texas swagger that made her blood boil.
The walk across the arena was the longest walk Rye ever made. It was Austin’s first rodeo and he was scared shitless that she’d hate it. He remembered when his mother made him go to an opera in Dallas. He thought he’d die of boredom before that woman stopped singing. Give him some good old country music any day of the week. He swore he’d never go back to another one of those bellowing banshee affairs. And now Austin was sitting in the same kind of spot. If she hated the smell of dirt, hot sweaty bulls, and cow shit, he wouldn’t make her ever go to another rodeo, but it would break his heart.
When he sat down beside her and brushed a kiss across her cheek, his palms were sweaty. “So?”
“So what?” she asked.
“Do you like it?”
“Don’t know. I haven’t seen anything yet except a dirt corral and a bunch of people.”
“I’m so glad you are here,” he whispered.
“Welcome to the Resistol Arena,” a big booming Texas voice said from the judge’s stand. “And welcome to the Mesquite Championship Rodeo. Get ready to see the meanest bulls in Texas, the wildest broncs, and the cowboys and cowgirls who intend to tame them tonight. And now please welcome our judges for tonight’s performance with a big round of applause.”
Catcalls and hand clapping went on for a full minute before the announcer could be heard above them. “Sounds like a good crowd tonight. So I’ll ask everyone to stand while tonight’s singer, Colleen O’Donnell, does a fine job of our National Anthem and then we’ll have a moment of silence for all our troops.”
“Colleen?” Austin asked as she stood and put her hand over her heart.
“She went to Nashville for a year. Might’ve made it but she hated the city life,” Rye whispered.
Colleen’s soulful rendition of the song brought tears to Austin’s eyes and she could have sworn even the bulls bowed their heads for a moment of complete silence. Rye slipped his arm around her waist and peace settled around Austin like angel wings.
“Thank you,” the announcer said. “Once again, welcome, and now we’ll begin our opening ceremonies for tonight.”
“What’s going to happen?” Austin asked.
“Just watch.”
The first horse to come from the far side was a big black beauty that stepped high. A lady in a sparkling silver shirt and tight jeans rode standing up, her boots in stirrups at the front of her saddle, one hand on the bottom of the American flag, the other on the top edge. The motion sent it fluttering back behind her as she controlled the horse’s speed with her feet.
The next horse was just as black and beautiful and Gemma rode on his back with the Texas state flag in her hands. She wore red sequins and black western-cut jeans. Her belt buckle was the Lone Star state flag done completely in sparkling jewels. She smiled at the crowd as they clapped and stood up when the flags passed in front of their part of the bleachers.
“Oh!” Austin exclaimed. “I love it!”
Rye didn’t even know he was holding his breath until he let it out in a whoosh.
She looked over at him. “What?”
“I was afraid you’d hate it as bad as I hate opera.”
She kissed him smack on the lips right there in front of his mother. “Darlin’, it is spectacular. I love it. When do the bulls come out of the chutes? Can we really do this every weekend all summer?”
Colleen joined them, sitting beside her mother. “She’s looks beautiful tonight, doesn’t she?”
“Yes, she does.” Rye was grinning from ear to ear but it didn’t have a lot to do with his sister. “Be nice if she can stay on that bull long enough to rack up some points.”
“How does that work?” Austin kissed him again in front of Colleen just to prove to Verline that she wasn’t afraid of any of the O’Donnell women.
Colleen gave her a dirty look but explained, “There are three judges. Two in the box and one back by the bull chutes who’ll break any ties with his points. Fifty is a perfect score from each judge. Twenty-five is for her performance. Twenty-five is for the bull. Forty is a good high score from each judge. Serious riders want a mean bull because he gets points for power, speed, and drop in the front end, kick in the back end. If he can change directions that’s even better. She needs the points to get seeded.”
“What’s that and what would get points taken off?” Austin asked.
“Seeded means the rider is ranked among the top forty-five bull riders. She’ll get to go to the PBR’s major league tour and then have a shot at the season finale held in Las Vegas. She’s been close before and this could be her year,” Rye explained.
“What about her new beauty shop business?”
“If she gets a shot at that tour, the business will have to wait,” Maddie said.
“Things that would go against her are touching herself or the bull with her free hand. That’s instant disqualification. She’d lose points for poor body position or lack of control,” Rye explained.
“Is she riding one of your bulls?”
“She got the draw for Lucifer.” Rye nodded.
“Is he mean?”
“I’ve only seen two riders stay on him the full eight seconds.”
Austin grabbed his hand and held on tightly. “Don’t you worry about her?”
He draped the other arm around her shoulders and slid in closer to her. “She’s a good rider. Hey, you want to ride the mechanical bull when this is over? You could get a taste of riding.”