Page 155 of Worth the Fall
They all waved excitedly.
I waved back, grinning like a chimp.
Colton’s family hadn’t gone a single day without treating me like their blood.
Dennis and I had grown close over the past year, between me living a block away from their ranch and being Agri-Corp’s marketing director, it was hard not to.
Jo made sure I knew I was loved, feeding me home-cooked meals, throwing a party on my birthday, and making up for the decades I’d had without a mother.
The boys teased me as a sibling, and the girls treated me like a best friend.
Martha and her husband, Jeff, sat beside them, shoving popcorn in their mouths, oblivious to me waving at them.
I had a big family that treated me like their own, a boy who loved me as much as I loved him, and I had finally let go of the past.
I had everything I could ever need.
“Ladies and Gentlemen!” The announcer’s voice shook the rafters. “Please welcome back to the arena... the man who proved that you can’t keep a good cowboy down. Returning to the dirt after a year away... COLTON NASH! He’s climbing on the horse known asTrigger. We’re about to see ifTriggercan live up to his name and shoot this cowboy into the dust!”
Colton jammed his gloved hand under the rigging, the leather groaning under the pressure. He squeezed his palm tight, forcing the blood out of his hand until his grip felt like iron. Beside him, twelve hundred pounds of “Trigger” slammed into the metal rails.
The horse wasn’t just anxious; he was a riot in a box.
The 17,000 people in the arena went absolutely ballistic. The noise was a physical force, vibrating in my bones.
I leaned against the metal railing, my eyes fixed on the man in the chute.
He settled onto the back of a massive, heaving bronc, reached down to check his rigging, and then looked back at me one last time. He gave a sharp, confident nod.
The latch clicked. The gate swung wide.
And as Colton Nash exploded into the light, I didn’t look away. I didn’t close my eyes. I watched every single second.
Because he was right.
The ride was everything, and he was more than worth the fall.
The End.
