CHAPTER 1: Elizabeth
I kicked up dirt in my ruined ballet flats as I headed towards the sounds of screaming fans and country music. I wanted to find Sam and watch the rodeo with him. It was about time I tried to assimilate to the country way. We’d been in Landing, Wyoming for almost two weeks and I still hadn’t seen the little town’s nightlife.
As I spotted the small stadium, if you could even call it that, I couldn’t help comparing it to the nightlife I was used to. DC had everything. Culture, dancing, and drinking. There was more, but at twenty-three, those three things ranked pretty high on my list of fun things to do.
What ranked pretty low was walking down a dirt path between the only motel in Landing and the little mud hole where the rodeo was held. My flats were label and had cost me a pretty penny. A penny I no longer had, so I had no hopes of replacing them. They’d been the victim of Sam thinking he was going to cheer me up about the dust I’d been tracking through to get to the local library. He’d tried to clean the delicate suede with a nice rough run through an industrial sized washing machine at the laundry mat.
The stadium was really just a big fence surrounding a bunch of dirt and a few sets of metal stands. There was a big wooden box set up on one end with windows revealing a few men who were giving commentary about what was happening in the dirt.
I passed by a few cowboys in their outfits and smiled at them. Of course, they just stared at me. If I had to say one thing about Landing’s population, it was that they were the most private people I’d ever met. They weren’t big on strangers. While it seemed like they’d taken a liking to Sam, even the sweet looking librarian clammed up when I walked into the library, looking to borrow her paper to job hunt.
The metal seating was mostly full, which was surprising for the small town. I never expected so many people to show up for something that didn’t make much sense to me.
I stood at the bottom of the stands and looked for Sam. For the guy I’d moved across the country with, he sure had been hard to find since we arrived in Landing. I could feel the people in the stands looking at me, but I ignored it and just focused on finding my newly mysterious boyfriend. I made my way around the stadium with no luck. I couldn’t find him anywhere.
He’d said that he would be there, so I found a seat and tried to blend into the crowd while I waited for him to show up. It wasn’t easy, that much was sure. Landing residents seemed to scoot away when I walked by them. I wanted to like them, but I’d never felt quite so alone in my entire life. I didn’t think I’d done anything to offend them, but they all seemed to want to keep their distance from me.
The country music screeched to a halt and a man with a thick accent started talking about the next cowboy up. The men were riding bulls, which just seemed dangerous and pointless to me. I was slightly concerned for the bulls, too. It couldn’t be healthy for them to have such large men sitting on their backs. As I contemplated the cruelty level of bull riding, a man caught my eye.
It was different for many reasons. First, it was the first time anyone had really met my eye since I’d arrived. Second, because something seemed to sizzle in my lower stomach as soon as our gazes connected. Butterflies seemed too innocent and small a word to compare to what I was feeling. In all actuality, it felt like someone had released a thousand tornadoes in my stomach, that were all trying to escape at once.
The man was big. He towered over the tall men around him, making them seem average, at best. His shoulders were wide enough to land a small plane on, it seemed, and his arms tested the limits of the denim shirt he was wearing. A narrow waist and hips were encased in dark leather chaps that made me hungry to know what was waiting for my eyes in the back.
Tousled blonde hair fell almost to his shoulders and peeked out from behind a dusty cowboy hat. His lower face was all sharp angles and five o’clock shadow. I couldn’t see his eyes as clearly as I wanted to and I found myself standing, my body desperate to get a closer look, to see them more clearly.
I bumped my ankle on part of the metal seating and the pain cleared my head. I blinked a few times and felt my eyes go wide. The cowboy was still there, standing in the dust right inside the fence, watching me with a half-grin on his face. He winked and I reacted like someone had set my ass on fire. I jumped about a foot in the air and then rushed towards the exit.
With my heart racing, I fought the urge to look back at the man. Something about him was calling to me, but I’d never been a cheater and I had no plans on starting. I had to just get away from him and pray that whatever I was feeling went away. I had to find my boyfriend and make him spend some time with me so I could remember why I didn’t need to feel anything for anyone else. Sam was enough. He had to be.