The Cougar and the Cowboy

Luke nodded and tried to grin but his mouth was full of cheeseburger.

“Dani says I sleep like a log and I snore so she’ll be happy I had to spend the night here,” Luke told him.

“Speaking of Dani, she said she was busy tonight. Do you know where she went?” Jace asked him.

Luke nodded. “Yep. She had a date for dinner and a movie with some guy named Mitch.”

Jace nearly choked on his sandwich. ‘How did Mitch get her number? I didn’t give it to him. What do I care? She can date whoever she wants. It’s none of my business.’

After they cleaned up the few dishes, they sat in the living room and talked. “I thought you’d probably have a video game or two with you. Do you play them at home?”

“Yes, but we’re only allowed to play for a few hours each day. My mom says she doesn’t want our brains to turn to mush.”

They both laughed at that.

“It sounds like you have a wonderful family, Luke.”

“Yeah, I guess so. There are a lot of us but since Grandpa Cal and Grams gave us the whole ranch house, it isn’t cramped any longer. They built a new one for themselves.”

Jace vaguely remembered the Frasier ranch house and it seemed huge to him at the time.

“You’re very lucky to have all those siblings. I always wanted a brother but never had one.”

Luke seemed amazed by that. “You don’t have any brothers or sisters? You have other relatives, though, right?”

Jace shook his head. “Nope. Well, I have a mother somewhere but I don’t know her.”

Luke seemed confused. “I can’t imagine life without my mom and dad. What happened to yours?”

Jace stretched his long legs out in front of him and told him his life story, in condensed form. “My Grandpa Matthews came to Bozeman many years ago. He had two sons: my dad and my Uncle Henry. Grandpa bought 160 acres bordering BLM land…that’s government land that you can use but can’t build on. When his sons grew up, he gave each one a parcel of eighty acres. My dad married and they had me but one day, when I was still little, my mom packed a bag and left and never came back. When I was a teenager, my dad remarried but his new wife and I never got along too well. That’s when I decided I was going to leave. I didn’t want to join the circus so the rodeo was the next best thing.” He grinned so Luke would realize he was kidding about the circus.

“On one of my visits back home, Dad said he was selling the eighty acres because his new wife didn’t like living in the ‘middle of nowhere’ as she called Bozeman.”

My Uncle Henry never married and therefore had no children. When he died, I inherited his eighty acres which I mortgaged to put a down payment on The Branding Iron. I thought I was set for life. It didn’t work out that way, though.”

“My dad would say God had other plans for your life,” Luke interjected.

Jace frowned a bit. “Yeah, you could say that, I guess.”

“So what happened? How come you stopped being with the rodeos?”

“I was in an accident that could have been prevented but someone didn’t do their job. The gate opened unexpectedly, I wasn’t prepared like I should have been and I was trampled by the biggest bull on the circuit. I spent months in the hospital and longer in rehab. They told me my leg and hip were broken in so many pieces, repairing it was like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. At first they told me I’d never walk again but I worked hard and I did. As you can see, I have a noticeable limp I’ll never overcome and some days it hurts more than others but at least I can walk.”

“I had insurance on my belongings but foolishly, I never had any insurance on my body. It took all the money I had saved to pay the hospital bills. When I came back here, I decided to become a guide for fishermen and hunters and for people who wanted to experience a week in the wilderness. I made enough money at that too but the longer I did it and the older I got, the more I realized I couldn’t ride long enough at one time to be able to do that any longer.”

“I’m really sorry that happened to you, Jace. I suppose my parents thought if you told me that, I’d stop wanting to follow my dream.”

“I don’t believe they want to squash your dreams, Luke and neither do I. The possibility of being hurt is present with any occupation. You could get trampled being a rancher, too. If I was going to tell you something to sway your thinking, it would be about loneliness, not about broken bones. I always thought someday I would have a wife and a couple of kids I loved. You know, a family like yours back home in Texas. But that’s something you’ll have to think real hard about because it isn’t fair to be gone all the time and leave them alone. If you want to make the rodeo your occupation and not a weekend hobby, you will be gone all the time. You’ll never see your kids’ ballgames or piano recitals or any of those things because you have to move on to the next town to make some more money. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“Yes sir,” Luke answered.

“Lets’ have some ice cream. I think I’ve talked enough for one night.”

As they ate their sundaes with all the fixins’ Luke said, “Can I ask you something?”

“Absolutely. Ask anything.”

“Do you believe in God? I mean, I heard you say the other day that you didn’t pray anymore and you seemed a bit upset when I talked about God’s plan for your life, so I just wondered.”