After breakfast she sat at a table on the porch of the dining hall and pulled out her sketchbooks. She had two—one for Lost Cowboy designs, and the other for her own collection. Along with sketching, Tristan wanted to jot down notes for Bull
et’s Lost Cowboy story. She needed to remember to thank Lyric for the idea and tell her father about it.
She hoped the story would culminate with Bullet making it to the annual National Finals Rodeo.
1968
Bill walked from the house down to the corral after Clancy gave him the news. It wasn’t that he was upset by it necessarily; it was just a lot to get used to.
Clancy had dated his mama in high school, he’d told Bill. After they broke up and she started dating Bill’s daddy, the three remained friends. Clancy had visited his friend when he heard of his illness, and that was when Gene Flynn asked Clancy to look out for his family after he died.
Nothing happened between Clancy and his mama while she was married to Mr. Snyder, but when she told Clancy she was divorcing him, Clancy took the opportunity to confess his true feelings for her.
“Your mama is a fine woman,” he said to Bill. “I reckon that’s why I never married anyone else. No one came close to holdin’ a candle to Jane.” Bill’s daddy always called her Janie. He was glad Clancy didn’t.
Clancy told Bill he had two questions for him. The first was to ask if he wanted to ride down with him tomorrow to pick up his mama and sister. The other was to ask for Bill’s blessing to marry his mama.
Clancy didn’t need Bill’s permission, and neither did his mama. If needing his permission had been the case before, he would’ve refused to permit her to marry Mr. Snyder, that was for damn sure. But now, things were very different. This was Clancy.
He had to admit it was getting harder to remember much about his daddy. He still missed him. But Clancy had become like a second father to him.
He had no doubt Clancy would love his mother, and care for her and his sister. If he hadn’t stepped in, these last few years, Bill didn’t know what might’ve happened to them.
When he asked about his leaving the Double-P-Bar, Clancy assured him he felt ready to go. “In addition to the house, Russ Snyder owned a lot of land. It belongs to your mama now, too.” No matter how much land there was, Bill doubted it could match what Clancy had at the Double-P-Bar.
“You sure about this?” he’d asked him again.
Clancy told him he was, and then asked Bill to go down to the barn and check on the horses. The horses didn’t need checking on, Bill knew that as well as Clancy knew he needed time to process what he’d just been told.
When he got back to the house, Clancy was waiting for him on the front porch.
“I’d like to talk to my mama tomorrow, if that’s okay with you. And my sister.” Bill felt as though he hadn’t been a very good son or a very good brother these last few years. He wanted that to change.
Clancy nodded.
“And I want to look into colleges closer to Colorado Springs.”
Clancy didn’t argue with him about it, and Bill was relieved. As much as he had his heart set on going to Western State, where Dottie would be attending college, he knew, in his gut, it was time for him to put his family before other things in his life.
When they got back from picking up his mama, Dottie would be at the ranch. She had asked her Aunt Sadie if she could stay with her while she was in town for Bill’s graduation. As soon as he could, he’d let her know he was changing his plans.
He couldn’t allow himself to hope that she’d understand, or be willing to continue their long-distance relationship. She’d given up a lot in high school, like going to the prom or dating local fellas, in order to be his girl. He couldn’t ask her to wait for him any longer than she already had.
Now that he was graduating from high school, it was time for him to give up rodeo too. Clancy needed help with the land that his mama now owned. Between working that land and going to college, he wouldn’t have time to travel the rodeo circuit.
He rubbed his chest, knowing doing so wouldn’t ease the pain he felt. He was about to let go of the only two dreams he’d had in life. One was to be an all-around rodeo cowboy champion, and the other was to marry Dottie.
He wouldn’t speak of either dream again. If only not thinking about them were as easy.
14
Bullet could sense Buck’s frustration with him, and he felt terrible, wasting the man’s time. Heck, he wasn’t just a man; he was a legend. Instead of doing the work Buck had asked him to do, Bullet got lost in Tristan McCullough.
He’d had every intention of waking up early and getting his workout done this morning, but the lure of Tristan’s naked body in the bath was more than he could resist.
When Buck offered to let him break for lunch, he said he’d go get his workout done instead. Buck told him that wasn’t a good idea, and to wait until they were done. He also suggested they wrap up early so Bullet would have time to work out and get to dinner, but Bullet asked him not to do that.
As hard as it was going to be, he wasn’t here to court Tristan; he was here to practice bull riding. A lot of people made sacrifices both personally and financially to get him here. He wouldn’t feel right, wasting their money or their time.