“I will. And you call me too. Okay?”

Bullet was nodding his head and disconnected the call before he realized he hadn’t answered her, or said goodbye.

1972

Dottie had been in the hospital ten long days. She had four broken ribs and a collapsed lung, but that wasn’t as bad as what the doctors had initially thought. The first thing they told him was they suspected her back was broken and she may never walk again.

She could walk, but it was very painful for her to do so. There wasn’t a lot they could do for broken ribs, they told him. They’d heal on their own.

Clancy couldn’t say what had spooked the horse Dottie rode over to their house that morning, but he’d watched as she was thrown. He’d yelled for Jane to call the ambulance as he ran out of the house.

“You saved her life,” Bill told him. He knew Clancy felt terrible that there wasn’t more he could’ve done, but Dottie was alive, and that was all that mattered to Bill.

The nurse told him the doctors were planning to release Dottie from the hospital in the next couple of days, but there was something important they wanted to discuss with him before they did.

Bill sat in the private waiting area, the next afternoon, as a doctor he hadn’t met before told him it was unlikely Dottie would be able to have children.

“Does she know?” Bill asked.

“We thought it best if we told you first.”

“Do you want me to tell her?”

The doctor told him it was up to him. They could tell her, with him present, or he could wait until she was home and more comfortable.

“She broke some ribs, and her lung was hurt. What would that have to do with her ability to have children?”

“Your wife was pregnant at the time of the accident Mr. Patterson.”

The timing was right. The first time he and Dottie made love was over spring break. He’d convinced her that, in just a few weeks, they’d be married anyway. He told her he didn’t want to wait any longer.

If they had waited, if he hadn’t pushed, Dottie wouldn’t have been pregnant, and she’d still be able to have children.

Bill was devastated. He had no idea how to tell the most loving woman he’d ever known—besides his own mama—that she’d never be a mama herself. And it was all his fault.

19

Bullet was riding like crap. He hadn’t covered the last seven bulls he’d gotten on. No one really said anything about it. Bulls prevailed over cowboys far more often than the other way around.

“You’ll get after ’em next time,” Bill would say at the end of a buck-off. But then, when he’d find a place to practice, Bullet would be the one Bill was getting after.

Tonight, they were in Colorado Springs for the Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo. It was the first time Bullet would get on a bull at what he considered his “new hometown” rodeo.

His parents, Gram, Lyric, and most of the Flying R Rough Stock partners were here with their wives. In total they had four boxes reserved on the south side of the event center. Several of the Flying R team were competing, including him and King West, who was predicted to do well in the steer wrestling timed event. Unlike Bullet, he’d been in the money on several of his recent outs.

Regardless of whether he covered his bulls tonight, or through the weekend, he’d be home for the next week. He’d been on the road pretty near non-stop since May, so the break was welcome—and unusual at this time of the year.

July was considered “Cowboy Christmas,” because of the number of rodeos taking place. Competitors could potentially earn thousands of dollars, traveling from one rodeo to the next, virtually non-stop. The higher they climbed in earnings, the better chance they had of being in the top fifteen invited to compete in the NFR in December. Bullet had lost hope seven bulls ago. He wasn’t feelin’ it tonight either.

“You give up before the bull’s in the chute, you might as well go home now.”

Bullet looked up to see Buck Bishop sitting on the back of the bucking chute. No one told him Buck would be here, but it may have been that no one expected him to be.

“Yes, sir.”

“Where’s your head, son?”

He shrugged his shoulders, but not because he didn’t know the answer. He shrugged his shoulders because he didn’t want anyone else to know.

Tags: Heather Slade Cowboys of Crested Butte Romance
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