2. Goodbye, Rodeo Queen

CHAPTER 2

GOODBYE, RODEO QUEEN

KALLIE ANN CAMPBELL

I strip the sash up and over my head the second we hit the dirt road.

"Goodbye, Rodeo Queen," I say, sad to see this summer come to an end. With the window rolled down, the rodeo grounds disappearing behind us, I hang it out and almost let it go so the wind could carry it away.

"Come on, Kallie. You have to admit that it's been a fun summer, what with all your obligations to appear at every major event across the county," Dixie says and chuckles, her wild blonde curls blowing out the window the summer heat. Soon enough, the weather will turn chilly in Montana.

Dixie may be my cousin, almost like a sister to me, and kind enough to have let me hide away here with her the past few months, but this idea of hers to enter the rodeo pageant a few months ago wasn't the greatest.

By the time I'd arrived in Montana, she had already entered and talked me into competing, too, just for the fun of it. I was weary and emotional and not thinking straight when I landed on her doorstep in early June; she caught me at a vulnerable time, willing to do anything to forget my old life for a while. Never would I have imagined I'd win the darn event.

I was a complete basket case, having escaped my real life in Austin. I needed a break, and to figure things out for the summer. She's right. If not for the schedule of appearances as the Queen—groundbreaking of the new bank in town, cocktails to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the mayor and his wife, and talking to a Girl Scout troop about the history of women's rights in this country, some of my favorites to name a few—I might have spent the entire summer curled into a ball on her couch crying my eyes out every single day.

I stash the satin sash in my bag when my phone rings for the hundredth time, if I'm counting. Which I'm not. One glance at it and I know the caller could only be one of two people. Either my father or my ex. Lord knows, my mother wouldn't call me.

"Dad," I whisper, hovering my thumb, hesitating to answer it. Dixie grips the steering wheel tighter, gunning the truck for town.

"Dammit. This is the last weekend you're here. You don't report back to your old life until Monday. We're partying tonight. He can wait. I can't even believe you agreed to go back, anyway. Fuck," she curses, slamming her palm on the wheel.

I let his call go to voice mail. "I know, but we've been over this. My life is in Texas. My job is there. Dad and Mom." My ex. I swallow hard. The memory of his handsome good looks floods my mind. So does all the shit he pulled.

"Sure. But what you don't need is for your ex-idiot getting his hooks into you again," she warns, not telling me anything I don't know.

"No, seriously. As fun as this summer has been, I need to return and face things."

There are wedding presents to return. So many presents. Most are from Dad's business friends and associates, who I don't even know. I also need to move all of my things from the house I once thought I'd occupy with my former soon-to-be new husband.

"But thank you for being here for me, Dixie. If there's one thing my escape from Austin did, it was getting Jeremy out of my system." I hope.

"Ugh. That name. You said we wouldn't say his name." She suddenly laughs, the cackle jolting me. "But how about that, Big D? Now there's a name for you."

I join her giggling, because yeah, talk about a cocky cowboy. "With a name like that, not only do I have to wonder what exactly is big about him, but how the hell a grown man can allow people to call him Big D."

"He was hot, though. Did you get a good look at him?" She wiggles her brows.

With dirty blond hair, a smoldering smile and blue eyes that could strip the pants off of me with one look? Yes, I took in more than my fair share of the man would could pass for a younger Brad Pitt.

"And the size of his thighs? And that ass in Wranglers?" She doesn't stop. "You were so close to him, handing out the buckle. You must have gotten a whiff of him. Did he smell all manly man? Gah, I love a manly musk, all outdoorsy, but before it's turned into body odor, you know what I mean?"

"Actually… It all happened so fast. I forget to breathe."

"I can't blame you. He'd steal my breath away, too. My heavens, the way he rode that bull. Bet he gives one helluva ride in bed, whether or not he's got a big D." Dixie is so funny, she makes me snort.

"You're so infatuated with him, he should have propositioned you. He'd have had more luck."

When I needed to run away from my life, she was the one person I could count on to be there for me.

I remember the huge fight I'd had with Dad, a week after I'd called off the wedding with Jeremy—Nope. Dixie is right. Tonight, we're meeting up with our friends to party at the bar. Everything else can wait until Monday.

My thumb stays poised over my phone, though, itching to hear what Dad says in his voice mail.

A big sigh comes from Dixie. "Go on. Listen to the dang thing. You know it'll just eat away at you all night if you don't. Let's get it over with. We're almost at the bar. Then whatever dear Uncle Campbell says, I'll buy you a beer to get over it."

Fuck it. I click into it, putting it on speaker so she can listen, too.

"Kallie Ann? It's Dad." Through the phone, his grumpy old voice breaks, thanks to years of smoking fine cigars from Cuba.

I can just picture his scowling face, bushy gray eyebrows and steely eyes. He looks like an old scrooge, and more like a grandfather than a father, although his age only caught up to him in recent years.

My mother had married this man twenty-two years older than her. Their wedding photos from the time showed the epitome of robust youthfulness, mired in the glitz and glamour of big Texas living. Sadly, time and a loveless marriage did neither of them any good. My mother's drinking and drugging added wrinkles, and her efforts to keep up with plastic surgery did little to reverse the process of hard partying.

"…calling with just a reminder that we had a deal. You needed the summer off, fine. But hockey season starts up soon and I need you back. Monday. The deadline for you to return and claim your position is Monday. Or I'll have no choice but to hire someone else. Sorry, sweetie. Nothing personal, this is just business."

He doesn't end it with an "I love you" or an " I can't wait to see you next week" , just an abrupt click. That's Dad. All business. And I'm sure he's itching to hire a man to take my place, anyway.

He's probably hoping I won't come back, praying I'll be like Mom, and retire from his business to be just a show-piece, called into action only when he needs someone pretty on his arm. But I could never be her… Will never be her.

"Wouldn't he just shit if you didn't go back? Stay. Please. Pretty please. Please. Please." Dixie has been begging me all week. I'll miss her, but I need to go back to my life. Not forever, though. I think I'm ready to move on and figure out what else to do, but first, I need to go back and bring closure to it all.

I can't explain why. Maybe because my ex and my dad are such assholes. In a weak moment, I ran from the hell they put me through. But I'll be damned if I let them see me that way. No. I'll go back and show them what I'm made of, if it kills me to do it. Then I'll plot my next move—away from them.

Tonight, though, I'm getting wild, letting loose, and having fun with Dixie and our old college friends. We're all staying at the Yahoo Inn here in town, and meeting up at Top's Tavern for drinks. It should be a blast and help me forget all of my problems for a while.