At the rodeo arena

Cole looks over at his best friend "Hey man, ready for another close weekend? Think you can beat me this time?"

Travis throws his head back, laughing hard. "Haha! You think you are so cocky. One day you will be knocked off your high horse and be beaten. You have just been on a huge winning streak. Your luck will run out soon enough."

Cole shakes his head as he walks through the stirred-up dust "Yeah, yeah. Says the person still chasing the number one guy in the world. Hey, second isn't bad though," jabbing him in the ribs gently.

"I don't mind. You have three more years in this circuit than I do. So losing to you isn't bad," knocking his hat off and then catching it before it hits the ground.

Cole snatches his hat away. "Hopeful, we both pull good bulls this weekend. Then we will still stand where we are."

Travis brushes off his jeans. "Yeah. There are some nasty bulls here. Thumper, Ballistic, and Twister are all here. Those bulls are good pulls, but they are tough to ride."

Cole stops and rubs his chin, thinking, "I been on Thumper but not the other two. Barely made the buzzer."

Travis smacks his back gently. "I been lucky and haven't pulled any of them." As they walk around the grounds, a truck and trailer with two hot girls pull in and pass them.

Travis' mouth drops open as he watches the trailer park down the alley away. "Hot Damn! Did you see those two? Man, I going to talk to them. They were breathtaking."

Cole pulls on him, trying to turn around. "Come on, man, is that all you think about? We see hot girls every weekend at these."

Travis jabs him in his chest hard while scowling, "Look, you need to get over Pamela! Geez, man, how long are you going to let them bother you? You need to get over that and move on. Daniel was a dick, and he should have known better. He went after her while you were out on the circuit, Yes she gave in also but at least you knew she wasn't for you!"

"Yes, it did show me that, and then I made that vow that I will never break. I am never going to trust another woman due to that," shrugging his shoulders.

Travis rolls his eyes and scoffs, "I told you millions of times, there are plenty of women that won't do that to you. Just got to find her, man. I promise she is out there somewhere," waving his hand towards him at the forest.

"Well, if I don't look and worry about it, then my vow stays."

Travis stops walking and grabs his arm. "So you are going to die an old bachelor? No kids to teach the tricks of how to be a rodeo star like you?"

Cole shakes his head and then drops it with a sigh. "I don't want that. I'm fine the way I am now. Ok? Just drop it."

Travis grins, "Fine, I going to see those girls real quick. I haven't seen them before," as he takes off down the dirt road to the spot that the trailer parked.

As we park the trailer in our spot, get out to stretch and sign in. Sofia gets out and starts to get the horses so they can stretch. I grab mine and give him sugar cubes.

Stroking his white mane slowly, "Hey boy! Good ride? You looked comfortable. Let's get you walking for a minute." As I start to brush Lucky down, I hear footsteps approach. I look up to see two really hot cowboys walking up, and my knees go weak.

The taller, dark-headed one speaks first, "Sorry to startle you. Just saw you come in and wanted to say hello. I'm Travis, and this is my friend Cole. We are bull riders."

I nod at them and then ask, "Would that be Travis Hester and Cole Walker? The number one and number two bull riders on the circuit? Very nice to meet you. I'm Angel Smith, and this is my friend Sofia Montgomery. We run barrels, poles, and I do trick riding," brushing off my horse's flank.

Travis looks at us a little closer, and then his eyes go wide. "Oh, y'all are the ones that just moved up to the Pro circuit. Welcome ladies. Can't wait to see how you perform this weekend."

I lock eyes with Cole, but he has a cold look and acts as he would rather be anywhere but here talking.

Sofia chimes in as she puts her brush down for a minute "Hey Travis and Cole. Nice to meet you. Hope to see you ride this weekend. Never seen you guys in person. I am excited to watch live and not on a TV."

"Have you been around rodeos most of your lives? We were raised in this for a while" Travis looks back and forth between us.

I answer with a little sadness in my voice, "Yeah, my late dad and brother did rodeos, and I always came with them to watch. I also have been riding in them since I was eight."

"Can I ask who was your dad and brother were?" he must tell that something is not quite right with my voice.

"Butch and Alex Smith. My dad rode Broncs, and Alex rode bulls."

"Wasn't your dad a two-time World Champion, and Alex was a five-time National Champion? I hated to hear what happened to them. I wanted to meet Alex" his eyes show me that he is honest on this.

"He was ecstatic to be in the big leagues finally. To watch him get gored and trampled on was the worst day of my life. Then when my dad crashed his plane, that was about my breaking point. Sofia kept me together and wouldn't let me quit my depression. Losing both of them in the same year was really hard."

A flash of something comes across Cole's face, but it disappears immediately. I look at him for just a second longer and then turn back to my horse.

"I would like to go out to grab something with y'all tonight. Would y'all be interested?"

Sofia looks up quickly and answers even faster, "Sure!"

I answer right after her, "Sure!"

Travis smiles big as he pats the horses. "How about seven? We can take my truck, so you don't have to unhook yours," nodding to the huge setup that is attached to mine.

Sofia blushes as she says, "Sounds good."

"See you in a few hours, ladies."

The guys walk away, and Sofia squeals. "OMG!!! He is so cute. They are both cute. I wonder why that other guy didn't talk any? He never said a word," watching their backs as they walk away.

Going back to what I was trying to finish, "I don't know! They both were cute. Cole seemed irritated, though."

After the guys walked away, Cole slaps Travis on the head. "What the hell, man? What are you doing?"

Travis rubs the spot and looks over at him. "I asked two girls out to dinner. Why? You jealous?"

Cole shakes his hand out because it was a hard slap. "No, you don't expect me to go, do you?"

Travis laughs and then shakes his head. "Nope, I will take both of them myself. You can stay your boring ass here tonight. I was going out with two beautiful women," rubbing his hands together quickly.

"You think I am going to let you get away with me having no ride to go get food with? Wait, was this a setup?" Cole looks over, and Travis smirks.

"You Son Of a Bitch!!! You know how I feel about this!"

"Then don't go. Stay here, and I will bring you some food back."

"You know I'm not going to do that. You will pay for this, I promise!" wagging his finger at him.

"Well, let's go get ready then. We have a date two hours from now."