“Tied up right around he corner, under a big Oak Tree. But I already told you, Colton, I’m not lending her to you.”
“Great,” said Colton, not paying any attention, and dashing around the corner of the building to the horse, Sally Thunder.
Matt The Cowboy chased after him. “Don’t you dare get on that horse,” screamed Matt.
Colton ignored him, and expertly swung himself up on Sally Thunder. She was a really magnificent horse, strong, powerful, and young. She was jet black, with a beautiful coat. One white mark ran down her back in the middle, twisting and turning like a lightening bolt.
“Get off her now!” shouted Matt The Cowboy.
“No time for that,” said Colton. “Got to find Katy.”
“To hell with that!” shouted Matt. “To hell with Katy.”
“What’d you say?” said Colton.
“You heard me,” said Matt.
Matt tried to grab Colton’s legs, to pull him off the horse. But Colton had already jumped off the horse himself. He didn’t want anyone insulting Katy, his Katy. He was filled with a rage.
Matt put his hands up, and got into his boxer’s stance.
But Colton was too fast for him. Colton was too powerful.
Colton spun on his hips, putting one leg forward, the way he had been taught to punch.
He swung, his fist flying in a huge arc.
His fist connected with Matt’s face.
Matt wasn’t any match for Colton’s strength. He crumpled, and fell the ground in a heap. His cowboy hat rolled away into the dust.
“Sorry, buddy,” said Colton, feeling a bit of remorse.
He swung himself back up on Matt’s horse.
“Giddy up,” he cried, using his boots to dig into Sally Thunder’s hide.
She responded by shooting forward at a gallop.
Soon Colton was racing through the city streets. The sound of her hooves on the pavement was deafening.
Colton rode, his suit jacket flapping in the wind. He kept one hand on his cowboy hat, to keep it flying off in the wind. If he had had his old regular hat, this would have never happened. It would have stayed right on his head, without any issues.
Colton rode and rode. Eventually Sally Thunder tired, and they had to slow to a walking pace.
He got some strange looks, and quite a few wolf-whistle calls from women, women who liked nothing more than to see a sexy muscular cowboy riding by on a horse.
Colton rode for hours.
The sun was already starting to set.
There were still no signs of Katy.
Should he give up? Should he head back top her apartment?
But somehow Colton didn’t think he would find her there.
He had a strange idea come on to him all of a sudden. He didn’t know where it had come from.
But thought that maybe Katy had gone to a little park in an obscure corner of the city. There was an unusual weeping Willow tree there, by a small lake. Katy had mentioned it once to him in passing as a place she liked to go.
“Let’s go,” cried Colton, digging his heels as hard as he could into Sally Thunder. Sally was tired, but she rallied to the cause.
Her hooves were clamoring against the pavement once again.
Colton’s’ cowboy hat flew off in the wind. He turned to look at flying through the air…the fancy white hat. He didn’t need it anymore. To Colton, that hat represented the last of his quest to become a celebrity. As soon as he got home, he would put his old hat on again. He was done with fancy hats, with Sheila, with Cambridge Whitehead, with everyone except Katy.
The wind was flying through his hair.
Twenty minutes later, it was dusk, and Colton arrived at the park.
Sally Thunder blasted through the park at top speed.
“Whoa,” cried Colton, pulling back on the reins.
There was Katy, crumpled into a little ball, under the Weeping Willow tree. The tree was massive, towing into the sky, its branches turned down in sorrow towards the ground.
“Katy!” said Colton, expertly jumping off Sally Thunder.
“Colton!” said Katy. “You came for me.”
“Of course I did,” said Colton, putting his arms around her and holding her close.
“You didn’t go through the wedding?”
Colton shook his head. “Of course not, Katy. I love you and want to be with you. To hell with all that celebrity stuff.”
“But if you don’t marry Sheila, you’re not going to be famous.”
“I don’t give a damn,” said Colton. “I want to be with you, Katy.”
“I want to be with you too, Colton.”
They kissed, and continued kissing until the sun had completely set and the park was enclosed in a peaceful darkness.
30
Katy
Two years had passed since that disastrous fake wedding. Colton had returned the horse to his friend, and bought him a few drinks to make up for it. They were buddies again, palling around down at the rodeo arena.
Cambridge Whitehead had been white. Colton had never become famous. Not only that, but his name was never in any of the papers. Cambridge really did have a hold on the press, and he was true to his word.
Meanwhile, though, Colton continued as the #1 rodeo champion. He gained quite the loyal following of other rodeo heads, people who really appreciate what he did as an art.
Neither Colton nor I had any problems with him not being famous, being a complete unknown with the sport.
In fact, we both often talked about how nice it was. We got to live our peaceful life, away from the bother of the press, away from hounding reporters. We could go dancing and not be bothered by Colton’s’ fans. All the fans had drifted away now that his name wasn’t in the papers at all anymore.
We both loved it .We couldn’t have been happier.
Colton had wanted to be a celebrity for job security, essentially. But he had grown more careful in recent years…more carefully on the bull. And hadn’t been injured in the slightest. Apparently that happened sometimes to older rodeo stars…they got wiser and more careful in their later years.
Colton was pulling in quite a bit of money as a rodeo star. He had to leave sometimes to tour, but I often went with him, and found a lot of joy in exploring new cities with him around the country.
Sara and I were good friends again, and we had our wedding planning business was back in full swing. Since the reporters had already been at the wedding, Cambridge hadn’t been able to suppress the fake wedding from getting into the papers. The upside of the whole thing was that Sara and I had become instantly famous as wedding planners. We had more clients than we knew what to do with, more than we could handle.
Colton and I had moved out of the city and into the country. We had a little farm house on a ranch with more than 1000 acres. Colton had plenty of room to ride his horses around, through the fields, and he was even teaching me to ride. He loved the winding country roads for riding his motorcycle. He still had his beat up old truck, although there was a new engine sitting in the front of it.
The flame of our love had only grown stronger. We spent all the time we could together. We still had wild all-night love making sessions. We liked to say that we had only grown better at sex, and the sex had only grown more exciting, and more interesting. We made occasional comments about having a baby together….we figured we would wait and see what happened…let things happen naturally.
Oh, and we had gotten married. How could I forget to mention that?
That was one wedding I hadn’t planned. Sara had taken care of everything, and it had been a truly magnificent wedding. It had been big, but not too fancy. Country style, we liked to call it. We’d had it here on our ranch, in the bright sunlight in one of the fields. Colton had worn his oldest and most battered cowboy hat.
THE END
Secret Baby Romance
Football Baby: A Secret Baby Romance Page 47
