Once Upon A Rodeo

Three - [Rose.]

My first reaction was bewilderment.

Less than a minute ago, Brantley Nash had been standing in front of me with a rather friendly look on his face ready to buy me a drink. Had I imagined the ever so slight flirty smile he'd displayed?

The next reaction was anger.

I had seen Brantley at the rodeo, but he had no idea I'd been in the stands. There were thousands of people there - there was no way he could have seen me. And so what if he did? That was no reason to warrant the anger he'd displayed.

I had never even been to Tennessee before so there was no way that he knew me. And I didn't know him, apart from the time I'd seen him riding and that had been less than twenty seconds.

What reason had he had to storm off like that? I'd done nothing to him. The arrogant ass. Rather irritated, I stormed after him. I shoved the door open, which hit the outside wall of the bar with a clattering bang.

I'd gotten there with just enough time to see him in a large black truck, speeding out of the parking lot. The tires squealed for a brief second and black smoke billowed out of the tailpipe.

"What a jackass," I snapped to no one in particular.

Turning around, I stomped back into the bar. After drinking a glass of water and paying for my drink, I left. By the time that I arrived back home, I decided to brush off what happened. I wouldn't let his behavior - however strange that it was - ruin my night or my excitement at arriving in Hudson.

Unlocking the front door, I found myself with a renewed sense of happiness.

My mother's house had never felt like a place that I belonged, and her icy indifference towards me only ever made the matter worse. But even though I'd been here less than forty eight hours, this place felt like home to me.

Feeling in the mood for doing anything but sleep, I slipped out of the house and went back into he barn to do a little re-exploring. The last time, I'd been in there for just a brief moment.

To the right of the entrance, there was a light. I flicked it on and was bathed in a dim light.

To my left, there was a sink an old sink.

To the immediate right of the barn door, there was a storage room. There were floor to ceiling shelves covering the wall to the left, and to the right, saddle holders and hooks for bridles and other sorts of riding equipment.

Aside from an old broom and rake, it was completely empty.

I wondered what had happened to all of his things after his death. Had they been sold off, like the house? Given to charity?

The rest of the barn was full of horse stalls. Four of them on either side of the barn. The stalls itself were were only up to my chest, with strong wooden beams at the corner of each stall that reached the ceiling. Black bars separated the stalls on the inside, which would keep the horses from fighting or getting to one another's food.

There were no bars on the entrance to each stall, which would let someone reach into the stall easily.

Dirt and bits of old hay were scattered over the cement ground in the center. More hay was on the dirt grounds of the stalls.

I raked the hay out of the stalls first, then swept all of it out of the barn. I got some cleaning supplies from he the house and cleaned everything that was dusty or dirty, just as I had done in the house before all of my furniture had been moved in.

After I was done, I was just about to retreat back into the house when I saw it. High above me in the center of the barn was a trap door of sorts, with a piece of string of thin rope hanging from it.