Cowgirl Up ✔️

Chapter Thirty Eight

Come morning time, Blayze and I both got ready in a rush.
Saturday meant a huge day for the Rodeo, with the majority of the events being held.
"Which phone is which?"
I asked, noticing both our phone's sat atop the rickety dining table.
Blayze paused with the creaky cabin door open and the dog's already outside.
He shook his head.
"Uhh... I dunno."
I guess it wasn't the smartest move to have exactly the same phone, in the same colour and everything.
I reached for the lone round button on one of them, to light up the screen.
6:57AM - Saturday April 2, the screen read.
Underneath that was notification's, including message's.
Keegan: iMessage: 6:40AM: Good luck man let us know how ya go 😜👍
Codie: 6: 38AM: Knock em dead champ 👍👊🏻
Rikki: 9:42PM: Ohhhh OK that's cute then 😆
I probably should have just turned away having seen Keegan's name.
I don't have his number in my phone.
Instead I get to see that Rikki was talking with him last night.
What else can those word's possibly mean?
But we were up later than that time.
Jaxon was even still here later than that time.
So why's the message there on the lock screen?
Why did my heart suddenly hurt?
Clenching my jaw, I grabbed my phone, sipped it into one of my back jeans pocket's, then crossed the cabin to hand Blayze his phone.
"You're popular for such an ungodly hour."
He took his phone.
"I normally get a message on the Friday and Saturday of a Rodeo from Keegan and Codie."
I raised a questioning brow.
"Rikki too?"
He frowned and lit up his phone screen, looking down at it.
For some reason, my throat suddenly felt rough like sandpaper.
I shook my head and slipped between him and the door.
"Bailey wait."
Blayze grabbed my arm just above my elbow before I could step out of the door.
Slowly, I half turned around, trying desperately to school my expression.
"She sent me this picture last night."
He showed me his phone screen, revealing a rather darkened and slightly pixilated image of a small boy I recognised to be Tameron, curled up in an armchair, seemingly asleep and with a Black and Tan puppy teddy nestled into his chest.
"I got it for Tameron when he came with me to pick up your fixed phone, coz he saw it and loved it. She told me he's named it 'Azlan' and wanted to know if I knew where that came from."
Blayze stated.
I looked up to his face, somewhat surprised.
I was surprised he was bearing all of this to me.
I was also surprised Tameron had named his new Teddy after Blayze's Kelpie.
"Wow."
I all but whispered, not entirely sure which of the surprises I was referring to.
Blayze locked his phone and slipped it into his pocket.
"So I told her it must be from my dog, coz Tameron told me the teddy look's like Azlan and that's what that answer is from."
I couldn't help but smile.
"That's pretty cute he named his teddy after Azlan."
Shit!
"Speaking of-!"
I jumped off the tiny porch.
We'd been standing with the door open for some time now.
Blayze put his right thumb and finger to his mouth and gave a shrill whistle.
All three horse's turned our way.
Scampering paw's sounded and a moment later, Azlan and Zeus barrelled around the side of the cabin.
My heart beat hard with relief.
"Good boy's!"
I bent to pat the cheeky pair.
They wagged their tail's exuberantly, apparently not registering they'd almost been in trouble.

The horse's were eating breakfast and I sat myself down at a vacant plastic table and chair's ensemble, with a bacon and egg roll and an immitation of our Diner's Hazelnut latte.
My first mouthful from the coffee from the 'Coffee Stop' trailer, I could tell the coffee was burnt.
But I was greatly in need of caffeine, I couldn't bring myself to throw it out and try again elsewhere.
Plus that option would mean more money and wasting of precious minute's.
The Under eighteen's barrel racing was due to commence at 9AM and I had to have Phoenix ready to go for when they called my name.
As I robotically chewed my bread, barely cooked bacon and rubbery, overcooked egg, I thought back to last night.
One thing has been niggling at the back of my mind.
I swear that in the midst of the euphoric emotion's and the heated sexual tension, Blayze dropped the word Babe.
In our risky escapade's of exploring this side of each other, that has not once happened before.
But it kept ringing in my head.
Does it mean something?
I know there's definitely more than the platonic 'friendship' we both once claimed, going down.
But there's still a hell of a lot to consider.
He's still got Rikki hanging around.
Tameron is now on the scene.
My family will have kitten's!
"Barrel racin's one of your specialties ain't it?"
I jerked out of my trance and my faraway thoughts, in time to see a Cowboy parking his butt into one of the chair's at my table.
Damn it is it Tyron or Xalan?
Why can't I ever tell those twin's apart?
"I'm entered, yeah."
I wrapped the remaining few bites of my entirely average breakfast roll in the paper wrap.
Whichever of the twin's it was who was sitting across from me, jerked his head back in the direction of the main shed.
"They're gonna call for rider's to be gettin prepared any minute now."
Shit!
I all but launched out of my chair.
I threw my breakfast rubbish into a nearby bin and speed walked, sometimes slipping into a half run, toward the cabin and Phoenix, my rank coffee still in my hand.