Once Upon A Rodeo

Chapter Twenty Four - [Samantha.]

I had fallen head over heels for Brantley Nash.

He and I had been dating for about three months months now, and I had been in Hudson for about five months now. Callie had quickly become one of my best friends, and Callie, Rose, and I were all very close.

It was near the middle of November, and it was really cold. It didn't snow where we were at in Tennessee, but the air had turned bitter.

I was outside on a cold Tuesday morning, putting Christmas lights on the outside of my porch. I had already decorated the entire inside of the house, and had put lights and an inflatable Santa Claus at the end of the driveway.

Christmas had always been my favorite holiday.

I had wanted to start decorating much earlier, but I didn't want anybody to think that I was weird for decorating so early.

My thoughts drifted back to Brantley.

We hadn't said I love you yet, but we were getting pretty serious. We had gotten in a few fights, but it was nothing serious and we had resolved it pretty quickly. He was pretty protective, which could be both cute and infuriating at the same time.

Once I was done putting the Christmas decorations on the house, I got the ladder out took it to the barn to put the lights on the barn. Grace had grown beautifully. She was no longer shy, and her and Apollo were very close. They constantly wanted to be around each other.

Apollo was a little bossy towards her, but not in a mean way towards Grace. I suspected that she liked it.

I hadn't had much to do in Hudson, so I got a part time job. I worked a few afternoons a week at the local bookstore. It wasn't hard, and I had a lot of fun. I wasn't a particular fan of one of my co-workers, Taylor, but her and I didn't work together often.

She was kind of lazy, and complained a lot about any amount of work she had to do.

It was obnoxious, but she was the owner's niece so there wasn't really much I could do about that. I was thinking about going for the part time managers position, but hadn't really decided on it.

My riding had gotten really good, too.

Brantley had even taught me about barrel racing, and I was getting pretty decent. I was even thinking about competing some time.

I was just about to put the wreath above the barn doors when I was plucked from the latter. Brantley had approached me silently, and pulled me down. He plucked the wreath out of my hands.

"What are you doing all the way up there, sweetheart?" He asked before he leaned down to kiss me.

"Well, I was putting that wreath up," I said, nodding to where he had set it down on the ground.

"Why didn't you call me to help you put this up?" He asked, gesturing to the lights on the outside of the house and the barn. I rolled my eyes.

"I am perfectly capable of climbing a ladder, Brantley."

"Yeah, but why should you have to when you've got me to help you?" He asked, putting his hand on his hip. I rolled my eyes and took the wreath back from him.

"I'm not helpless, you know," I said, not able to help but laugh at him. I climbed the ladder again, hooking it easily on the nail that I'd hammered in.

"I can't say it ain't a bad view from down here," He said cockily. I climbed back now, and Brantley hung the ladder back up where it belonged in the barn.

"I thought you had work to do this morning?" I asked.

"I did, but I wanted to take you to out to breakfast," He said, and offered out his hand to me. I took it.