Mayfly Melodies

Three

Dedicated to madclarity who gave me the name Rhea

Bailey

A good country song takes a page out of somebody's life and puts it to music—Conway Twitty

Bailey kept her head down as she walked, avoiding eye contact with just about everyone that she saw. Almost the entire town was here, looking on at the rodeo as the boys on the broncs held on tightly or were bucked off. She listened to the cheers and the groans and watched the events out the corner of her eye as she tried to find her parents in the stands. If they were there, she couldn't see them. There were too many people crammed in like sardines in a can, making them all near indistinguishable.

She continued on. Bailey knew that her brother, Travis, was either getting ready for his ride or had already done it which probably meant that her father was with him on the sidelines somewhere. An ex-all-around-cowboy champion, Robert Grant had been both a coach and an inspiration to his sons as he taught them the do's and do-not's of the rodeo circuit as they'd grown up. Bailey had been apart of those talks and she could ramble them off by heart. The years she'd spent barrel racing had given her an in to the exclusive cowboy world. Her musical career had forced her out.

Bailey paced around the edge of the pen where they were hosting the saddle bronc riding event from. She saw a few familiar faces and carefully avoided their eyes before they could notice her. That was when, on the other side of the fence, she saw her father.

He was where she thought he would be, standing next Travis beside the shoot where he would emerge riding a bucking bronco in what looked to be just a few short minutes. A few feet away from them, leaning against the side of the fence, she saw her other brother, Jake. He was chatting with another man, not paying any attention to the world around him.

Grinning in relief, Bailey began walking around the perimeter of the corral. Excited as she was, she didn't even bother keeping her gaze centred towards the ground or stop herself from looking towards her family - though the shadow cast from the brim of her hat definitely helped to keep her inconspicuous. It'd been so long since she'd been home and, while her parents and brothers had come up to Nashville for interspersed visits, their stays were infrequent and short. This would be the first real time in years that she would be with her entire family for more than a few days.

She was ecstatic.

But, just as she approached, her father and Travis turned away, heading over to the shoot. There was a man a few feet in front of them, similarly garbed, and she took that to mean that her brother would be competing soon. Not wanting to throw him off by her unannounced arrival, she kept her distance for another moment, waiting until they were far enough away to not notice her before approaching Jake.

He looked up when she was about ten feet away, frowning as she approached. He broke away from the man he was conversing with and began to walk towards her. His face was riddled in shadows cast from the brim of his hat. "Hey. You're going to have to turn back around, Miss. This area is reserved for riders and their coaches only."

Bailey couldn't help the smile that grew across her face as Jake's familiar voice swept over her. It'd been a long time since she'd last heard her brother's voice in person. They spoke on the phone as often as they were able but aside from those calls, it'd been almost a year since she'd last seen him face-to-face.

"Sorry," she said. "I just couldn't help but come say hello to my favourite brother."

That drew him up short. He paused, staring at her with brows drawn tight over his eyes, and then asked, with a voice full of uncertainty, "Bailey?"