The Perfect Ride

Chapter 4

The plane landed in Houston at 4:30pm after having a lay over in Denver. An uber took me to my hotel, and I went to the front desk. David had texted me and told me to the the person at the desk I was part of the tour. He had bought an entire floor for us. I did just that and they gave me a key. Room 329. Top floor. I took the elevator.

As I walked to my room, I saw a swarm of boys at the end of the hallway goofing off. I assumed they had to be part of the tour too if they were on this floor. One of them was shirtless wearing wrangler jeans and a black cowboy hat. He seemed to be the one causing the commotion. I just smiled and shook my head before entering the room. It was a suite with a full kitchen, bathroom, balcony, and two rooms.

"Hello?" I called out. I heard door in the back open up. A girl with dark red hair walked out.

"Hey! You must be Sadie! I'm Rozlyn White. You can just call me 'Roz' though" She says.

"Sadie Rosen" I say while shaking her hand. "Pleasure to meet you".

"You too! As soon as I heard you were on the tour, I watched so many of your videos from worlds. You're amazing!" She says. I smiled.

"Thank you. That means a lot" I say.

"I really hope you and I become good friends though, because I have no idea who anyone here is" She says. Thst immediately made me feel relif.

"I'm glad you said that, because I felt the same way" I say. She and I both laughed.

"So, at 6:00, Mr. Walsh wants everyone on the tour at the arena. It's some kind of a mixer type thing. Just to meet everyone. All the bull and bronc riders will be there along with the barrel racer, and us too" She says. "I hoped you and I coukd walk together. The arena is a couple blocks down the road".

"Of course. That's probably our best option anyways" I say.

"See? We're agreeing on everything already" She says. We laughed again. "Hey, do you wanna grab Starbucks before we head over?".

"Girl, you and I will get along just fine" I say. We grab our things before heading out the door. She and I were definitely hitting it off.

***
We finally got our coffee and sat down and started taking.

"So, you've been trick riding for how long?" She asks. I took a drink before answering.

"I was eleven. My Dad was always at rodeos and competing, so when I saw someone trick riding, I knew I wanted to try it, so I did. Thirteen years later, and...I'm a world champion. Now, my dad is retired and runs a school in Lake County that my whole family work at" I tell her.

"Oh! Does your sister compete too?" She asks.

"She does, but she's not a trick rider. She's a barrel racer. She's a state champion in Montana currently. And, my dad is Robbie Rosen" I say.

"Your dad is a legend" She says. I smiled, thinking of daddy.

"He's the best" I say. "How about you? How'd you start?" 

"Well, I grew up in East Tennessee. We always went to Gatlinburg on the weekends, and once when we went when I was about 15, we went to The Dixie Stampede. I saw a woman ride a horse through a ring of fire, and I went home and bought a trick saddle. I already had a horse. I got a job there at eighteen, and the rest is history. I'm no world champ, but it's a cool job" She says.

"It sounds amazing. I've never ridden my horse through the fire, but still" I say.

"True, but some of the tricks you do, I'd never do. Who ever thought of hanging off the back of your horse and braiding his tail? I could never" She says. That was one of the tricks I sort of made up. But, it got me a world championship.

"Don't ask what made me try that, because I don't know, but I did it, and I won, so I stuck with it" I say. We both laughed, and finished up our drinks.

"Oh, look! 5:45. We should go" She says. I swallow the rest of my drink and stand up. We hurried out the door and up the street to the arena.

We got the to arena and went to the back entrance. A staff member escorted us to the actual performance area. The whole floor was decorated with tables and a dance floor and food and drink tables. We were met at the front by David Walsh.

"Ms. Rosen and Ms. White. We are thrilled you're here with us. Take a name tag and take a seat. Mingle and grab some food too!" He says.

"Thank you!" We say in unison. We found a table and grabbed some water. Looking around, there were so many bull riders, and barrel racers. It seemed odd that we were the only trick riders.

As I looked around, something caught my attention. It was the shirtless boy I saw in the hotel. Well, he wasn't shirtless now. He had in a black button up, black jeans, black boots, and a black hat. Once again, he was laughing. I couldn't make out what his name tag said though.

We had been sitting for a few minutes when a man came up to us.

"Evening" He says tipping his hat. I noticed he was more interested in Roz than me. "How are you ladies doing?".

"Fine. And yourself?" He asks.

"Better now. I'm Cody Teel. Bull rider" He says.

"I'm Roz White, and this is Sadie Rosen" She says. "Trick Riders".

"Sadie Rosen? As in Robbie Rosen?" He asks.

"He's my father" I say.

"Well, then I'm interested to see you perform. Would either of you care to dance?" He asks.

"Sign me up" Roz says. He smiled and took her hand in his. I just smiled as they danced to the Garth song that was playing.

Minutes passed and I was still alone. Cody and Roz were still dancing. I was just kind of looking around. As I was, someone caught my eyes. It was the boy I'd been seeing. He had a beer in his hand and held it up in my direction as if he and I were doing a cheers. I held up the glass of wine I'd gotten and did the same thing. He smiled at me, and I smiled back. I had no clue who this man was, but something told me that I'd know sooner or later. Probably sooner rather than later.