My Cowboy Lover

"Go get on that horse"

I pulled into work an hour early. No one was here but Steven, myself and some black guy that works here.

"Hi, I'm Rae" I introduced myself to the older black man. He was short but stout, graying hair that would have been covered by his baseball cap had it not been hanging off the back of his head and his eyes would have been a perfect shade of brown had his right eye not been a cloudy shade of blue. A cataract most likely.

"Walter," he said. The cigarette hanging from between his lips bounced as he spoke. "You the best lookin thang I done seen since I got out that pen." He said with a draw so thick I could barely understand him

"Thank you," I said meekly, instantly feeling uncomfortable.

"Walter!" Goosebumps rose on my skin at the sound of his voice, "keep it in your pants and get back to work!" He chuckled when I turned around looking like a deer in head lights I'm sure. "You wanna ride? I was just about to go on a trail if you wanna come."

"Sure. Which one do you want me to ride?" I asked, trying to hush the butterflies in my tummy.

"Go get on that horse," he said pointing to a gorgeous bay horse in the stall across from the hitching post.

He pointed me to the right bridle when I decided to ride bareback. When we were getting ready to get on, a tall blond that looks like she could seriously be my sister walks up to me and rudely said "what do you think you're doing? That's steven's roping horse. No one gets to ride him including me so it's in your best interest to put him back up before he sees you and flips shit," flipping her hair in my face and she spun on her heel to walk away from me.

"Lacey! Get your ass back her right now!" Steven yelled after her when he came around the corner with his now bareback horse.

"Yes sir?" She said, flashing him a stellar smile.

"I told her she could ride him, so it would be in your best interest to apologize and if I ever hear you speak to anyone like that ever again I will fire you so fucking fast you won't even have time to say sorry. Got it? Good. Now go do something productive for once." The girl, apparently named Lacey shot me a solid death glare before walking back into the barn, making sure to sway her hips. "Don't worry about her, she's all talk," he glanced at me as we both hopped up on our horses and headed for the trails. I love riding bareback. It reminds me of when me and my dad used to go riding. "You're very beautiful you know."

"Thank you," I said barely above a whisper. I felt a strong blush creeping on my cheeks, mentally face palming myself.

"Sooooooo, tell me about yourself."

"There's really not much to tell. My life is kind of a sob story. It would just be a waste of your time to bore you with it all," I said taking in the sight of the beautiful river we were riding beside. Wild flowers of all sorts grew along it's banks. Bluebonnets, Indian paint brushes, pinks, yellows, oranges and even some purple flowers mixed in. "God really did hand paint Texas didn't he," I said more to myself.

"Nothing you could say would be a waste of my time," he said looking directly at me now. His deep blue eyes contrasted his dark brown almost black hair and his tanned skin. He was older. Maybe 35-40. But I didn't care. There is just something about him.

"Well, when I was growing up my dad rode bulls in a lot of big time rodeos so I grew up in the back of the bucking chutes. I entered my first rodeo when I was 9, got my pro rodeo card when I was 12 and rodeo'd all the way through high school. But when I was 17, my dad died and I haven't entered a rodeo ever since. I don't even like looking at barrel patterns. My mom got real sick after he went. She turned to drinkin. She's not the same woman she used to be, a big part of her went with him. And that pushed me into the arms of parties and hard drugs. I partied every weekend, slept my way around to get the best drugs for as cheap as I could, disappeared for days on end. I made it so much harder on my mom when all I was trying to do was numb the pain a little. I overdosed at a party one night and someone called my mom and she was at the hospital waiting for me and never left my side while they pumped my stomach and hooked me up to all kinds of tubes and machines to keep me awake. And I haven't touch a drug since then and she hasn't drank a drop. It's been real hard but we've been makin it." I hadn't realized we stopped until he put his hand on my shoulder.

"That's why you are the way you are."

"Excuse me? What do you mean." I said defensively.

"You carry yourself so well. You stand up tall, carry your head high and you walk with pride. You are the definition of strength. You know what it is like to be a very rock bottom and have to build yourself back up step by step. I could see that just in the way you present yourself," he said never breaking eye contact with me. I simply smiled and nodded my head as I felt the familiar sting in my eyes that I get every time I talk about my dad and my past. We turned the horses around and rode all the way back to the barn in complete silence. A comfortable silence, one I could seriously get used to.

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Thanks for reading! Hope you're loving it so far! Trust me when i say it is only just getting started!! Won't forget to comment and vote!!!

Savie <3