American Pyramid

Redemption

Victoria

Zak and I had gone to my third rodeo now that I started riding again, except this one was the first one I wanted to go to that was on the circuit (we call it the rodeo tour) so I could start accumulating points for the world title. I had decided to bring just Arson this time, leaving Dallas and Dakota back home in Las Vegas after Sam suggested that he could watch them for me, and again, I was beyond grateful for him, though I hated that he never wanted to accept any type of payment. 

Though he doesn't know I had been depositing his earnings into his bank account. 

And before you wonder why he doesn't know about what's going into his bank account, he never checks it because the only type of device he keeps track of is his social media. And he says that he doesn't like hitching a ride or walking to a bank when he doesn't spend a lot of money. 

Zak had hauled the trailer all the way to Idaho, though he seemed to visibly be more relaxed considering we had hauled a smaller trailer that was easier on my truck for when we needed to cross mountain passes - a simple stock/slant load trailer that was lighter and shorter than my living quarters trailer, also a lot easier to get into smaller rodeos that we would only spend the weekend there. After this rodeo, we would be traveling to Billings, Montana before going south to Rock Springs, Wyoming before coming back home to Las Vegas. 

Once Arson settled into his stall, Zak unhooked the trailer from the rear hitch of my truck before we made our way to the nearest hotel that we booked for the rest of the week, which I liked to be in a new town a few days before the actual rodeo to give the horses time to adjust to the new weather. 

"What do you want to eat tonight?" He asked after he had shut the door to our hotel room, tossing the keys onto the nearby table before he removed his jacket. 

"I'm not sure. I'm not very hungry right now," I shrugged. "I could use a shower and a good documentary to watch on Netflix." 

"Sounds good to me. Need some help in the shower?" He asked with a grin. 

"I won't need help, but I'd sure love if you were in there with me," I smirked before looking into the bathroom. "Looks like it's a nice and big shower." 

"Oh, I'll be right behind you." He smirked, following behind me into the bathroom to start our shower. 

"How's your head?" 

"I don't know, you tell me," I giggled with a shrug, watching his face tighten into a grin when he realized that he had obliviously asked me a question that I could quickly turn into a joke. "I'm confident that it's fairly good because you finish every time." 

He blushed, "You're not wrong, but I was talking about your head - how has it been feeling?" 

"Can't complain. The last spell I had was when we were on the drive up here." 

"Will you promise to tell me when you think you might start getting a headache? I don't want you to get into a position to where you'll need to go to the hospital." 

"I know. I promise I'll tell you if I don't feel good." 

"Good, because this is your first big trip where we'll be away from home for a while." 

"I'm excited to be back on the road again, which reminds me: when do we start filming again?" 

"Sweetie, I told you what the schedule was when you asked me an hour ago..." He replied, now clearly concerned with my memory as I truly couldn't remember him telling me when we were supposed to start filming again. "We'll start filming back in late June or early July. We'll be in Carson City to film the second half of the season." 

"Oh, that's right. The Nevada State Prison," I nodded. 

"Yes. Then after that, we'll be going back to the Winchester Mystery House."

"I still feel bad for ghosting you about that..." 

"Sweetie, stop bringing it up. It obviously didn't change anything, it just delayed it," He frowned, now pressing a kiss to the back of my head. "Do you remember what you and I talked about aside from that on the way up here?" 

"Partially. It was a long drive." 

"When we get back home, I want to show you the house I bought to turn into my museum. I'm hoping that we can get enough into it to film an episode on it later in the year, but for now, I'm just getting around to the layout of the place." 

"I'm proud of you, you know that?" I hummed, now turning around to face him, his wet hair now sticking to his forehead and a slight red mark on either side of the bridge of his nose from his glasses. I reached up to touch his face, my heart fluttering when I felt his head lean into my touch. "This is something you've been wanting to do for a while." 

"I'm taking my time with it, though. This house has up to thirty rooms in it, and I don't have a lot of artifacts yet to even consider opening it to the public yet. I just worry that with our schedules, it'll be longer than what I'm expecting to make some serious progress with it." 

"Well, we make time for it," I assured him. "We'll spend the summer with working on it after this rodeo." 

"Woah. No, that's not what I meant-"

"It's what I mean," I arched my brows. "You've made time for me to come and support me at my rodeos, so now I'm going to do the same for you. We'll drive home after this rodeo and get started on the museum." 

"But you're wanting to go back to the NFR this year-" 

"I've already been to the NFR. I've already experienced it. You've told me that you wanted to be a part of my life, and I want to be a part of yours." 

"Sweetie, I want you to compete in the NFR again. What happened to you wasn't supposed to happen. You deserved to be there and be a world champion." 

"Zak, I already experienced that. I love to rodeo, but even though the accident happened, I still made it, and that's all that matters," I assured him, losing my focus as I stared into his eyes. He really wanted to put his dreams and priorities before my own, and I immediately developed a deeper love and appreciation for him. This man refused to leave my side after the accident until I could physically assure him as well as my doctor that I was fine to manage without him when he went back to work. "I want to be a part of your world, babe. I'm so proud and thankful for all that you've done for me, and I don't think I could ever repay you." 

He smirked before he turned his head to press a kiss to my palm, "I don't want you to repay me. I just want you. Is this something you really want to do?" 

"Positive. We do this rodeo here, then go home to start on your project. I want your goal to be filming an episode for the museum by the end of the year." 

"Yes ma'am," He chuckled. "But if you're up for it, I'd like for you to do at least one more rodeo after we leave here. We have all summer, sweetie. I want you to do what you love." 

"We can go to the one in Montana and go back home." 

"You tell me and I'll do it," He grinned, now pressing another kiss to my palm. "Let's finish up this shower and get some sleep. You look exhausted."