Heck of a kiss

Chapter two

                                  

Present day

            Josh Noble walked out of the dusty arena toward the parking lot and freedom. Outside the arena, cowboys and their families milled around, squeezing into pickups and pulling into the dark streets. As he made his way around a blue truck attached to a white horse trailer, he heard the sound of humming and jingling spurs.

A young woman stood leaning into the truck cab putting something away leaving only her legs outside, blocking the way. Straightening up, the women turned toward him her long brown hair hanging from a ponytail. “Am I in your way?”

            Immediately Josh shook his head his head while the lithe woman threw a jacket into the truck and closed the door stepping out of his way while Josh squeezed through. Something fell off the truck bed and they both bent to pick it up narrowly missing colliding heads. Quickly Josh handed the black leather to the woman glancing at the chaps. He was surprised to see that they were the tough protective chaps that the pick-up men wore.  Seeing his surprise, the woman shot him a quick smile revealing matching dimples in her cheeks. “They’re my brother’s.”

            Curiously, Josh looked at the woman. “Which one is your brother?”

            “Jed Cooper.”

            Feeling his eyes widen with surprise Josh stood looking at the woman in surprise. “Didn’t see that one coming, tell him I said hello.”

            “I will.” Sending a cheery wave toward him, the woman slung the chaps over her shoulder and walked off toward the back of the trailer.

            A memory of something began to nag at Josh but he brushed it aside, continuing to walk toward his black Dodge. Climbing into the dim cab, he relaxed against the leather seats and looked out toward the animal pens were.

            A shiver ran down his spine as he remembered the time when a bull had gotten out. It had attacked one the cowboys nearby and had thrown him against a wall of the arena, then continued to ram him into him until Josh and his brother had intervened.

            Dustin had rushed in and slapped the bull on the rump, when that hadn’t deterred him; Dustin had run to the front and slapped the bulls face distracting him from the cowboy. When the bull turned to Dustin, the clown had done a flip over the bull as he charged landing for a split second on the bull and then jumping off. The bull turned and that was when Josh had darted in distracting the bull. As the huge animal charged toward him, Josh twisted to the right his shoes giving him traction and the momentum needed to start running. Dustin allowed the enraged bull to follow Josh just far enough that there wasn’t any worry about the cowboy being trampled again. Skillfully he jumped in, not making contact with the beast but catching its eye. After that, the two brothers had skillfully worked the bull in small circles always making him turn to keep the force of the lashing body to the minimum.

            At last the bull was in the pen, however, the cowboy whom Josh later found out had been the pick-up man whom both brothers had liked and respected, had died from the injuries leaving a handicapped wife and baby daughter behind. Unfortunately, Josh never learned anyone’s name except for the cowboy’s.

His name had been Chad Canterwood.