To Rodeo To Your Heart (COMPLETED)

Chapter 20

Caisson flips on the light switch to the guest room with Hope and Greg following behind her. "I'm sorry, I haven't gotten a chance to change the sheets on the bed, or vacuum or put curtains up or-"

"Caisson, really it is fine. We didn't give you time to prepare and I know you are very busy," Hope says placing a hand on her shoulder.

Caisson smiles and leaves them to settle in while she checks on Gunner. "How does your leg feel?"

He shrugs and kisses her cheek. "Okay I guess."

"Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?"

A mischievous glimmer rests in his eyes as he smiles. "You go take a shower and get a good nights rest. I'm good for tonight."

After staring at him for a long moment she gives in and kisses him lightly before going into her room and taking a long hot shower. The warm water helps her muscles relax from the tension of the past two days.

When she climbs under the covers her mind won't relax. All she can think about is how injuries is one of the reasons she doesn't like rodeo. She has to remind herself that in the past months since meeting Gunner that the rodeo has grown on her.

A knock at the door draws her from her thoughts. "Come in," she whisper yells as the door cracks open. 

Colton pokes his head in before stepping all the way inside. "Hey sis."

"Hey bro I thought you would be asleep."

He shrugs as he gets on the bed beside her. "Nah I'm used to being a night owl." He studies her a second. "Why aren't you asleep?"

She beings to fiddle with her fingers and shrugs her shoulders. "I can't stop thinking."

"About?"

She looks up at him and giggles a little. "Pretty much everything."

He shakes his head while wearing a smile. "Like what? You know you can tell me anything."

"I know." She cuddles her little pillow closer to her before continuing to speak. "Well about Gunner's injury and about the rodeo and what I am going to do next and-"

"That's a lot of ands. How about we start with Gunner's injury?"

She covers her face with the pillow and sighs. "Okay. What do you want to know about it?"

He rolls his eyes and stares at her for a moment. "What worries you most about it?"

She stares back at him for a couple seconds before bursting out in fits of laughter. "Colton, since when did you become a therapist? And when did you get on board with Gunner and I being a thing?"

He chuckles and shakes his head at her craziness. "Well while you avoided your dearest sibling for a couple months I took classes to be a therapist. You know the speed kind that only takes you like forty hours and then you have your degree?"

She giggles and shakes her head. "Okay, okay! Quit goofing off and answer my serious question."

"When I realized how happy you are with him."

A small smile perks the edge of her lips up as she nods. It seems like what he is saying is a dream. Yes, she knows that Gunner makes her happy. It just doesn't seem real that her brother realizes that and that he is on board with it. Just a couple months ago he was trying to rip Gunner apart because he merely looked at her.

Colton clears his throat making her jump. "Soo?"

She looks up at him and does just what he expects her to, slouch down, cuddle a pillow and sigh. "I don't really know what I'm most worried about. I know that asking him to stop riding would be like asking him to stop breathing, but it really scares me sometimes. What if he doesn't completely heal from this? What is he going to do then? What would happen to us?" 

Colton slips his arms around his sister's shoulders. "Kay, yes things like that can happen and at some point will, but you can't keep yourself in knots about it all the time. If it is truly God's plan for the two of you to be together then when that times come it will be like the two of you are riding a rough patch of rapids. It might be scary, it might be the roughest thing yet, you may even get through overboard for a moment, but it will all come out fine and you can look back and think 'I am so glad I did that'."

She looks up at him and the slightest smile takes the corners of her lips upward. "Yeah, I guess your right."

He grins at her and squeezes her shoulders. "Of course I'm right! I'm always right."

Narrowing her eyes at him in a playful manner she shakes her head. "Don't push it."
***

Gunner turns over and looks at the clock on the bedside table for the umpteenth time. Only an hour and a half have passed since he last remembers reading the red numbers. With the pain of his ankle combined with the rambling of his thoughts there is no way sleep lasts very long at once.

The doctor said that the surgery went really well. That's all he can think about. Well besides when he can get back on the circuit, but that just goes back to what the doctor says. Its all a cycle. Doctor, rodeo, repeat. Depending on how long his thoughts stayed on the rodeo sometimes Caisson would cross his mind and he would think about how lately she seem different in a way. Almost like she can't figure out who she is and where she fits in the world.

Rodeoing is in his blood and he always dreamed of bull riding as a little boy so he never had to question what he wanted to do. Suddenly something his dad told him a long time ago comes back to him and finally clicks.

"Son, it makes me very happy you are choosing to carry on with the Pate family bull riding. You just remember that when you find yourself the right women there will come a point when you have to choose between being a bachelor for the rest of your life and keep bull riding or finding something else you love to do and settling down with the one that lights up your world."

At that time he had no idea what his dad meant, but now it makes perfect sense. Caisson doesn't have it in her to just ride around from rodeo to rodeo with him and sit and watch. She has to have something for her to do and that's what she's been trying to find.

So as he lay there in what has been come to be his bed at her house he comes up with a plan. A plan which he will put into action in morning.