True Love Waits

Chapter Twenty Five

      Maleena took in a deep breath as she tried allowing herself to fall asleep that night. With a smile the size of Texas on her face, Maleena fingered her lips as she remembered Cody's sweet kiss. Sure, it was short and only one kiss, but it meant everything to Maleena. It had been a long time coming, and was well worth the wait. All Maleena could think about was how excited she was to get to see Cody again on Wednesday when they went to the apple orchard. Since it was only Monday, that meant their next date was still two days away. It was already hard enough for Cody to leave after seeing each other, but now that they had kissed, all Maleena wanted to do was kiss him again; she knew it was going to continue getting harder to say goodbye. 

       Letting out a sigh, Maleena rolled over in her bed so she was facing the wall with the window on it. Closing her eyes, she tried getting her mind off of her day with Cody. They had spend literally the entire day together, and even though they started the day off with their first argument, it was safe to say that it ended pretty dadgum well. 

        After an hour of tossing and turning, and attempting to catch some zzz's, Maleena gave up on trying to fall asleep for the time being. Grabbing her phone from beside the bed, Maleena checked her several notifications. Opening her Snapchat app, she quickly opened all of her friend's pictures that they sent her telling her goodnight. Just as she closed out of the app, getting ready to check her emails, a text from Cody appeared on her screen.

        With her smile returning, Maleena opened Cody's message. "I can't sleep. I can't stop thinkin' about you and that kiss we shared. It was by far the best first kiss anyone could ask for. Ugh, I can't wait until Wednesday." 

         "I can't wait either, and the kiss was better than I ever could have imagined." She grinned, shooting the text back immediately. 

          "Did I wake you up?" Cody asked, being considerate. 

          "No, I can't sleep either." While Maleena texted Cody back, she quickly scrolled through her seemingly unending list of emails.

          Maleena was hardly paying attention to any of the advertisement emails until she saw one from her county's Futurity Rodeo Association. The subject line read "Congratulations, you have been selected!" Opening the email, Maleena skim read it at first, thinking it was just spam, but it was clear it wasn't. Reading it a second time, Maleena felt herself getting overly excited. 

       Knowing he was still awake, Maleena dialed Cody's number, immediately putting him on speaker the second he picked up.

        "Hey, darlin'." Cody greeted. 

       "Cody, you're never goin' to believe it!" She said, excitedly into the phone. 

       "What, what's wrong?" Cody suddenly sprung alert.

       "Nothing is wrong. I just got an email from the Futurity Rodeo Association. Me and nine other girls from the county have been chosen to ride in the Barrel Racing Futurity race this Saturday." Maleena summarized the email. "The grand prize for the winner is $15,000, second place is $10,000, $5,000 for third place, $1,000 for the fourth and fifth place winners, and then the other 5 participants get $500 each if their ride qualifies with no penalties. The sponsors are matching the winnings and giving them to charity. We are supposed to meet on Friday to meet the horses we are riding." She read the email out loud to Cody. 

        "Malie, that is fantastic! That is so awesome that you were selected, too. I mean there are so many barrel racing girls in this county that have lived here their whole lived who the committee could have easily chosen, but they chose you, that is phenomenal!" Cody stated proudly.