Within Your Crowd

Eddie, on the other hand, was some kind of chick magnet. It seemed a point of honor for him to bed every woman he met. For some reason, the older ladies seemed to really like him. He reminded me of that old saw, "The worst I ever had was wonderful!" I wasn't exactly jealous of him, but I did feel lonely. It was funny in a way; girls were looking for a man that would commit. I had a girl I was sure I wanted to commit to … but it wasn't in the cards. Maybe I should ride the bulls – shake up my life a little.

Shortly after I finished my first run at the Tie-Down at the first night's events in Sheridan when I heard a voice behind me, "I didn't think they would let a broken down cowboy from Texas enter a real rodeo like this."

I turned around, it was Bobby Townsend. "Damn, Bobby, how are you?"

"I'm good. I'm entered in the saddle and bareback broncs here. I've been doing well this summer. I'm up about twelve grand over expenses." He looked down at the ground, and then looked me in the eyes, "I'm sorry about that BS at home. No one talks much with my father any more, not even my mom. I think they are going to separate."

"I've been looking over my shoulder, but I haven't heard anything."

"Yeah, it was funny. Dad was going crazy, calling the police and lawyers. Then one of the workers that hates the old man told the police about how he had you beaten. So instead of the police looking for you, they wanted to prosecute him. Everyone saw him grab your arm. If they could have found you, you could have filed a complaint. Probably still could, if you wanted."

"No, I don't want anything to do with him." We chatted for a few minutes, both studiously avoiding mention Madison. Seeing him brought her to the forefront of my mind. Later I watched him take a second – he was really quite good.

Eddie and I did okay, making as much as Sheridan as we had previously made total. I did wrench my knee, nothing serious, but I would have to take a couple of weeks off. Eddie decided to stick around Wyoming. I left him my truck and trailer and drove his Ford 150 down to see my folks. I made arrangements to meet him at the Pawnee Bill Memorial Rodeo in Pawnee, Oklahoma in early August, then we would work Texas and Oklahoma for a couple of months.

Chapter Four

Mom was happy to see me but dad acted like he was mad at something. Not really mad but not happy either. After a couple of days, I'd had enough and drove him to a small bar in Johnson City, gave him a chance to have a beer, then asked, "Okay, Dad, what's on your mind?"

He looked somewhat abashed, and said, "Hell, I didn't think I was showing anything. Well, I hate to admit it, but the ranch is getting too big for me. If you don't come back pretty soon I'm gonna have to hire a manager. That'll be pretty expensive, but I don't know what else to do."

Damn, that made me feel bad. "I'm trying to work something out. Can you hold on for a few months, say the end of September?"

"Yeah, I can do that. I won't book any new hunts 'til you give me the word. That will ease things up enough, I think."

We drove back after a couple or three beers, and as we walked to the house, I could hear music coming through the open windows of the room where mom kept a piano. I recognized it as something from "The Magic Flute," by Mozart.

Dad chuckled, and told me, "That filly is here again. She and your mom are going to play a duet at the next Alumni meeting at Rice. She's damn good on that cello of hers."

I was pretty sure I knew which "filly" he had been talking about, although I'd thought it was a piano and violin playing. Shows what I know about it. But to make sure, I asked dad, "What girl is that?"

"Oh, that girl we sold the horses to. She came over to tell us how much she liked them. Turned out, she knew your ma, and she wound up staying for lunch. They got to talkin' and decided to put together a performance for their next meeting of people that went to that music school at Rice."

I turned to walk back to the truck, thinking another beer sounded real good about now, but dad grabbed my arm. "Hey, you ain't leavin' me to go in alone, are you?"

Giving up, I walked in with him. Actually, I did want to see Maddie … Madison. We walked up to the porch and into the house. The music was louder now, and was quite nice. We walked over to the doorway of the drawing room, and watched them play. Once again, I was drawn to Madison's beauty.

They stopped, mom having seen us. We walked over, Madison staring at me. Quietly, she asked, "Hello, Billy Ray. Bobby mentioned that he'd seen you at Sheridan. How come you came back home?"

"Madison," I nodded at her. "I hurt my knee tossing a calf on his side on my last event. It didn't hurt my time – fact is I got a third in the finals. I got it x-rayed and there is nothing serious, but I do have to skip competing for a couple of weeks. By the way, Bobby's got the skills that he can be first-rate if he works at it."

She looked at me for a minute, and then looked at mom, "I think we've got it as good as we can. Let's get together for lunch next week, and plan the trip." Turning back to me, she said, in a 'don't sass me' voice, "Walk me out to my truck." She packed away her cello, and went out the front door, waving a hand at my folks.

I followed, not saying anything. She put the case in the passenger seat and fastened the seat belt over it. She came over and stopped in front of me. "What happened that night at our place?"

"What do you mean?"

"Damn it, don't pussy foot with me."

I thought it over and shrugged. "I saw you dancing a lot with that guy you're getting married to. I didn't see any reason to stay after that, so I walked over to my truck to drive home. Four of your dad's goons grabbed me, and he told me to stay away from you … and not to call you Maddie ever again. After that they kicked the shit out of me and drove me over to the business park and left me there. I decided it wasn't worth the hassle to try to see a girl that's engaged. Then when I woke up, I was pissed enough to come back and let everyone know how I felt."

"I have to say you did a bang up job of that! I'm sorry that happened. I don't think my dad will ever apologize, but I certainly can. Dad wanted to have you arrested but mom said she would leave if he did. I understand there were a couple of witnesses that pretty much said what you did. So will you accept my apology?"

I shrugged, and nodded, not saying anything. She looked at me for a long moment, then leaned forward and kissed me quickly on my lips and then jumped into her truck. I stood there watching as she rolled down the window. "Call me. Your mom has the number."

After she drove off, I stood there for a while trying to figure out how I felt. I still had a lot of resentment, but if I were honest with myself, I was still strongly attracted to her. There wasn't much I could do about it, with her getting married. All in all, I wish I hadn't seen her – the old longings were pulling at me again. I didn't see any reason to give her a call.

A week or so later, about the time that I needed to start thinking about driving up to Pawnee, mom asked me if I had anything planned that night.

"No, just ice my knee a couple of times. It almost feels like normal, but I don't want to take a chance with it."

"Your dad and I have a friend coming over for dinner. Is that okay?"

I really didn't have anything to do, so I couldn't see any reason not to. This was a fairly common occurrence with mom, some friend or neighbor dropping over. "Sure. I'll clean up a little … put my good boots on." She smiled at that and went back to her kitchen.

I puttered around through the afternoon, icing my knee several times under mom's watchful eye. I'd been lounging around the house looking like a bum all week, so I thought I'd look nice for mom. I shaved the three day growth off my face and put on some clothes that I might go dancing in … though at best I might whirl mom around the dining room table once or twice.

I was getting ready to go down the stairs when I heard the front door open. As I turned on the landing for the last couple of steps, I saw mom giving Madison a hug. That was the first inkling that a plot was afoot. Mom saw me and smirked, "Dad and I decided to go out tonight. I didn't want you to go hungry, so I found someone to take you out."

Madison stepped up and kissed my cheek. Taking my hand, she said, "Come on. I have a reservation for Poodie's Hilltop Roadhouse in Spicewood for a half hour from now."

I let myself be pulled along, trying to figure out what was happening. Clearly, I'd been hoodwinked, but I was having trouble getting upset about it. Madison looked quite nice, thank you, in black jeans tucked into what looked like new boots and a white shirt and a black hat. The way those jeans fit around her … well, her derrière, like, they were sprayed on. Quite enchanting.

"You know where this place is, right? It should take about forty minutes to get there." She looked over at me with a smile, "If you would have called me, I wouldn't have had to kidnap you." Her smile slipping a bit, she added uncertainly, "You're not mad, are you?"

I gave her a smile of my own, "No, not really, Madison."

"Madison, what happened to Maddie?"

"Well, I'm a lot of things, and I've done some things I'm not proud of, but one thing I've never done is try to poach some other man's fiancé. I think only Thomas Martin Kendall should be the one to call you Maddie." I looked out the window, trying to get a speck of dirt out of my eye.

"You don't know, do you? Billy Ray, look at me!"

I turned and looked quickly at her, then turned my head forward so she wouldn't see how the dirt had made my eyes watery.

"Billy, after you ran away that night after humiliating Thomas Martin and almost breaking my dad's jaw, you missed seeing me throw my champagne in Tomas' face also. I detest that man and always had. The next morning I ripped into my father and told him to quit trying to run my life." She put her hand on my arm and continued, "Billy, I liked you right away, you're nice looking, a good man, and I love the way you treat horses. Can we start over?"

I stared at her, trying to take it all in. She seemed to be waiting for an answer, so I replied, "yeah, Madison, let's start over."

"Uh, Billy Ray, you weren't listening, I said, let's start over."

I smiled at that, and added, "Sure, Maddie."

We ate a nice dinner, she ate a small filet, and I had a huge t-bone. It was Friday night and fairly crowded as a band started playing. I didn't want to chance any stress on my knee, so we danced the slow numbers and talked a lot. This was the learning about each other we never had a chance to do the day we met. Each number we danced Maddie seemed to hold herself a little closer to me. It was clear that my instincts that I liked her a lot were right. I was falling for her like a ton of bricks.

When we got in her truck, she looked over at me with a question in her eyes. "Would you like to have breakfast with me?"

She clearly didn't mean what it sounded like and looked horrified when I replied, "Every morning, Maddie, every morning."

Blushing, she replied, "God, I didn't mean that. I'd like to show you something, and then I'll fix you breakfast. Would seven-thirty or so be all right?"

I had no idea what she had in mind, but it sounded good, and I had no other plans. "Sure, what should I wear?"

"Just some work clothes and boots."

She started the drive back to my folk's place and rested her hand on the seat. I put my hand on hers. She smiled but didn't say anything. Whenever she needed to lift her hand for driving, she put it back when she finished. When we stopped, I leaned over to give her a quick kiss. She put her hands behind my head and pulled me tight. The kiss went on for some time, dueling tongues and all. She finally broke away and said, "I've wanted to do that all night. See you in the morning."

The next morning she was early, and I was ready, so we had a cup of coffee before we took off.

My mom asked, "What you have planned this morning, Madison?"

"I'm going to show him my place."

"I think he will enjoy that."

When we were on the road, I asked, "Your place?"

"Yeah, after that night I didn't want to put up with dad's pushiness anymore. I'd been planning on moving out anyway, but he kept asking me to stay for a while longer. I think his plans were that I'd move in with Thomas Martin instead of going off on my own."

"What kind of place do you have?"

"You'll see. Be patient. Do you know where Onion Creek is, west of Dripping Springs?"

"Yeah, I do. A few years ago my dad delivered some horses there, and I rode along with him."

"Well, I've got a little place just north of Gainor Mountain and south of the creek, right where Mt. Gainor Road loops around Mount Gainor. You'll see."

We turned off 290 onto Holder Lane and took a left onto Creek Road. When Creek merged with Mt. Gainor she waved to the right. "That's my pasture area there."

After a half-mile or so we turned into a dive that led back to a large single story house with the outbuilding and corrals strung along the base of the mountain to the west. I say mountain, but it was about eight hundred feet above the creek level. The house was fairly modern design with a tile roof. It was really quite attractive. We pulled up in front of it and Maddie parked and let out a sigh. "Well, this is it. What do you think?"

"Well, it's obviously quite nice. Uh, why are we here, and what is this place, anyway?"

"Oh, Billy, I'm sorry. I call this place 'Mi Casa' since it's mine, and it's the first time I've been on my own. Dad bought this for me when I turned twenty-one. It came along with a trust fund that will give me enough money to keep the place up and live fairly well. I haven't really decided what to do with it. I mean, I'd like to make it productive. I know a lot about horses, and but I really don't know anything about running a ranch."

We got a couple of horses out of the barn and rode around the place. There was a good sized spring that drained across the pasture to the creek. Someone had ditched it so that it watered all of the pasture area and the hay was a lovely, dark rich green, starting to brown in places.

"I also have water rights to the creek, and it has water year round. There is more hay than I can ever use."

You don't run all this by yourself, do you?"

Laughing, she said, "No, when dad gave me the place I hired a Mexican couple. They live in the house to the left of the main one. It's small, but they like it. He takes care of everything outside, and she takes care of the house. They have two boys, eleven and thirteen and a girl, ten. The boys are a big help. Benny, that's Benny Garcia, is handy, and he hires out some of the work, like harvesting the hay. We get two crops a year."

After looking at the main parts of the ranch, we took a trail to the top of the mountain. Maddie was riding the black gelding I'd turned over to her. There was a great view from the top. We could see Dripping Springs two or three miles to the east, and several other "mountains" across the south east to the south west. Her ranch was laid out below us.

We stayed up there longer than we had planned and when she heard my stomach rumbling, she laughed, "Okay, let's head down. Pork chops and eggs okay?"

Breakfast was good, with the additions of some great biscuits and a large pot of coffee. Afterward we sprawled out in her living room, relaxing and talking about this and that. I fell asleep in the big, leather easy chair I was sitting in, and woke up with a start. Maddie was sitting on the sofa with her legs curled up.

"Well, at least I know you don't snore. That's useful knowledge," she said, laughing.

"God, I'm sorry." I stood up, "I guess you'd better get me back home. I'm heading up to Pawnee tomorrow morning for the Pawnee Bill Memorial Rodeo."

She walked up to me and put her arms around me, her head in my chest. She squeezed me tight and then lifted her head for a kiss. Not disagreeing with that I enthusiastically participated. I could feel her breasts against my chest and felt her nipples harden. Damn, she must not have a bra on. I dropped my hands down to that lovely bottom and pulled her against me. After a few minutes of that she broke free, breathing hard with her face and neck a bright red.

"Unh, I guess I'd better take you home. That was just supposed to be a goodbye kiss."

A half hour later I was home. The feel of her body against me was just a burning memory. That afternoon I packed up and headed up to Ponca City. It was about an eight hour drive, so I stopped overnight at some no name motel in Ardmore. I pulled in to Ponca City and the motel we had reservations with, but Eddie already had a new roommate. After a short discussion, I looked for new lodgings. The only thing I could find was a B&B that had a small three room guest cabin with a private garden in the back of it.

It was really quite nice, but I thought it would be too pricey. The sweet woman that owned the place looked me over, and said, "You look like a nice cowboy. My Harold lived for the rodeo, and he would want me to take care of you. I'll let you have it for half-price."

I argued with her half-heartedly, but she was adamant. The place was well done; it even had a handmade pre-civil war bed carved from walnut. The whole suite was like a display room for antiques. I settled in, and then picked up Eddie to get the entry forms for the events they wanted to enter filled out. This wasn't a big money event but, hopefully, we could cover costs.

Eddie and I had a good time on our team roping, but I aggravated my knee and had to scratch the rest of my events. I ran into Bobby and he asked if I could watch him on the saddle bronc. I had no more than sit down when I felt someone slide into the seat beside me. I turned and saw Madison.

"Hi, Billy. I wanted to watch Bobby. It's okay if I sit with you, isn't it?"

"Sure, Maddie. I banged up my knee again and had to drop out of the rest of my events. I guess I'm going to have to give up on a rodeo career. My dad needs my help … and I don't think I need this anymore."

"You did this 'cause you thought I was engaged to Kendall, didn't you?"

I looked away, embarrassed, then back at her, "Yeah, Maddie, it was pretty awful."

I was saved from further discussion on the topic when Bobby broke out of the chute. He had a great ride and made his time. When he was ready, the three of us went out to dinner. It was fun and we laughed a lot. I took Maddie to a tavern where they had a band playing, and we danced a couple of slow ones as my knee had tightened up and I couldn't do more than that. We had another make-out session when I took her to her room. Damn, I could get used to that. Two days later I was on my way to Wyoming to give the horses back to Rick. Eddie took his own truck and went ahead.

Chapter Five

It was a quick drive to deliver the horses, and I was back home in a week. Dad and I sat down and talked it over. Dad was going to do the hunting stuff, and I would do everything else, the cattle and horse breeding. I hired a kid that had graduated in the spring from Abilene Christian with a degree in Animal Science. I'd still manage the overall effort, but I hoped he could, over time, do most of the work on the Black Angus breeding.

My knee healed quickly, once I quit abusing it. Things quickly settled into a routine. I was seeing Maddie two or three days a week, and we were becoming close. I wanted to spend my life with her, but I wasn't sure how I'd fit into her world. I didn't know any of her friends, her dad hated me, and I'd met her mom only the one time. I finally decided to talk to her. We were at her place after a night of dinner and dancing, shortly after Thanksgiving.