Within Your Crowd

We were sitting on her sofa, with her next to me, leaning on my shoulder. I put my arm around her, and said, "When we've gone out, I've introduced you to a number of my friends, and we've gone out to dinner with a couple of them."

She yawned, stretched, and in a half sleepy tone, said, "Yeah, they are nice. It's was a lot of fun."

In a quiet voice, I replied, "Maddie, why haven't you introduced me to your friends?"

Without thinking, she answered, "Well, I didn't really feel like you would fit in with them." She pulled back, and looked at me, "Damn, that's not what I meant."

"Yeah, I think you did. Maddie, I don't think I'd fit within your crowd. I'm not poor, but I'm certainly not rich. My friends are down to earth – some of the places I go with them might even be seen as 'low places' by someone like your dad. You know I love you, but I think you should find someone from your crowd to love … I just don't belong."

"Billy, you're wrong! You are a much better man than any of them. When I said you wouldn't fit in, what I meant was that you wouldn't like them. To be honest, I mostly don't like them much either. I've really liked spending time with you these last few months, just being together and doing simple things.

"I love you Billy Ray, you are right about that. And I know you love me, you are sure about that, right?"

"Pulling her close, I wrapped my arms around her and said, "Yes, Maddie, I love you very much. I will always love you." After much kissing she took my hand and stood up, looked at me for a long thirty seconds.

"Come with me," she said, pulling my hand. I walked with her to her bedroom, where she stood next to the bed. She started unbuttoning her blouse, and said, in a teasing voice, "Hey, I could use some help here."

With some alacrity, I complied. She was as beautiful as she had been in my imagination, even more so. We tumbled into bed and lost ourselves to the moment. It was sweet, intense, and something I would remember the rest of my life. We fell asleep for a couple of hours and made love afterward in a slower and more relaxed manner. We learned what we liked, what gave each other pleasure.

As I was leaving, she held me tight, and whispered in my ear, "Billy, you are my crowd. You are all I need, and I do need you."

My life changed from one day to the next. Mom and Maddie started planning a wedding, and I faced my work on the ranch with more commitment and interest. I gave a lot of thought of how we could work both ranches and told Maddie my initial thoughts, "Let's focus on using your place to grow hay for the larger ranch. I want to do something for fun and my idea is to pick the horses I think will work from what I raise and move them to your place. There I'll train them for rodeos – my friend Rick in Wyoming does that and he both makes money and has fun.

"I'm not interested in selling horses for the bucking events, but all the other events, including women's events such as barrel racing. I'd also like to work with the local high schools, training the kids how to rope and ride. We could get the kids to do some of the work in caring for the horses. You ride a horse, you take care of it. It also teaches them responsibility."

We liked the idea and we started planning for it. I called Rick to have him send down a couple of stallions and some mares to use for breeding stock. It worked out well – both ranches made good money and Maddie, and I had a lot of fun. Her brother, Bobby helped us during the rodeo off-season, and through his contacts helped sell a lot of horses. We enjoyed having the high school kids around all the time, and I think we helped a lot of them improve and to learn to love horses the way we did.

The wedding and reception took place on her ranch early the next June. Her family was all there; her dad, thoroughly chastened, was even half-way pleasant. Maddie's "crowd" showed up and most of them really weren't too bad. Thomas Martin Kendall was not invited and thankfully had not shown up.

I looked very sharp in my white Tuxedo with a new pair of Lucchese Shoe Boots. (Maddie bought them for me, and I wasn't too happy when I found they were almost five-hundred dollars. Then she told me that she thought about buying Lucchese's Limited Edition 125th Anniversary belly alligator boots for over twelve thousand. That was a bit too much – I didn't care how much money she had.) The shoe boots were three-quarter's the height of regular western boots and looked very nice.

We went to Rome for our Honeymoon and stayed at the Cavalieri Hilton. It was on a hill overlooking the main section of Rome. Our suite faced the back of the hotel, and downtown was straight in front of us and off to the right was the Vatican and the huge dome of St. Peter. We saw all the sites, from the Colosseum to Trevi Fountain. One of my favorite places was Castel Sant'Angelo. Construction of it began in the second century AD, and it was a dominant feature of Rome for over a thousand years.

The hotel was luxurious and they treated us like royalty. Some days we loafed around the hotel finding ways to amuse ourselves. If you remember that we were on our honeymoon, you can this that this was not a difficult or onerous task. Actually, it was quite fun and mutually rewarding.

The food was consistently good, whether it was a famous restaurant of a neighborhood family style place, with plastic table cloths and long community tables, and incredible pasta. Our favorite place turned out to be the well known Harry's Bar. We were prepared to not like it because of the hype, but wound up falling in love with it and visiting frequently in the fifteen days we were there. Other than the atmosphere – which was great – the food was a constant draw for us to return. The Italian wines, from the Amorones to the Valpolicellas were all good and fit the food perfectly.

In making the honeymoon plans we faced the issue I knew would come up.

"Now Billy Ray, I have money and dammit, I see no reason not to spend it. If you want for us to spend our lives in a tarpaper shack on the Pecos, I'll do it. Even so, I'd rather use the money to have fun and make our lives easier."

I thought about it for a few minutes and decided she was right. It certainly wasn't worth fighting about before we were even married. Thus, first class flights, top hotels, and no skipping over what we really wanted for dinner because the price was outrageous. I had to confess to Maddie on the way home that I had enjoyed the hell out of the trip and was looking forward to Madrid, Lisbon, Paris, London; the places in the world that add a spice to life.

We decided on her place to live … which was the obvious thing to do. We worked on the plans we had discussed. We increased the hay production, keeping what we needed and sending the rest over to my folk's ranch instead of selling it. We made a very good business out of breeding, training and selling horses for rodeo events. Bobby and Katie did marry, and we built a small home for them on the ranch. Bobby did well on the rodeo circuit. Year round, and Katie alone while Bobby was gone, did hands on training for teens to learn more about making a team out of them and their horses.

Maddie and I worked with the kids that couldn't afford lessons and Bobby and Katie took the ones that had money. I admit I let a few horses go at cost, or to loan out a horse once in a while. We enjoyed working with the kids and see some of them become quite capable over the years.

Two years afterward Bobby Ray was born, and two years later, Anne Madison. They bought continuing joy to our lives. When dad retired, we created a limited partnership with mom and dad, Bobby and Katie, and Maddie and I all having equal shares. Bobby took over the running of the larger ranch, with my frequent help and advice as needed.

I look back over the years as our love has grown and matured, and remembering the black days of that long ago summer. I am always reminded of the time of my life where melancholy was my byword, making the ensuing happiness even better. Life can be very good, but it isn't always great. Maddie and I learned that a good marriage and happiness are things that takes work to make happen. We put in the work and have had a wonderful life.