Deep End: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (45 page)

“Colton,” said someone, blocking his path.

“What?” said Colton, full of adrenaline, not really yet registering on who was speaking to him.

“Where are you going, Colton? We still have the wedding ceremony. You look like you’re rushing out of here.” Of course, it was Cambridge Whitehead, looking dapper in his wedding clothes. He was even wearing extra jewelry for the occasion.

“I’m going to find Katy,” said Colton.

“
Colton,
let me give you a friendly piece of advice.” Cambridge was speaking slowly, drawing out his words. Colton was practically jumping in place. He didn’t have time for this. He just needed to find Katy. “Forget about that girl, Colton. There’s plenty more where she came form.”

“She’s special,” said Colton, abruptly. He didn’t want to have to waste any more time that he had to, but Cambridge Whitehead was a big, imposing man, with wide shoulders. He was blocking Colton’s’ path.

“Let me through,” said Colton.

“Colton, if you leave here now, then I’m afraid I can’t keep working with you. What I would advice you to do is to march yourself back up there and say your vows. This is the big change you’ve been waiting for. If you don’t take it now, there’s nothing more I can do for you. I can’t work with such impulsive and irrational clients. If you leave now, you go back to being a rodeo star for the rest of your life. You might be the best rodeo star there ever was, but I can promise you no one will ever know your name again, Colton. I’m a powerful man, Colton, and I’ll make it my job to make sure your name never sees the light of day. You could be the best rodeo champion for twenty years running and that’s all you’ll be…nothing more. No one will ever no your name. You’ll never be a celebrity. You’ll be just another nobody until you get trampled some day by an overly vigorous bull…”

“Fine,” said Colton. His mind was already made up. He didn’t even need to think about it for a second. “Get out of my way. I need to find Katy.”

“Colton, I’m warning you…”

But Colton had already had enough.

Putting his right shoulder down, he charged at Cambridge. It was an old football maneuver he had learned in high school
pick
up games. And it worked. Cambridge practically went flying. He was a big, heavy man, but he was no match for Colton’s power, force and speed.

Colton bolted past him, not even bothering to look behind him.

He had already looked everywhere on the property.

An idea flashed in his head. That grey fabric he had seen
disappear
around the corner…that had been Katy. Why hadn’t he realized it before? He knew she had been wearing a grey dress…

If that had been Katy, then it meant that Katy was off the property, running…

Colton ran to the parking lot. His truck was still there, with the Triumph motorcycle on the back.

Katy didn’t have her own car here. She must have left by food.

Colton would find her…but he needed a vehicle.

He got into his old beat up truck, slamming the door behind him.

He jammed his foot down on the clutch, and turned the key in the ignition. He was still in the habit of leaving the keys in the ignition, no matter where he was. The only key he took with him was the key to his Triumph…

The engine whined. It didn’t sound right.

Shit, though Colton. The truck wasn’t starting.

Colton cursed and banged his fist into the dashboard.

He jumped back out of the truck, and looked around wildly. The first thing that popped into his
head,
was the Triumph motorcycle. But he remembered how much Katy had hated riding on it.

No, thought Colton, he couldn’t take the bike.

“Hey Colton, what’s going on with the wedding? They sent me out to see if you’re till here…” It was one of Colton’s buddies from the rodeo practice ground. Colton had convinced him to come along with the promise of free food, booze, and the possibility of getting lucky with one of the female guests.

Colton didn’t say anything at first. He didn’t have time for this. He needed to find Katy. That was all that was on his mind. But he also needed a ride.

“Hey,” said Colton, suddenly getting an idea. “You didn’t bring your horse, did you?”

“Don’t go anywhere without her,” said his friend, tipping his cowboy hat. Colton’s’ friend’s name was Matt, and he was known around the city as The Cowboy, because he didn’t even own a car. Nor a motorcycle, moped, or bicycle. He went everywhere on his horse, tying her up outside at the bicycle post.

“Great,” said Colton. “I need to borrow her.”

“Sorry, Colton,” said Matt The Cowboy. “I’ve never been in the habit of lending her out. You can understand, right, Colton?”

Colton nodded frantically. “But here’s the thing--- Well, first of all, yes, I understand that. But this is love we’re talking about. I need to find Katy, and she’s terrified of motorcycles, and my truck’s not starting.”

“Look, Colton,” said Matt. ”I really appreciate the initiation. There’s a lot of free food and booze. I’ve already had over five whiskies. But why don’t you try to find someone else’s car to borrow? Sally Thunder has always been with me, and I don’t want to lend her out to anyone. You get that, right?”

“Yeah,” said Colton, distractedly. He was in the zone where none of what Mat The Cowboy was saying mattered to him. “Where is she?”

“Tied up right around he corner, under a big Oak Tree. But I already told you, Colton, I’m not lending her to you.”

“Great,” said Colton, not paying any attention, and dashing around the corner of the building to the horse, Sally Thunder.

Matt The Cowboy chased after him. “Don’t you dare get on that horse,” screamed Matt.

Colton ignored him, and expertly swung himself up on Sally Thunder. She was a really magnificent horse, strong, powerful, and young. She was jet black, with a beautiful coat. One white mark ran down her back in the middle, twisting and turning like a lightening bolt.

“Get off her now!” shouted Matt The Cowboy.

“No time for that,” said Colton. “Got to find Katy.”

“To hell with that!” shouted Matt. “To hell with Katy.”

“What’d you say?” said Colton.

“You heard me,” said Matt.

Matt tried to grab Colton’s legs, to pull him off the horse. But Colton had already jumped off the horse himself. He didn’t want anyone insulting Katy, his Katy. He was filled with a rage.

Matt put his hands up, and got into his boxer’s stance.

But Colton was too fast for him. Colton was too powerful.

Colton spun on his hips, putting one leg forward, the way he had been taught to punch.

He swung, his fist flying in a huge arc.

His fist connected with Matt’s face.

Matt wasn’t any match for Colton’s strength. He crumpled, and fell the ground in a heap. His cowboy hat rolled away into the dust.

“Sorry, buddy,” said Colton, feeling a bit of remorse.

He swung himself back up on Matt’s horse.

“Giddy up,” he cried, using his boots to dig into Sally Thunder’s hide.

She responded by shooting forward at a gallop.

Soon Colton was racing through the city streets. The sound of her hooves on the pavement was deafening.

Colton rode, his suit jacket flapping in the wind. He kept one hand on his cowboy hat, to keep it flying off in the wind. If he had had his old regular hat, this would have never happened. It would have stayed right on his head, without any issues.

Colton rode and rode. Eventually Sally Thunder tired, and they had to slow to a walking pace.

He got some strange looks, and quite a few wolf-whistle calls from women, women who liked nothing more than to see a sexy muscular cowboy riding by on a horse.

Colton rode for hours.

The sun was already starting to set.

There were still no signs of Katy.

Should he give up? Should he head back top her apartment?

But somehow Colton didn’t think he would find her there.

He had a strange idea come on to him all of a sudden. He didn’t know where it had come from.

But thought that maybe Katy had gone to a little park in an obscure corner of the city. There was an unusual weeping Willow tree there, by a small lake. Katy had mentioned it once to him in passing as a place she liked to go.

“Let’s go,” cried Colton, digging his heels as hard as he could into Sally Thunder. Sally was tired, but she rallied to the cause.

Her hooves were clamoring against the pavement once again.

Colton’s’ cowboy hat flew off in the wind. He turned to look at flying through the air…the fancy white hat. He didn’t need it anymore. To Colton, that hat represented the last of his quest to become a celebrity. As soon as he got home, he would put his old hat on again. He was done with fancy hats, with Sheila, with Cambridge Whitehead, with everyone except Katy.

The wind was flying through his hair.

Twenty minutes later, it was dusk, and Colton arrived at the park.

Sally Thunder blasted through the park at top speed.

“Whoa,” cried Colton, pulling back on the reins.

There was Katy, crumpled into a little ball, under the Weeping Willow tree. The tree was massive, towing into the sky, its branches turned down in sorrow towards the ground.

“Katy!” said Colton, expertly jumping off Sally Thunder.

“Colton!” said Katy. “You came for me.”

“Of course I did,” said Colton, putting his arms around her and holding her close.

“You didn’t go through the wedding?”

Colton shook his head. “Of course not, Katy. I love you and want to be with you. To hell with all that celebrity stuff.”

“But if you don’t marry Sheila, you’re not going to be famous.”

“I don’t give a damn,” said Colton. “I want to be with you, Katy.”

“I want to be with you too, Colton.”

They kissed, and continued kissing until the sun had completely set and the park was enclosed in a peaceful darkness.

Two years had passed since that disastrous fake wedding. Colton had returned the horse to his friend, and bought him a few drinks to make up for it. They were buddies again, palling around down at the rodeo arena.

Cambridge Whitehead had been white. Colton had never become famous. Not only that, but his name was never in any of the papers. Cambridge really did have a hold on the press, and he was true to his word.

Meanwhile, though, Colton continued as the #1 rodeo champion. He gained quite the loyal following of other rodeo heads, people who really appreciate what he did as an art.

Neither Colton nor I had any problems with him not being famous, being a complete unknown with the sport.

In fact,
we both often talked about how nice it was. We got to live our peaceful life, away from the bother of the press, away from hounding reporters. We could go dancing and not be bothered by Colton’s’ fans. All the fans had drifted away now that his name wasn’t in the papers at all anymore.

We both loved it .We couldn’t have been happier.

Colton had wanted to be a celebrity for job security, essentially. But he had grown more careful in recent years…more carefully on the bull. And hadn’t been injured in the slightest. Apparently that happened sometimes to older rodeo stars…they got wiser and more careful in their later years.

Colton was pulling in quite a bit of money as a rodeo star. He had to leave sometimes to tour, but I often went with him, and found a lot of joy in exploring new cities with him around the country.

Sara and I were good friends again, and we had our wedding planning business was back in full swing. Since the reporters had already been at the wedding, Cambridge hadn’t been able to suppress the fake wedding from getting into the papers. The upside of the whole thing was that Sara and I had become instantly famous as wedding planners. We had more clients than we knew what to do with, more than we could handle.

Colton and I had moved out of the city and into the country. We had a little
farm house
on a ranch with more than 1000 acres. Colton had plenty of room to ride his horses around, through the fields, and he was even teaching me to ride. He loved the winding country roads for riding his motorcycle. He still had his beat up old truck, although there was a new engine sitting in the front of it.

The flame of our love had only grown stronger. We spent all the time we could together. We still had wild all-night love making sessions. We liked to say that we had only grown better at sex, and the sex had only grown more exciting, and more interesting. We made occasional comments about having a baby together…
.we
figured we would wait and see what happened…let things happen naturally.

Oh, and we had gotten married. How could I forget to mention that?

That was one wedding I hadn’t planned. Sara had taken care of everything, and it had been a truly magnificent wedding. It had been big, but not too fancy. Country style, we liked to call it. We’d had it here on our ranch, in the bright sunlight in one of the fields. Colton had worn his oldest and most battered cowboy hat.

THE END