Rodeo Nights Read Free

shadowed by another. The second engine also turned off and she heard doors slam and greetings exchanged. Roberta and Tom Nathan.
    She breathed again.
    They didn’t come in right away, and in a few seconds she knew why. A third engine sounded, deeper, more powerful than either of the first two. She could imagine it following the rock-strewn, dust-thick drive as it curved past the arena, widened into an informal, weed-dotted parking lot and eventually led to the office.
    The third engine shut off, followed immediately by the opening of the office door. Roberta came in alone, leaving the door open behind her.
    “Here’s your supper.” She swung up the gate of the counter, set a bag on the desk in front of Kalli and added in the same tone, “Walker just drove up.”
    Kalli recognized the generosity in the woman’s warning, but didn’t answer, not taking her eyes off the desk calendar provided by a local feed store. This first meeting was bound to be awkward, she wouldn’t pretend otherwise. But it had all been so long ago, and she’d been over him so long. Yet, her mind refused to make sense of the familiar grid of days and dates for the month of June.
    Outside, Tom greeted Walker. She heard Tom’s pleasure at seeing him and sadness at the circumstances. Then Tom took the two steps up to the office door. Behind him, she heard booted feet on dried earth and thought she could smell the sun-warmed dust they stirred.
    Just outside the door, Walker said he’d gotten into town a while ago, then answered another question. His voice was low and slow, the cadence as basic as her own heartbeat.
    “Yeah, went direct to the hospital. Jeff was sleeping, but I saw Mary. Thought I’d make a circuit of the grounds, but cut it short when I saw you folks pulling in.”
    The calendar snapped into orderly focus before Kalli’s eyes. Of course he’d check the rodeo grounds first.
    Walker was in the room. She couldn’t say she’d heard him come in and she hadn’t looked up from the desk, but she knew.
    “Hey, Kalli.”
    Ten years.
    Ten years since she’d last seen the face she’d first seen when she was eleven years old, and had loved nearly as long. The face she’d watched change from a boy’s to a man’s. The face of the man she’d married.
    The last time she’d seen him, as she’d given him his choice, his face had been unreadable except for the indomitable will that always was a part of him. Maybe she’d known right then what his choice would be. But she’d hoped.
    Instead, he’d gone to compete. She had packed and left before he returned.
    Slowly, she stood. For an instant, he was merely a dark outline against the bright rectangle of the open door, a silhouette from the past.
    Then her eyes adjusted to take in the details within the outline. The jolt of recognition shook her a little.
    But she stood straight, her voice cool. “Hello, Walker.”
    Walker Riley stood there, not six feet from her, so familiar and so unknown. None of it seemed real.
    “You look good, Kalli. Different, but good.”
    Her chin rose at that, and she let the memories drain away.
    “You look just the same.”
    One side of his mouth lifted in a half grin. That was different; he’d always grinned full-out before.
    “Not hardly.”
    He crossed the wooden threshold that decades of booted feet had worn into a smooth dip.
    He did look older. But rather than softening his edges, the years seemed to have sharpened them, so his cheekbones and jaw stood out, looking more angular, casting deeper shadows. His skin was taut and tanned.
    Stepping up to the opening in the counter, he pushed the straw cowboy hat back from where it had ridden low on his forehead, then apparently thought better of it and removed the hat. Caught between his big, powerful hands, it seemed to shrink. His hair, as thick and dark as ever, carried a ridge where the hat had rested.
    His eyes hadn’t changed, the color as vibrant as a blue jay’s back, though the creases had