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"Alright, it's time to put on the charm," Blake said with a dashing grin directed at Linda.
"Quite charming," Linda said kind of sarcastically, trying to poke fun at him even though he actually had all the charm she could ask for.
Blake was immune to teasing anyway unless it was about his age. He opened the door on his pickup truck and stepped out, holding a handful of the colorful advertisements that he and Linda had put together the day before to promote horseback riding lessons.
She carried some too and Blake reached into the back of his truck and removed a folding table.
"I still don't understand why we need the table," Linda said.
“Because that’s what the Girl Scouts use.”
“Because they have boxes of cookies!” Linda said, repeating something she had mentioned several times already.
Blake removed a folding chair with his other hand. “It’ll just look more professional this way.”
“I think it’ll scare people away. They’re going to think we’re trying to register them to vote.”
“Well, then, we’ll bring it back if we have to. We don’t know how this is going to go.”
Linda looked at the entrance of the grocery store they were approaching and, along with Blake, felt uncertain as to how well this plan was going to work.
“Yeah, I’m not sure about this.”
“What else do you have in mind?”
“I don’t know, this is usually where-“
Linda stopped herself from saying, “Where my fairy godmother appears and does magic.”
“Where what?” he asked.
Linda ignored his question. “The manager said this was alright? I mean, we’re not a charity.”
“Yeah, it’s fine; she’s a friend of mine.”
“Really? How do you know her?”
“Well, earlier today I walked into the store and asked for the manager, then I became friends with her.”
Linda shook her head.
Blake did seem somewhat proud of his effect on people, but at the same time, he was oblivious as to how out of the ordinary it was.
Most likely, the store manager he had won over was a fan of his, recognizing him from the rodeos most people in town followed, but as Linda watched him stride through the parking lot, a bounce in his step that only confident people have, lighter than others without the weight of their insecurities, Linda felt that even without his small town fame it was probably easy enough for him to succeed with people.
When they got to the front of the store, Blake unfolded the table incredibly close to the door of the supermarket, embarrassing Linda.
“Blake, you don’t own the whole world,” she said as she moved the table back from the door.
“Have a seat,” he said to her as he unfolded the chair at the table and pulled it out for her. She obliged and sat down, and attempted to arrange the flyers in an attractive manner on the table.
Blake scoured the people in the store for potential customers while Linda continued to inch the table away from the door.
“Who are we looking for?” Blake asked.
“Mostly girls, honestly,” she said as she arranged papers. “Boys ride too and some adults will take lessons now and then but it’s almost entirely girls that do, and only girls that stick with it for very long.”
"Well, there are only adults in this store," Blake said.
“That’s fine, we’ll just hand out flyers and hopefully some takers will be parents. Why don’t you come sit down?” Linda asked, wondering if Blake’s overwhelming presence would frighten people away. But all anyone did was smile at him as they passed, happy he was there.
He was so warm, comfortable, and almost childlike in the way that he was unaware that anything he did could ever be misinterpreted, it ended up being the truth.
He brought the kind folks of Stagecoach, Montana back to a friendlier time when people greeted each other as they passed, and they weren’t dragged kicking and screaming; they came willingly and enthusiastically, wishing him, “Howdy,” right back as he said it to them, even though they probably only used that particular greeting once every two or three years.
Linda observed him, wondering in disbelief how long he could stand in that doorway saying hello to people and not get tired of it, but it never wore on him. He could go forever. He was a happy man that the world had not scorned. He was an endangered species that Linda wanted to lock in a display case in a museum. But first, she would allow him to pass out some flyers.
“We need moms,” he decided out loud. He turned to Linda and said, “If there’s one thing I can spot, it’s a mom.”
Linda’s forehead furled as she wondered why Blake had the ability to spot moms so accurately or what use it was to him. She laughed to herself and decided to chalk it up as just one of the many odd things that she had heard people say lately, and then she changed her mind and decided to ask him about it.
“What makes you think you can tell if a woman is a mom?”
“Just watch.”
Blake caught the attention of a woman exiting the store. “Howdy, Ma’am. You look like you’ve given birth.”
“Excuse me?”
“BLAKE!” Linda shouted, moving immediately around the table to interrupt.
“Ummm, what I meant was,” Blake started to say.
“Hey, are you Blake Lockwood?” the woman asked.
“I sure am!”
As Linda arrived at the two, she watched in disbelief as she discovered, apparently, the secret to Blake’s success with people revealed. It seemed that it didn’t matter what he said at all; that tall, friendly, handsome cowboys got a free pass in this town.
“I’m bringing my whole family to come watch you down in Helena next week! My husband and the kids, we’ll all be there cheering for you, Blake. It’s too bad about what happened in Boseman. That bull wasn’t fit to ride.”
“You can’t win ‘em all, ma’am. How old are the young ones, might I ask?” Blake said and winked at Linda.
She wanted to tell him, “You don’t have to wink, I know why we’re here,” but she didn’t.
The woman, pleased that Blake would ask and ecstatic that he would take interest in her family, responded, “Well, our youngest is six now, he’s a boy, and we have three daughters, nine, twelve, and thirteen.”
“Oh, daughters nine, twelve, and thirteen?” he repeated loudly so Linda could hear, as if there was any chance she hadn’t, and winked directly at her again.
Again, she had some thoughts she would have liked to share with him but didn’t. Blake went on.
“Have you ever considered enrolling the kids in horseback riding lessons?”
“Well,” the woman responded, a little off guard, “Not really, we have an old mare out in the field that the children already tend to and know how to ride.”
“Yes, but have they been properly educated in Equestrian riding? Western? Jumping? Umm...” Blake looked to Linda for help.
“Dressage?” she added.
“Dressage?” the woman asked, unfamiliar with the term.
"Without a proper education, they might not ever learn how to do that," Blake said, not knowing what it was either. He handed the woman a flyer. "We're having a special right now down at the Stagecoach Stables."
“Well, I don’t know,” the woman said, reading the flyer skeptically, “who teaches the course?”
"I do," Linda said and extended her hand to shake with the woman's.
“Oh,” she said, disappointed.
Linda looked at Blake, her eyebrows raised at the woman’s reaction.
“And I’ll be down there Saturday to help teach their first lesson, and it’s free when you sign up for four more!” Blake added, inventing the part about signing up for more lessons.
“You’ll be down there?”
“Yes ma’am, bring the kids on down. I can’t wait to show ‘em a few things about riding.”
The woman was sold.
“Oh, okay Blake! I’m sure my daughters would love to. I’ll bring all three of them. They’ll be excited to meet you!”
“Sounds like a deal! I’ll be waiting for them. What are their names again?”
Blake really knew how to handle this woman.
“Oh, the youngest is Morgan, then its Sally and Sue.”
“Sally and Sue! Tell them I can’t wait to meet them.”
The woman left, nearly dying, heaving air in and out of her lungs from the interaction.
“Layin’ it on a little thick?” Linda asked.
"No," Blake said, and his genuine ignorance to what she was hinting at made Linda realize that maybe Blake was actually just that friendly. Wow, was she that cynical?
“Well, if you keep it up at this pace, the stables will be paid off in a month.”
“That’s the goal.”
It was a great feeling having someone really in her corner, and someone useful! Linda was not used to it.
“Can I get you a soda or something, Blake?” Linda asked, grateful.
“No, that’s bad for your teeth,” he said.
He did have very nice teeth.
The evening continued as Blake scored countless positive interactions. Most of them weren’t set in stone, but there were many that were legitimate prospects.
As the sun turned orange and came down over the west, Blake posed for pictures with his fans, new and old, in front of the grocery store, some of whom he had met before and all of whom were happy to see him.
It was a little too much for Linda to know he would be leaving soon and, when the last flyer was gone and Blake kicked the legs up under the folding table, Linda didn’t want their goofy adventure to end.
“I guess I’ll be coming down Saturday, by the way.”
“Yeah, I gathered that.”
They walked back towards the truck and Linda carried the chair.
“Those moms sure love you, Blake.”
“Yeah, they look up to me I think.”
“Maybe it’s because you’re older than them.”
Under his breath, Blake said, "I'm twenty-seven."
Linda laughed as Blake put the table in the back of his truck.
“Blake! I’m just kidding. You’re a hero to these folks.”
Blake took the chair from Linda and put it in the back. Linda grabbed onto him.
"Why do you care about your age?" she asked. "Twenty-seven's not old."
“It’s old for a bull rider.”
And suddenly it made a lot more sense.
He put his hands around her and she became aware of the people walking past, as if her jealous stepsisters were going to pop out from under a minivan and accost her.
But no one cared what they were doing and they remained in each other’s arms, the sun now gone and stars appearing.
“What are you going to do when bull riding is over?”
“I don’t know. Ride into the sunset?”
“Start a family?”
Linda awaited Blake’s answer with particular curiosity.
"I never thought about it. I’m on the road for months at a time and the rest of the time I’m off ranching. I can’t even really have a girlfriend.”
A little kink formed in Linda’s chest upon hearing this but, before her heart broke, a little voice in her head rushed to her aid and reassured her not to worry because he would definitely change for her, which she thought was a little weird.
"Well, you never know.” She said with cautious optimism. “At some point, you're going to retire. You're old for a bull rider, after all."
“I’m not that old. Could have ten years left.”
Linda didn’t want to wait ten years, but again the strange persona in her mind gave her a wink and reminded her that she wouldn’t have to. Was she insane?
When they were done, Blake drove Linda home in the dark on a road that rolled up and down like the ocean, making her stomach react. Each time the headlights came down onto a new section of road, Linda feared that it would be the turnoff for her own destination, ultimately ending their night together.
She wished they could roll on, bobbing up and down on the creaky springs of the truck, safe inside its cabin, until they reached some far off place and lived a new life, happily ever after.
Instead, the brakes squeaked as they stopped in front of her house with the engine still running.
“Thank you, Blake,” she said and they gave each other a kiss goodbye that lasted for a moment.
“Should we make another scene?” he asked.
“No thanks. You’ve caused enough trouble.”
“I hope not.”
Linda got out of the vehicle and he made sure she got to the door before driving away, but she sat on the porch for a while, avoiding her stepfamily and feeling the night, wondering how this whole thing would end.