*Tate Lavenge went to prison for bank robbery. He became the star of the prison rodeo team. Should he win early release, charges could be brought against him for more of the robberies.
Adam Hunter placed third in tie-down roping at Bardville. He earned his card by the end of the season. Barely. He halted his money-making activities on the Internet.
Vicky continued as a rodeo secretary. She met a widower from Knighton, Wyoming.
Lindy married the roper from Cottonwood County.
Goose endured a heart-to-heart discussion with a certain saddle bronc cowboy and afterward adopted a strict policy of giving that cowboy and Reggie a wide berth. Otherwise, he remained the exception to the rule about rodeo cowboys.
William C. Johnson won the first saddle bronc go-round in the Shakespeare County Rodeo at Bardville and placed second overall, for a nice payout. That began a run of improving results.
At the Sheridan rodeo in August, he entered as Chapin Johnson and withstood the media interest that didn’t let up right through the season championships, where he finished third.
He handed the third-place belt buckle and check to Regina Marie Moran as soon as he received them.
After kissing the investigator for Tal Bennett Investigations, who would never again work as a rodeo secretary, he said, “I’m quitting.”
Her eyes went huge and hurt. “You don’t think we can…? But we’ve been doing so good. Not arguing all that much and—”
He grabbed her. “The rodeo. I’m quitting the rodeo. Not you. I want to argue with you the rest of my life and I won’t ever watch you drive away again, Reggie.”
The hurt disappeared and her eyes went even bigger. She gripped his arms, too — and the woman could grip.
“You are not quitting the rodeo. Not until you’re truly ready. And you’ll probably watch me drive away a million times. Well, maybe not a million, but a lot. Because we both have things we want — we need — to do. There’ll be lots of times I drive away and lots of times you drive away over the next fifty years. What matters is we kiss and wave goodbye, and then we kiss and say hello.”
“Fifty years?”
“Maybe sixty. Or seventy. I plan to be around a long time, and you better be, too, cowboy. So we can keep riding the river together.”
*
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