Chapter 4
Waverly woke up early; sleep in the new house still came unease. She padded out of her room, a shall wrapped around her to fight off the chill of the morning. As Waverly walked down the stairs she paused to look at the sleeping red head on her couch. Her flannel draped over the back of the couch and a blanket tucked up to her chin.
Waverly crept down the stairs and quietly into the kitchen. She started the coffee machine and sat at the breakfast bar, contemplating the pounding in her head. Waverly closed her eyes, listening to the coffeemaker gurgling.
The gurgle of the coffee pot was replaced with soft footsteps. Waverly slowly raised her head.
“Good morning,” Nicole said quietly.
Waverly smiled, “Good morning. I didn’t wake you did I?”
“Oh no, the smell of coffee did,”
“Want some breakfast?” Waverly asked hopeful.
Nicole smiled, “I would love to have breakfast with you, but I should get back, get cleaned up, and back here so we can start working on that fence,”
“Hey Nicole, about last night,” Waverly rested a hand on Nicole’s elbow.
“No need to explain,” Nicole held up a hand, “What ever is going on with Wynonna is none of my business,” Nicole tugged on her boots, “I’ll see you in an hour,”
Waverly sighed as she watched Nicole walk out the door. She got up and poured a cup of coffee, dropping in a single sugar cube and a dash of creamer.
“Oh, you already made coffee? Have I ever told you I love you?” Wynona came around the corner in the same clothes she had been brought home in last night.
“How are you feeling this morning?” Waverly asked over her cup of coffee.
Wynonna made a face followed by a muddled grumble, “How did I get home last night?”
“Doc brought you in,” Waverly passed the creamer over to Wynonna.
She murmured a thank you and poured a generous amount of creamer into her cup, “Bless Doc. What did you do last night?”
“Champ and I got into a fight, so Nicole and I tore through a bottle of whiskey,”
“Sounds about right,” Wynonna lifted her cup, “What did he do this time?”
“You know, the usual laziness. I honestly would be surprised if he even came back today,”
“Champ’s quiet the chump,” Wynonna snickered from behind her coffee cup.
“Wynonna,” Waverly scolded, “I’ve got to go start getting ready; we should have that fence all taken down by the end of the day,”
“Well, aren’t y’all busy bees,” Wynonna laughed, “Tell Nicole I’m thankful. And we still need to work out her payment,”
Waverly had all but forgotten that Nicole was getting paid, “Yeah, I’ll ask her today. I’m going to go get a shower,”
Nicole and Waverly got a slow start, the night of whiskey having taken its toll.
Nicole stopped, wiping the hangover sweat from her brow. She noticed some dark looking clouds coming their way.
“Is it going to rain?” Nicole asked.
Waverly looked up, “Looks like it will probably get stopped by the mountains. You’ll learn that weather round here always gets screwed up by those mountains,”
Both of their heads snapped around at the sound of a truck pulling up. The sides were splattered in mud, but it was unmistakably Champ’s truck.
“Would you imagine that,” Waverly said as she set her drill down.
Champ parked his truck and hoped out. He pulled on a pair of gloves and started loading fence posts into the back of the truck. Waverly and Nicole stared.
“Well, what are you guys staring at? Are we puling fence or are we pulling fence?” He asked.
Both Nicole and Waverly snapped to attention and started working on the fence again. The three worked in silence but they finished pulling the rest of the fence by the late afternoon. They road back to the house in silence and unloaded the old fence posts.
“I’ll see you later Babe, I’ve got to go,” He kissed Waverly tenderly and hurried into his truck.
Waverly looked to Nicole, “Was that weird?”
“Ah, seemed a little out of character,” Nicole agreed.
“Would you like to stay for dinner? Wynonna will be home early tonight, you can find out why she thinks the house is haunted,” Waverly tried to entice Nicole to stay.
Nicole pulled off her warn work gloves and smiled sadly, “Unfortunately I cant. Since I knew we would be done early today I agreed to practice with my roping partner today. He’s got a friend with a nice shoot set up that we can barrow. And then I’m going to run Whiskey through some barrels,”
Nicole could see the disappointment splash over Waverly’s face, “Oh, yeah. I guess you have to practice to keep that belt of yours,”
Nicole laughed, “I mean its not like they take it away from you,”
Waverly just rolled her eyes at the taller girl and leaned back against the bed of the pickup.
“Tomorrow we should be putting up fence, and from there we only have a couple days to go,”
“I cannot wait for this to be over, but it’s only the tip of the iceberg. Speaking of, Wynonna wanted me to ask about your payment for the fence work,”
Nicole had forgotten she was doing work for Waverly to get paid, “Ah, I don’t know. I mean, I kind of forgot I was doing this for money,”
“Well, think about it, we want to give you a fair share,”
“I’ll think about it,” Nicole touched the brim of her hat, “But for now, I’ve got some work to go put in,”
“Be safe,” Waverly said in parting.
Nicole gave her a nod before disappearing into her truck. She made the short drive to the other side of town to the ranch her roping partner had given her the address of. When she stepped out of the truck he was waiting for her, leaning against his truck, a dusty old black cowboy hat resting on his head. He was wearing a tight cotton t-shirt, his muscles showing easily through the fabric.
“Hey Dolls,” Nicole slammed the door of her truck shut.
“You’re late,” He said in a flat tone.
Nicole smiled at him, “I told you, I wasn’t sure when I would be here. I’m not sure how I can be late when there was no set time for me to be here,”
“Fair enough, I guess,” he nodded. He pushed himself off the side of his truck, “Are you ready? My friend here has a couple roping horses we can borrow,”
“What do we have to do in return to get to use all this?” She asked, a bit skeptical.
“He just likes to help out up and coming rodeo kids,” He said.
“You and I both know that’s not how this works,” Nicole gave him a side eye.
“Ask him yourself,” Dolls pointed over to a man leaning against the gate to an open-air riding arena. He was wearing a hat and had a mustache that Nicole recognized right away.
“Miss Haught, it is a pleasure to meet you again,” Doc gave her a swift hand shake, “When Dolls here approached me about using my set up, I just had to help out the young female roping prodigy, and this fine fellow,”
“It’s nice to meet you again,” Nicole said.
“I used to be a roper myself. Learned to rope on my daddies ranch, and got so good at it I started to compete. But I was never as good as either of you two,” He led them to the barn, “But, Since I no longer have a use for any of this stuff, I like to open it up to better, younger ropers and let them use it. Other wise everything here is just gonna go to rust,”
“Thank you so much,” Nicole said.
“We truly appreciate it,” Dolls said.
“The horses and the tack are available in here. Rowdy and James are the two best options for you two. My farm hand Fish can help you guys load the steers. I’ve also got a dummy out in the arena you can use to practice. Y’all have free reign of the facilities,”
“Thank you, Sir. This is of great help to Nicole and I,” Dolls aid.
“You both a damn good rodeo folk, but I understand your… unique struggles. It is not easy for a women and a black man on the circuit. I am here to help support you,”
“Sir, please don’t misconstrue this as disrespect, but why take the risk to support us?”
“Let’s just say I have a soft spot for the underdog,” Doc said, “I’ll be up at the house. Feel free to use what ever you need,”
Nicole and Dolls looked at each and watched the mysterious man walk out of the barn.
“Well, didn’t we stumble into some luck?” Nicole whistled.
“We sure did. I’ve been asking around town about him. No one knows much. I’ll keep digging. But, and keep this between us for now, he has offered us a sponsorship. We wear the Holiday Farms logo, and we get a decent amount of cash. I obviously told him I had to speak to you first, and that we had to get to know each other a bit first,” Dolls said.
“Yeah, lets get a better feel for him. I like the sound of a sponsorship though,” Nicole tipped her hat back.
“Lets get some practice in, what do you say?” Dolls flashed a rare, bright smile.
“Lets,” Nicole returned the smile. They got their ropes out and took some swings on the practice dummy, practicing their lassoing.
“Well, lets rustle up that ranch hand and get on some steers,” Dolls said.
They went to the barn and suited up the roping horses that Doc had suggested. They rode them around the arena, getting a feel for them. Then they moved the dummy out into the arena to practice on a stationary object to get a feel for the horses.
“Ready for the real thing?” A mousy looking guy with a short, dark, beard said as he came into the arena, “I’ve got five or six steers in the holding shoot waiting for you,”
Dolls rode over to the man, “Thank you very much, Fish is it?”
The man saluted, “Guilty as charged,”
“That was a good session,” Nicole said as she pealed off her roping gloves.
“And with Doc’s support, we can do this as often as we want. That’s a lit arena too, so we can work after dark,”
“This is a sweet deal, thank you for finding this Dolls,”
“Let me know when you are free next. We have that comp coming up in two weeks,” Dolls said.
“Sure thing Dolls. Have a safe night,” Nicole said before getting into her own truck.
Waverly sat quietly across from Champ as they ate dinner. Things had been tense between them since Champ actually started showing up on time to work on the fence. But After Champ had shown up at 9am to work on the fence for the last three days, Waverly couldn’t turn him down when he offered to buy her dinner.
They were in the one decent restaurant in Purgatory. Champ had even put on a tie. Even so, it didn’t feel right. Waverly pushed her shrimp stir-fry around on her plate.
“Babe, are you not hungry?” Champ asked.
“Yeah, yeah, for sure,” Waverly said not so convincingly.
“Is it something wrong with the food? Cause I can do something about it,”
“Champ, its fine. I’m just not like super hungry,”
“Oh, ok,” He sat back in his chair and slurped some pasta.
Waverly spent the rest of the night picking at the hem of her skirt as she pushed crusted shrimp around her plate.
Champ gawked a bit at the check and slapped some cash down on the table before retrieving his jacket from the back of his chair.
They walked out to the car in silence. Waverly felt tense and wasn’t exactly sure why. She climbed up into his truck, trying to avoid getting mud on her clothes.
Champ pulled up to the Earp ranch, a grin on his face.
“Thank you for dinner,” Waverly forced a smile.
He leaned over and planted a sloppy kiss on her cheek, “So, did I earn a trip upstairs?”
“Champ, we have to get up really early to get that fence finished,” Waverly deflected.
“We just won’t sleep,” he nuzzled into her neck.
Waverly felt every muscle in her body stiffen; she pushed Champ away, “No, Champ,”
“Maybe tomorrow night?” Champ gave her his puppy dog eyes.
“No,” Waverly sat up in the seat, “No Champ. I’ve got work to do. I’ve got a ranch to get off the ground. I don’t have time for this,” Waverly got out of his truck. A cloud of dust kicked up as she hit the ground.
Champ scrambled around his truck, “Babe, what do you mean?”
“Wynonna and I need to get this place running. I don’t have time to play games with you,”
“And I can help with that. I know how to raise cattle,” Champ pleaded.
“You are unreliable at best. Champ we are done,” Waverly felt the stiffness leave her body, “Yeah, we are over,”
She turned on her heals before she could change her mind and marched into the house as Champ was left spluttering next to his truck.