Chapter 85 Alexandra's Glow
“You’re a little too damned bubbly these days,” Evelyn teased. “It’s starting to get on my nerves.” Her face was stone cold, and her tone had a sharp edge to it.
“Oh my god,” Alexandra replied. “I’m sorry. Is it really bothering you that much?” She looked directly into her eyes and saw the sparkle that told her that Evelyn was playing one of her tricks again. She had to beat her to the punch. “I’m so sorry. I don’t want to ruin your concentration by upsetting you. I promise that I’ll keep it all to myself.” She pushed a couple of tears out of her eyes and let them trail down her cheeks. It was a trick that she had learned in her theater classes years before. It really wasn’t very hard. She could do it on cue.
Evelyn saw the tears and immediately regretted the joke. “Oh my god,” she said. “No, Alexandra, I didn’t mean it. I was just playing with you.”
“I know,” Alexandra replied, wiping the tears from her cheeks and then bursting into laughter.
“Oh, you horrible bitch!” Evelyn exclaimed. She smacked her with a pillow. “What pisses me off even more is that you used my own joke against me. You’re getting too good at that. I’m starting to wish that I hadn’t started this.”
“I’m just getting started,” Alexandra replied, laughing so hard that more real tears were flowing from her eyes. “I told you a long time ago not to mess with me.”
As Evelyn continued on her quest to win the world title in barrel racing, a couple of other contenders had closed the gap, but she had been able to keep the lead. Evelyn attributed her success to Alexandra being her good luck charm. In reality, the crazy girl from Pittsburgh simply inspired her and kept her loose.
“Soooo...” Evelyn began. “What did he say?” She had made a point of leaving the room or tuning things out when Alexandra was on the phone with Evan. It was none of her business, and she was one of those rare women who truly hated gossip. Her thought was that if Alexandra wanted her to know stuff, she would tell her. Her curiosity got the better of her, and she asked.
“Well,” she replied, giggling. “He said that he wanted to take me hard and slap my ass.”
“He did not!” Evelyn exclaimed. “You’re impossible!”
“He called me from the barn,” she replied.
“I thought there was no cell reception up there.” After she and Evan had gotten re-acquainted at the Monte Vista rodeo, Alexandra told Evelyn the entire story of how she had been stranded in the mountains when she turned onto the dirt road, thinking that it was a shortcut. It was the wonderful twist of fate that she wasn’t able to make a phone call for several days, which changed her life. She had dwelt on the irony for weeks and had almost completely driven Evelyn out of her mind with it. Every time a small challenge came up, Alexandra was quick to point out that it just might be a turning point.
“He bought a satellite phone,” Alexandra replied.
“Seriously? Those things don’t come cheap. I’m beginning to think he has it bad for you.”
“You think so?”
“I know so,” Evelyn replied. “What little bit I know about Evan Williams, and after seeing you two together, I’d say he’s all yours.”
“I hope so,” Alexandra said. The look on her face turned grave. “I feel so different with him. I don’t feel tied down or trapped in our relationship. I don’t feel like I’m giving all of the time. I feel free and strengthened. He makes me better without even trying. He draws me in without ever...” she struggled for the right words. The only thing that she could visualize was how the horses that he trained followed him eagerly without a halter or any kind of rope that bound them to follow him. “Without ever putting a halter on me. I am his because I want to be his, not because he has put a brand on me.”
“You’re even talking Western now,” Evelyn laughed. “Putting on a halter and branding? The folks back in Pittsburgh wouldn’t cotton to a thing you done said.” Evelyn mocked in a thick hillbilly accent.
“Is it that bad?” Alexandra asked. “Do I talk like that?”
“Worse,” Evelyn said with a straight face, trying to pull another joke on her. “You have that whole lofty, Eastern, Boston sound mixed in there, too. It’s actually kind of annoying.”
“Don’t even think about it,” Alexandra countered. “I’m onto you.”
“What did he say about the finals?” Evelyn plunged ahead, realizing that she had been caught in another attempt at getting one up on her friend. Alexandra was pretty sharp at picking things up. When they had first met, Evelyn had been able to get away with it, but as Alexandra’s confidence grew, she came into her own, and Evelyn really didn’t stand a chance. A deep pride came over her as she realized how much Alexandra had changed. She wasn’t the helpless and confused girl from Pittsburgh she had met a little over a year ago.
Her transformation had come from a combination of struggles which she had put behind her, not with ease, but with decisive finality. She had felt the pain of her failed relationship with her fiancé, Cameron, and refused to give herself over to the temptation to become bitter and withdrawn. She had even opened herself up to a relationship with a bull rider who broke her heart, but it bounced off her thickened skin. What amazed Evelyn even more, however, was that the thickened skin wasn’t covering a jaded heart. Her heart was still open and free; to be more accurate, it was more open and more eager to express the tenderness inside.
“He is planning to be there,” Alexandra replied. “He is driving.”
“Driving? Why doesn’t he fly? Colorado, Utah, and Nevada can be a bitch in December.”
“I asked him the same question. He said that by the time he drove to Denver, went through all of the trouble of parking, check-in, security, and boarding, he could have already driven most of the way to Vegas.”
“Cowboys can be pretty stubborn about things,” she said. “But they can handle pretty much anything that comes along, too. He’ll probably be alright.”
“You’re right,” Alexandra said. “He’s not as stubborn as RJ and not as tough, but he’ll be alright.”
“Oh, you have no idea,” Evelyn said. “I need to set you straight on something. A truckload of RJ’s wouldn’t put a scratch on Evan.”
“What?” Alexandra was confused. “What do you mean? I watched RJ take all of that abuse from those bulls and the injuries, and he still got up. Evan’s nothing like that; he’s sweet and tender.”
“Every woman who is in love thinks like that,” Evelyn laughed. “They believe that their man is too sweet, tender, and weak to take care of himself. You need to let go of that idea right now. That man is tougher than a sack of bears.”