[open] A Restless Cowboy

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I've got a dog, but I've pretty much devoted every aspect of my life to my horses. I'm a long rider, so I don't really have any hobbies aside from riding. I do work on a ranch when I'm not on the road, but that involves horses too, so really there's nothing aside from horses that I do. He spoke to her after she asked what he did. By his words she instantly understood that he was always in teh saddle. That was always good, but surely enough she wasn't gonna get her hopes up for him sticking around. She kind of lost trust in men.

"That's always good though. Horses are good for you. I think it's really cool you do that." She told him truthfully and looked around. TinMan looked at a nearby chipmunk run across the trail and up its tree. TinMan followed it with his eyes then shook his head. Soncee rubbed the horses neck gently. "Good boy." She told him to let him know he was being good. She looked at Derricks horse and smiled. The horse was so quiet. She loved quiet horses. They were some of the best horses you could get.

Soncee wasnt' really big into photography and gardens. It was just something she kind of got into the last few months she had been pregnant. She couldn't exactly ride comfortablely so it was either sit around the house and do nothing or go do something. She spent all morning in the barn and three to four hours in the evening at the barn though with TinMan and Chinook. It was hard somedays with the baby kicking but she just ignored it most of the time. She wished she wouldn't had made the mistake she did with Ian but no one was perfect. And she was far from it.

She looked at Derrick then to the trail. An akward moment of silence. She hated those. She ran her fingers through her long blonde hair and pushed it back over her shoulders. She all of a sudden felt scared to talk to him, like he was going to leave her. And she didnt' want to get attatched if that would happen again. So she kept it kind of cool, more like friends. She really didnt' want to know personal stuff, just some stuff. But she didn't know what to say or ask. She felt stupid. Oh well, if he didn't like her then he would never speak to her again. She was getting use to that fact of men.

At the moment, she just wanted that one man to come sweep her off her feet and show her that not all men are the same. I know that sounds like a fantacy but that was her dream. She figured it would never happen from all the men she had gone through in her life. She was beginning to think she should just give up. Put the baby up for adoption, leave this town and go rodeo for life. She didnt' think anyone would care if she left here or not. No one would even notice but her.

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There's not a whole hell of a lot else that I know how to do. He admitted honestly when Soncee said it was cool that he did what he did... it was just his way of life to him, he didn't know anything else. Sure he'd on one long ride, but it wasn't just the long riding that was his life, it was the two horses that were his life. He'd figured out a long time ago that a man's best friend is his horse, and so long as you treat them right they won't go running off on you. The best thing about a horse, in his opinion was that they wouldn't ever break your heart. Sure they might disappoint you on occasion, but they'd never break your heart. You could love them with everything you were and they wouldn't hurt you.

Derrick was the sort of guy who was careful with his heart. He didn't have a reason to... he just wasn't going to go pawn it off on the first girl who spoke to him. As of yet, he hadn't found anyone who he really wanted to give his heart to... he knew that sort of thing took time, and with the way he wandered around the country like a vagabond, it was no wonder he hadn't found anyone. He was planning to stick around Pinewood for at least a year before taking off on another ride, he and his horses had earned a good long rest, and he was going to give that to him...so who knew? Maybe in a years time he would find someone he would want to stay with and he'd finally settle down and stay in one place longer than a month.

How'd you get into it? he asked, of course meaning the rodeo. He knew she liked horses, and probably always had, but for all he knew her family could be city slickers and she just had a thing for the rodeo and so broke away from the high class family stuff to be in the rodeo. Or maybe her whole family was into the rodeo and she just carried on with it. Hell for all he knew she could be from Sweden and had no idea what rodeo was before she came to the United States and had a friend who was into it... okay so maybe that was a little far fetched, but anything was possible.

After all, he'd come from a high quality racing stable that was quite well off, and now he was a penniless cowboy who roamed from town to town seemingly without purpose except that he got bored staying in one place too long and wanted a change of scenery. Talk about jumping off the deep end. He went from the top of the horse world to just about the bottom on a matter of a year or two, but he didn't mind. He enjoyed working cattle and riding all day long... that was all he needed to be happy... at least for now. He was satisfied with having the very least to survive, he didn't need to be wealthy, he just needed to live, that was all.

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There's not a whole hell of a lot else that I know how to do. He told her and she smiled to him. She understood that. She had learned that her horses, especially TinMan would never break her heart. You could always count on your horse to be there. They were best friends. And it seemed that Derrick felt the same way. Just before she got pregnant she had rode TinMan out in the snow, a storm came and she about froze to death. She had fallen off TinMan because she was so cold and he layed down beside her, sheltering her from the wind and laid his head and neck over her to keep her warm.

Soncee wasn't as careful with her heart as she should be. She was just that kind to fall fast and then get heart broken. She was starting to learn that you can fall for them but don't grieve over it and act like its the end of the world. She had pretty much decided that there was no hope for her to ever get married or anything. So she always told herself that she wouldn't. But maybe someday a guy would come along and change her mind. Who knew, but she highly doubted it.

How'd you get into it? He asked her. How did she get into rodeo? Oh well, that was a simple anwser. "My parents rodeoed. I was actually not a planned baby. But they took me to every rodeo across the states and I was just born into it. I'm and only child too, so it made rodeo easy to do." She said. Being and only child made it so she didn't have to share horses and what not. She could just concentrate on rodeo and school. Her dad was a calf roper and saddle bronc rider. Her mom was a breakaway roper and barrel racer. Soncee roped but she liked barrel racing more then anything.

The funny thing is that Soncee's parents weren't married. Her dad came from rich people in New York but he was always attracted to the country and moved to the west when he turned 18 and got into rodeo with some new friends. Her mom was born and raised on a cattle ranch but she took into rodeo more then driving cattle and what not. But her mom was the only kid out of four that even liked to ride horses.

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Life really wasn't easy out on the road constantly. Sure, maybe if you traveled by car it wasn't all that hard, but when you were living off the back of a horse, often out in the middle of nowhere, it most certainly was anything but easy. He was attempting to survive on the bare minimum whenever he rode. his last trip had been two hears long, and he had run into quite a bit of trouble on that trip. From his horses getting injured, to Badger running into a bear; from running out of food and water with no sign of human life to breaking a cinch strap and having no spare, to being unable to find a mountain pass for a week... he had run into just about every sort of problem there was out there.

Although he currently considered himself single, he was sort of seeing someone. She was quite wealthy and had been traveling to wherever he was going to stay for a day or two, but really it hadn't been much of a relationship, considering he was normally on the road for a month or two without stopping anywhere for more than one night. Honestly, he was surprised she was still continuing on with this... he was guessing she had to be getting sick of constantly traveling, and he had a feeling it wouldn't be long now until she asked him to make this more permanent and stop traveling. He wasn't sure how he would respond to that. He loved riding, and loved long riding even more. He wasn't sure if he was into he enough to settle down yet, but she was moving here while he was here for a year, and who knew? Maybe he would decide he was into her enough to settle down and stick around.

Then again, he was now presented with Soncee. She was a very nice woman, and she seemed to have a lot of the same morals as he did, and seemed to be into a lot of the same things as he was. Now he very well could be forced to choose between two woman who he could end up liking a lot. He was not fond of breaking hearts or hurting people, and that was the last thing he wanted to do to either of them. But now here he was thinking ahead and not taking everything into consideration. Maybe Soncee had a boyfriend or wasn't into him at all, maybe the girl he was seeing had lost interest in him, and maybe he would end up decided that neither of them were enough to keep him there, and he wouldn't have to choose between either of them at all. He would just have to wait and find out later.

When his mind had wandered to the point that he hardly even remembered he was riging with someone else, Johnny stopped in his tracks and turned his big head back towards Derrick's leg and grasped the fabric of his jeans in his teeth and gave a sharp tug, dragging Derrick's attention back to the present times. Once Johnny knew Derrick's attention was back on him, he started forward again, quite pleased with his ability to recapture Derrick's attention and get his focus on him. Sorry... Derrick said with a crooked and somewhat sheepish grin playing across his face when he realized that a moment of silence had drawn out between them while he had been inattentive, I got distracted... that's cool though, I guess it runs in your family then. Derrick was just about impossible to fluster. He wasn't bothered by a whole heck of a lot in this world, and was perfectly capable of carrying on a conversation after losing track of his thoughts like that as if nothing had happened and not miss a beat. He was just laid back enough that he didn't really care if he looked like a complete idiot sitting there not saying anything for a minute or two... by the end of the ride they would both have forgotten anyway, so it didn't matter to him.

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Really, Soncee would understand if he decided he didn't like her and liked someone else. It wouldn't be the first time someone did that to her. She was getting use to it now. Even though it hurt and was like breaking up with someone but the feeling was something she was use to feeling. It sucked yes, but I guess she really didn't have a soulmate or anything in this world. Just a bunch of heart ache.

Soncee would usually be on the road going to one rodeo to teh next about this time of year. But she had been stupid and in lust and got herself pregnant...then just her luck the guy ran away and never came back. She hadn't heard from him since he left. And to keep the baby alive instead of killing it off she got rid of some horses so she could pay for the doctor bills. And she cut down on riding alot as well... and not only riding but smoking, drinking...and stuff like that. Being pregnant really changed her life and she didnt' want to get pregnant again until she was content on her what her carreer had been.

He got quiet and she stayed quiet as well. Really not knowing what to say. She was worried she might say something wrong...or try to hard and just get thrown away like always. She sighed a bit and rubbed TinMan. I got distracted... that's cool though, I guess it runs in your family then. He said when he snapped out of his little.. trance thing. She looked to him and nodded. "Yep it does. " She told him and ran her fingers through her long hair again. She rubbed her stomach and sighed. She hated this...someone may as well just put a bullet to her head...

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