Girl falls for Cowboy

As you probably know, I knew I was going to marry the cowboy on our first date. That didn’t necessarily mean that I was in love with him. But I knew that I would be someday.

I’d never met anyone like him. He wasn’t just a country boy that wore cowboy boots — he was the real deal. And at the innocent age of 18, I thought he was pretty darn impressive. He’d been out of welding school for about a year. He’d left the ranch and been all over the country working.

He told me that he knew how things worked because he’d been out in the real world.

We laugh about that now. We were just babies.

But we had no idea that we were. We were all grown up.

Every weekend he was home, he’d take me out to the ranch. We rode horses. We went on hayrides with his friends. We went down to the river to party. Let me tell you, there were a lot of new experiences for this girl.

And one of the most exciting was riding a four-wheeler.

Now that may not seem like much to you, but I’d never even been up close to a four-wheeler before. My mother would have never allowed me on one — you know, they are dangerous. So when the cowboy asked me if I wanted to take a ride around the ranch on the four-wheeler, I was all for it.

And a little scared. I am my mother’s daughter, after all.

So after a few reminders to hold on tight, off we took. Now did I tell the cowboy this was my first time I’d been on the back of an ATV?

Nope.

But I think he figured it out when he went over a large hump not too far from the house and I fell off the back. Okay, fell may not be the right word. Um, I flew. All ninety pounds of me was air born.

I wanted the earth to just swallow me up.

But he talked me, my bruised sit-upon and my bruised pride back on that four-wheeler. Then he proceeded to take it nice and easy around the ranch.

I guess he felt pretty bad.

We came upon this little clearing called a bottom. It was along a small creek that flowed over some large, flat rocks. Green, shady trees lined the creek and a few cows and calves were milling around, not too concerned with our presence.

Well, I guess the cowboy decided that he could make it up to me for dumping my tush off the back like that. He picked out a calf that couldn’t have been more than a week old. Asking if I wanted to pet a baby calf, he walked towards the Mamma and her baby. And then he chased that poor baby calf for a good ten minutes.

That’s when I fell in love with him. Watching him chase that calf for me in that green, green pasture.

I never did pet that calf, which was okay with me. But I did get to spend the rest of the afternoon sitting next to the cowboy on a big flat rock in the middle of a creek with my feet dangling in the water.

And falling in love with him over and over and over.