Free American Fighter by Veronica Cox, Cox Bundles Page A

darken with mortification as they drove off. “Why’d you have to go and do that?” Mary accused.
    “Well, why not? They were hot and I wanted to get a good look at those beautiful, blue eyes of the one not wearing a hard hat. How adorable was he ?” Mary couldn’t help the bark of laughter that escaped and checked her hair in the visor mirror.
    “You’re too much, Beatrice,” she told her friend as she fixed her eyeliner and mascara. It was going to be a long night with this crazy woman.
     

Chapter Two
    Beatrice pulled her sedan into a parking space between two, large pickup trucks and both women had to squeeze out of the small car. For Mary, it was more difficult and she ended up feeling even worse about her weight. She’d tried dieting just last month and lost only twenty pounds, but no one would have noticed, she was sure. She finally pulled her purse from the back seat and slung it over her shoulder while Beatrice waited for her. The two of them linked their arms together like they were schoolgirls again and walked briskly to the entrance of the rodeo.
    “Two tickets for the front seats,” Beatrice chimed at the built man behind the Plexiglas wall with a small opening. She slid in enough money to cover the both of them and Mary didn’t protest. It had been Beatrice’s idea to go to the rodeo and she’d been adamant that she’d be paying that night. Mary had paid for their last trip to a movie theatre, but that had been much less.
    I’ll pay for my own drinks and popcorn , she decided mentally as they walked through the gate with their ticket stubs in hand. Yet Mary beat her to it and purchased them both large popcorns and large Cokes to go with it.
    “Come on, we’ve got to get those good seats,” her best friend cried out as she tugged Mary toward the stands. They passed by the entrance to the locker rooms for the rodeo cowboys and Mary stopped short when she caught sight of blonde hair, striking blue eyes, and a crooked grin that made her heart pitter-patter against her ribcage uncontrollably.
    The cowboy was wearing a wide brimmed hat, boots with spurs, and even a pair of chaps over his jeans. The chaps drew Mary’s eyes down and she found she was blushing for the third time that afternoon when she realized the man must have noticed her staring. Yet she’d never forget the suggestive bulge in his jeans at his crotch and the twinkle in his eyes for the rest of her life.
    “That’s Matthew Hendricks,” Beatrice whispered to her loudly as she stopped to stare, too. Before he could say anything to the two of them because Mary feared he might say something awful, she hurried away with Beatrice in tow. The two of them found front row seats and settled down on the hard benches with anticipation.
    The announcer introduced the first cowboy into the ring, who was a tall, skinny African-American man with dark stubble on his chin. Mary was intrigued by him, but when he saw her looking, he sneered at her and she felt her heart sink. Some were so blind to inward beauty that they could never get past the outer shell. Mary knew she was a kind person, most of the time, but she could never find a man that would treat her right.
    Beatrice booed the man and threw some of her popcorn at him while he rode by on a dappled stallion. They watched him perform with mild boredom and the two of them ended up chatting about their days at work while they watched him race around barrels. “I thought this was a rodeo where real men came out and tried to stay on the horses, not race them around like little girls at a horse show,” Beatrice finally stated as the man rode off the scene and into the corrals.
    “I know,” Mary responded with a deep sigh as she put another handful of popcorn into her mouth. She sipped on her soda as she waited for the next cowboy to be announced, and secretly hoped it would be the handsome Anglo-Saxon man she’d seen earlier.
    Her wish didn’t come true until two announcements later and then