Intertwined

Four

Houston

I knew the ranch would inevitably be sold, in some way or another. I wasn't stupid, and even as a ranch hand with no previous experience with finances I could tell money was tight. From the moment I moved in, money was tight, and the Mitchells' tried their hardest to make it work.

However, Cassidy didn't get that. Despite the negatives outweighing the positives, she still believed that there was hope. She still believed that the ranch would survive and she would inherit, and eventually, everything would be sunshine and rainbows.

Her uplifting optimism almost made me sick. How can one person always believe in the best in people?

I never understood the optimism that Cassidy and her brother seemed to have.

I grabbed the ropes from the tack room before meeting Beckett, who already seemed happier than Cassidy could ever be. All the Mitchells' seemed happy and cheery, except for Beau - who I got along with the most.

Once I met Beckett in the arena, he had saddled both of the horses already, and said, "Thanks for agreeing to be my heeling partner for the rodeos this summer."

"It's no problem," I replied, pulling myself up on the large, buckskin horse they let me ride named Rebel. "I need something to get my mind off of everything."

"You're talking about your brother sleeping with your girlfriend, right?" Beckett exclaimed, pointing out the obvious as he pulled himself up on his own horse.

I glared at him in reply, not wanting to bring up any memories from that night. I said further: "My ex-girlfriend... and I don't even want to consider him my brother now."

The main reason I moved out of Fort Worth was to get away from my brother because even though he did everything a brother should not do, he still did that. Who was I to think that my brother could be a good guy and not another selfish asshole? 

Of course, I was foolish to make that mistake.

However, Beckett was aware enough to know when I did not want to talk about a certain subject. He rewound his rope and released it so effortlessly as it wrapped around one of the fence posts, clearly more focused on the upcoming rodeos coming up than the future of the ranch.

However, I was not as focused as I should have been for the upcoming rodeos. In fact, I haven't been wholly focused for the last few days, when a surprise visitor returned to the ranch. And that person was walking up to the arena right now, on a mission to ruin my day.

Her brown hair was tied up in a ponytail underneath a baseball cap, and she wore the dirtiest jeans with holes fraying on the edges. Cassidy was quite pretty, even if she always got on my nerves and never seemed to be realistic about everything in her life. In my eyes, always being optimistic would end up hindering your life rather than improving it.

As soon as Cassidy opened her mouth, the brief quiet of the day was gone as she gave me advice on my horse-riding and rodeo skills. I glared at her as she bounced her leg against the fence post, and I asked, "Cassidy, do you ever do other stuff than always be around me?"

She looked up at me with a dumbfounded look, and asked sarcastically, "What other stuff do I do?"

In reply, I shrugged my shoulders as I steered Rebel's reins to be closer to the fence where Cassidy was. As I hooked the rope on the saddle horn, I leaned down and said, "Well, hanging out with that girl Ava or something."

"You mean Avery?" She raised her eyebrows at me and crossed her arms, not happy that I didn't even remember her best friend's name. I'm bad at remembering names, lying, and being a responsible adult.