I walked down a sidewalk in Cheyenne sipping on a strawberry banana smoothie. I glanced in a few shop windows, just to see what they had to offer. I had planned to get a smoothie, go shopping, and get something to eat before going back to the ranch to catch up on some 'Grey's Anatomy'.

Cars roared by me as I continued on my path. It turned out to be a beautiful day. This morning there was a few clouds, but they were quickly chased away as soon as the sun came up. There was a spring in my step today, because it was a good day.

That was until I bumped into someone and my smoothie crashed into the concrete sidewalk. I watched as my delicious strawberry banana smoothie lies on the concrete and not in my hand.

"I'm so sorry." I looked up to where the voice had come from. Blake, Brayden's older brother, stood in front of me looking at me as I looked at my smoothie.

"It's ok. Don't worry about it." I waved off his apologize as I bent down to pick up my smoothie cup.

I walked over to the trash bin that sat a few feet away and discarded my empty smoothie cup.

"How about I buy you a new smoothie? To make up for my plowing over you." Blake looked pointedly at the puddle of the smoothie on the ground.

"No, that's ok. You don't make it up to me." I'm not sure why there's a part of me that wants to let him make it up to me. It's most likely my stomach talking, but nevertheless.

"What about dinner?" He asked, looking me in the eyes. 

"Yes." I was shocked at myself. I can't believe I agreed to go out to dinner with Brayden's older brother.

"I mean, I'd love to." I added to try to make myself look less eager, because I wasn't entirely sure that I was eager to go to dinner.

Brayden obviously didn't really enjoy his brother's company. I remembered that day that we were riding towards the cabin on his ranch. Brayden told me of his brother hobbies and habits. I knew what alcohol smelled like and I couldn't smell a drop on Blake. Most alcoholics smelled as if the liquor seeped from their pores.

I'm usually a good judge of character. Well, I take that back...I suck at judging character. I mean, I dated Mark for goodness sake.

Don't get me wrong, Blake is gorgeous, but he's not Brayden. He's older, but yet they say he acts like a teenager. I just have no clue what I'm doing or why I'm doing it.

Blake and I walked into a quaint diner and sat down. It was one of those diners that was remodeled into a fifties style diner. Blake and I sat in a booth next to a window. A girl around seventeen or eighteen, walked over to our table and sat down a couple of menus in front of us.

The waitress left us a few moments later, right after she took our drink orders. We were left in silence, looking at our menu. After a few minutes, I finally worked up the courage to ask, "How's your mom?"

Blake looked up from his menu, "As good as someone can be in a coma."

"I'm sorry." I said glancing back down at the menu.

"No, It's ok." He leaned back in his seat.

"How's uhmm..." I wasn't entirely sure I should ask, but I needed to.

"Brayden?" Blake asked, raising an eyebrow.

I sat back and straightened my shoulders. Before I could say a word, the waitress sat our drinks down in front of us and took our orders.

Blake ordered a double cheeseburger, fries, and a vanilla milkshake. I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich, fries, and a sweet tea. She wrote our orders down on a notepad before walking away to hand the ticket to the cook.

"Brayden's doing what he does best in situations like this." Blake said almost guarded.

My eyebrows furrowed together in thought. I didn't get a chance to ask him any further questions on the subject, because our steaming hot food was set down in front of us. We began to eat our food. I took a bite of the food and almost moaned at the mouthwatering taste. I looked up to see a Blake smirking at me.

"Is it good?" He asked.

I swallowed the bite of food that I had just took before speaking, "It's amazing."

He chuckled before returning his attention to his plate.

"How is your dad and the twins doing?" I asked before taking a sip of my sweet tea. 

"They're pacing the floors at home or at the hospital. We all have our different ways to get through stuff. " Blake said.

I nodded my head in agreement and finished eating. I reach in my pocket to get out money to pay, but Blake wouldn't hear of it.

"I can pay." I said as he looked at me in disbelief.

"Are you kidding me? I'm the one that made you drop your smoothie." Blake said as he reaches the waitress payment.

"Why do guys never let girls pay?" I sighed.

"It probably has something to do with the fact that, it's the guys place to pay." Blake grinned as he led me out of the diner.

My breath hitched in my throat when he rested his hand on my lower back. He guided me in the direction he was walking. He soon dropped his hand after a few moments of walking.

"I heard that you won today." Blake said, taking his attention off the sidewalk and putting it on me.

"Yeah. I get to move on to the short round." I said, watching the cars drive past us.

"There was talk all over town, that you were the one to watch." My heart swelled with pride of my two horses.

"Is that so?" I asked coming to a stop.

The buildings and trees cast a shadow over the spot where Blake and I was standing.

"Yeah, but I don't think it was only because of barrel racing." He said looking me over.

A traitorous blush crept it's way upon my cheeks. I felt bad for going out with Blake, even though it wasn't technically a real date. I don't really know what I'm doing and I probably shouldn't be doing it. It's not like I have feelings for Blake. I've only meet him not to long ago and he's my ex-boyfriend's brother.

I heard Blake curse under his breath and I drew my attention in the direction he was looking. Down the street, I saw a tall figure stumbling down the sidewalk in our direction. Blake turned around, "Listen, you don't want to see him like this. Please, just go before he sees you."

I looked at him in confusion.

"I'll call you and explain everything later." He said.

"But you don't have my number." I stated.

"I'll get it..." A slurred voice behind Blake interrupted him mid sentence. His face fell as he the mumbling became louder.

I'm not entirely sure that I was prepared for any of the events that were to happen next.

~~~~~

I'm sorry I haven't updated in over a week. I know that I said that I would upload weekly, and I've tried to. My family and I are going through an extremely difficult time at the moment. My grandmother has brain damage due to an incident at her doctors office. She hasn't eaten much of anything in the past couple months. She's an extremely strong woman and I pray that she can overcome this. If you guys could just keep her in your prayer. These past couple months has been both physically and mentally exhausting. I've practically lived at the hospital and now the rehabilitation center. She was without oxygen for 45 mins to an hour. The doctors say it's a miracle shes even alive. So, please just keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

On a lighter note, We hit 5k reads! You guys just don't know how much that means to me. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my book!