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[RILEY DYKE]

THE WOMAN IN ME

NEEDS THE MAN IN YOU

› it’s you that I run to‹

It had been over a year since Riley had gone near a rodeo but lately that want and need had started to get louder and louder inside of her. She’d finally gotten an email from one of the riders telling her that they were going to be in a rodeo near where she was and that she’d love to see her, catch up, and get some advice and that got Riley thinking. Well she’d been to Chris’ job, she’d seen what he does for a living, heck the security guards there all knew her by name now. So now it was time for him to see what was the most important part of her life and what could very well be a future for her again. Of course there was part of her that was hoping he’d actually see what she did around a rodeo and then say he wanted her to stay home, maybe open up the training center she’d been talking about doing, take the decision out of her hands so that when it came time she didn’t feel like she was choosing her between Christian and her career. She also wasn’t stupid, she knew that one day Chris would have to travel for his job but when it came to traveling in a rodeo and traveling as a reporter she imagined they were two very different things. Rodeo travel brought you home maybe three times a year if you were lucky which is why most couples in the sport did it together. Nothing about this decision would be easy so before she made a firm decision on it she wanted Chris to see what it was all about.

After making a few calls and getting the okay to spend the weekend out at the fairgrounds where the others would be working she’d talked to Chris and made sure he could take the weekend off to come with her. He’d been working so hard lately and as much as Riley didn’t want to feel neglected because of it she had started to. At first when he had gotten home they were joined at the hip and then came the trip to Aspen, two weeks of them just going everywhere together. Now when things were getting really stressful for her thanks to pressure from her family, something she hadn’t been able to share with Chris, he seemed to have thrown himself into work more than full time and she tried to hide the hurt and disappointment that came with adjusting to his new zeal for his job. It wasn’t easy for her to contemplate telling him what was going on with her family either because she didn’t want him blaming himself, he’d been doing so good with therapy and changing lately that the last thing she wanted was to heap stress onto him so she did what she thought was best, swallowed it all down and spent her days off fretting and worrying about it all with her dog Pully to talk to about it when Isabelle wasn’t around. It wasn’t a perfect situation by far but she tried to tell herself it was better than she had hoped for and prayed that somehow this weekend with him might give her time to relax a little in her natural environment, away from the little neat apartment she shared with Chris, and back around people she felt comfortable near.

Getting the truck ready was easy, just a matter of putting the camper on the back of it. Of course poor Chris was going to be really cramped inside of it but it really was only there for when they slept or cooked, the rest of the time she knew would be spent outside of it either sitting in chairs behind it or moving around the arena to help out with various activities. Riley even packed up her gear, knowing she wasn’t going to be getting on the back of a horse this weekend, to many prying eyes for her to accomplish what she would need to do in order to make that happen, but if any of the other girls needed to borrow it she would have it on hand to lend out. It was one of the things she loved about the family that grew on you from the rodeo, they might compete against each other but at the end of the day they had your back. After getting all her things ready that Friday night she settled in at home waiting for Chris to come home, wanting to spend the night in the bed at the apartment for him tonight so he’d be comfortable but knowing the wakeup call was going to be killer on him in the morning, she wanted to be out at the fairgrounds as everyone else was starting their day, bright and early, at six am.

made by cupcakesss of Caution 2.0

[CHRISTIAN SULLIVAN]

Let me know, if I dive too deep

THE CLOCK AT THE TABLE SEEMS TO ENABLE ME TO SEE TIME THAT I HAVE SPENT ALONE. SELFISH IS EASY IT'S ALSO COMPLETELY FREE. BUT IT'S NOTHING IF NO ONE IS THERE TO SHARE. ALL THE GOOD TIMES, ALL THE BAD TIMES. -----------------------------------

Christian had always worked a little more than he sometimes needed to. It wasn’t to the point that he ever thought he could exhaust himself, but he had been the type to check his phone often enough and usually had his laptop with him wherever he went. He hardly went on the computer unless it was also to get some work in. He figured it was a symptom of loving his job and being a writer. Though, in the last few weeks it had gotten a little worse. He was working most weekends, and he was going in early and coming home practically in the middle of the night some nights. It happened a lot more than it had before and he knew that Riley hadn’t experienced him working those hours yet. When Chris got out of jail, he had gone back to work, but his hours hadn’t been this long at first. At the same time, he had been adjusting back to the rest of his life too. He wanted to spend every second with Riley and then they had their trip to Aspen and Chris almost hadn’t wanted to leave. Although, they had been able to extend it because of the snow in New York. Recently though, Chris was spending more and more time at work, but it didn’t reflect how much time he would rather be spending with his girlfriend. Part of him was making up for lost time and working to prove that he was still a good journalist and that it had been a wise decision to let him keep his job after what happened. Then, there had been the trip and there were days he thought he needed to compensate for the time that he spent in the middle of the day at therapy or an anger management class. Everything figured in a little bit, but for the most part, it was the project that he was currently taking on.

He had one project that was taking up a great deal of his time, but because it was one of those pieces that was going to take a long time to get together and actually finalize, he had to keep up with deadlines and other pieces that would come in the meantime. He could afford to take more breaks than he did, but he did have a certain enthusiasm recently that he didn’t feel like breaking. Besides, it was helping him work faster and better. That didn’t mean that he wouldn’t stop for the weekend if Riley had plans though. Because, he wanted to spend time with her and he wasn’t about to distance them by throwing work between. If it was a balancing act he was attempting, he probably wasn’t doing too well, but it wasn’t intentional in the least. And when Riley mentioned the rodeo this weekend, Christian was immediately on board. Okay, so he didn’t know a great deal about rodeos above and beyond the research he did for the piece he wrote on Riley when he met her and all that she had said. But, he was interested in it, because of her. Rodeos weren’t something that Christian had an interest in alone. It was because it was a part of her life and something that she loved that he wanted to see it. He wanted to see what she loved and where her passion was. She knew where he worked, had been to his office and people there would recognize her easily. By now, she was well aware of his environment, from the way he lived to how he worked. He wanted to have that same insight on her. And when it came down to it, even if he wasn’t the cowboy, outdoorsy type, he loved her and what she cared about mattered to him.

Of course, there was a layer of nervousness going into it. He hadn’t been to a rodeo, much less spent time socializing with her friends and the people that she was comfortable around. It was a completely different experience from what he was used to. Chris was a city guy thoroughly, but he was determined to make their differences work. And really, it wasn’t that hard as far as he was concerned. And he wanted to be a part of the things that she loved, the same way that he hoped she was a part of his. They didn’t have to have passion for the same occupation to be a part of each other’s lives. Chris tried not to spend too much time at the office that evening, because he wanted to get home to talk about what was going to happen, and the specifics on when they were leaving and how it would work. “I’m home,” he called out once inside the apartment with the door closed.

TAG: RILEY! WORDS: 807 NOTES: I LOVE YOUU. <3

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