Lyric tilted her head and looked at her as though she expected Blythe to keep talking.
“He’s a nice guy, too,” was all she said.
“Hmm, sounds like there’s a story there.”
“There is,” Blythe answered. “But I don’t know it.”
“Speaking of stories, I’d love to interview Billy Patterson on RodeoChat. Think you can hook me up?”
“What’s RodeoChat?”
Lyric explained that she hosted social media interviews with people in the rodeo industry. Blythe wasn’t sure, but she thought she might be able to get Billy to do an interview. Lyric asked more questions, and before she knew it, Blythe had told her the whole story of Billy, Renie, and Willow. It dawned on her suddenly that she shouldn’t have.
“Don’t worry,” said Lyric, sensing her discomfort. “If I get the chance, I’ll keep my questions focused on his career as a saddle bronc champion. I’ll keep his personal life out of it, unless he brings it up himself.”
“Thanks,” said Blythe. “Either you’re way too easy to talk to or these Jack and cokes are going down a little too fast. I ran off at the mouth more than I should have.”
“It’s okay,” said Lyric. “I won’t tell anyone else, I promise.”
Blythe hoped so. Lyric seemed trustworthy. Although, her dad told stories of how he’d gotten in trouble with the media back when he was on tour with his band.
“My dad used to get in a lot of trouble over-talking.” Blythe laughed. “He was in a band.”
“What band?
“Ever heard of Cochran?”
“Of course, I have.”
“Cochran’s our last name, and the name of his band.”
“You’re not going to believe this,” said Lyric. “My dad was in Satin. He still is, but they don’t tour as much as they used to.”
“This is wild. I know Satin. My dad would freak out right now. I have to text him. What’s your dad’s name?”
Blythe texted her dad, and as she predicted, he was ready to jump in the car and drive up to meet Lyric. Blythe told him not to, but it would be just like him to do it anyway.
“It just dawned on me, your name, Lyric…it’s very symbolic, isn’t it?”
She laughed. “Yeah, my parents were…like that. My brother’s name is Bullet.”
“Seriously? Sounds like there’s a story there,” she laughed, repeating what Lyric had said earlier. “No story here. I’m named after Blythe Danner, not symbolic at all.”
“That’s cool.”
“How did you get into rodeo if you were raised by a rocker?”
“My grandma was a barrel racer back in the day. I spent a lot of time with her when I was growin’ up—with my dad on tour and all. Once I got a little older, my mama went with him. Anyway, my grandma took me to rodeos all the time.”
“And you turned it into a career.”
“As I got older, I started payin’ more attention and realized there wasn’t a place where you could real-time results for anything other than the big rodeos. You can’t even get those all the time. So, I started RodeoChat on social media, to have a place for folks to find out results, chat about rodeo, that kind of stuff.”
“Smart.”
“Smart or crazy, not sure which,” Lyric laughed. “It isn’t the only thing I do.”
“What else do you do?”