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“Good question,” answered Billy. “What do you know about it?”
“I like the idea of it. More old-school. Buddy of mine did pretty well on bucking horses down in Amarillo earlier this year.”
“Told you we should’ve stopped in Amarillo,” smirked Tucker.
Billy rolled his eyes and looked back at Bullet. “Might be interestin’ to consider. Both horses and bucking bulls. Probably ain’t a lot of contractors who do it all.”
With the amount of rough stock and rodeo expertise they had combined, Flying R Rough Stock, the name they’d decided on, would be a new force in the industry. The operation was already so much bigger than Jace ever imagined it would be, and they’d barely started to scratch the surface of what they planned to do.
“Who’s in Montana now?” Billy asked Hank.
“Jace and I hired Yance Hatterburn. Best hand Montana ever saw,” answered Jace’s father.
“Better manager than me and my dad combined,” added Jace. “No offense, Daddy,” he rubbed his father’s shoulder.
“None taken, son.”
“It doesn’t make sense for you to be up there all the time, Jace,” Billy said to him. “You and me got too much work to do on the circuit, gettin’ our name out. Gonna be on the road pretty much non-stop.” Billy looked over at Renie who was talking to Blythe and Bree, and rubbing her stomach.
“I can’t be gone all the time, you know that,” Billy shook his head. “I just can’t be.”
“Nothin’ you have to tell me, Billy. I get it.” He looked in the same direction and caught Bree looking at him. He loved it when he caught her and she got so embarrassed her cheeks turned pink. Little by little, he’d chip away at that guard she kept snug whenever she was around him. He winked at her, which made her smile, then look away.
“Maybe we can figure out a schedule,” Billy was saying. “But at first it’ll have to be both of us.”
“What can I do to help?” asked Bullet.
Billy looked at him, then at his dad. “We’re gonna need you around here for the time being,” he answered. “Right, Dad?”
His dad was lost in thought, and Billy seemed annoyed by it.
“You sure about this, Billy?” Bill Senior asked.
“Which part?”
“It’s a big start up, and your mama and I aren’t gettin’ any younger.”
“Come on,” Billy said to his dad. “Take a walk with me. Let’s talk.”
Jace was left sitting at the table with Bullet, Tucker, and Ben, when he joined them.
“We need some kind of organizational chart is what I’m thinkin’,” Bullet said to them. He pulled what looked like a paper placemat from a diner, out of his pocket. On it were three circles representing Crested Butte, Black Forest, and Helena, Montana.
Under each he had three columns. One was a list of people, the other two were broncs and bulls. Under broncs were two more columns, but off to the side, Bullet had a third column with ranch rodeos written at the top.
Jace took the paper out of Bullet’s hand. “We didn’t talk about ranch rodeos until a few minutes ago.”
“Yeah, I know. I wasn’t sure if you’d want to consider it, but I thought it was worth bringin’ up anyway.”
“Interesting.” Jace looked at Tuck
er and Ben, who were nodding their heads in agreement.
Lyric had definitely underestimated her brother. On the other hand, no one worked harder than her. Stood to reason Bullet would be the same way.
“When’s the last time you saw your dad?” Ben asked Bullet.
“Couple weeks ago. Why?”
