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Tristan really didn’t have to ask. Gramps and Bullet’s grandmother had spent a lot of time together. He even served as her date for the PRCA Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. He’d looked so proud, that night, anyone would’ve thought the two were a married couple.
The initial pieces in the McCullough Cowgirl collection sold out at the first show Tristan attended. Liv and Paige flew to New York to help Tristan find factories able to expand production. It would’ve been easier if they could outsource to China, or somewhere else overseas, but Tristan and her investors agreed that the brand would be made in America, or not made at all.
Bullet insisted that the only way to ensure his streak of covering bulls continued, was to talk to Tristan before and after each out. He’d ridden fourteen bulls consecutively. Two more and he’d tied J.B. Mauney and Silvano Alves, who had each ridden sixteen consecutive times.
As Buck Bishop had predicted, Bullet would almost certainly qualify for the PBR finals this month. If he managed that, competing at the NFR would be a sure thing.
“Where did this guy come from? No one heard of him before this year,” Tristan would hear the commentators ask when she watched the broadcasts. “Not until Buck Bishop started training him,” they’d usually add.
She streamed every competition he entered, on her computer. If he knew he was on camera, he’d blow a kiss.
“You see me blow you a kiss tonight, darlin’?” he’d ask. Her answer was always yes, because she never missed watching him ride.
Before she knew it, it was October. In just a few days, she’d be in Las Vegas for a whole week, and so would Bullet. They’d both have a lot of work to do; her, presenting her line and Bullet, riding bulls and helping Flying R when he could, but they’d spend every night together.
Lyric offered to pick Tristan up at McCarran Airport since Bullet had a mandatory riders’ meeting.
“You have a press conference at three,” she told her.
“I do?”
“Yeah, you do, and you know why? Because you have the best damn PR person in the business. How else are you gonna let everyone know how the launch of McCullough Cowgirl and Cowboy have gone?”
Tristan smiled, but inside, she wondered when she might have a chance to see Bullet. Would it be this way the whole time they were in Las Vegas?
Lyric smiled. “You’ll have time to see him in between.”
“Thanks.” Tristan smiled too. “I’d hoped I would.”
“You two gettin’ serious?”
“I think so.” It was hard to say they were serious; they hardly saw one another. But once January rolled around, they could take some time to figure out where they wanted their relationship to go. It wasn’t as though things would change much once the rodeo season kicked off again in the spring, but there were plenty of other couples who figured it out, including most of the Flying R partners.
“Speaking of which,” said Lyric. “I heard a rumor that Bullet was going to be offered a buy-in.”
“From who?”
“I got my sources.”
Tristan guessed it was Billy who told Lyric. “Does Bullet know?”
“Nope. They’re makin’ him the offer at the end of the week, here in Las Vegas.”
“Will he be able to do it?”
“You mean financially?”
“Basically. Is it bad of me to ask?”
Lyric laughed. “Who’s gonna judge you, girl? Me?”
Tristan laughed too. Lyric asked whatever she wanted to ask, whenever she wanted to.
“He’ll be able to do it. Bullet’s loaded.”
“Since when?”
“You haven’t been keepin’ track of his earnings so far this year, have you?”
