Page 27 of Just Hold On

Chapter 26

When I hit St. Louis,the first thing I did was find a Marriott. This year, the PBR had a deal with the chain to get us a discount on rooms. After that, I went out to find some food. My waitress was gorgeous, but I wasn't sure she was over eighteen, so I kept my mouth shut. She didn't. Evidently, a man eating alone meant I must be lonely.

Her number came with the check. I almost threw it away, but I had most of a week left in this town. Between now and Sunday night, a lot of things could change, so I decided not to make any hasty decisions. I did make a note beside it. Just two little letters: I.D.

When that was over, I went back to my hotel, stopping at the front desk to see if any of the crew had checked in yet. Jake Cunningham had, but the guy could die for all I cared. When I made it to the elevator, I saw Brody and Kaleb coming in the front doors, so maybe people were still showing up. But my main crowd was oddly MIA.

The moment I was back in my room, I found Renato's number and dialed. It rang three times before a woman picked it up. "This is Hannah," she said.

"Hey, beautiful," I greeted her.

"Ty! What's up?"

I looked around my room. "I'm sitting in a hotel all by myself. Where are you?"

It took her a little too long to answer. The silence began to feel heavy, then I heard the sound of paper. "Town's called Rolla. I guess your girl is having a party tomorrow? Anyway, J.D. basically told us and the bullfighters to make a layover here. Cheaper rooms, shorter drive, and we'll head into St. Louis on Thursday. Makes the week feel shorter, you know?"

Yeah, it did, and considering it was already Tuesday, I wasn't really complaining, except for one little thing. "So, J.D. told you to stop in Rolla?"

"Yeah? Where are you?" she asked.

"St. Louis," I nearly growled. "That bastard!"

Hannah just laughed. Yes, she actually laughed at my predicament. "Oh, Ty, you didn't!"

"Yeah, I damned well did," I told her. "Not only that, but he found me someone to make some custom chaps for her, and guess where he sent me? You know it. Right here."

"So you're going to drive all the way back to her town - whatever it's called - and then back again?"

"Looks like." I sighed, because I should've known better. "Have you talked to him? This week, I mean?"

"Yeah," she said. "Um, he's in the room next door."

"Mm. Good to know. Lemme give him a call real fast." I got off the phone with her, and dialed him. "You think this is funny, don't ya?" I asked as soon as he picked up.

Naturally, J.D. laughed. Not the "busted" kind, either. He cackled like he was possessed. Then again, considering this was J.D., he might be. The problem was that it didn't really help my mood any. I couldn't believe that I'd actually fallen for his helpful act.

"Ty," he said finally. "Man, I expected this call last night when I was sitting with your girl."

"Asshole."

"Yeah? Why do you say that?" he taunted.

"Because I'm in St. Louis and all the rest of you are down there with my girl!"

"You know it," he agreed. "Here's the thing, though. See, I'm making sure our girl ends up going all the way with us. Not just to Tulsa or St. Louis, but all the way to Finals. You? You're so busy making sure that everyone knows you've put a claim on her, that you've forgotten that she might not want to be claimed. Think of this as me saving your ass. Yeah, and that really is the best place to get good chaps made."

"J.D.," I warned, "I'm not letting you steal her away."

"She can't be stolen!" he snapped, anger finally hitting his voice. "Damn it, Ty. She's a fucking person. Not some doll for you to cram your dick in when it gets lonely. She's not going to make either your babies or your dinner. She's a bull rider, and if you want to make sure that she keeps on liking you as much as she does now, then you figure that out. Cody Jennings is not an object to be desired. She's a woman who damned well deserves both of our respect."

"Hey!" I said, stopping him before he could really get going. "You think I have a problem with her riding? In case you missed it, I'm on her side."

"Nope," J.D. said. "Wasn't confused about that at all. My problem, Ty, is that you treat women as shitty as I do. We act like they're just here to make our lives better. Know what? They're not, and Cody sure as shit isn't. So, I'm doing you a solid. I got your ass up there where you can't fuck shit up, and I'm convincing our girl that she's going to rock the whole PBR. Get me?"

"What?" I asked. "So you're saying it's sexist now to think she's hot?"

"I'm saying it's fucking sexist to think that she's yours after a few days. Ty, let's be real here. You in love with this girl?"

"Uh..." I sputtered right on cue. "What does love have to do with this?"

He sighed deeply. "You're chasing the wrong prize, fuckhead. You're wanting to own her, not love her. See, you're so worried about getting her before someone else does, so no one else can, that you haven't once stopped to think about the fact that Cody might be looking for a little something more, and if you were man enough, you'd make sure she gets it."

"Like you are?" I asked.

For once, J.D. didn't have a ready answer. Not even a litany of profanity to shoot at me. Instead, I just got silence. "Yeah, I guess?" he eventually said. "I dunno. Truth is, I didn't really give a shit about her. I mean, I thought it kicked ass that we had a lady riding who seemed to be doing pretty good. But at that bar? When I saw Austin grab her tits?" He paused. "Ty, the look on her face? She wasn't sad. She wasn't even pissed. It was like she fucking expected it, and it got me, man."

"The guys she rode with locally have been bullying her," I told him. "And not a little bit."

"How much of a bit?" he asked.

I flopped back on the bed. "I shouldn't be telling you this, and I'm not even sure she remembers saying anything, but I think someone besides me needs to know. That night? When I took her home drunk? She fucking cried, J.D. Like, big honest tears, because she thought she was a failure. Then she said something about fucking her to chase her off, like it had happened before. And no, I did not fuck her. The problem is that I'm pretty sure someone did."

"Yeah," he drawled, and it sounded a little dangerous. "See, when I stopped in last night? Some Bubba came up cracking jokes about how she was supposed to ride, not get ridden. That girl didn't even flinch. I was gonna beat his ass, but she begged me not to. Said something about having to live with a shitty ex, except in the nice way she has, you know? I bet her best friend will tell me."

My jealousy reared its head again. "You getting in that tight with her?"

"Trying to," J.D. said. "Because if you want to keep the girl for more than one night, there are two people you gotta convince you're safe. Her daddy and her bestie. Ain't met the first, but I'm pretty sure I got the second on my side. And yes, Ty, I wanna keep her more than one night. I'm talking like the whole season, so get your head out of her damned pants, and let's start talking about our friend as if she has a dick, ok?"

"But she doesn't."

"She's got some balls," he countered. "So this ain't about who's fucking her, not fucking her, wanting to fuck her, or none of that shit. This is about a fellow rider getting bullied back home. You and me? We're gonna make sure that our friend don't need to worry about that, get me?"

"I get ya, but tell me something honestly, J.D. You wanna fuck her?"

He chuckled. "Man, I'll stick my dick in anything, so I'm pretty sure that ain't a fair way to judge. Let's go with what you should really be worried about. I wanna talk to her. Now, if you get your hormones under control long enough to actually think about that, you'll realize it makes me a threat. See, I figure that Cody'd rather spend all night hearing about the bull she drew than trying to choke back a dick so you'll notice her."

Right about now, I was thankful there was no one around to see me pull my hat off my head and toss it across the room toward the other bed. I didn't have a single witness to watch me rub at the bridge of my nose, trying to make my brain kick in. No one would know that the crazy boy of the PBR had just schooled me, and hard.

Because he was right. From the moment he'd answered the phone, the fucker had been right. I'd been so worried about getting her first, making her mine, and putting my claim all over the first woman in the PBR, that I hadn't stopped long enough to think that it might not matter at all. That the only one of us riders who'd figured it out was J.D. had me a bit freaked out. Mostly because it made it real clear just how much we took our girls for granted.

They were supposed to fall for us. We were supposed to deal with it and buy them enough shit to shut them up. We all knew that eventually, there'd end up being a positive pregnancy test, a shotgun wedding, a pissed-off daddy, and a woman back at home that we tried real hard to avoid. Maybe a few buckle bunnies on the side that we'd hope she never heard about, and probably a big ol' divorce settlement after she caught us. That was the life we led, and we kept trying to tell ourselves it was because we were never home, but that wasn't quite it.

It was because we didn't want to talk to the girls we took home for the night. We wanted their mouths to suck us off, their clothes to be on our floor, and her friends to show up the next night. We wanted no commitments, and when it came to Cody, that game wasn't going to work. She'd already made it real clear.

I'd heard what she'd said. I even thought I'd believed it, but J.D. had just called me out. Shoving Tanner? Getting pissed at J.D.? It was all because I was chasing the win, not the woman, and I needed to get my head out of my ass.

"You're right," I finally said.

"Course I am," J.D. told me. "Now, party starts tomorrow at seven. Family-friendly, Cody says. I'll text you her address -"

My groan cut him off. "You have her address?"

"How else am I supposed to tell the Tillman rep where to go? No, Ty, I ain't been there, but the get-together's behind her house, she said. Well, texted. But regardless, you need to show up looking like you don't give a shit. Not on the hunt, but like you're going to a country cookout. Now, just tell me they do that shit up there in Canada?"

"Of course we do."

"Good. And so you know, I'm taking our girl out to lunch tomorrow, along with her best friend. If I get anything good about these dicks who've been fucking with her, I'll let you know."

I was nodding at that when I realized he'd left one thing out. "Why? I mean, you could be using all this to make yourself look like her hero, but here you are, helping me not fuck it up. What's your deal, J.D.?"

"We all got our stories," he told me. "Let's just say that I'm ok with the idea of you owing me one, and I'm gonna cash that in one day, Ty. Think of it like making a deal with the devil. Only problem is that I ain't really giving you much of an option to say no."

"Asshole," I grumbled.

"Oh, yeah," he agreed. "Make sure you get her chaps. Might even get you one of those hot kisses you think you need." And then he simply hung up.

All I could do was sit there staring at my phone. Every instinct in my body told me I should call her and warn her off that freak. Ask her to be my girlfriend. Something! But J.D. was right, and I knew it. I wasn't in love with her. Yeah, I liked her. The two of us? We had some amazing chemistry going on between us, but love? Naw.

I wanted her body. I wanted the bragging rights. I wanted the win.

She deserved more. If I was honest with myself, she deserved a hell of a lot more than me, which meant J.D. had the right of it. I was sitting right where I needed to be, well out of her reach, with nothing but time to do a little thinking. The kind of thinking that wouldn't make me feel real good about myself, but which might give me a chance to actually get this right.

The strange thing was that I did want to get it right. Cody made me feel...

Well, she made me feel, and right now, that was going to be good enough.

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