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Chapter 29
After lunch,we all headed back to my place. Not that I really wanted to show J.D. that I lived in a single-wide mobile, but he didn't seem to care. There, Shelby and I whipped up a couple things to take down to the creek for our contribution to the potluck. J.D. hovered in the kitchen the whole time, helping to chop potatoes for Shel's dish, and he kept dipping his finger into the filling for my cherry pie.
He also made a few jokes about it. I would've picked any other flavor, but the only stuff we had was for cherry and pumpkin, and Thanksgiving was a long way away. That afternoon, his phone started blowing up, and just before five, a big maroon truck pulled in beside J.D.'s. When the door opened and a very pregnant goth girl stepped out, I knew Renato was here.
Then the bull riders piled out from the back seat, plus another woman from the front. J.D. tossed me his keys and hurried to the front door. "Guys," he yelled. "We're driving down to the creek. Girls have to grab their stuff, but there's a few more seats in my truck." Then he looked back inside at me. "You're driving, since you know where it is."
A few minutes later, Shelby and I had J.D. pinned between us in the front seat of his truck, with Jorge and his wife in the back seats. Renato and Hannah had Tanner and Isaac with them. Heading the rest of the way down my drive took us onto Gerardo's property. Once we got past the trees, I turned left and kept going until I could see the creek. There, I stopped long enough to roll down the window and gesture to Renato, then I put the truck in reverse and backed it closer to the bank.
"Damn," J.D. mumbled. "Gotta love a woman who can drive a truck like that."
I grinned. "I can drive a stick, too."
"Oh, yeah," he said around a laugh. "That's why you're my rookie, girl."
Jorge groaned, but his wife, Aubree, was laughing along with us. Once I had the truck where I wanted, I put on the emergency brake and turned it off. Shelby and I got out. The guys followed, but Jorge paused to give Aubree a hand down from the jacked-up thing J.D. was so fond of. Beside us, Renato was backing his truck up the same way, clearly figuring out that tailgates made the best seats around.
"All right!" Shelby said to our crowd of newbies. "Food's this way." Then she paused. "Justin!" she called out and started walking faster.
"Her husband," I explained to my friends, taking over as the good southern hostess. "Food's for the taking. Creek's for the swimming. Drunk is for after sundown, and watch your language around the kids." Then I pointed. "And that's the preacher."
"And beer's in the bed of my truck," Renato added. "Figured it's my contribution."
But we weren't the only ones showing up. Across the creek, more trucks were pulling into place. Down the bank on our side, Gerardo had brought his tractor, just in case someone got stuck. His boys - who were in their thirties - had ridden down on a pair of horses so the kids could have something to entertain them. And all the old faces around noticed the new ones. Most of them made a point of coming over to say hi and introduce themselves.
The only face missing was Ty's. J.D. told me not to worry, and reminded me that he'd told him to show up later. Still, I couldn't keep myself from looking around. Not even when Hannah and Shelby took off to talk babies, or when the guys all decided that taking a swing on the rope into the water might not be a bad idea. After all, summer in Missouri was definitely swimming weather, and jeans got hot fast.
But neither Renato nor J.D. worried about their trunks. Both men pulled off their shirts, boots, and belts, but not their jeans. Jorge and Isaac took a little ribbing from them, but eventually joined in. It was the last cowboy, with his hip propped against the tailgate of J.D.'s truck, who waved them off.
He was wearing a white t-shirt, faded blue jeans, and well-worn Ariat lace-ups. His hat was straw, and the only thing I recognized easily. Without the purple jersey, Tanner blended in, looking like he could've grown up around here. I grabbed a pair of beers from the back of Renato's truck and made my way over, hopping up on the tailgate beside him before offering one of the bottles.
"Tanner, right?" I asked.
He flashed me a smile. "Yes, ma'am. Cody, right?"
"Yes, sir." I twisted open my own beer and let my short legs swing. "I, uh, wanted to say thank you."
"For what?" he asked.
"Disco Breakout." I glanced over. "I watched the video. God's honest truth, when it happened, all I knew was that I couldn't get loose, but on the video, I saw you keep him off me."
He ducked his head to laugh. "Cody, I was trying to get the tail of your rope, and that bull decided he was having none of it. Came right at me, so I started swinging him around. Isaac and Jorge got you loose."
"And you kept him from stepping on me while they did it," I pointed out.
"But not from hookin' ya after. We got a couple in the stock strings that are wicked about that. I'm just glad you walked away from it, even if you had a limp."
"Well, thank you anyway," I told him. "My dad says I'm supposed to be real nice to y'all, and that he'll make sure you three always have a beer in your hands."
"Your dad?" he asked, looking back toward the table of food.
I waved that off. "He's not off work yet. Yeah, and he rode bulls in the rodeo. It's how I started."
"Mm." He turned a little, making it easier to look at me, but his rump was still leaning against the edge of the tailgate. "So, what's your mom think about her daughter riding the rodeo?"
"She died when I was born, so she doesn't think much." I shrugged that off, because I honestly didn't have any hang-ups about it. "Just me and Dad, and he's pretty proud of me. I mean, I was named for a couple of bull riders, so I guess it's supposed to run in my blood."
"You were?"
"Cody Lane," I said. "After Cody Lambert and Lane Frost. Couple of guys my dad idolized. See, he and Mom talked about names, but they both thought I was going to be a boy. I guess I was sitting on the umbilical cord or something. Anyway, Mom died in a car wreck when she was just under eight months pregnant. I made it, she didn't, and Dad didn't have any other ideas, so he just went with it. What about you? How'd you become a bullfighter?"
"Well," he said, "I sucked at staying on them, but had a knack for landing on my feet. Truth is, my uncle was a rodeo clown. I thought it looked like fun as a kid. All that face paint, you know? One of his friends worked on the backup team for the PBR, and by the time I was eighteen, I had a job." He lifted his beer and took a healthy swallow. "Where's your boyfriend?"
"Don't have one. Not a lot of guys want to date a bull rider."
He grinned, but it was lopsided. "Looked like Ty McBride was trying pretty hard last weekend to fix that."
I sighed, leaning my head back to do so. "You know, I came home Sunday night, and I was so proud of myself for riding all three. And now, all week long, all everyone wants to talk about is who I'm dating, going to date, or want to date. Maybe I just want to ride?"
"Makes sense to..." He paused, looking out at the creek.
Following his eyes, I watched J.D. haul himself up the bank. Water rushed down his body, those tattoos accenting every single hard muscle on his chest. The man looked good like that. Dangerously so. His short, dark hair matched that crisp beard on his jaw. The wet denim didn't hurt either, accentuating the nice, round shape of his ass. From the corner of my eye, I saw Tanner's smile turn just a bit wistful.
Then Tanner shifted a bit, tugging at his jeans. Now, I'd grown up in a small town. We didn't have a whole lot of alternative anythings around here, let alone lifestyles. Still, I knew what it looked like when a guy was trying to casually adjust a hard-on. I also wasn't stupid. It didn't take much to put together the idea of J.D. wet and naked with a hard-on and come up with me not being the only person in the PBR who might not fit in.
Which explained why Tanner had been so nice to me. Not once had he seemed to care that I was a woman, but he wouldn't if he was into guys, right? And I may have grown up in a small town, but that didn't mean small-minded.
Still, I wanted to make sure, so I said, "Guess I'm not the only one who thinks he looks good without a shirt on?"
Tanner's head whipped over to me so fast his hat almost came off. "What?"
I curled my feet up under me. "J.D. Adkins. The bad boy of the PBR. Wet, those jeans hanging a little low, and not just the hot tattoos, but the muscles under them. Most of the girls I know go crazy for even a hint of his ink, but I can't say I've met a lot of guys with that reaction." I refused to look at him. "Nice to know I'm not the only one pushing the limits of the PBR is all."
"I don't know what you're talking about," he said quickly.
I lifted my beer, pausing before I took a drink. "I mean, I could be wrong. I could be right. Doesn't really matter to me either way. Just sayin, you are leaning here next to a girl, so not like anyone would notice."
"Everyone would notice," he said softly, all but confirming my suspicions. "There are some things the PBR isn't ready to accept. Hell, a woman has been hard enough."
I leaned closer, pressing my arm against his. "So, um, allies? You watch my back and I'll watch yours?"
"You already have J.D. watching out for you," he pointed out.
"Yeah, and we're talking about J.D.," I reminded him. "He tends to be out for himself first. All I'm saying is that the nicest thing I can remember was when you looked under my hat, saw a girl, and didn't care at all. I owe you for that, Tanner. Not just the bullfighting, saving my ass out there, and all the normal things, but that? Giving me the same respect that you give the guys?" And I ducked my head a bit so he'd have to look at me. "I'm just saying that I want to repay that somehow."
"So, what? We just start hanging out like the best of friends. The freaks of the PBR?" He smiled at me kindly, showing he wasn't trying to be mean. "I have a funny feeling Ty won't like that so much."
"And what do you care about that?" I countered.
"Mostly, I'm curious what you'll say when he asks why we suddenly became the best of friends." He lifted a brow.
And no, he hadn't used the word gay. He'd never spelled it out that he liked men. Those words weren't safe to say around here. Someone could hear, and then it would spread like a grass fire. But that was Tanner's point. If I told Ty that Tanner was safe because he wasn't into girls, it would be just as bad.
"Maybe I'll tell him that I didn't start riding in the PBR to get a date, and that I stopped listening to what men expect me to do back when I climbed on my first bull." I shrugged. "The way I see it is that he currently seems too good to be true. Tanner, I'm the only woman in the PBR. Unless I want to go without any sort of friends, he's going to have to get used to me hanging out with some guys."
"Hm." He lifted his beer to me in a mock toast. "Then here's to friends. I mean, you are one of the most interesting people I've met in a while. And so you know, you say anything about this, and I'll say you were drunk."
I tapped my bottle against his. "Deal. The way I see it, you're the one who knows the bulls the best, right?"
"Definitely," he agreed. "Both the ones that ride, and the ones that get ridden."
I ducked my head so I didn't laugh. It was strange, but knowing that he had a secret felt kinda good. Maybe it was just the idea of a gay best friend. Or maybe it was simply that he actually seemed nice. Tanner was cute, although if he liked men, then he wouldn't like me, but I could accept that. I was also looking forward to having someone around who'd actually talk with me about my guy problems, because Shelby couldn't spend her life waiting for me to call.
