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Chapter 31
After Cody's dad left,so did a lot of others. Parents took their kids home. Husbands left with their wives. Eventually, all that was left down by the creek were teenagers and twenty-somethings. At least three other fires had been started, some of them impressively big. Cody had claimed one of the smaller ones down by the water.
I had my back to a tree and her body tucked beside me, right under my arm. J.D. and the bullfighters were on the other side of the flames. Renato had brought over his cooler, which still had plenty of beer in it. Hannah and Shelby sat between Cody and Renato. Shelby's husband, a guy named Justin, had their son in his lap, but the boy was almost asleep.
"Hey," Justin said softly. "You have a way home? Because I can put him down so you can stay up tonight."
"No," Shelby insisted. "You worked all day."
Justin waved that off. "And you never get to see Cody. It's ok." He leaned over to kiss her. "Believe it or not, I can tuck him in without you. Gives me a chance to tell him about dinosaurs."
"Thank you," she mouthed at him, then leaned down to kiss her son. "Be good for Daddy, ok?"
Eric just mumbled something and curled up against Justin's chest. Clearly, he was exhausted, but I could see the smile on Shelby's face. Justin was still waiting, though, because Shelby hadn't said she had a ride. At that moment, something J.D. had said earlier popped into my head. If I wanted to win Cody over, I needed to convince her best friend.
"I can drop her off," I offered. "I'm driving J.D. back anyway, and this town can't be that big, right?"
"Thank you," Cody said softly. "I've had enough that I shouldn't drive."
J.D. just lifted his own beer. "I think this is fifteen," he drawled, oddly sounding more sober than he should. "I love this party."
"It's pretty tame," Cody pointed out.
"It's pretty relaxing," Hannah said, shifting to give her belly more room. "These guys? They go hard all weekend, and then the week in between feels like it crawls. The worst part is that I'm going to miss it."
"How much longer?" Shelby asked.
Hannah sighed. "Next weekend is my last show."
"Heading back home?" Shelby asked.
Hannah glanced back at Renato. "Not exactly. Um, I ran when my ex got abusive. Just up and left everything, because I lived with him." Then she looked back to Shelby. "And when I found out right after that he'd knocked me up?"
"It's... not?" Shelby asked, clearly meaning Renato's kid.
Hannah shook her head. "I met Renato when I was walking down the highway, thinking I'd hike my way back to Texas. My grandmother had just died, and I was determined to make it to her funeral. Well, Reni pulled over, asked if I was ok, and took me the whole way. He was there when I realized I was pregnant. This man is my knight in shining armor, you know?"
"Can't have kids," Renato admitted, pointing to his crotch. "Got hurt pretty bad. Doc said I'll probably never have them. So, I figured this works out for us." He leaned over to kiss Hannah's head. "Found a perfect woman and she's giving me the family I wanted."
The tone of the conversation had just turned to that late night honesty that only came out under the stars in the middle of nowhere. I liked it. If I was honest with myself, I'd missed this, but I liked the intensity of touring too much to just walk away. Still, seeing Cody so relaxed and accepting made me understand why Renato had fallen so hard for Hannah.
My dad had always told me that I'd know when I found the one. That the right woman could change a man. I'd thought it was a bunch of crap until I'd seen Renato give up everything for Hannah. And now, here I was trying to figure out what this was I felt for Cody.
After a day of staring at an empty hotel room, I'd finally figured it out. Cody felt like possibility. Like all those things I wanted in my life, wrapped up in a very pretty little blonde. On the surface, she checked off the boxes of what I wanted. She was strong, driven, accepted that bull riding was a passion I wouldn't walk away from, and more than anything else, she was independent.
Or so she seemed. The trick would be slowing down long enough to get to know if that was really her or if I was putting my own daydreams on her. Even more than that, I still had to prove to her that I could be what she needed. And who knew, it could all blow up, but right now, sitting here listening to crickets chirping in the darkness, it just felt nice to be beside her.
Of course, someone had to ruin it. "Slut!" a guy called out from down the creek.
All around our fire, heads snapped up, and not all of the eyes were clear. "Say that to my face," J.D. called out.
"Not you," a guy laughed, wandering closer with six of his closest friends behind him. "The buckle bunny you're passing around. Everyone knows that Cody's a whore."
The sound of her name had me shoving to my feet, but Cody snapped back, "Go away, Cole, you're drunk."
"And you've already moved on to the second bull rider this week? Shit. How's that pro thing working out for ya now?"
