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Chapter 40
I watchedTy escort Cody out of the sports medicine room, slipping his hand down to her lower back. The two of them were cute together. They made the ideal picture of a country couple: pretty, perfect, and panty-melting, because even Cody could make the girls notice. Or the boys. The problem was that the PBR hadn't set up their medical treatment area with the concept of a woman needing to be in here, and one day that was going to be a problem.
Hearing a door open behind me, I looked back, expecting to see Dr. Stephens. Instead, it was Tanner, and his eyes were on the door as it slowly closed off the view of Ty and Cody disappearing down the hall. He sighed and moved to take the chair over in the corner. These contraptions had some setup for icing our joints with a soft bag attached to hoses and a water pump under them. In other words, he'd been ordered to ice for half an hour, too.
A moment later, Dr. Stephens followed to set up Tanner's system. He passed over the bag, wrapped in a towel, letting Tanner set it on his own shoulder, then adjusted a few dials. When he stood up, he looked over at me.
"You going to take that physio yet?"
I just hung my head. "Make ya a deal, Doc. You start thinking about what you're gonna do when my girl rookie takes a hit, and yeah, I'll do the physio."
Dr. Stephens smiled at me. "It's always about a woman with you guys, isn't it?" Then he pointed to the side, leading my eyes to a set of blue tarps on metal frames. "Medical partitions. We keep them around in case one of you idiots gets killed so the cameras can't get a shot, but I figured that with a woman around, they'll work to keep you men from looking at her undies."
"Thank you," I mumbled, relaxing a little more. "Because Doc, you're gonna have to take care of her. She won't do it for herself, ok?"
"None of you will." He crossed his arms. "I'd really like to do some flexion with that leg, but it's not going to feel good, J.D. You want a private room for that?"
"Naw," I told him. "I'm getting to like this chair a whole lot. Got my ass-print in it now." I looked over at Tanner. "You aren't gonna laugh at me for being a pussy, are ya?"
Tanner just scoffed. "No, man. You hit hard." Then he jerked his chin my way. "Another concussion?"
"Thankfully, no," Dr. Stephens said. "But you, Tanner, I'm not convinced that you don't have a minor tear. I'd like you to put in a replacement for tomorrow's show."
"Not happening," Tanner told him. "C'mon, you know we work as a pack. Those bulls this weekend are rough, and if I sub out for one of the backups? No, someone's going to get hurt."
"You are going to get hurt," the doctor countered.
"I'm working tomorrow," Tanner told him.
Dr. Stephens just sighed, but it sounded like he'd expected nothing else. "Ok, but then I'm not giving you any narcotics for the pain."
"Advil," Tanner said, as if that was the answer to all his problems.
"If we were in Denver, I'd say marijuana." He glanced at me. "It works. It has minimal side effects, and it won't slow your reactions the next day. So if you need a script for it, lemme know."
Tanner just held out his hand. "Gimme one of those, because I planned to have a joint when I get outta here. Might keep me from getting a ticket."
Dr. Stephens chuckled as he reached into his pocket. "And you're a lot less likely to get addicted to it than the opiates most doctors would prescribe." Pulling out a pad, he wrote out something, scribbled at the bottom, and tore off the top page. That got passed over to Tanner, then he looked back to me. "Anthony's with another rider right now, but he should be out in about fifteen minutes. Just let that ice keep working. When your brace buckled, it bruised the inside of your knee pretty good, and if that swells, you won't be spurring tomorrow."
"Thanks, Doc," I said.
He left, and for a minute it was just Tanner and me listening to the soft whooshing of the pumps circulating ice-cold water over our injuries. I tried to lean my head back and nap, but I couldn't forget that he was there. Even worse, I'd never seen him without a shirt on before. Tanner had that lazy country-boy look. His hair was a little longer, curling a bit at the ends, and the kind of strawberry blonde that dye just couldn't recreate.
Then there was his upper body. Bullfighters tended to wear loose clothing. It made it harder for the bulls to judge their body mass, and meant more horns hit cloth than flesh. I knew that. I also thought that those guys would be the lean and lithe types. Tanner wasn't a big, muscular guy like Ty, but damn, if he didn't have some serious biceps and pecs. Sitting near him, I kinda felt like I was in junior high all over again, waiting for the cool guys to give me shit.
"So, uh..." Tanner paused. "Ty and Cody, is that a thing?"
Which meant he was so into her. A grin found my face and I turned to look at him. "We got a rule with her. You saw that crap she got at home, right?"
"Yeah, kinda helped put them on the ground, if you remember."
"Know that, but doesn't mean you realized what they've been doing. Slut-shaming, man. That dick who spoke up? That's Cole, her ex. He slept with her, told everyone, and tried to use it to chase her out of bull riding. So Ty and I decided - well, I decided for us - that we're not going to make who she sleeps with into a weapon."
"So, he's tonight's bed warmer?"
