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Chapter 45
I convincedJ.D. and Tanner to go in the bathroom and clean up. A few minutes later, they came out without the freshly fucked thing they'd had going on before. J.D. had also put on a shirt. While that ruined the view a little, it did make him look a lot more respectable. The pair were trading sly looks as we walked up the hall, though.
"Gimme your gear," I told J.D. "I'm gonna set it up with ours."
Tanner gently rubbed my shoulder. "I'm heading back to the pregame area. While you guys might not need to go through that again, the guys and I get the spotlight every show." He looked at J.D. "Talk after?"
"Yeah," J.D. agreed, but there was something a little awkward about the whole thing.
Granted, I couldn't really blame them. Still, once Tanner was far enough away, I leaned a little closer. "That's how I felt when you were in my house and Ty kissed me."
"Not the same," he promised. "Cody, look..."
I just lifted my hand, halting his words. "The first rule of being my friend? It's that I'm always on your side. No questions asked." Then I leaned a little closer. "And the truth is that I've been trying to figure out what game you were playing. Guys like you aren't friends with girls like me, and so I kept waiting for you to turn out just like Cole, you know? He dated me for three months just to get proof that I'd slept with him, and then he shared that with everyone. And I will never do that to you."
"Cody," J.D. tried.
Right now, I had things I needed to say, and he needed to listen. "So, I'm just saying that I'm not going to treat anyone the way Cole treated me. I think you're right. Tanner needs a girlfriend, and a very public one. You're my mentor. I'm not sure how this is going to work, but I'm going to talk to Ty, and no, I'm not giving out any names, but I'm gonna fix this, ok?"
"You can't fix me," he grumbled.
I grabbed his arm and jerked him to face me. "Not you, J.D. This. The whispers that sneak up when you least expect it. The rules that somehow get used to chase you out. I can't hide that I'm a girl, but you guys had my back. This is the same thing, just the other way around. I'm not going to leave you high and dry. I even have an idea. So gimme your gear, go check in, and we're going to pretend like nothing happened until we get back to the hotel, ok?" Then I punched his arm playfully. "And that was one hell of a show."
"Pervert," he grumbled, but I got a little smile out of him.
That made it worth saying. Never mind that it was true. Seeing Tanner and J.D. kissing? I had no idea I was into that. I'd never seen guy-on-guy action before. Where I came from, two men together was always tied directly to hairy and shitty. Lesbians were ok, but gay men? Oh, no. That wasn't allowed.
It had never made any sense to me. I would've thought that guys would approve of gay men, since it meant more available women, but I'd made some comment like that around my dad once. He'd told me that guys were scared of gay men because sexuality wasn't black and white, but we all were supposed to pretend like it was. He also told me that it wasn't my place to make decisions for God, and the only thing the Bible told us to do was love people. The rest was supposed to be His job.
But there was one thing I could fix. J.D. said that Austin had turned his hatred on Tanner. I didn't even know everything that was going on, but I knew how I'd felt when that asshole had grabbed my tits like he had every right. I knew how ashamed I'd been that I had to just take it. I couldn't fight him off alone, let alone with all his friends laughing at me.
It had been J.D. who'd saved me, and Ty had come just in time to play support. This time, I was going to save my friends, and Ty could stand by me one more time. At least I hoped he would. The trick was going to be getting him to agree without exposing their secret.
I found him putting rosin on his rope. He saw me and flashed a smile, but it slipped when he saw the look on my face. Tilting my head to the side, I silently asked him to step away with me. He pulled off his glove, left his rope where it hung, and followed me far enough away that no one would hear what we were going to talk about.
"Something came up," I told him. "And I need you to hear me out before you ask any questions, ok?"
"Yeah, sure," he agreed.
"One of my friends is gay, and I think Austin somehow found out, or thinks he did."
"Fuck," Ty snarled. "Ok, that means we need to make sure he's never alone."
Those words made me feel so much better. Like some mountain had just been taken off my shoulders. They meant that he was willing to help, and wasn't some homophobic cowboy. I hadn't expected him to be, but yeah, I'd worried. Mostly because I was so used to everyone ending up being so much worse than I'd hoped. So far, Ty was still one of the good ones.
"I need to be his girlfriend," I blurted out.
Ty just let his breath fall from his lungs. "Ok. I can see that."
"You can?"
He did that one shoulder shrug thing. "Doesn't mean I like it, but yeah. Cody, we kinda talked about that last night. You having a secret boyfriend and a public one? Well, I guess this means I'm on the secret list, right? I'm not getting kicked out here. Am I?"
"No," I hurried to assure him. "No, Ty. It's just that I'm a girl. Obviously, right? But everyone knows I'm a girl. It's a big deal that I'm a girl. So, if I'm kinda 'dating' this guy in public, it means he's not gay, right?"
"Pretty much." He moved closer. "Who?"
"I don't want to tell you that."
He laughed once. "Dunno how to break this to you, but if you're openly dating someone, I'm going to figure it out."
"Yeah, but..." I made a face at him, the kind where I scrunched up my nose and hoped it was cute. "I'm hoping to get him to agree first, and I know that outing someone is a bad thing, and I really wanted to talk to you and J.D. before I made any decisions on my own."
"So you already talked to J.D.? Good. I'm assuming he's on board?" Ty groaned. "I've never really asked him, though. I mean, not exactly something that comes up."
"He's on board. Actually, it was kinda his idea - the whole girl part."
Ty stepped closer and cupped the side of my face. "Cody, if this is what you need to do, then I'm with you. Just tell me how I can help, and I'll help. I can see it on your face that this is important, but I'm pretty much playing blind here. Still, there's one thing you need to think about."
"Ok?"
"Why are you spending so much time with J.D. and me? He's your mentor. Ok, you can use that. But me?"
"My first friend in the PBR?"
"Not gonna be good enough." He turned my head up to look at him. "I mean, sure, that's why you keep me around, but you need to remember that I'm into you and the whole world knows it. Well, at least our world. When they ask, say that you're not interested in a slut of a man like me. That I keep asking, but you know I'm only looking for an eight-second ride. Shit like that."
"No." Because I couldn't talk about him like that.
"I'm telling you to. It's all true, and I know it." Then his thumb traced the line of my cheekbone. "Look, all you have to say is, 'Ty's nice, but I'm pretty sure he's not exactly looking for a relationship.' Or, 'Ty's helped me a lot, but we all know he just wants to get laid.' They'll believe it, and I promise you that my feelings won't be hurt, ok?"
There was only one way to thank him, so I threw my arms around his waist and buried my face in his chest. "Thank you! I know you probably think this is stupid, but I have to. This is someone who's helped me out too, ok? And I can't stop thinking about my rope last weekend, and how bad it could've been if I hadn't known and had just passed it over."
"They would've stopped you, but I know what you're saying." Then he sighed. "Just tell your new boyfriend that I'm in on it, not gonna out him, but he's going to have to flirt with you. He's going to have to make his move, and unfortunately, I've kinda made it so that he'll have to do it in public. Cody, you're going to have to at least kiss this guy in front of everyone."
I blew out a heavy breath, because I hadn't thought of that. "What if he's not ok with that?"
"He'll be ok with it," Ty promised. "If he's gay, it may not be a real good kiss, but that also means that he's probably been faking it a while. Besides, you really going to complain if it means you get to kiss a few more cowboys?"
"Not really," I admitted. "No, I'm joking. Well, kinda." Yeah, I didn't want to get into that. "Just... Thank you."
"Anything for you. Now let's go prep our ropes, because the lights should be going out in about half an hour."
When we came back, J.D. was looping his rope up beside mine. The one I'd left in my bag, which meant he'd pulled it out for me. His eyes narrowed and he looked us both over. I tried to give him a reassuring smile, but I was pretty sure he didn't understand what it meant.
"Where ya been?" he asked Ty.
"Hearing about this guy our girl's suddenly interested in. Guess we both have some new competition." He lifted a brow.
And I saw J.D.'s shoulders relax. "She tell you who?"
"Nope. She told me I need to trust her, and I do. Don't tell me you asked questions."
"Fuck yeah, I did," J.D. told him. "I got more, too. Thing is, our girl's real good about taking care of her friends. Kinda makes me glad she's one of mine."
Ty leaned a little closer and dropped his voice. "You know this means she's going to be dating someone else, right?"
"She already isn't dating me, remember? I'm just her mentor, and right about now, I look like the only guy who isn't trying to get in her pants in the PBR."
Ty lifted a brow. "And we both know that isn't true."
"Hell no, it ain't." And he looked at me. "I would so go there."
But that was part of the problem, wasn't it? If J.D. was kissing Tanner, then he was clearly into men. Last night he'd been kissing me, and he'd honestly seemed into it. Then again, he could be bisexual, right? And if he was, then how did I feel about that?
I didn't even have to think very hard to find the answer. If J.D. was bi, then it was hot. For the first time in my life, I completely understood the guys who dreamed about a threesome. I would love to watch him and Tanner go at it. That might be the hottest thing I'd ever imagined, and here I was standing between him and Ty!
And last night, J.D. had been kissing on me while I kissed Ty. Oh, damn. I felt like my knees were a little weak, because that whole thing just got a whole lot hotter in my mind.
"Cody?" Ty asked. "You ok?"
"Uh huh," I promised. "Yep, just fine. Just planning out how this is going to work. No biggie." Because two minutes ago, I'd been hoping this wouldn't mean I'd just lost J.D., and now I was hoping that it meant I got my own little kink show.
Yep, my second weekend on the Tough Enough Series and I was already turning into as much of a horn dog as the rest of these guys. The best part, though? I was perfectly ok with this.
