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My chest ached as I let my mind wander. What would have happened if we never got caught? If I had given myself to him that day? Would we still be together?
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean I’m getting on a bull.”
He glanced back at me one more time and winked. “Trust me.”
I huffed and folded my arms over my chest. “Something tells me I’m going to regret this.”
“Hope not,” he said as he pulled down another road, this one not as driven on. Pastures lined both sides of the road, and a few bulls were sprinkled throughout the grass. Most ignored us as we drove by, but some lifted their heads to see who’d interrupted their peaceful lunch.
A large barn came into view, and to the side of it was an even larger arena. There were chutes, three large gates, and what looked to be fake people made out of cardboard placed around the fence.
“Are those…”
“Pretend audience members. Believe it or not, some folks get really nervous riding in front of other people. It’s good practice for them to ride in front of fake people.”
“I never knew that was a thing.”
Blayze pulled up behind a black truck and parked. “Sure is.”
He got out of the truck and jogged around to my side, opening the door and holding his hand out for me to exit the truck.
Shaking my head back and forth, I said, “No. No. I’m not doing it, Blayze.”
With a wicked gleam in his eyes, he reached into the truck and scooped me out.
“Blayze!” I cried out as he kicked the door shut and headed toward the barn with me in his arms.
I heard a deep male laugh near the entrance to the barn, and turned to see Blayze’s uncle, Ty, standing there with Ryan.
“I’m pretty sure women don’t like to be manhandled, Blayze. No matter how good looking you are.”
Blayze set me down, and I had to take a moment to balance myself. Not because he did it too fast or because I was on uneven ground. No, it was because my body was up against his, my mind was spinning, and my knees were weak. Lord, what was it about him?
“Georgie here would like to ride a bull,” Blayze announced with a smile.
“Um, no, Georgie would not,” I said.
Ty raised a brow. “Are you sure about that?”
Nodding, I answered, “I’m so sure it’s not even funny how sure I am.”
“How about you watch one being ridden then,” Ryan said.
Okay, if Ryan was going to ride a bull, I would be totally fine with that.
Pointing to him, I blurted out, “Yes! I would love to watch you ride a bull.”
Ryan laughed. “Oh, hell no. I’m not stupid. I was talking about him.”
When I saw he was pointing at Blayze, my heart did a weird little jump.
Ty tossed gloves toward Blayze. “Let’s do it.”
Turning to face him, I grabbed his arm before he followed Ty and Ryan into the barn. “Wait, you’re not riding one, are you?”
He smirked. “Why, Georgie, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were worried for my safety.”
Dropping my hand, I scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous. It’s just…I thought it was Ryan who was going to be riding.”
Blayze laughed. “Come on. You’ll get a front-row view for your article.”
The mention of the article made my stomach twist. I had gone back and forth all morning, debating if I wanted to tell Blayze the truth about what was going on. Instead, I decided to trust that my father would get it all figured out and fixed. I wasn’t even sure who Doug Larson was.
I followed Blayze through the barn and around back to where I’d seen the large arena. There were a few bulls in the chute, and I caught sight of Bradly and Hunter. I knew Hunter mostly did team roping, but he also rode bulls, and I was curious to see if he would be riding one of these.
As we walked toward the arena, I caught up with Ty. Even though I had been to plenty of bull-riding events, I had no idea how any of the training worked. “So, how do you do this? Do you put a rider on once the bull is mature enough?”
“No, we flank and place a dummy first,” Ty said.
“What?” I asked.
“We’ll show you.”
I nodded and realized that Blayze had disappeared. Not wanting to make it seem like I was searching for him, I followed Ty.
“This is called a practice arena,” he said as he reached down and grabbed a rope. “This is the flank. It’s a soft cotton rope and has an eye on the end right here and a tail on the opposite side. I’m going to drop this down on one side of the bull, then use this hook to grab it and bring it up and around the bottom of the bull.”
