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"Now, don't give me that," he chided. "I gotta brag to someone. Oh! And your checks cleared. Cody, there's a hundred and sixty thousand dollars in your account, so if you need something - anything - you got the money for it."
"I'm fine," I promised him. "I also just had a meeting with some more sponsors."
"So this means you're making even more money?" he asked.
"Not yet," I admitted. "But Max took care of most of it for me. They just wanted to see me. I think to make sure I'm real or something."
"Prolly," he agreed. "Just don't let those corporate guys push you into doing anything you aren't ok with. You're there to ride bulls, Cody. Not be a spokesperson."
"I know," I promised. "One of them was asking about showing more cleavage, and I told him off."
"That's my girl," he praised. "You make them respect what you can do. And speaking of respect, how are things with that bullfighter you're dating?"
I couldn't help it. I giggled. "We had a real date last night, Daddy. I made him ride the mechanical bull."
He barked out a laugh. "How bad was it?"
"Not too bad," I admitted. "But then the operator decided to help out Tanner's pride and gave me a free ride."
"Oh-ho!" Dad laughed. "Yeah, just tell me you didn't throw it to make that boy look good?"
"Nope, and I think I figured out how to spur with my short little legs," I said. "And Tanner loved it. He also told them I'm with the PBR, so I guess there was a little bragging too."
"Ok, I like that boy," Dad admitted. "But what about those other two? J.D. still talking to ya now that you have a boyfriend? What about Ty?"
"Both," I admitted. "And I rode from St. Louis to Nebraska with Ty, then from there to here with J.D."
"And it's ok?" Dad asked. "All on the up and up?"
"Yeah, it's good," I promised.
Because I hadn't exactly told my father that I was messing around with all three of them. Yeah, that would be too weird. And while Dad had made me promise that I wouldn't ride between events with the guy I was dating, well, that was impossible. The only people I knew well enough to catch a ride with were the three guys who all had agreed to kinda date me.
Thankfully, my dad had some pretty basic ideas of dating. He assumed that if I was with one guy, the others would back off. He also assumed they were all straight, so the mess with J.D. and Tanner would never cross his mind. Besides, I really did not want to talk to him about all the crazy nuances of that - let alone who I was sleeping with!
So I kept going. "And I'll be riding in eighteenth tomorrow. That's my world ranking now, Daddy."
"Trust me, I know," he promised. "I found the chart on that website that shows where you're placing. They don't have your picture on it, though. Not like the other guys."
"Because I haven't been in the Tough Enough series long enough," I assured him. "I'm still surprised they got posters made of me."
"And Ty bought a whole bunch," Dad said. "We all got some now. But I should probably get back to work, honey. My boss is giving me the evil eye. You just make sure you wear that helmet tomorrow, ok? And stay out from under the bulls, because I got that photo album all ready to take with me if you end up in the hospital."
I groaned. "Don't you dare!"
"You get hurt and I sure am," he joked. "No, just be safe, Cody. You ride good, and call me when it's over - or text. I'll be waiting and worrying, ok? I know that sometimes the hurtin' doesn't show up until after you're behind the chutes. Just keep in mind that your old man's gonna be over here worrying, and let me know if I can sleep that night, ok?"
"Promise, Daddy," I told him. "Now stop being lazy. Oh, and tell Cole that my new boyfriend is amazing. I dunno, rub it in a little for me."
He chuckled. "Yeah, I think I can manage that."
I ended the call with him and leaned back, a smile taking over my face. I had a funny feeling Dad would make a point of rubbing Cole's face in it. They worked together, repairing diesel engines. Mostly, that was on the big rigs, but sometimes it was a tractor or such. And for the last few years, Cole had been telling his friends all about how he'd screwed me over.
Dad hadn't said anything about it. He hadn't told me that he'd known we slept together - or that Cole bragged about being my first. Nope, he'd let me live in ignorance until everything had blown up at the stacking party. Now I had to live with the knowledge that my dad knew about my sex life, so I wasn't about to give him any more information. There were some lines that just shouldn't ever be crossed.
Sadly, all of that didn't take very long, and my room was still empty. So, to pass the time, I looked up the PBR's website to see which bulls would be at our event this weekend. One of the sponsors had mentioned something about the awards for them. When I'd been riding with the PBR's Touring Pro division, we didn't have anything like that, so it meant one more thing to learn.
Yes, I knew some bulls were famous, but when reading over the website, I realized there was big money on the line for the Unleash the Beast competition. That scored the bulls on their performance over the season, ranking them the same way the riders were. It looked like the string in St. Louis had included a lot of the big names. No wonder we'd all eaten so much dirt.
