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"What do you mean?" Isaac pressed.
"J.D. don't care about no one," I told him. "Cody cares about everyone. J.D. is ready to throw down. Cody's ready to ignore it all and push through. And look at 'em." I pointed. "Seriously, look."
Isaac turned to follow where I was pointing. Cody was cheering as J.D. sucked back a glass of something that wasn't the right color to be beer. Tanner was just shaking his head at the pair of them, but clearly included so fucking easily.
"See that?" I asked. "She's his fucking heel."
"His what?" Jorge asked, clearly listening in.
"His heel," I said, pointing down at my boot to make sure they were following me. "The one place he can be hurt."
"Achilles’ heel," Jorge realized. "Gotcha."
"But she needs J.D.," I explained to them. "Cody's real nice. Like, the kind of nice that gets hurt, and some of these guys wanna hurt her."
"Who?" Isaac immediately asked, latching on to that.
"Austin," I told him, "Eli, Derek, and Casey. They've all been talking shit, according to Emilio. Like, real bad shit. Austin says she needs to get raped. Eli greased her rope, we think. I mean, that was back in Tulsa, but who else wears red and yellow? Or, he could've been stalling her for one of the others. Derek and Casey are just fucking flunkies who wanna be cool, but they ain't hid that they don't like a woman riding."
"And they hang with Austin," Jorge added. "Some of the younger boys are saying the same thing."
"Yeah, which is why Cody needs J.D.," I repeated. "Know what she don't need?"
"What's that?" Austin asked.
I pointed right at my chest. "This guy. When she said she'd studied my rides, I thought I was hot shit. But you've seen her. Fuck, she rides better than me."
"Different," Isaac assured me.
"Better," I corrected. "And fucking good for her, too. She's put in the work. Hell, that girl's been chasing this longer than most of us knew it was a thing. She grew up doing it. Me? I climbed on a bull at fifteen. Most of the guys will say about the same. By then, Cody had a decade of experience on 'em - and was still being told she wasn't good enough."
"But you know things are different at this level," Isaac reminded me.
I nodded. "Yeah. Thing is, she's still got it. She's got them. Shit, she has you two on her side, and that'll save her ass, right?"
"We'll sure try," he promised me.
So I nodded. "But I don't even know how to be her fucking friend, let alone this."
"You're doing fine, Ty," Isaac said gently.
I huffed at that. "Know what the saddest thing is? All my fucking life. Ever since I was a little boy, you know? Everyone always told me I could take what I want. Just take, take, take, take. Thing is, J.D.'s right. She's not a thing, and she can't be taken. She can't be claimed or owned." I reached for my beer. "And that's all I know how to do. I got all the fuckin' pickup lines. I can undo any bra a woman is wearing. I know how to make her cum five times before I'm done." I chuckled, aware that was a serious exaggeration. "But I don't know how to do this."
"Just like you are," he promised.
"Sitting alone, drinking whiskey with bullfighters, and keeping you from making a friend?" I asked. "Shit. C'mon, Isaac. You're still single. You know you'd rather be out talking to the ladies."
He shrugged. "'Cept that I'm driving, which means Jorge gets to slam balls around over there, have a few too many, and drink himself to sleep, so I'd be doing this regardless."
"I wouldn't," I said softly. "Nope, if things were different, I would've been in the middle of those girls Jake's prolly taking home tonight."
"Is that what you want?" Isaac asked.
My eyes jumped over to Cody again. "No," I breathed. "No, but I also don't wanna have to stay across the fucking room from her either."
"Then go talk to her," he said.
"And fuck it up?" I blew out a breath. "Nah. I think I'd rather sit right here. It's safer for me to be..." And I pointed down at the chair. "Right here."
