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As I was gathering my stuff up, Jake fell in place beside me. "Heading back?" he asked.
I gave him a wary look. "Mhm."
"C'mon, Cody," he grumbled. "J.D. and Ty are both out of sight. I'm just being a gentleman."
"Ok," I relented, but I still wasn't sure how I felt about this guy.
On the upside, it seemed a few of the bull riders were looking out for me. Emilio was sitting on the floor of the warm-up area, right beside my bag. Gustavo was hanging out beside him, but still standing. My gear was between them.
"What the hell?" I groaned.
Emilio rambled off something in his native language, then Gustavo said, "Saw some fuckers eyeing your shit," he explained. "Emilio says Renato put him in charge of you."
I just tossed up my hands in frustration. "Guys! I am not some little doll who needs to be watched every second of every day."
"More like a rubber fuck-doll!" Austin called out.
Jake just chuckled. "Andthatshould explain why a few of us are just hanging out." He patted my shoulder the same way he would one of the guys. "Cody, take it as a compliment."
"A compliment?" I scoffed. "Because I can't handle myself?"
Gustavo waved that off. "Because we think you're one of us, and riders look out for each other. That's it." Then he reached down to offer Emilio a hand up.
"Ya ride gud," Emilio told me in heavily accented English, but his next words were in Portuguese.
"And," Gustavo translated, "he says you're one of the guys, so pull in the claws." And then the twit winked.
I just huffed as the pair of Brazilian riders sauntered away, looking rather proud of themselves. Well, if that was how they saw it, then there wasn't much I could do about it, right? That didn't mean I wanted to encourage it either. I was so sick of feeling smothered over the last few days. Between J.D. and Ty, they'd been hovering.
And Ty had been the worst! That shit he'd pulled at the chutes? Not cool. My embarrassment wasn't even the worst of it! Ty had taken his focus off his ride and almost gotten himself killed - and it felt like my fault.
All of this felt like my fault, because these guys didn't believe I could manage without them. Sure, it was cute the first time. Now it was starting to be annoying, but I didn't want to be an unappreciative bitch. I also didn't want to get a reputation for being too weak to do this, but I had to admit these three had a point. It was also a lot nicer to have the guys on my side instead of against me.
Weird, but much, much nicer.
"You good?" Jake asked. "Because I'm not gonna babysit your ass. Just maybe be in the same area in case shit goes down."
"No, I'm good," I told him. Pausing for a second, I added, "Thank you, Jake."
"Anytime," he assured me before turning for his own gear on the other side of the rather large room.
My problem wasn't really the guys trying to help. Well, not completely that, because being made to feel like I couldn't do this on my own hurt in a way I couldn't put into words. Sure, the guys thought they were helping, but theyweren't.
The real issue was my score. It was that I'd probably just had the best ride of my life, and the lowest score I'd gotten in a long time. Still, J.D. had only gotten an 89.0 for what he'd pulled off. My bull score was lower than his. I didn't have the legs to show off my spurring. I'd also been tense and worried about the sponsors - which was the exact opposite of what J.D. had told me to do.
So it was fair. I just wasn't sure how I was supposed to make up for this! I needed those scores. I had to stay in the top ten, and ideally, my world ranking needed to move up a hell of a lot! If I wanted to make some real money at this, I needed to be considered a top rider, not just a side show to gawk at over the weekends.
While I packed up my gear, then J.D.'s and Ty's, the event ended. I heard them announce Jake Cunningham as the winner of tonight's event, but peeking my head out showed I was sitting in fifth place once again. That was the top ten. Hopefully, those sponsors would see that all the scores were lower today than yesterday.
I still couldn't stop thinking about it. When the whole insanity was finally over, I wasn't surprised at all when Tanner found me leaning with my back against the rail, still mulling over my issue. I just couldn't let it go!
"Hey," he said as he moved in to hook an arm around my waist. "Why do you look like someone kicked your dog? The guys ok?"
I shrugged. "I haven't headed back there yet," I admitted. "I mean, half the guys in sports med are undressed, and I dunno..."
He chuckled. "Pretty sure you've seen a naked man in your life. Like, I dunno, me."
I couldn't help but chuckle, even if it was weak. "I promise it's not that."
