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I wanted to step in and help her. I knew how I woulda felt about that, though, so didn't. Cody's feet hit the floor, her spurs clanked and her chaps swished. With her good arm, she grabbed her show shirt, and the doctor moved to open the door.
"All right, let's see if you change your mind by morning," he said. "Go easy on that arm, Cody."
"Thanks, Doc," she said, leading me out.
I followed, planning to tell her I'd brought J.D. with me, but the hall wasn't that long. My little girl stepped into the main room with her fancy mechanical-looking brace and pink tank to a sharp whistle. Right on the tail of that, the entire room of cowboys started cheering.
They didn't clap, as half of them had their shoulders bound up in those chairs. They didn't scream. They simply called out words of encouragement, and for a step Cody's feet slowed. Confusion claimed her face, but a smile showed up right after.
Then one of those cowboys waved the rest down. "About time you stopped making us all look like shit," he teased.
Cody laughed once. "Don't count on that, Jaxon."
But from over by the door, J.D. spoke up. "And that," he said, "is why she's my rookie. You boys believe me yet? Toughest cowboy in the series, I'm tellin' ya. That girl makes me look like a pussy."
And I swore my little girl grew an inch before me. Pride. I knew it did damned good things for a man, but clearly my daughter was learning to embrace hers as well. About damned time.
Chapter39
The buzzer hit eight,the lights went off in the arena, and I pulled the tail of my rope. The bull I was on kept bucking, giving me a damned flip before I hit the dirt hard, but at least he didn't come back for me. Still, the bullfighters moved in quickly. There had been too many accidents this weekend.
I ran for the side, giving those men room to work until my bull trotted his ass through the gate and back to his comfy little pen. Then I came back, seeing my rope laying out in the middle of the dirt. I was headed for it, but so was Tanner.
He reached it first, snagging it from the ground and meeting me halfway. "Good ride," he told me.
"Good save earlier," I replied. "You hear anything about Cody?"
"No, not yet."
"Me either." I slapped his shoulder in support. "Sorry, man. I know this weekend's been hard on you too."
"No shit," he agreed, heading towards the side with me while I walked.
My destination was the gate to get out. Tanner? I had no idea what he was doing, but I'd take it. He was being cool with me this weekend. We weren't as close as we'd been before, but that made sense. They had Cody still. I didn't.
"Hey," I said. "When you hear something, can you at least text me?"
"Promise," Tanner said - and then paused.
The flash of the big screen over the chutes made both of us look up. There, in full size, my score for that ride was listed: 92.75. That was high. Stupidly high. There was just one big problem with it.
"That ride was shit," I snapped, turning back to look at the bullpen.
"You rode good," Tanner countered.
"Not that fucking good!"
"Take it," he said, nudging me towards the gate. "Take the win, man."
I huffed and started walking again, hearing the crowd cheering for me staying in first place. Yeah, that should've been nice, but in case they missed it, I'd kinda been there for that ride. You know, me, the guy doing all the hard work, and there was no fucking way that ride deserved more than the high eighties!
I was growling under my breath as I headed back up to the catwalk, intending to get my hat. A few of the guys were still hanging around, waiting for their re-rides, and evidently the look on my face was the wrong one.
"Don't like winning, Ty?" Kaleb Brown taunted.
The kid was one of J.D.'s lackeys. A real ass-kisser at times, and a dumbass at others. He tried hard though, and while I didn't hate him, I had no real interest in making nice. Not today. Not when my mind was stuck worrying about how bad Cody was hurt.
A few more steps made someone else speak up. "Looks like you're the golden boy this weekend," Tim Moore said as he slapped my arm in congratulations.
