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"One moment, son," Dad said. "You can say your piece in a bit, but I think these people need to know where they stand. See, that young man is the kind you should be proud of. Now, maybe he ain't living his life the way you want him to, but you know what? It'shislife to live. The people he loves? That's his life too, not yours. And it don't matter one bit if you like it. Your only choices are to accept it or lose your son, so you choose, because I'll take that boy as one of mine in a heartbeat."
"Like he needs some hick to help him out," Paul snapped.
Dad just lifted his hands and stepped back. "Now you got the floor, Tanner."
Tanner just huffed out something like a laugh, looking like he was partly confused and partly relieved. "Dad," he said calmly, "this is Cody Jennings, my girlfriend and Dean's daughter. And that guy back there is my boyfriend and the best rider in the PBR right now."
"What?" Lisa asked.
"Both of them," Tanner said. "I'm pansexual. I like both. I didn't ask for this, don't want to change, and am not here for your approval," he said proudly. "So take your dreams of showing off, shove them up your ass, and decide if you really want to talk to me again, because this?" He glanced back at my dad. "I think I'm doing just fine on my own. Maybe better than I thought I deserved."
Dad nodded at him proudly. "That's my boy."
"Don't you..." Paul stepped forward, so Tanner lifted a hand. "Go home, you two. Tell your friends whatever you want. They won't care. I'm not gay, so it's not even a lie. I'm also done with being ashamed of it." Then Tanner pulled me up against his side and turned for the parking lot. "Let's go home, everybody."
"Yep," Grace said. "That was about as smooth as my coming out."
"Really?" Dean asked.
"Mhm," Grace agreed. "Then again, my parents were from an older generation."
"Cody," Max said again. "We still need to talk."
"Truck," Dad told him, pointing to where it was. "I'm done getting blindsided, and sounds like this might be important."
"Yeah..." Max muttered.
Which made the smile on my face slip a little. Thankfully, the truck was right over there, so the moment we reached it, I turned around, braced for the worst. Maybe all of that bravado I'd just put on had been pointless and the PBR was kicking me out anyway?
"What's wrong, Max?" I asked.
"Well," he said. "You know those sponsors I was trying to get you? The ones who had a meeting with you back in Cheyenne and have been watching you?"
"Yeah?"
He glanced over at Grace, almost like seeking backup, then looked at me again. "When the rumors came out this morning, they all started declining."
"All?" Dad asked.
Max nodded. "Eight of them. Cody, I don't have anyone else lined up."
"Tillman?" J.D. asked.
"Still with her," Max promised.
"Under Armour and Mike's too," Grace hurried to add.
"But no one else?" I felt my blood sinking into my toes. "J.D., is this enough? I mean, can I do this with just three sponsors?"
"No," Dad said, stepping forward. "Cody, you're making enough to get to the next show, and that's all that matters."
"No, it's not!" I snapped. "Dad, I'm doing this so I can get out of Spring Creek! This is my one chance. This is the only thing I'm good at, and we all know I won't be able to do it for long!" I lifted my injured arm to make my point.
"And all of that is just money," Dad told me. "This?" He gestured to Tanner, then J.D. "This is what's important, kiddo. You are happy here. You are turning into something that makes this old man real proud, so worry about that first. The money? Shit, that isn't why you're really here."
"It's not?" Because it kinda was.
"Cody Lane," Dad said gently, "right now, you got some bigger things to fight for than just getting rich. You got history to make and men to put in their place. This? This is the right thing to do, and that has never - not once - been about money. So you stop worrying about anything more than getting to the next show and staying on the next bull, you hear me?"
