“You do?”
Tristan had arranged for a room at the Broadmoor for the night. She told Bullet she hated lying to her father, but she’d told him she was going out with the girls, and instead of risking the drive home, they were adding on a sleepover at the posh hotel.
“Won’t he find you out?”
“Your sister swore everyone to secrecy. My daddy and grandfather are having dinner with your gram at Bill and Dottie’s again tonight. Everyone else is on their own.”
“I sure hope nobody slips up and tells him.”
“You scared of my daddy, cowboy?”
“You’re damn right I am.”
“Yeah, you’re right to be.”
“He ever meet Harris?”
“Ugh. I wish you hadn’t brought him up.”
“I’m sorry. Forget I asked.”
“Just once, and he didn’t like him much. Turns out he was right. He usually is.”
“What’s he think of me?”
“I overheard him talking to your daddy last night. He said he thought you were a fine young man.”
Really? That was a surprise. Unless Hugh McCullough was starstruck enough by his daddy that he’d just said it to be nice.
Tristan watched Bullet as he slept. When they’d made love, earlier, he was so tender. A couple of times he held still, her face in his hands, looking into her eyes. It was as though he had something to say, but couldn’t bring himself to say it. If she didn’t know better, she would’ve thought he was getting ready to say goodbye.
When Liv planned a real girls’ get together the following night, Tristan was in a bit of a bind. Bullet didn’t know whether her daddy knew she’d really been with him the night before, but when he told his daughter he understood and to go have a good time with her friends, Bullet breathed a sigh of relief.
He’d miss being with her tonight, but she deserved to have some fun on her own.
“You sure you don’t mind?” she pulled him around the corner to ask.
“Of course I don’t.”
When she asked what he was going to do, he told her he’d probably just go back to the house and get some rest.
Things didn’t exactly go the way he’d planned, though. The guys from Flying R Rough Stock, along with his daddy, hijacked him and King for a guy’s night out.
“Hell,” said Billy. “If they can do it, so can we.”
Bullet wondered who was watching Billy’s new baby, but that wasn’t any of his business so he didn’t ask.
At four the next morning, he stumbled into bed, glad that he didn’t have to be back at the rodeo until four that afternoon. He hoped to hell he’d be sober by then.
“I wonder how the guys are feelin’ this mornin’.”
“Which guys?” Tristan asked Lyric.
“All of ’em. From what King told me, things got pretty wild last night.”
“Did Bullet go out with them?”
“Oh, yeah, and I guess he really tied one on. I think there might’ve even been some dancin’, and something about a fight. That reminds me, he also said that Harris guy showed up.”