I tapped my fingers against the table, still thinking. Ten thousand was a lot of money. And it was Larry’s comment about betting on the mechanical bull in the past that crystallized things in my mind. Riding bulls professionally came with a lot of risks. It could even result in my death if I wasn’t careful. But if I could pull this off, I’d have the money that Vanessa needed to open her gallery.
There wasn’t really a decision to be made.
“I have to work tomorrow morning,” I said. “Make it the next morning.”
“Fine,” George agreed. “I’ll have the contracts all set up and ready for you to sign before we get started. Just standard stuff about liabilities and such. And then we’ll dive right in.”
“Good,” I said.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Vanessa
I knocked on Trethan’s door and waited patiently for him to open it. When he did, he was all smiles as he pulled me into his arms, kissing me sweetly. “I tried to find you when I was at the ranch today, but I didn’t see you,” he said.
I shrugged. “I met up with Julie for brunch, and then that turned into a girls’ day. We went shopping and got our nails done.”
“Sounds fun,” he said, but I could tell from the way he said it that he was distracted by whatever it was that he wanted to say to me.
I laughed, shaking my head. “Well, come on, spit it out,” I said, holding both of his hands in my own. “You sounded so excited on the phone. I can’t even imagine what it is that’s got you this way.”
“I think I’ve found a way for you to fund your gallery,” he blurted out, looking excited at the very prospect.
“Really?” I asked, blinking at him. “But we’ve all been trying to think of some new angle for weeks now, and no one’s been able to come up with anything.”
“I know,” he said. “But get this, I ran into this guy last night at the Roasted Bison who saw me ride the mechanical bull, and he wants me to compete in an amateur bull-riding competition. He’s setting it up so that I’ll be the total underdog, but if I win it, I’ll get ten thousand dollars in prize money, which you could put toward your gallery.”
He stared at me, clearly waiting for some sort of response, but all I could do was gape at him. “He’s setting you up to be the underdog,” I repeated slowly. “And how exactly do you plan to win it, then? Have you even ridden a real bull in your life?”
“No,” he admitted easily. “But it won’t be long now. That’s part of what George was offering. He’s going to have me take lessons with this guy Larry Cobb in the lead-up to the competition. Apparently, Larry’s some big name who used to be part of the pro-riding circuit before he got into an accident.”
“I know who Larry Cobb is,” I said faintly. “And, he didn’t just ‘get into an accident.’ He got tossed from a bull, and things ended pretty badly for him. The doctors didn’t know if he was ever going to wake up again, let alone know if he was going to be able to walk or ride again. He’s one of the luckiest guys in the world.”
“I know there are risks that go along with bull riding,” Trethan said, sounding a little defensive. “But if I get some good teaching, I really think I could do this. You haven’t seen me on the mechanical bull lately, but I’ve been doing an amazing job. I really think that I could be good at this.”
I frowned, biting my lip. “If that’s what you want to do, I don’t want to stop you,” I told him slowly, but I was still not sure about the whole thing.
It wasn’t just Larry Cobb. There had been plenty of guys who had taken bad falls or been trampled or gored by the bulls. I didn’t want Trethan getting tangled up in any of that.
On the other hand, I didn’t know if I had the right to tell him that I didn’t want him to do it. And, there was something so sweet about his enthusiasm, about how excited he was to be able to bring in that much money to put toward the gallery.
“But there must be something that you’d rather put the money toward if you did manage to win it,” I said, shaking my head. “Ten thousand dollars is a lot of money.”
Trethan kissed me again. “You’re worth it,” he said. “I know how much this gallery means to you. I think it’s the perfect thing to put my money toward. Like I said, I want to help out in any way that I can.”
Tears pricked the corners of my eyes. “So the gallery could be a reality?”
“It really could,” he said, nodding his head. He wrapped his arms around me. “I told you we’d figure out a way.”
“We’re not there yet,” I reminded him, even though I loved how confident he was. But I also knew that overconfidence was probably the last thing he needed if he was going to become a successful bull rider.
I couldn’t believe he was willing to do this, all for my gallery. All for me.
That wasn’t the kind of thing that you’d do for someone you were just sleeping with, was it? He was going out of his way to learn something, something that would no doubt be painful, something which was incredibly dangerous, all so he could scrape together the money I needed to fund the gallery.
I was falling for him — hard.
But still, I had to make sure he was considering all the options. “There’s a lot you could do with that money, though,” I said again. “You could buy a new car or a TV or-”