I blushed and ducked my head. “Thanks, Dad,” I said quietly.
“But if I hear the two of you going at it in the stables again, I’m not going to just walk away next time,” Dad continued seriously. “That’s my place of business, you know.”
I gaped at him, feeling a hot blush come over me. There was nothing I could say in response to that one, though. I ducked my head and nodded. “Yes, sir.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Trethan
To say I was amped up prior to the third round was an understatement. My second-round ride hadn’t been quite as good as my first-round ride: I’d turned my heels in a little too far, and that had cost me points even though I’d managed to hang on and post a decent time. But the lead was smaller than I would have hoped, and I prayed that I was able to hang on to it for another round.
Despite all the training I’d been doing with Larry lately, I had to admit that I was pretty tired already. The only thing keeping me going was the thought of Vanessa’s proud, smiling face if I managed to pull this thing off.
“You gonna choke on this one?” Mike asked from next to me.
“Fuck off, Mike,” I snapped, not even bothering to look over at him. I was starting to understand what Larry had meant about rolling with the punches. No reason to fight Mike out here right now. He was just upset that I was doing better than him. I didn’t need to get myself kicked out of the competition by brawling right next to the judges.
It was down to just the three of us in the final round. Mike, me, and some out-of-towner named Joe who seemed like a decent dude from the small chat that we’d had between the second and third rounds.
They brought out a hulking, 2,000-pound bull for the final round. Man, did that thing look angry. It wasn’t one of the training bulls Larry’d had me on for the past couple weeks, but I figured I could take it. I’d been riding well that day. I was starting to feel as though this might really be a reality.
Plus, there wasn’t really that much difference between different bulls. Sure, this one might be a little crankier than most, but in the end, they all kind of bucked in one of two ways: in more of a back and forth motion, or in a spinning, circular motion. Larry had taught me some clues so that I could tell what kind of ride I was about to be in for. And with this bull, I’d have the benefit of watching Mike and Joe try to handle the thing before I took a stab at it.
By the time I got on the thing, I’d know exactly what I was in for.
Mike rode first in that round. The bull was pissed off. He bucked higher and spun faster than the ones in the previous rounds. I narrowed my eyes, watching how Mike handled that. To be honest, he looked better out here than he had with the mechanical bull in the Roasted Bison. I had to give him that. But his scores in the previous round had been nowhere near mine, and I could tell that this round would be similar.
He couldn’t keep up as the bull spun, and the beast launched him off its back. I chewed on a toothpick as I looked toward the scoreboard. Mike only scored a seventy-two on this round. I celebrated internally. Unless I really did something bad or didn’t make my scoring time, there was no way I’d be losing this one to him.
Now, I just had to worry about Joe.
I nodded at the man. “Hey, good luck out there,” I said. Despite the fact that I really wanted to win, I believed in being a good sport.
He nodded back at me. “Thanks, man,” he said. “You, too.”
Then, he climbed up the fence and waited for them to bring the bull back into position. The thing looked even more ill-tempered now. Apparently, Mike had that effect on people and animals alike. The bull gave the rodeo clowns a hard time as they tried to get it back into the pen. Yeah, he definitely wasn’t going to be a piece of cake for me to ride.
Joe hopped on the bull’s back and signaled he was ready. I gritted my teeth and watched as they let the bucking bull out of the pen, with Joe holding on with everything he had. I liked the way he rode. His riding style had a certain flair to it, like he was in control. One day, I hoped to look as skilled as he did on the back of a bull. He’d been riding in amateur competitions for about five years now, he had told me. That seemed like a long time to remain an amateur, but technically, he wasn’t a professional.
Right now, he was my real competition. He handled the bull much better than Mike had.
But suddenly, around the six-second mark, Joe lost control, unable to compensate for the bull’s speed. He soared off the bull’s back with a comical look of shock on his face. The fall seemed to surprise him as much as it surprised the crowd. The man went down hard. He lay on the ground, stunned from the impact. The bull charged at him.
The rodeo clowns scrambled in Joe’s direction, trying their best to distract the bull. But the animal had its sights set on the fallen man. It didn’t even notice
the clowns. I grimaced and turned away from the spectacle, scanning the crowd for Vanessa, knowing that she must be scared. Sure enough, she had her face buried against her dad’s shoulder, her hand up to shield her eyes.
I felt horrible for putting her through this. Was I selfish for wanting to do this? Even if I wanted to do this so badly because I wanted to be able to give her the life that she deserved? As exhilarating as this was, I suddenly realized that I couldn’t continue to ride bulls, not with her worrying over me like this. It might have been a good life, but the life that I was tenuously building with Vanessa was a much better life.
Out in the ring, three of the rodeo clowns had finally gotten the bull back under control, while another couple of them helped Joe out of the action. Joe was limping a little, but he moved under his own power, so I had to assume that he was okay. Still, it was a bit nerve-wracking to see an experienced rider go down hard like that.
For the first time, I started to wonder if maybe I was in over my head.
Even just mounting the bull made me nervous. The thing kicked at the walls of the pen and tossed its head, snorting fiery-hot air out its wide nostrils. Fury burned in the bull’s eyes, like it wasn’t just wishing me death, but it was wishing death to the entire crowd of people gathered there. And for some reason, I was sitting there on its back.
My palms started to sweat, but then I looked up toward Vanessa. She was back to watching the proceedings, despite how pale she looked. She saw me looking up at her, and she blew me a kiss. I couldn’t help but smile at that.
I had no time to respond to her, though, with the beast moving restlessly beneath me.