Page 138 of Zero Chance

I shrugged.“My dad took me to the rodeo once.I saw you ride.”

“Really?”He seemed intrigued.“Which rodeo?”

“Galveston,” I answered.“In twenty-two.”

“Ah, yes,” he murmured with a knowing nod.“I rode Ginger in that one.”With a shudder, he met my gaze.“Now, that was one mean bastard.”

“He still didn’t buck you off,” I said, watching him curiously.

Smiling smugly, Keene answered, “No, he didn’t, did he?”

I opened my mouth to ask the burning question that had plagued me since he’d stopped riding.But I shut it again, sure it was none of my business.

Except Keene caught my look.“Yes?”he prompted.

“It’s nothing,” I mumbled, feeling lame for even thinking the question.

But he nudged my arm.“Hey, if we’re really trying this, you’re allowed to ask anything you want.You know that, right?”

So I blurted, “Why did you quit?”

He lifted his eyebrows, confused.

“Riding,” I said.“You won the world championship two years in a row.And you didn’t get hurt.Most people would go on to compete in adult bull riding after that.”

“Yeah,” he said softly, while ghosts from the past haunted his eyes.“Most people would, wouldn’t they?”

“I’m sorry,” I said immediately, lifting my hands to withdraw my curiosity.“You don’t have to?—”

But he interrupted me, saying, “It’s fine.”He rolled his eyes and looked slightly chagrined.“You’re just going to think my reasoning is stupid, is all.”

“I doubt it,” I told him, thinking nothing about him was stupid, not even his most immature, ridiculous moments.

He laughed softly as if he disagreed before pulling into a driveway, startling me into realizing we’d made it to Archer House already.I blinked at the split-level home in the daylight and was freshly amazed I was actually here with Keene; he knew exactly who I was, yet he still wanted me.

Bizarre.

Cutting the engine, he turned to face me as I released my seat belt.“Okay, so my dad and I don’t exactly get along, right?”he started, waving a dismissive hand.“Because of the whole killing my mom thing.But it wasn’t like we were ever close before that.He never had time for me, never had patience to be around me for more than an hour.I’ve never once been alone with him.But one thing he’s always loved was the rodeo.And I just…” He winced as if apologizing for his upcoming confession.“The thing is, he was never thatgoodat it.And I just thought it’d be funny to try out the rodeo and do itbetterthan he had.You know?”

I watched him for a moment before saying, “But secretly, you just wanted his attention, right?”

“What?No.”Keene made a face.“Not really.I mean, I always had my two grandfathers to fill the father-figure role.I didn’t need Eric.And I didn’t particularlywantanything from him.”Nodding to himself, he hummed out a satisfied sound.“Yeah.I pretty much only wanted to irritate him.”

“And did you?”I wondered.

Keene smiled slyly.“Not until I decided to have nothing to do with the rodeo after winning my titles,” he announced.“Oh, man.He absolutely lost his shit when I quit.I’d never seen him so frustrated and pissed in all my life.Best day ever, I swear.”

“So let me get this straight,” I said.“You entered the rodeo, which you had no passion for, just to irritate your dad?”

“Well…” Keene scowled.“I wouldn’t say I hated it.After I got into it, I really liked it.”

I shook my head, boggled.“So then you dropped something you loved just to irritate him?”

“Uh…” Keene paused cautiously as if he’d just been caught in a trap.

“Wouldn’t that be giving him more control than he deserves?”I asked.“The best revenge you can get is to move on and live a happy life with no regard to how it affects him at all.If you liked riding bulls, you should’ve kept at it, and fuck what he thought.”

That’s what my therapist had always told me about Gerald Sprout, anyway.

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