Page 38 of Love You
Darcy handed up her phone to the cowboy helping Win get settled. “Would you take a picture of him for me?”
He snapped a few shots of Win grinning his ass off and handed the phone back to Darcy.
“You feeling good?” Lucky asked him.
As good as a guy could feel on top of fifteen hundred pounds of bull. “Yep. I’m supposed to keep my free arm in front and not touch the bull with it, right?”
Lucky chuckled. “Just concentrate on staying on.”
“Roger that.” He couldn’t stop smiling.
After scooting up on the bull’s shoulders he gave the nod to let the chute operator know he was ready to go.
The gate opened and the bull shot out into the arena, bucking hard enough to give Win a jolt. He held on for dear life, forgetting everything he’d learned in the PowerPoint. Somewhere at the back of his mind, he knew this was amateur night, that the bull was probably Katie’s pet. But it sure didn’t feel like it.
“Five seconds to go,” he heard someone yell in the distance, and thanked God he had good core muscles. Because right now that was the only thing keeping him from the cold, hard dirt or worse, a pair of sharp horns up his ass.
He started to get the hang of it when Lucky shouted, “Hot dog, you made it.”
Win assumed that meant he’d conquered the requisite eight seconds. The question now was how to get off the dang thing. Ah, the hell with it, he was just going to jump and hope for the best. He’d taken worse tumbles down a ski slope so how bad could this be? Scoping out a good landing spot, he pulled his hand from the rope wrap, swung one leg over the beast, and dove off, landing on his feet. What he hadn’t calculated was the bull coming after him.
The first thing he heard was Darcy scream and from the side of his eye he saw a blur of black run toward him. He rocketed to the fence, grabbed it with both hands, and hoisted himself up. Damn. When he looked over his shoulder to see if it was safe, two of the hands were shooing the bull away. A few new guys had joined Lucky, who stood with one foot resting on the first rung of the fence and his arms draped over the top, watching the action and laughing his head off.
“You’re a natural,” Lucky called to him, and Win had a sneaking suspicion he was messing with him.
But he’d made it. He’d made it to the bell and he was still in one piece. He snuck a peek at Darcy, who looked as if she was recovering from a heart attack. The others from their group looked damned impressed.
“That was seriously righteous, dude.” Russell came toward him and gave him a high five. “Check it out.” He shoved his phone in Win’s face and played a video of him on the bull. “You mind if I post this on FlashTag?”
“Knock yourself out,” Win said.
“Be sure to tag Garner Adventure,” Darcy added.
“And the cowboy camp,” Lucky said. “Now who wants to go next?”
Silence. Not one person made a sound.
What happened to Russell? He was usually game for anything.
Win glanced his way. “You don’t want to try?” When Russell gave him a sheepish shrug, Win said, “No pressure.”
“I’m out,” Remy said. “The mechanical bull was one thing, it didn’t have horns.”
“I’m too chicken to do it too.” Sue scraped her upper lip with her teeth. “But how lame would it be for one of you to take a picture of me sitting on the back of a bull in the chute?”
Win’s lips curved up. “Not lame at all, totally cool. Can we do that, Lucky?”
“Absolutely.” Lucky looked at the others. “You guys want pictures too?”
“Hells to the yeah.” Remy pumped his fist in the air.
Sue was the first to climb up over the chute and straddle a bull named Crème Bulle. Where they came up with these names, Win would never know. Lucky popped his cowboy hat on her head and one of the chute guys took a few snapshots with her phone. Remy and Russell followed suit. The three of them stood in a huddle posting their pictures from their phones to FlashTag and various other social-media platforms.
“What about you, Darcy Lou?” Lucky had certainly taken a shine to Darcy, which annoyed the crap out of Win. It shouldn’t have but it did. He told himself he was just being protective. Like a big brother. But no big brother he knew had seen his sister in a red teddy and imagined her in it. Often.
“Not on your life,” she said. “I’m good right down here.”
“Then come meet my wife.”
