Page 40 of Buck This
Ninety-freakin’-four.
His brother would’ve been damn proud of him too.
Chapter Ten
Torrey didn’t know where to stand.
No, it was more than that. She didn’t know where she belonged in this kind of chaos.
People were pushing her farther and farther to the side, and right now, Buck This was being swarmed by the pretty girls in crop tops and cowgirl boots, and short shorts. Most of them looked like they could be models on a runway, and here was Torrey, standing off to the side, feeling out of place.
Girl after girl asked for pictures with Buck This, and after a half an hour, he seemed to get into a rhythm with it all. He was smiling more, and talking easily, and joking, and making them laugh.
And as the minutes had ticked by, Torrey’s excitement calmed, and then withered.
This would be his life. Thiswashis life.
This would be every time he bucked well from here on out with the guidance of Quickdraw, and she would be back home in her small, steady life, feeding her feral cats and following Buck This’s journey on the television. She would be one of his fans.
He would settle down someday with one of these women. She could see it so easily in the beautiful pictures they took. He would be on a hundred Instagram stories tonight, while she was just…Torrey. They matched his lifestyle, while she did not.
“They’re called buckle bunnies,” a familiar voice said beside her.
Reece wore a grim expression as she watched Buck This taking a selfie with a trio of sisters that all wore matching T-shirts of his.
“Hi,” she greeted her friend cooly.
“Cobalt will have thirty on him tonight too as soon as he’s dressed. It is the hardest part of all this for me.”
“You were a little much last night,” Torrey said softly.
Reece shrugged. “We’re all a little much sometimes.”
If that was an apology, it was the worst one in history.
“Buck isn’t mine, so he can do what he wants with however many…buckle bunnies…he wants. It’s none of my business.”
“Mmm, I saw you tonight. You were leading him right into the chute. I saw the excitement in your eyes. Do you know they showed you again on the jumbotron right after he bucked. I saw the way you were looking at him. Your heart was in your eyes. It happens like that, and then poof, you are pulled into the life, and your old life is unreachable. Just…” She snapped her fingers. “Bam, and you’re different.”
“I can’t afford to let a man change me,” she uttered low.
“Why not?”
“You know why not.” Reece had been there in the aftermath of her divorce. She’d seen her go down hard. Falling for Buck This was a one-way ticket to that feeling again, only this time she was wiser and had more life experience.
Her heart couldn’t afford the rebuild again.
“He’s not exactly a safe bet,” Reece told her.
“Thanks for the sage advice.”
“Do you want to ride with me back to the hotel? Or are you too good to hang out with me still?” The bitterness in Reece’s tone angered Torrey.
“You think I am too good to hang out? After you ditched me for your new friends?”
“Who ditched who? You’re all over the jumbotron with the enemy.”
“The enemy?”
