Page 24 of Buck This
The riders would be drawing bulls soon. He had a list of wants. He needed a good rider in order to get a good score tonight.
Damn, he wished he had Torrey’s number. Raven had said it aloud to Quickdraw last night, but he’d been too focused on the shit-talking happening over in the next box. They were not his fans. He wished he could send her a message that he was headed her way to pick her up. He kind of wished he could tell her how bad training had gone too. She would probably say something funny to make him laugh, and his mood would lighten. She’d done it last night after his bad buck. He couldn’t recall a time he’d ever come out of a funk after a bad buck like that. Smiles didn’t exist on nights like last night, but she’d had him laughing. Laughing! Like he wasn’t a damn mess. He’d even felt normal at moments. God, how long had it been since he felt normal?
That little human was magic or something.
She had his attention, for sure. He had two days of teamwork with her before they went their separate ways, and a part of him wanted to drag it out as long as possible.
He sped to the Cascade Arena. There was a huge carnival running all day in the empty field beside the arena, so the parking lot was busy. He backed his truck right up beside the fence to get in and hopped out.
“Ticket,” the checker called as he walked past the line.
He tossed her a look and prepared to explain he would only be here a second, but a little boy of about eleven or so was sitting in a chair beside her, staring at his phone. He looked up at that moment and his eyes went wide. “Mom, that’s Buck This Storme.”
Buck halted. “You know me?”
The boy nodded, his eyes as wide as saucers.
“Well, go on in then. Use the athlete entrance next time, will you?” the ticket checker deadpanned.
“We’ll be rooting for you tonight,” the boy called after him.
Buck This snorted and walked away, shaking his head. Well, they had been nicer to him than the usual attention he got.
He could see Torrey way before he got to the table. There was a crowd in front of the table waiting to order T-shirts, but from this angle, he had a clear view of her. She had her back to him, and her long dark hair was pulled up into a ponytail. It had waves down to the middle of her back, and she wore two red gemstone barrettes pinning back the curls that had fallen out of her hair band. She wore denim shorts with the W on the pocket that dragged a smile across his lips. Where had she tracked down Wrangler shorts? He would guess either from one of the booths around here, or from Raven.Okay, pretty girl.
She was still rocking her Dr. Martens, and a white T-shirt with the sleeves rolled up. She had a simple little heart tattoo on the back of her right arm. He’d noticed it last night too. Cute.
She turned and her smile stopped his advance. She wore red lipstick today that matched the logo on her shirt. And when he saw that logo his heart damn-near stopped.
It was a simple line drawing of him shotgunning a beer on the jumbotron with a cursive caption above it that readBuck This, Buck That, Buck It All.
What the hell?
He looked at the T-shirt options as he got closer, and there was a vintage charcoal gray T-shirt with a dove gray outline of his bull, crooked horns and all. Underneath was scribbledWe’re breaking the rules tonight boys.
As he approached, he saw two more T-shirts that featured him.
When Torrey spotted him, her grin got even bigger. She hit a little pose and pointed to the logo on her shirt, and then to him and waggled her eyebrows.
Fuck, he liked her.
“What have y’all done,” he murmured as he approached the side of the table.
“What we’ve done is dang-near sell out of the Buck It All shirts already,” she said. The excitement in her voice was catching. “I just texted the printer that we need an emergency print of them. He doesn’t have the white shirts in stock, but he’s doing different colors.” She had a little money apron on and was holding a stack of cash.
“Um, hi,” a twenty-something lady said from the front of the line.
“Hey,” he said, waiting for her to insult him.
“Can you sign my shirt?”
Buck This glanced at Torrey. “Translate?”
“She wants your autograph, Bucko. I’ll grab a marker.”
“Why would you want my autograph? I’m not even in the running to win this thing.”
“I saw you jump the fence in Albuquerque. My cousin was there, and she sent me a video of it. You were all over the news.”
