Page 24 of The Wildest Ride

The kid was off to a great start.

Centered on the bronc, grip firm, heels down, toes out, and spurs pressed continuously against the flanks of the horse. The kid looked like an instructional video for the event. His upper body slammed against the horse’s back in time to its wild bucking like a paddle ball with perfect rhythm. His legs bent and extended with each seesaw as the horse reared and descended.

The kid was excellent, giving the impression of a perfectly balanced, if manic, teeter-totter, even as the horse jumped and twisted.

He had drawn a particularly wild bronc, too. Extra points.

The seconds came and went, and the kid showed no sign of losing his grip or alignment. When the buzzer rang out at eight, the pickup men rode out to rein in the bronc.

The kid dismounted with a flourish, and the crowd went wild.

“Ay, Dios mío, folks! Have you seen a ride like that?” The Closed Circuit hostess, none other than world-famous rodeo queen and eternal mild itch in AJ’s boots, Sierra Quintanilla, shouted, her voice and the mic more than a match for the thunderous crowd. “Give it up for Lil Sorrow and that absolutely pristine ride! Who would have expected such a display from a PBRA newcomer! We promised you drama, folks, and we delivered!”

As she finished her announcement, Lil Sorrow tore off his hat, black braid shining in the arena lights, and threw it in the air, letting out the loudest whistle AJ’d ever heard—and he’d once spent the holidays with his cousins in Oaxaca.

“You look about as pleased as if that was your ride out there,” The Old Man observed.

AJ started. He hadn’t felt the Cheshire cat grin spreading across his face, but it’d appeared sometime in the last eight seconds.

Diablo grinned. “Isn’t often AJ sees someone as good as he is.”

Henry shook his head. “That kid’s better.”

AJ laughed as Sierra shouted, “Unbelievable! We have a score to beat for the night, and it’s a doozy! At 97 points—it’s a near-perfect ride!”

The kid’s scream at the announcement was high-pitched and girlish enough to make AJ wonder if he’d lied about his age in order to qualify. No grown man could hit those notes.

“We’ll be seeing a lot more of Lil Sorrow in the Closed Circuit future, folks! And you can take that to the bank!” Sierra squealed, her voice dripping with homespun sweetness about as deep as cotton candy.

Even from the safe distance of the chute, AJ shivered. As far as he’d traveled, rodeo was a small world, and his and Sierra’s paths had crossed many a time. Every time he walked away, grateful the encounter was over. It was just his luck, then, that as the hostess of the Closed Circuit, she was going to be along for the long haul.

She and the full host of cameras rushed the kid as he left the arena.

AJ’s eyebrows drew together.

Reporters were sharks, but that was something the kid was going to have to figure out for himself, probably the hard way, which was why he was surprised to find himself turning in that direction.

“Where are you going?” Diablo asked after him.

“Checking on the kid. He doesn’t have anybody with him.”

“And you think adding yourself to the herd of strangers about to stampede him is going to help with that?” The Old Man lifted a brow, his arms crossed in front of his chest. He’d been to many a rodeo with AJ and had never seen him pull this stunt before—the expression on his face said as much.

AJ grinned, turned around, and did what he was going to do anyway—just like he always did.

He arrived just in time to hear the reporter from ESPN2 ask the kid, “Are you single?”

He heaved a mental sigh.

The ESPN2 field team was the worst. Each and every one of their reporters was new to the business and hungry to climb the cable sports ladder. They went for blood.

But in truth, they merely had the balls to ask what all of the other reporters wanted to know and were too repressed to ask for—whether by network, class, respect for journalism, shame, or some combination thereof.

With the question out, each and every one of them leaned in closer to catch the kid’s response.

The kid blushed, opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again.

They were going to eat him alive.

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