Page 11 of Spur It On

"It was cute," I mumbled.

"Is that the whole brush off kind of cute, or the kind that gets me a blush?" he pressed.

Right on command, my cheeks began to heat up. "Fuck off!"

He laughed, tossing his head back to do it. "You are the strangest mix, Cody Lane."

"I never should've told you about my name," I grumbled.

"Nah," he assured me. "I think it's fitting, actually. I like it." He reached over for his glass of soda. "I also like you. I just don't know more than the fact that you ride bulls like a pro and look a little too good in a pair of jeans."

"I'm not sure there's more to know," I admitted.

"There's always more to know," he promised. "I mean, I can make some guesses, like that you listen to country music, know how to ride a horse, and are a whole lot tougher than you think you are. So what did a girl like you do before you showed up in Tulsa?"

Ok, he was quickly winning me over, talking like that. "I rode bulls and stacked hay," I admitted.

"And?" he pressed.

"No, that's pretty much it. I worked at the Circle K for a while with my best friend, but quit a couple months back when they wouldn't give me time off for a rodeo. Those points got me into Tulsa, so I don't regret it."

"Nice," he praised. "So how'd you end up without all the boys chasing you around?"

I huffed. "Tanner, they hated me from the time I was twelve. I won junior steer riding. See, Daddy couldn't afford a horse. Gerardo - the guy with the hay - used to have some bucking bulls. Nothing good, mind you, but he had them. His boys would practice on them, and I'd walk over and take my turn. Gave me more chances to learn than the guys I was riding against at that age."

"And you kept winning, huh?"

"Nope. After that, I was always second. Worse, the award for junior steer riding? A plaque."

"And last weekend you won," he reminded me as our dinner arrived.

The waitress handed out the food, refilled our drinks, and then left us alone. I bent to take a bite of my creamy pasta, but Tanner just watched me with a little smile. Only when I had it in my mouth did he take his own bite, but the interruption was just enough to let the conversation shift again.

"So this thing," I said, holding up a hand in front of my mouth. "It's kinda weird, right?"

"You mean poly?" he asked, shrugging to show what he thought of that. "Or do you mean that I got completely busted last weekend?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but had to pause. "Both," I decided.

Tanner took another bite. "In truth, I'm freaking out a little," he finally said. "Only three people knew about me before that, and all of them ride in that RV with us."

"That you're, um..." I wasn't sure which term to use.

"Pansexual," he offered. "Sounds better than bi, I think." His eyes jumped over to me. "And I'm waiting for you to say it's gross, or that God's gonna be pissed, or something."

I just shook my head. "I was raised in a church that said we're supposed to do the lovin', and God's supposed to do the judging."

"I wasn't," he admitted. "Because I dated girls, it was all good. I didn't need to tell anyone what I did when I was alone, but I always knew my parents were the kind who wouldn't be ok with it."

"But you dated guys on tour?" I asked. "J.D. said that's how Austin figured it out. He saw a guy leaving your room."

"Didn't happen," he promised. "First, I don't have a hotel room by myself. We all share. If a guy left, it was probably room service or something. Second, I never brought guys to my place. I always went to theirs."

"But it's happened," I pointed out.

He nodded slowly. "Yeah. Sometimes I meet someone. Most times I just hang with my crew. Jorge's married. Isaac's more interested in sitting still for a minute - because we don't usually get that."

"And you?" I asked.

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