Page 143 of Jump Back On

One corner of his mouth curled higher. "We were trying to decide how sticky you like it, since Mr. Jennings - "

"Still Dean," Dad reminded him.

"- Said you can't do this one-handed," Jake finished.

Slowly, I rocked my head in a very confused nod. "Um, very sticky. No. Wait. I'll need to get out of it, so a little less?"

"Very," Dad told him. "She'll need all the rosin you can get in there. And Cody, you need to prep your new glove."

"It's in my bag," I said, gesturing to where that sat by his feet.

Dad pulled it out and held it open. Pushing my hand in, I got my fingers in the new and stiff leather. From the other side, Jake offered up a tin of rosin. It wasn't mine, but right about now, I wasn't picky.

I pushed my palm over the rosin, feeling it coating the leather. The stuff was pretty solid when cool. It began to melt as it warmed up from friction, so I rubbed my fingers together and against my palm, trying to stretch the leather as I got it all nice and gooey.

"Is this your only rope?" Jake asked. "I looked for a second, but..."

"Austin greased it, remember?"

"Ah." He scooped some more rosin on his hand and ran that over my rope. "Well, looks like you're in ninth place, so you'll have an entire set of bulls between when you ride and when I do."

"I'm pulling for her," Dad said.

"And I'm still going to help," Jake assured him, the pair focusing on each other again. "Cody's helped me out more than she knows."

I was just about to ask him to elaborate on that when hot breath hit the side of my neck. "Hello, rookie." The voice made me tense. It was Austin, and he was much too close to me.

"What the fuck do you want?" I demanded, turning to face him. The hand in my glove fisted hard, making the leather stretch.

The dumbass stood there with a shit-eating grin on his face. "So, looks like your boyfriend's no longer a part of the PBR. Guess he really is as gay as I said, huh?"

"And you're only going after him because you don't want me here," I shot back. "Also, you seriously need to figure out that gay men aren't into women, Austin. Not at all. Not even a little bit. That's kinda what gay means, so the fact that Tanner's my boyfriend is proof he's not gay!"

"Or that you're covering for him because you are too," Austin sneered.

I just closed my eyes and groaned. "Would you fuck off already?"

"How'd you like that fine?" he pressed, proving he had no interest in letting up. "How many more of those can you take?"

"Plenty," Jake said, moving to my side. "Pretty sure I'm not the only one willing to keep her on the tour."

"And I'm not poor anymore, Austin. My sponsors pay well." I began working my new glove off my hand then tossed it back towards my bag. "But I am curious how you know Tanner got suspended."

"What?" Ty asked from the other side of the room. "Tanner's suspended?"

I glanced over to see him watching. His own gear was completely ignored, and he was braced as if ready to shove in if I needed it. He hadn't yet, though. He was letting me handle this my way for once.

So I raised my voice. "Seems the lie Austin fed the press about Tanner being 'gay' means the bullfighters aren't going to be working the arena today."

"The fuck?" Wes huffed. "Isaac and Jorge too?"

It was my father who answered. "None of them. You'll have three alternates. The main crew has been benched. They're up in the stands, since the officials aren't letting Tanner work, and this is the dumb shit who made that happen."

"With these bulls?!" Ty roared. "You'll get just as hurt as the rest of us, Austin. What the fuck are you thinking?"

Yeah, but a few things were starting to add together. "He's thinking he's making friends with the officials. He's working as their little butt-boy or something."

"I may have made a report," Austin said, grinning like he was trying to piss me off more. "Whatcha gonna do about it, Cody?"

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