Page 105 of Jump Back On

"Come in," said a man in a crisp white shirt which said Doctor on the back. "Mr. Jennings, I'm guessing?"

"Dean," I said, moving in to check on Cody. "Hey, kiddo. How bad is it?"

She scoffed. "Torn elbow. It's just my left, though. Right's fine."

"Your daughter," the doctor said, picking up some contraption before heading back, "seems to think she can tape her injured arm and ride with her right hand."

"Hell, she rode most of her life right-handed," I pointed out. "Only went left a few years ago."

"And this is the PBR's top series," the doctor countered. "Those bulls will take advantage of a weakness, imbalance, or anything else."

"Dad..." Cody whined. "Tell him I can do it?"

"Do you think you can do it?" I asked her. "Cody Lane, I don't want no bullshit. Do you really think you can hold onto those monsters out there with the hand you haven't been using?"

She just lifted her right arm and flexed. "Yep. I punched Austin with this one earlier, and he almost went down, so I think I'm good to hang on."

Ok, I had to give it to her, that was a pretty good way to judge. My only real worry was that the doctor didn't seem quite as convinced.

"Is there a problem with her right arm?" I asked.

The man stepped in and started fitting a brace to Cody's arm. "No. Her right arm is completely fine. The problem..." He secured a piece of Velcro. "Cody, can you lift your arm up for me?"

"Sure," she said.

And she did, but I definitely saw the way she winced. It wasn't just her elbow that was hurting. The whole thing had taken a beating. Maybe the elbow hurt worse, but keeping her free arm out of the way was going to be hard if her body wanted to hold it close.

"Hurts, kiddo?" I asked.

She pressed her lips together. "Dad, I have to. If I don't ride tomorrow, they're going to say I'm too small, too fragile, too girly, or too something else to do this."

"Does it hurt?" I demanded. "I don't want no lip from you. I wanna know what we're working with. I'm still your coach, right?"

"You ride?" the doctor asked.

"Used to," I admitted. "Up until I got her, mostly. Played around a bit after that, but nothing serious."

"How serious?" the doctor asked. "Back when you were, I mean."

"Stayed on Bodacious for two seconds," I told him.

The doctor nodded, proving he knew the sport as well as his patients. "Well, she's got a pretty significant tear to the tendon at the back of her elbow. That means she's got no pulling strength, and won't for a while. Four to six weeks, I'm guessing, and that'sifshe takes care of it."

"She'll take care of it," I promised. "Won't ya, Cody?"

"J.D. will make me," she grumbled.

Doc laughed. "Yeah, I have a feeling he will."

"And Tanner will help," I told her.

"He'll take care of both of us," Cody swore. "Tanner's amazing like that."

I quickly glanced over at the doctor, who was still fussing with her brace. The man was simply smiling at her, but he didn't say a thing about her guys. Good, because the last thing I needed was someone judging her on what she did in her free time. If the boys could do it - whatever it was - then so could Cody, and I didn't care how many years this man had spent in med school. If he had a problem with it, I'd hit him until that monster man pulled me off.

So I cleared my throat. "Cody, how you gonna keep your arm out of the way if it's hurting you bad?"

She lifted her head and looked right in my eyes. "It's eight seconds. Eight. I'm more worried about how to pull the tail when I'm done, but I was gonna talk to Tanner about that."

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