His answer was accompanied by a sneaky kiss to her neck. “Just hang on. It’s only eight seconds; keep it simple.”
Simple. How could any tangle with an eighteen-hundred-pound bucking bull be simple?
Her palms grew sweaty when Logan’s named blared from the speakers. A favorite classic rock song played at his introduction, the same song they’d play when the gate opened and he shot out of the chute on a fierce bull. Abull.
“That’s Logan!” Izzy pointed to the big screen. “Number one!”
“That’s right, he’s ranked number one,” Mom said. And thankfully so. Abbie wasn’t sure she was capable of actual words until the event concluded. “That means he’s the best.”
Logan scanned the crowd, but the sun shone into the eyes of the lined-up riders; it didn’t seem he’d spotted her in the stands.
The years they spent together flashed through her mind. He had been prepping to be a bull rider since he was old enough to walk. She went to rodeo after rodeo when they were teenagers, and though he suffered sprained and broke bones and once even punctured a lung, never once was she afraid he’d be hurt beyond fixing.
“Don’t think about it, Abbs,” Mom said. “It won’t do any good.”
It was too late. Her mind raced with her worst fears. It would take all her willpower not to leave the arena. But she couldn’t stay in her seat. She jumped up. “Who wants ice cream?”
“Meeeee!” Izzy cried instantly.
“I’ll be right back with some.” She practically ran before Izzy asked to come with her.
Chapter 18
Logan
Logan walked along the bullpens in the back holding area, stopping to lean on a fence railing. He searched for the black and white spotted bull that had changed the entire course of his life.Tornado. He repeated the ritual every event, but what he hoped to gain, he couldn’t quite say.
He was prepared to ride Tornado tonight, but the draw said otherwise. He’d been ready for months, and that almost made it worse. Made him antsy for something outside his control. No other bull fazed him, but Tornado wasn’t just another bull.
He’d been waiting for three years—one spent broken and healing, two competing—to beat the bull that nearly killed him. Tornado robbed him of his life, turning everything upside down after that ugly ride.
Knowing Abbie still cared about him made him feel invincible. He didn’t doubt he could ride eight seconds tonight, not at all. If he could face the bull this weekend, maybe he’d recoup most of what he lost.
“Chase got him,” one of the other bull riders, Cole, said to him, joining him at the fence.
Tornado had been known to hurt more than a few riders bad enough to hospitalize them. It was a miracle he hadn’t killed any of them. “Wish I could trade him,” he responded. Chase was a young kid, with a young family. A lot to risk for such a fierce bull.
Logan had drawn Storm Warning, a good bull that liked to spin. He’d scored well the two different times he drew him before. But it wasn’t Tornado.
“There’s still tomorrow.”
“True enough.” They chatted a few minutes about the muddy arena, the bulls, Cole’s family back in Arkansas. Then Cole excused himself, leaving him alone once again outside the pen of bulls. Tornado turned his head in his direction. The familiar, crazy glimmer filled those untamed eyes.
“Why is Tornado such a tough bull?” Abbie had asked during their earlier interview session. He had to hand it to her, she kept her emotions in check. Especially since she tried to get Tornado stricken from the association after Logan was hospitalized. But the bull would have to do a whole lot worse to be removed from the roster before his planned retirement date.
“He averages a ninety-percent or better buck-off rate every season, for one,” he answered, and waited for her to jot down some notes about it. “No matter how few or how many rides he has, most never last more than two seconds.”
“So, to draw him is to basically accept you’re not going to score?”
“No one ever accepts that they’ll be bucked off, but I think with Tornado the nagging fear is a little more prominent. And if you get bucked off, you gotta run. Tornado has a bad habit of chasing his riders to exact his revenge.”
He wished Abbie was here tonight to watch him, like old times. Though bull riding would always be a part of who he was no matter what life had in store for him, it felt more special when she was a part of it all. But he’d be devastated if anything happened to Gus in their absence.
He pushed away from the fence, his gaze lingering on Tornado as he walked away.
Judith and Izzy were supposed to come watch him tonight. He searched the crowd earlier, but the sun had been glaring right in his eyes when he attempted to find them in the VIP section. Since his ride was the second to last of tonight’s round, he decided now was as good a time as any to say hello.
He weaved his way through the crowd, keeping a brisk pace and avoiding eye contact with anyone who turned his way. The fans were part of the package deal, but tonight, he couldn’t handle the extra attention. Luckily, most of the media hadn’t been allowed in the VIP section tonight. Tomorrow, they were expected to be crawling everywhere. A feeling of what he suspected was relief coursed through him at the thought of retiring and settling down.
