For the first time, we got to introduce ourselves. The reactions of the fans? They shot to their feet, cheering. I spotted Isabella and Maria easily. Isaac made sure I knew which one was Wes's husband. A few other people were pointed out, like Rhaven and Braden, and then we paused for the prayer.
The real fun came as we waited for the bulls to be loaded and the first rider to strap on. The three of us clustered up, making our plan, but Cletus was liking this new microphone thing a little too much.
"So, our Deviant Rescue Squad down there is plotting something. Y'all gonna share?"
"You're up," Jorge told me.
So I stepped over and looked at the crowd. "Well, our job is to make sure those riders get a good ride, and make it out of the arena safely. To do this, we use a triangle of protection. That means one of us is always in position to handle the bull's head if anything goes wrong, and someone else can direct the haunches."
"Ass," Isaac muttered beside me, flashing me a grin. Thankfully, his mic was off!
"We also need to know the rider's style, and who's up first today?" I turned to check the scoreboard.
"That would be our first rider from Brazil," Cletus told me. "Luiz Oliviera!"
"So," I said, gesturing for where Jorge and Isaac needed to be, "we'll start off giving him space, but the moment we see something going wrong, we start closing in, making sure we are there for the save if he needs us."
"You better!" the man in the chute called out.
He had a Brazilian accent, but his English was damned good. Considering I'd never heard him talk before, I was a little surprised. Probably shouldn't have been, but half those guys only spoke Portuguese, even when they did understand English.
"See, he already knows us well," I joked. And the fans laughed.
But Luiz came out hard - and tilted. It wasn't really the best exposure for this guy, but I could see he wasn't even trying. Twobucks in, and he was down, his rope so loose it had only barely been secured.
The next guy came out nice and solid, but it didn't take long before he was flopping all over. When he got punted off the hip at 3.8 seconds, it gave him the distance to be well away from the bull. We got the animal turned for the gate easily, then I scooped up the rider's rope and headed back to see Sonny dusting himself off.
"Nice catapult," I said as I passed it over.
But he looked up with a grin. "We decided to see how hard this is without tying in."
"What?!" That made no sense.
"The bull rope," Sonny said. "Tight, right? Well, what's the difference between a regular wrap and a suicide wrap?"
"How many times you go around your hand to keep it tight."
He nodded, that grin getting bigger. "What do you call it if we don't go around our hands at all? Just lay the tail in and hold tight?"
"Stupid," I replied.
And he cackled. "Today's a good day for being stupid, huh, Tanner?"
"Guess so," I told him, watching as he jogged back to the gate to get out.
But if these guys weren't wrapping their ropes? Yeah, that all but guaranteed they'd get bucked off early.
The next few riders hit the dirt fast. Twice, I had to shoot the gap to keep the bull from stepping on them. Once, the beast tried anyway, but Jorge shoved at the hip. Isaac managed the head, and I shoved the rider the way he needed to go.
And after each one, we took turns explaining to the crowd what was going on. They were loving it, and the announcer even started joining in, asking us why the rides weren't making eight.
"Cowboy logic," I told the crowd. "Seems our boys down here have a little dare going on. They wanna see who's good enough to ride without a wrap. That means their arms are all but useless - but it's going to make one hell of a show for us!"
"And a whole lot of running around to keep them in one piece," Isaac added, which made the fans laugh.
Again, then again, we ducked, dodged, and turned the cattle. Over and over, the riders came off fast, and long before the buzzer. The no scores were stacking up, but this time, the fans were loving it.
And then Jaxon climbed onto his bull. He made a production of standing up and saluting the crowd first. They loved it, screaming back in enthusiasm, which made the pause for him to strap in feel a lot shorter.
