“Then we’re solid.” Beau kissed him one more time, lingering some, teeth worrying Sam’s lower lip.
Solid. That was them. Damn Sam.
Chapter Five
Sam studied the pasture, chewed on his bottom lip. This was fucking crazy. Crazy. God knew that he loved Coke Pharris to death and trusted the man with his life, but…
Blind men didn’t ride bulls.
“You’re thinkin’ loud, Poot.”
“Hopefully not loud enough that Jason can hear me.” He glanced over at Beau. “This is fucked up.”
“I know it. We’ll just have to watch him ride. I told him we wasn’t gonna blow smoke up his ass.” Beau nodded, that determined face set in place.
“Okay, but…” He just didn’t see it. “You think Pharris has lost his mind?”
“No.” Beau shook his head. “Coke is solid as a rock. Hell, Andy is scared but going through with it. That must mean he’s got a seat on him.”
“Boug, the man cain’tsee.”
“Well, I know that! Didn’t I sit with him the whole time you was getting tipsy with Andy?” Beau clapped him on the back. “We’ll play it by ear.”
He rolled his eyes, shook his head. Nothing fazed that little son of a bitch, not really. It was bizarre.
“Anyway, Missy looked better, so if nothing else, it was worth it for that, huh?”
“Yeah, I reckon. You know which bull we should load?”
“I think the little brown one. Andy says he’s about a three. Not rank, not a baby. Ought to give us a good baseline.” Beau nodded toward the farthest pen.
“You got it.” He hopped down off the fence and headed over. “Nice place Aje has here. You’d think he was a bullrider.”
“No shit. I mean, if I had a set-up like this, I could be a champion.”
Sammy snorted, grinned as he heard Beau following him. “No shit. You might learn a thing or two…”
“You always got something to teach me, Poot.” Something in Beau’s voice made him glance back. Someone was watching his ass.
He let it move a little, side to side, for about half a second before he gave that up and climbed the chutes. There were four little bulls that they’d drawn up in the back, milling around, lowing.
They loaded all of them to the chutes. AJ had four, which was almost as big as the standard three on three arena. Damn nice set-up. Maybe the kid could start a school when he was done with the circuit. Missy’d prob’ly like that a lot. AJ home all the time, money coming in. Yeah.
Andy hooted at them from the rail across the way. “Y’all ready?”
“There’s a bull here. You got a rope?”
He watched Jason move across the pasture, seeming damn normal.
“Yep. We’re rarin’ to go.” Andy was sounding all cheerful but with this serious frown on.
“Good deal. You coming from the front or the back, Jase?”
Those empty eyes swiveled toward him. “I’ve been practicing from the back, just like at an event.”
“Well, good deal.” Beau just sounded like him, and Sammy could see that his Cajun wasn’t gonna let this get to him. “What do you need?”
“Someone pull rope, someone on the other side, like always. Bax’ll be in the arena this time.”
