I flick my gaze to the countdown clock.
Six seconds.
Hold on, Hadley.
The bull cranks up the pace, throwing Hadley off his seat.
I press the shoot button capturing the airborne cowboy before he plummets back down to the bull’s back.
The buzzer pieces the air with its nasal tone, and the crowd are on their feet for Hadley for the second time tonight.
“Yes!” I jump back up to my feet.
Hadley’s still strapped to the back of the bull. His gaze tracks to me instantly, fear flooding his dark eyes.
I raise the camera to snap another sneaky sho?—
“Move!” Logan is hauling me toward the rail.
I’m jostled, hugging my camera as we make the rail. The animal launches toward us, Hadley now hanging from his side.
“No!” Fear snakes down my spine. Stunned and motionless, it isn’t until the bull is almost on me, Hadley gripping his hung-up hand, yelling at me to move, that I scramble up the rails.
I look to Logan.
He flies in by Hadley’s side, moving with the bull as Hadley starts to weaken, his body being tossed with every duck and turn.
Logan has him out a second later, and the two remaining bullfighters guide Terminator back to the return gate.
Hadley stands, head hanging, in the center of the arena. Logan is talking to him as he pats him on the back. Hadley’s holding his rope arm as he removes his helmet and raises it in the air. The crowd cheers ecstatically.
The very first man to ride Terminator.
Despite the dramatic dismount, he did it.
Waving to the crowd, he glances at me before walking back to the return gate. I’ve never been so happy for someone else in my life.
And it had to be a bull rider.
The exact type of man I swore I’d never befriend. But that’s exactly what happened. Somewhere along this gritty, lonely circuit, Hadley Jones and I became friends.
Snuggled up on my bunk in Betsy, I sift through the photos from tonight. It’s well past midnight, and I should really catch some sleep. But Hadley will need his bedroll and bag, and I don’t want to leave it out for some lowlife to steal... So, I’m still up.
That’s what friends are for, right?
I yawn, covering my mouth as I delete another bunch of images not up to spec.
A soft knock rattles the van, and I look up with bleary eyes to find a black cowboy hat, brown eyes, and a wide smile. He slips the hat from his head, nodding in way of hello.
“Hey, Hadley.”
“Busy still?”
“Yeah, I need to send these to the circuit people and?—”
I stop mid-sentence, remembering Levi’s under-the-radar plan to supply extra images to the PBR scouts. I roll my lips tighter and morph it into a half smile.
“Sorry, you want me to leave you be?” He turns his hat in his hands, dark eyes pinning me where I stand.
