Ten minutes later, he found me. I was watching the other competitors ride, cringing whenever someone got thrown. He’d changed out of his gear and into normal clothes, his bag hanging from one shoulder.
“Let’s go,” he said.
“So soon?”
“Got lucky and rode first. We can beat the traffic if we leave now.”
“Don’t you want to stay and watch the rest?”
He shrugged. “Nothing I can do about it from the stands. I’ll check the results on the road.”
He was already moving. I quickly grabbed my handbag and fell in step beside him. Without missing a beat, he headed straight for the parking lot like the rest of the rodeo didn’t matter anymore.
We loaded up and pulled out of the grounds, the roar of the crowd fading behind us.
Twenty minutes later, we stopped at a drive-through outside Cody. He ordered two burgers, fries, and two coffees like my opinion wasn’t required.
I didn’t argue. Mostly because he’d picked exactly what I would’ve gotten anyway, which somehow annoyed me more.
The mountains had faded into shades of purple, the last traces of daylight disappearing behind them. Brock picked up his phone from the cupholder, unlocked it one-handed, and scrolled for a few seconds.
He set it back down.
“Third,” he said.
“That’s good, right?”
“It’s fine.”
It wasn’t fine. I could see it in the way his thumb tapped the steering wheel twice, then went still.
“Two guys barely beat you,” I said. “That’s not nothing.”
“It’s third.”
“It’s prize money.”
He glanced over at me. “Since when do you know about prize money?”
“Since I spent a week researching you.”
He didn’t answer, but his grip on the wheel eased up a little.
The road stretched out empty and dark ahead of us. Headlights cut a narrow tunnel through the night while the radio played nothing but static. Neither of us bothered turning it off.
“Can I ask you something?” I said.
“You’re gonna anyway.”
“You just walked out of your own event early. You didn’t even wait to see the final standings.”
“That bother you?”
“It confuses me. You’re really good at this, but it doesn’t seem like you actually enjoy it.”
“I like ridin’ fine.”
“Fine?”
