Chapter 29
We headed back up to our room after the impromptu meeting down at the hotel bar.
Then, while I ordered food for the three of us, J.D.
and Tanner got a little personal time together in the shower.
Tanner's excuse was that J.D. needed help so he didn't injure himself, but the sounds I heard?
Yeah, that wasn't hurting either one of them.
I had a feeling what they intended was to talk over how they'd come out to those guys. Or maybe to make sure saying as much as they had tonight wasn't a bad thing. But it sure didn't end that way. Nope, those boys were clearly getting hot and heavy.
And I liked it. This thing between the three of us was starting to get comfortable. We'd basically been living together for a month now, and none of us had cracked. Not when the worst nor the best had happened. Instead, we just kept growing closer and closer.
But next weekend was a gap-week. I knew the Pbr had to schedule events around the locations we used, and sometimes that meant we got a weekend off.
From what the guys had said, we usually got more of these breaks the closer we got to finals.
I had a feeling it was to make sure everyone could heal up, but so far as I cared, the timing couldn't be better.
It gave J.D. just enough time to be able to ride again at his home show.
It also meant we didn't want to lounge around here any longer than we had to, so the next morning, the three of us packed our shit and headed out at an hour I no longer considered decent. No, it wasn't truly early, but ten am was still early for me.
Tanner managed to convince us to have a good breakfast before we got in the truck and started driving. In truth, we all wanted the extra coffee or three. I also wanted the chance to convince them I should drive.
My elbow was basically healed. Sure, if I twisted it hard, I could feel a little twinge. I certainly wouldn't be riding on it anytime soon, but I was perfectly fine to drive. Tanner was too. J.D.? Nope, he was kicked to the backseat. Surprisingly, he didn't have a single problem with it.
That boy had an entire collection of pillows, a whole cooler we filled with drinks, and an assortment of "road food" to pass to us up in the front seat. And as we headed west toward Nashville, there was nothing to do but talk. Mostly, we talked about the strike.
"Ok," J.D. was saying, "I know I keep saying I wanna ride, but if we're striking, then I ain't gonna get on a bull, am I?"
"No, you are not," I told him.
"Cody..." Tanner tried.
"No," I broke in. "Hear me out, ok?" I glanced over to catch him nodding, then looked back to the road.
"According to Jake, the Pbr thinks the wrecks sell seats.
Letting the bulls go without riders doesn't. The one and only thing we have to use against the guys upstairs?
It's pissing off the fans, so if J.D. rides, that ruins everything.
Never mind that it puts him in the same category as Austin, which would piss off the men who are currently on our side. "
"And we need you three back," J.D. said. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I ain't happy about my mama not seeing me get to ride, but I also know she'll understand."
I lifted my eyes to look at him through the rearview mirror. "You know, you could use this to convince her to come to finals. I bet your sister would love a few days in Vegas."
That made him smile, and damn, was that a good look on him. J.D. had this hard thing about him. From the sharp-cut line on his beard to the tattoos across his body, he did not look like a sweet and gentle sort of man. He looked beautifully dangerous, but that smile?
It was the sort that came from the heart. That it was for his mother? I couldn't think of anything more adorable. It was cute enough I had to bite my lips together to keep from giggling at him. Unfortunately, Tanner saw.
"What?" he asked.
"J.D.'s being cute," I said.
So Tanner turned in the passenger seat to see for himself. "What are you doing this time?"
"I didn't do shit!" J.D. insisted.
I decided to change the subject a little. "So, do you think the strike is helping Max or hurting whatever it is he's trying to do? To get Tanner back, I mean. Not his new business."
That made Tanner groan and turn back around to the front. "I think all of this sucks. I know Jorge and Isaac can't go forever without getting paid. I also know the Pbr clearly wants me out, and somehow Austin is all caught up in the middle of that."
"I think Merrill's using him," J.D. said. "Maybe Sousa, but I'm voting for Merrill after the way he snapped at Cody back in Des Moines."
"And Austin keeps bragging that getting us out of the way will give him the chance to finally place well," I told the guys. "I mean, he ended up fourth back in North Carolina, but it's like he just can't believe he's not that good!"
"None of them are," Tanner said. "Casey may have been the best of that group, and he still wasn't that good - not to speak ill of the dead or anything.
And Eli? He's too weak in the core, so he always tips around.
Austin has no technique. The fucker trusts his upper body strength to keep him on the bull. "
"Derek?" I asked.
J.D. scoffed. "If he put in some effort, he could learn, but he ain't been doing this too long.
Three years, I think? He had the money to chase the rodeos, so he got his points by attrition.
And yeah, he's ok, but the sort of 'ok' that needs time to figure out how to keep his chin tucked and not roll back on his pockets. "
"They want it to be easy," I realized.
"Mhm," J.D. agreed, "and this shit ain't easy. That's why it works for some of us. We got a real big fight to work out inside, and the bulls let us fight them. Now, I don't know what everyone's fight is, but I know mine, and I know yours, Cody."
"Ty wanted to make a name for himself," I countered, because that didn't sound like a fight to me.
J.D. grunted like I was missing the obvious.
"Rookie, Ty wanted to prove himself, and that's not the same thing.
See, some men get shit on and think we need to prove it's wrong, that we don't deserve it, and all that.
Others, like Ty? They get it too easy and need to prove they didn't succeed because of their privilege.
They want to make sure they're as much a man as the ones who clawed their way up from nothing. I'm the first. Ty's the second."
"Cody's the first too," Tanner pointed out. "Not a man, but she's proving she deserves this even though the boys shit on her because she sits to pee."
"Do ya?" J.D. teased. "I mean, Cody might be a shower pisser, Tanner. Unless you got a kink I don't know about yet?"
Beside me, Tanner rolled his eyes and lifted his middle finger. "Not that one!"
Which made J.D. cackle. "Well, I ain't that kinky. I mean, unless you count threesomes, and I really don't."
I groaned. "You are not telling your mother that, ok?"
There was a pause for just a little too long. "Which part?" J.D. asked, honestly confused.
"She means the threesomes," Tanner clarified for me.
Which made J.D. chuckle. "Babes, I'm pretty sure my mama can figure that part out on her own. She said we're sharing a room. Don't take a whole lot of thinkin' to put that all together."
"But that's not the same as her knowing about it," I insisted. "I mean, there's a huge difference between 'in theory' and giving her details!"
J.D. murmured in that way that made me think he didn't really agree, but also wasn't going to fight me on this.
Instead, he shifted a few pillows so he could lean into the corner behind me.
That made it easier for him to see Tanner, but didn't move him so far sideways that he wasn't still visible in the mirror.
For a while, we drove on. Sometimes, we talked about the Pbr, but so many other things came up. Silly things, like favorite car colors, which led to the types of trucks we all liked most. Mostly, it was just travel talk. The sort of easy conversation that made the hours fly by.
But when the sun started to go down, J.D. shifted again, sitting up so he could see both of us. "So..." he said. "Y'all ain't scared of dogs, are ya?"
"You have a dog?" Tanner asked.
"I got one for my mama," J.D. explained. "Her name's Blue, and she's a blue heeler, but I also had her trained to keep them safe."
One more time, I was biting my lips together to keep from grinning at how adorable this man was. "So, you got a farm dog for a guard dog?"
"Shit," J.D. mumbled. "Cody, those heelers like to work. She'll even herd Isabella if my mama needs her to. And it don't look weird at all for them to have a good farm dog. Not like they got a Rottweiler or something. Mama won't have a gun in the house, so I had to do something."
Tanner leaned toward me a bit, but he didn't lower his voice when he said, "He's cute."
"I know, right?" I asked just as the GPS announced I needed to exit soon.
That was when J.D. started talking a little more. "And they both know all about you two. I don't keep secrets from my family, Cody. It never worked out too well for me, and Isabella is smart as shit, so she always figures it out."
"He's nervous," I told Tanner as I eased the truck off the highway, checking to see which way I turned next.
"Right at the stop sign," J.D. told me, sitting up so he could lean between the seats.
I turned the way he pointed and started looking around at the land we were passing through. This wasn't the sort of farmland I was used to. No, this was flatter and much more lush. It also didn't have crops.
On my left was a field full of cows. On the right? Those were horses, and quite a few of them. Set well back off the road were things that only barely counted as houses. Mansions was probably a better term.
"I am getting the impression we just entered the wealthy part of Tennessee," Tanner said.