Chapter 22 #2
The questions were super easy to answer, ranging from “Are you having a good time?” to “How did you get into bullriding?”
All things that were easy enough to talk about, honestly.
At the end of it, Xander held out his hand, “I really appreciate this; it’s great.”
“No worries, mate. None at all.”
He got a thumbs-up, and then the guy was gone.
Sterling chuckled under his breath, eyes on the arena floor. “You just made his whole day.”
“He’s a sweetheart, and you can tell he really wants to move up in the world of broadcasting. I have to say it’s nice when an interviewer is respectful, asks the questions that he says he was going to ask, and then gets up and out so that I can watch the bullriding.”
Sterling glanced at him. “There you go. I’ll make sure that the powers that be know he did a good job.”
“That would be great because he did. And I don’t think people get enough credit for that.” He winked, but his eyes were glued now to Dawes now that the lights were up and they were loading the first bullrider.
Dawes and Davi took up positions on either side of the chute, with Deuce taking the spot out in the arena floor.
The cowboy nodded, and the gate swung open.
Everybody went to work, and it was such a complicated dance.
The choreography was just stunning. The bull was so fucking athletic, and the cowboy clung to its back like a limpet.
Dawson and Davi were right where they were supposed to be.
Everybody held their breath, and the buzzer hit eight seconds, and that was that.
Seamus started to applaud, but then he noticed Sterling’s face turning into a frown.
“What the fuck? Get off, kid.”
The cowboy was yanking at his rope, and Seamus could read the stress in the lines of his body.
Sterling stood. “Come on. Come on kid. Get off. Dawes, get him off!”
Dawes ran right up into the well, turning with the bull and pulling out one of those knives firemen used to cut a seatbelt with before he sliced the bull rope in a single, quick motion.
The cowboy went one way, and Dawes went the other. Deuce waded right in and tugged the bull’s horn in time to distract if from Dawes. Then the safety man roped him, and that was that.
“Woo exciting.” His heart was going ninety to nothing.
“I hate it when they hang up like that. It’s a shitshow.” Sterling scowled, arms folded across his chest. “Always makes me crazy because Dawson is the one who has to go in there and do it. Davi would end up catching someone’s finger, and Deuce isn’t experienced enough.”
“Damn.” Seamus took his head. “I can tell I’m not gonna like watching that all the time.”
“Yeah, thankfully it only happens maybe one out of every fifty times. Maybe a hundred.”
One of the ladies who were sitting not too far behind them came down and nudged Sterling with her elbow. “You see that shitshow?”
Seamus had to bite back a smile because her language was exactly like Sterling’s.
“Yes, ma’am, I did. Your husband got hung up, but good.”
Oh, shit. This was the wife of the cowboy who’d gotten caught in the rope. He thought it was hard to watch Dawes do that. It had to be a nightmare to watch her spouse do it from the back of a bull instead of the arena floor where he could do something.
“Well, Dawson did a good job. I appreciate it. If I don’t get to see him, you tell him?”
“I will Brit. You can count on it.”
She glanced at Seamus with a little bit of speculation in her gaze. “Nice to meet you. I’ve seen some of your movies.”
“Thank you. It’s always good to hear. I’m glad it looks like your husband is going to be fine.”
She shook her head. “He’s always getting hung up. It’s the way he does his bull rope. Keep telling him he’s gotta fix that shit.” She turned around and trudged back up the stairs.
Seamus was learning more about bullriding these last few weekends than he’d learned in his whole life, even with his dad as a fantastic sort of teacher.
“That has to be hard,” he murmured to Sterling. “Watching somebody do that more than once.”
Sterling glanced over his shoulder and lowered his voice. “The boy’s a little light in the brains department.”
Seamus sputtered, trying not to crack up laughing. “She sure seems to think so, anyway.”
“Yeah, he’s a lucky man. She’s going to stick with him no matter what.”
The next bull got loaded, and the next gate got pulled, and Seamus went back to watching Dawson on the floor.
He loved the way that body moved. Loved the way Dawes seemed to be able to anticipate what the bull was going to do, and if he couldn’t, he figured it out real quick and put himself in position.
He and Davi were a seamless sort of team, with Deuce working out really well, but he could tell Deuce was not as used to this groove as the other two were.
It would take time. He knew. Because it had to be like working with the same director or the same set of actors over and over again doing a show rather than a movie. A guy learned the cast, and before long, they were all sunk deep into each other, doing some exceptional work.
Unfortunately, in TV, that was usually when the show got cancelled.
Good thing he couldn’t see that happening with him and Dawes.