Page 14

He sat in the saddle, looked over at Dalton, and his body tightened again. That was inconvenient when he was on top of a horse.Down, boy.

“All right. Time to get to work. Bareback riders ho! Have a good event!”

“Yep. Holler if you need me.” He rode Dab out of the arena and turned the big gelding over to Dustin, who’d taken Deb’s place. “Thanks for the loaner.”

“Anytime. Y’all have water and everything?”

“We do. Greg has a rib out. Can you make sure he sees the doc after the show?”

“He can see Doc now. Send him to me.”

“He might hurt me, but I’ll try.” Greg wouldn’t have told him about the rib if it wasn’t scaring him. He figured Greg wanted him to be the one to make a fuss.

“You do that.” Huh. Looked like Dustin was wearing his boss boots just fine.

Tank grinned, then jogged over to Greg and Tony. “Go see Doc. Dustin’s orders.”

“After the bull riding, huh?”

“He says now, buddy. And he’s heading your way.” Tank and Tony both abandoned the man to his fate.

“You’re gonna be in the dog house with him, man.” Tony winked over.

“I already am, I think.” He shrugged. “Was he super fond of Jonah or something?”

“Not that I know of. I mean, they were fine. He was jealous of you, and hell, we make a good team.”

“Ah.” Damn. Greg had never gotten voted to one of the big finals. That sucked, that he wanted it. Still, it wasn’t none of Tank’s.

Not unless Greg made it that way, and he’d already told Tank he could have head bullfighter back.

Maybe they just needed to get to work and have a couple beers tonight. That would get them all back in sync. Wasn’t much a Bud Light couldn’t fix.

In fact, that was the plan. Bulls, beers, bullshit.

He climbed up on the rail to watch the pick-up man work the bronc riding. Just the one. Dalton.

Tank couldn’t believe how the man moved, the horse as much a part of the package as Dalton’s own legs. Lord. He needed to stop thinking about packages.

He was beginning to be a one-trick pony.

The thought had him chuckling. He hopped down and started bending, stretching, trying to keep his head in the game.

“Doc wrapped me up. Says I can work.”

“Good deal.” Tank rose and held out a hand. “Thanks for getting it checked out.”

“Thanks for coming back.” Greg took it, shook.

“I’m tickled.” He pulled up his shorts and showed Greg one of his worst scars, the one around his knee. “Those bulls up there are too damn good.”

“I saw that on the TV. Damn, man.”

“Yeah. I was out for a while.” He knew it was shitty of him, but if he could make Greg understand what the guys up there went through, that jealousy would fade.

“Sucks. We lost Vic Underwood, did you hear? Kicked in the head in Wimberley.”

“Shit. No. I didn’t know.” Holy hell. He would send a card to Anna.