Page 31 of The Wildest Ride

“Don’t make me be the one to deliver bad news to your mama.”

AJ frowned. It wasn’t the first time he’d heard the line. Henry Bowman had no qualms about hitting below the belt. But there was a new weight to it. A truth to the statement that demanded he take his mentor seriously. He could get hurt out there.

“Honestly, I didn’t think it’d even work.” AJ nodded toward Diablo as he echoed his words. “Ithought I was out of this one. There was something wrong with that horse. More than just a bad draw.”

The Old Man shrugged. “They’ll find it, if so. Let’s get back to the hotel.” He was never one for wasting time in speculation.

AJ raised an eyebrow. “Maybe I got plans with Lil Sorrow.”

Henry snorted. “Not while you’re riding for CityBoyz, you don’t.”

Diablo laughed, “Uh-oh, AJ. Under The Old Man’s rules again.”

Henry shot Diablo a sharp look out of the corner of his eye. “You’re too old for that nonsense, too. A couple of geezers acting like little boys, if you ask me...”

AJ laughed this time. “You would deny me my shot at true love?”

Henry’s slap stung AJ’s back, reminding him that The Old Man wasn’t too old to lay him on his ass. “Don’t see any evidence oftrue loveanymore, do you? Besides, you’ll see her again soon. She’s going to be right above you on that podium in the next half an hour or so. In case you missed it.”

AJ started. In all that had happened since the chute had opened, he had missed his score.

He couldn’t recall that ever happening before.

Implied, along with a mild cackle, in The Old Man’s words was the fact that he hadn’t beat Lil’s score. AJ’s ride had been the finale of the night. He had time for a quick post-ride physical and to spruce up before it was time for announcements and closing up.

If what The Old Man said was true, it would be the first time he wasn’t at the top in over ten years. The knowledge had a familiar thrill surging through his blood, even as the pathway was rusty. For the first time in a long time, he had some real competition.

With an unrepentant grin, AJ asked, “So what did it all come down to?”

The Old Man sounded amused, a joke hiding in his smooth baritone: “Ninety-six points.”

One point less than Lil Sorrow.

CityBoyz was out rodeo’s one and only Lil Sorrow as a coach. For now.

Because, just like her place in the number one spot, things at the rodeo had a way of changing quick, and AJ wasn’t known for giving up.

8

Lil tried to push through the crowd since crying and self-immolation were neither in her nature nor scope of abilities, but as she navigated toward the exit, the crowd pressed her back, coagulating from an amorphous blob into a sea of people pointing mics and cameras at her.

Each and every one of them wanted to know one thing: “What’s the story with you and AJ Garza?”

She could ask the same thing and, in fact, had been on a manic loop since running away, which made her both a fool and a coward. That she had no more idea of the answer than the reporters surrounding her didn’t make things any better. What in the hell had she been thinking, kissing AJ Garza in front of God and everyone?

That she’d been caught up in the moment—thrilling and thunderous after the unexpected agony of watching his near miss—that it had swept her up in a whirlwind of the sounds of the rodeo swirling around them and the thrill of the ride still high in both their veins, each of them keenly invested in the other’s rush, in the other’s utter union with everything that was rodeo, their bodies pulsing as they met, crashing into one another head-on like two raging bulls,thatwas unconscionable. Completely unacceptable.

“Are you friends?”

“Lovers?”

“Enemies?”

Shaking her head, Lil tried to sift through the battering of questions, grasping for something she could hold on to, anything, so she didn’t blurt out something disastrous like,No, I’ve just idolized him since I was fourteen.

Anything other than that, because it couldn’t be that. That was worse than wearing a junior champion buckle to a pro rodeo.

It was the intensity of the night—the brawl, her own ride, her wildest dreams coming true, AJ’s dramatic ride—all of it had carried her away in the moment, swept aside her steady clear sight and common sense. It could not have been the fact that, as impossible as it seemed, when their eyes had connected, her blood still singing with his incredible turnaround, the entire arena had melted away, leaving them in a world of just two.