Page 17 of Buck This (Battle of the Bulls #6)

Torrey didn’t know where to stand.

No, it was more than that. She didn’t know where she belonged in this kind of chaos.

People were pushing her farther and farther to the side, and right now, Buck This was being swarmed by the pretty girls in crop tops and cowgirl boots, and short shorts. Most of them looked like they could be models on a runway, and here was Torrey, standing off to the side, feeling out of place.

Girl after girl asked for pictures with Buck This, and after a half an hour, he seemed to get into a rhythm with it all. He was smiling more, and talking easily, and joking, and making them laugh.

And as the minutes had ticked by, Torrey’s excitement calmed, and then withered.

This would be his life. This was his life.

This would be every time he bucked well from here on out with the guidance of Quickdraw, and she would be back home in her small, steady life, feeding her feral cats and following Buck This’s journey on the television. She would be one of his fans.

He would settle down someday with one of these women. She could see it so easily in the beautiful pictures they took. He would be on a hundred Instagram stories tonight, while she was just…Torrey. They matched his lifestyle, while she did not.

“They’re called buckle bunnies,” a familiar voice said beside her.

Reece wore a grim expression as she watched Buck This taking a selfie with a trio of sisters that all wore matching T-shirts of his.

“Hi,” she greeted her friend cooly.

“Cobalt will have thirty on him tonight too as soon as he’s dressed. It is the hardest part of all this for me.”

“You were a little much last night,” Torrey said softly.

Reece shrugged. “We’re all a little much sometimes.”

If that was an apology, it was the worst one in history.

“Buck isn’t mine, so he can do what he wants with however many…buckle bunnies…he wants. It’s none of my business.”

“Mmm, I saw you tonight. You were leading him right into the chute. I saw the excitement in your eyes. Do you know they showed you again on the jumbotron right after he bucked. I saw the way you were looking at him. Your heart was in your eyes. It happens like that, and then poof, you are pulled into the life, and your old life is unreachable. Just…” She snapped her fingers. “Bam, and you’re different.”

“I can’t afford to let a man change me,” she uttered low.

“Why not?”

“You know why not.” Reece had been there in the aftermath of her divorce. She’d seen her go down hard. Falling for Buck This was a one-way ticket to that feeling again, only this time she was wiser and had more life experience.

Her heart couldn’t afford the rebuild again.

“He’s not exactly a safe bet,” Reece told her.

“Thanks for the sage advice.”

“Do you want to ride with me back to the hotel? Or are you too good to hang out with me still?” The bitterness in Reece’s tone angered Torrey.

“You think I am too good to hang out? After you ditched me for your new friends?”

“Who ditched who? You’re all over the jumbotron with the enemy.”

“The enemy?”

“It’s bulls versus riders, Torrey. You know what? Forget it. If you don’t understand that without me having to explain it to you, you aren’t the friend I thought you were. You sure changed fast,” Reece said, backing away.

Torrey wanted to call her out. She wanted to explain to her just how distant she’d felt since Reece had met Cobalt, and now Reece was giving her shit for being distant for one day?

When Reece hadn’t even wanted to sit with her in the bleachers?

She really wanted to call it out, but in this moment, she realized Reece wasn’t ready to hear it, and until she was, Torrey would only be met with defensiveness.

“He’ll probably fuck three of them tonight,” Reece said cruelly. “That’s what the bull shifters do. They buck to fuck. That’s the saying. Everyone knows it. You’ll just be another notch on his belt in some town he won’t remember in three months.”

Oh, it stung. Oh, it stung so freaking bad. That last word Reece just had to get in, taking a jab at something Torrey was already growing an insecurity for…it hurt.

Reece had always been self-involved, but she’d never been cruel like this before.

When Torrey looked at Buck This again, his eyes were locked on her. Are you okay? he mouthed.

“Yeah,” she lied. “I’m going to get a drink.” Really she just needed to get away from the crushing crowd and her spinning thoughts.

“What?” he asked, cupping his ear to hear her over the noise.

She pointed to the autograph section and mimed taking a drink.

He gave her the thumbs up and said something to Raven, who was standing nearby.

Immediately, she moved toward Torrey with a big old smile on her lips. “You ready?”

“Did he send you to babysit me?” she asked, feeling low.

“What? No. You don’t need a babysitter. He asked me to see if you needed anything and to tell you he’s about to quit the circuit completely if he has to take, and I quote, ‘One more goddamn selfie.’ He’s going to meet us at the truck.”

“Sounds good.”

“Hey, are you okay?” Raven asked.

“Oh yeah. Just tired.”

“It was a long day,” she agreed. “A good one, but a long one.”