Page 18

Ava

T here has never been anyone more bored than me.

For the second time, my start date has been pushed back.

Some hospitals are notoriously slow at the hiring process, and this one is no exception because what was supposed to be four weeks is almost eight weeks now.

Erin has been busy for the last month, and Mav has been a rodeoing machine.

So, it’s just been me and breakfast with Mabel, which I thoroughly enjoy.

The boys are usually gone when I make it to the house.

And the horses. I didn't ever think cleaning horse shit would be my idea of fun, but it’s better than sitting alone in the house.

I’m used to being busy. I’ve worked multiple jobs and gone to school most of my life.

Sitting at home, alone, with nowhere to be is killing me.

Cleaning stalls and feeding doesn’t take up enough of my day.

This cabin feels smaller and smaller every day.

I seriously need to get out of here and off this ranch, even if only for a day.

An idea pops into my head, one I am sure will get turned down, but it’s worth a try. And though I hold myself in very high regard, I am even willing to knock myself down a few pegs by begging.

I throw on a hoodie and a pair of shoes to sit with Mav on the front porch. He drinks his coffee there most mornings, and when it’s not too cold, he spends some downtime out there, too. I think he likes the quiet and time to himself more than he realizes .

Swinging the front door open, I feel the chill seep in through my hoodie.

Maybe I should have thrown on a coat instead.

Mav sits on the rocking chair, and I go sit on the one next to him.

He smiles at me as he waits for me to say something, but now that I’m here, I am not sure how to ask.

I hate asking for things. This isn’t a big thing, but it’s still something.

“Your rodeo this weekend, is it one that’s close by or far away?” I keep my eyes off him, looking at the pine trees. April showers aren’t a thing here, but April blizzards are. It’s almost May, and you would never know spring was in sight if you looked around.

“It’s about two hours from here. Why?” When I look at him, he looks at me suspiciously, mostly because I don’t usually ask a whole lot of questions.

I just ask if he’s okay when he walks through the front door, and then follow that up with a ‘well, did you win?’ Most times, the answer is yes.

He’s damn good at what he does. It occurs to me that maybe I should tell him that, but then again, his ego is the size of the state of Texas.

I’m sure people tell him all the time how amazing he is.

“Well, I was wondering if I could tag along?” I ask, my voice not quite sounding as confident as I had hoped.

His rocking halts. “You want to come with me and the team to a rodeo?”

With a shrug of my shoulders, I say, “Sure, I’ve only seen the one, but that was pretty fun. You know, the cows and the horses and stuff.”

“You’ve lived with me for almost three months and you still don’t know jack shit about the rodeo.”

“I know you ride the bull for eight seconds. So I do know some things, thank you very much.”

“Well, I’d love to teach you more, but I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

My face falls with his quick dismissal. “What? Why not? ”

“With all my endorsements, we’re trying to hide the fact I married a girl I met in Vegas. My manager is worried it will damper my image.”

I scoff. “I think your playboy antics dampened your image long before I arrived.”

“If this is how you convince me to let you come, you’re doing a piss poor job at it.”

“Look, I’ll stay completely out of sight.

They won’t even know who I am. I’ll stay in the background with your team.

I need to get out of this cabin, Mav. I am going to lose my freaking mind.

I had a whole conversation with a cow the last time you were gone, a freaking cow!

” My chest is almost heaving by the time I get my rant out, and Mav is loving every second.

His cheeks, rosy from the cold, pull up as he smiles.

“Did the cow talk back?”

“I hate you. Please, let me get out of here. All of my friends are busy. I just need a little space from the cabin and to see people.”

“Are you begging me right now?”

“Yes.” As much as my very sensitive pride hates it, I am begging.

“Some people even beg on their knees.” The mischievous smile on his face shows exactly what image is going through his mind, and I hate that my body comes alive with it. The chill that was suddenly there is gone, replaced by the flicker of a starting fire in my core. He is the worst.

Keeping my expression neutral, I say, “I’m sure you’d love that, but I'm not quite that desperate. I’ll find Betty again and chat her ear off.”

“Betty?” He quirks an eyebrow up at me.

My head sassily tips to the side. “That’s what I named the cow. ”

He lets out a breath. “Jesus. Okay, fine. You can come. Doug is going to have my ass for it. Lay low and try not to bring any attention to yourself, alright?”

I pop out of my chair, run over and lean down to give him a hug. Thank God. I’ll finally be leaving. The ranch is beautiful, but I need some change of scenery.

Mav laughs and pats my back before I pull away. “Thank you. I promise I won’t be any trouble.”

“Go pack, we have to leave in an hour. Weston is coming, too. We’re going to have to share a room, but I’ll see if I can switch us to a double bedroom.”

I share a shoebox-sized cabin with him on the regular, I am sure we can handle sharing a hotel.

I skip into the cabin, which suddenly doesn’t feel so suffocating anymore, knowing I will soon be leaving it. As fast as I can, I shove everything in my bag and get ready to hit the road.

We pull up to the arena and it looks much different than the last rodeo I was at.

For starters, we go straight to the back.

There’s trailers, trucks, and cowboys galore.

Erin would love this. Maybe someday, I can talk Mav into letting both of us come, but then I wouldn’t be able to promise not to find trouble.

Because where Erin is, trouble follows. Or she creates it, who knows?

We walk into the building and quickly run into Mav’s manager, who I am pretty sure does not like me. As if I am the sole reason we are in this mess .

“What is she doing here?” The sneer on his lips makes my anger spark.

“Calm down, Doug. She’ll lay low. She needs more rodeo experience.

” He turns back to wink at me, and I can’t hide the little bit of smile that turns up.

He starts walking down the hall with a swagger that is hard to miss.

He has built this confidence brick by brick.

Watching him do his thing sends little butterflies in my stomach.

I haven’t seen him ride since the National Finals Rodeo, and then I didn’t really care what happened to him.

But now, I can feel a wave of nerves wash over me.

He has one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.

I didn’t think I would feel like this when I saw him ride.

“See you when I cash out,” Mav hollers before heading in a different direction to get ready. I roll my eyes but know he is probably right.

“Follow me,” Weston says. “Doug is an ass, so try and stay away from him. If you have any questions tonight, just find me. We're heading over to the chute. Mav will be in his dressing room until it’s his turn.”

“Do they always get dressing rooms?” I figured they would all roam around until their time came.

“Just at the bigger arenas. This is one of the bigger rodeos he does. He will only be riding tonight though.”

“So, he just has to ride the one tonight?” Clearly, I have no clue how any of this works, and Weston is quick to pick up on it.

“You really don’t know anything about bull riding.” My cheeks heat, a little bit embarrassed, and he picks up on it, “Sorry. I didn’t mean that in a bad way.”

“Oh, no. It’s okay. I don’t know a whole lot, but I’d like to learn.”

“Well, we will use tonight as education night. He’s only riding one bull tonight, unless he gets a re-ride, then he gets on another bull. ”

“And what makes him get a re-ride?” My stride matches Weston’s, which takes more effort than I care to admit. He is long and tall, and my five-foot-five self is struggling to keep up.

“He gets a re-ride if the bull underperforms or doesn’t come out the chute right or if his knee his the ground.” Okay, simple enough.

I nod as we move down to what feels like a backstage area, where people are mingling all over. Most of them seem to be riders in their sponsor vests, waiting for their turn.

The closer we get to the pen where they ride, the stronger the smell of livestock and kicked up dirt is.

Bull riders aren’t the only ones competing tonight, Mav did tell me that.

He warned me that I might get bored because we arrived fairly early today, and there are at least three events before bull riding.

Time goes by fast; I find other people to chat with—girlfriends of other riders and team members.

I’m definitely the only one who has no clue what is going on here, and though Weston is doing a good job of explaining things, I am going to have to do some serious research so I don’t feel like an idiot if I ever come back here again.

“Alright, come on up to the chute. Mav will be riding soon.” Suddenly, I feel a little sick from the nerves. I shake it off and walk up to the team.

Mav is surrounded by his team. His manager and his coach sit with serious faces, talking his ear off.

But as soon as I come into view, his eyes look up from the dirt floor and find mine, and the smile he sends me makes me feel nervous for a whole other reason.

I shouldn’t like him. I can’t. We will be going our separate ways in a few months, and I’ll never see him again.

I’m comfortable with loss, sure, but I try to avoid it where I can .

I give him a thumbs up, and he chuckles before Doug turns his head and glares at me. It is becoming very evident that Doug is dick, and I hate him.

Doug's haughty tone floats its way over to me. “She can’t be here if you can’t focus.”

Maverick dramatically rolls his eyes. “Calm down, Doug. Once again, this isn’t my first rodeo.” His nonchalant answer does nothing to cool Doug down. If anything, it makes him madder. He turns on his heels and stomps off, glaring at me the whole time.

“When are you up?” Weston asks Maverick.

“I’ll be going after Gonzales,” Mav says. His eyes move to mine as his tone turns playful. “Are you getting your need for a change of scenery met?”

“Yes, thank you for bringing me.” The nerves rattling inside me won’t let him out of my sight without saying, “Be safe tonight.”

He dramatically huffs. “Don’t worry, wifey. I am always safe.” My mind can’t help but wander to the night I had to keep heat on his back for hours. Nothing about that felt safe.

“Ryder, come on up.” The voice comes from a man I am guessing is his coach. He’s older and has a big ol’ cowboy hat.

Maverick gives us a nod, but not before placing his hat on my head.

“Hold on to this for me, sweetheart.” He turns to start walking closer to the pin, and we follow.

The grin stretching across my face almost hurts as I pull the hat from my head and hold it against my chest while we walk along the dirt path.

Over the intercom, I hear, “Up next, we have Maverickkkkk Ryderrrrrr.” The crowd starts hooting and hollering, and when I think I can’t smile any bigger, I do. Suddenly, I feel a little proud to be a part of his entourage today .

I stand a few feet back from the chute as Maverick hops over the rails and onto the bull.

They use a rope to practically strap him to the bull, which seems like a shoulder dislocation waiting to happen.

I take half a step forward, wanting to see what is going on.

Coach is yelling something at him, and he nods, his head angling up just enough to see me. I send him a thumbs up.

A thumbs up? Really? How lame am I?

Mav nods his head, and the bull is out of the chute.

I hop up on the fence next to Weston, wanting a better view.

My grip on his hat becomes deadly as the seconds tick by.

I thought running on a treadmill was slow, but it’s nothing compared to watching Maverick on the back of this bull.

Time seems to all but stop as he rides. His free hand stays in the air as he rides the bull with grace, if it’s even something that can be graceful.

But he looks good doing it. Really, he looks good doing anything, and I hate that.

The eight-second buzzer goes off, and I feel a crash of relief. The bullfighters come out to distract the bull, something I also learned about today, and Mav runs to safety.

He pulls off his helmet and looks to the screen, waiting for the score. When it flashes across the screen, the team goes wild, so I take it as a good sign and join in on cheering.

He easily hops over the gate and walks over to me. A small sheen of sweat causes his tousled brown hair to stick to his forehead. The smile he gives me makes my stomach swoop. “I’ve got to meet with Doug and talk to Coach real quick, but I will be back in a few.”

“Alright, I’ll be here watching. Here, don’t forget this.” I get on my tiptoes and plop the cowboy hat back on his head. Our eyes stay locked a second longer than they should, and the butterflies that rush through my system have me feeling a little bit hopeful for the first time in forever.