The Wildest Ride--A Novel

by Marcella Bell

  Lil thought for a moment. “Wear them out first and start with the ones that group together.”

  AJ asked, “Wear them out?”

  Lil turned her back to AJ while speaking. “Make noise, walk at them, get them running around. They’re prey animals, you’re not.” Then she turned around to finish. “That’s all I got. Sorry, I’ve got to get to my interview.” She turned around with a jacket in her hand and stepped out of the RV around AJ.

  AJ nodded and backed down the steps. “Thanks.”

  Lil sent him a quick nod in acknowledgment before locking her door and hustling off toward a black sedan that idled near the RVs. She slipped inside the car and was lost behind tinted glass.

  AJ watched after them for a moment before heading back to his own RV. His car wasn’t due for another hour.

  The top ten contestants were being featured in one-on-one videos that “told their story.” It wasn’t really their story, though. It was the reality TV version of their story—the parts that made good entertainment.

  The videos would be aired as filler during broadcasts as well as go up on the Closed Circuit website and social media.

  AJ planned to use every sound bite to spread the word about CityBoyz. The Old Man was going to need a full staff to coach all the new sign-ups after he was done. He hoped Lil had something in mind for hers, because if she didn’t give them a strong lead, the media was going to continue running her as ragged as a herd of wild horses.

  * * *

  The first challenge started at high noon.

  Mounted in full gear and positioned beneath a hot and angry sun, AJ wondered if it was possible for a rodeo to go overboard with Western references. Based on the number of viewers that tuned in and the sold-out arenas, he didn’t think so.

  Lil stood in the center of a large fenced ring, a miniature pillar of black in a cowboy hat with a rope coiled at her hip.

  The five mustangs were scattered around the ring, each one standing alone.

  The go sign was a bell, and when it rang, Lil took off. On foot, she ran in circles inside the ring, hazing the horses with whistles and claps. The horses panicked, bunching together as they ran along the fence and away from Lil. Lil kept the hullabaloo up for a full two minutes, while AJ watched her time tick away. She hadn’t even reached for her rope yet. Hadn’t even tried to catch a single horse.

  After far too much time wasted, both Lil and the horses slowed. The horses were slick with sweat and breathing heavy. Lil hadn’t lost any energy, though, not even as she slowed. Instead, she reached for the rope at her side and advanced slowly on the horse closest to her. The horse’s ears flicked, signaling awareness, but the creature didn’t move.

  AJ willed Lil to loose the rope quickly, before the horse bolted, but instead, she took another step closer. The horse shuffled uneasily, but his reflexes were poor after the hard run. Then Lil’s lasso flew out, catching the creature around the neck before it could spook.

  She trotted the horse to the gate quickly, then grabbed the rest of the ropes before going back for the rest of the horses. She caught two more close together as they’d paired up, before rounding up the final two. Each one was easier than the last, with the final horse joining her without fuss.

  All said and done, the five horses took her six-point-eight minutes to round up.

  She had followed her own advice, which was a good sign.

  Now it was AJ’s turn.

  The crew cleared and raked the ring, and AJ walked to its center. The horses scattered away from him in four directions with one pairing amongst the lot of them.

  Lucky him.

  The bell rang, and AJ did what Lil had done, but, like always, he did it with the added support of superior musculature.

  When he was done, his horses stopped circling, standing panting in three bunches, a group of two, a group of three, and a singleton.

  He started with the group of three. They were already the most docile. The group of two were more standoffish but got in line with the rest soon enough. Brute strength brought in the last one, shaving off valuable extra time to come in at six-point-five minutes.

  When the challenge was over, he went looking for Lil.

  He found her sitting in the shade of an old barn, possibly the only shade to be had on the flat farm.

  AJ said, “Great work out there. And thanks again for the advice. It worked.”

  Lil jumped at the sound of his voice, gray eyes going a little too wide before she replied, “Oh yeah. No problem.”

  “How’d the interview go?”

  Lil frowned. “It was fine. Didn’t seem like many of the questions had anything to do with rodeo.”

  “It’s not supposed to be about rodeo. They want to know about you. Your backstory. The things that tug the heartstrings.”

  “Oh. Well I don’t have much of that.”

  AJ laughed, “Everybody’s got that.”

  Digging in, Lil shook her head. “Not me. I just ranch and that’s it.”

  AJ said dryly, “You’re the first female rough stock rider to win a PBRA buckle. Lead with that.”

  Lil sighed, the sound weighted with real emotion. “I’m not the first the female to love rodeo, though, and that’s really what it all comes down to—the same as every other cowboy out there.”

  “With one important difference—” he began.

  “My anatomy?” she cut in with disgust.

  He lifted an eyebrow. “It’s about more than that and you can’t pretend otherwise. You represent something. Every time you go out there, you don’t just show them what you can do. You show them how foolish and artificial the barriers ever were to begin with.”

  For a moment she was quiet, just staring at him gray-eyed and serious, as beautiful in thought and open to setting down a little bit of her stubborn as she was in the arena and on the winner’s podium.

  Then she smiled, and he felt it like a warm snake uncoiling in his belly.

  Humor brought honey to the whiskey of her voice when she said, “You should have done the interview for me. That was better than what I said.”

  Laughing, AJ turned away, if only to give his system a break from mainlining Lil. The effect she had on him was something else. Keeping his voice casual, he replied, “What can I say? I’ve been in the game a long time.”

  This time it was Lil who got a faraway look in her eye, letting out a dry scoff. “It sure seems like everywhere I turn someone is quick to remind me that I haven’t been—no matter that I’ve been riding my whole life and this isn’t my first rodeo.”

  He gave her shoulder a light nudge. “Everybody loves a mystery. It’s an advantage.”

  When she laughed, the sound was lukewarm and limp, not the lively thing he was coming to know and love. “In the hands of someone more skilled, maybe.” She held up her palms and looked at them. “Not as much in these ones. No sir, indeed. These hands really have no business being this far from the ranch.”

  She joked, but it would be impossible to miss the thread of real weariness that wove through her words. She was out of her depth. The idea was laughable, she was doing so well, but her fear was real.

  “I tell you what. How about I help you out on that front. It’s the least I could do after all your help. As long as you’re willing to take some tips and hints from an old-timer, that is.” He flashed his cheering-up grumpy women grin again and tried to ignore the feeling of triumph when a little lightning spark came back to her eyes.

  Crossing her arms in front of her chest, the corner of her mouth lifting, she said, “I don’t know. Depends on how yours went.”

  As he wasn’t lying, the cockiness in AJ’s tone came backed by confidence. “Exactly how I planned it. Talked about CityBoyz the whole time. ‘The organization that birthed the great AJ Garza threatened with closing its doors.’”

  Lil rolled her eye
s but nodded. “That’s good. I’ll consider your offer. So why rodeo?”

  AJ frowned. “What?”

  “Why rodeo to save it? Why don’t you just make a donation? Did you lose all your money?”

  AJ held a hand up to stop the barrage of questions. “One at a time,” he laughed. “First: it’s never why rodeo. Rodeo is always the answer. The question is, how rodeo? Plus Henry wouldn’t take money from me directly. This way he’ll be taking it from PBRA—and he loves to do that.”

  “Assuming you win...”

  AJ loved it when Lil’s voice dropped like that, its general dryness taking on an intriguing depth, like a whisper with a kick—aged bourbon, or a Santa Ana wind.

  A corner of AJ’s lips lifted absently. “I always win,” he said.

  “That hasn’t been my experience.” She delivered the line stoically, while squinting off into the horizon, as if she were commenting on an upcoming storm.

  AJ laughed out loud, if only because she was right. Having some real competition again felt great, though. It’d been a long time since he’d been given a run for his money.

  Now he just needed to catch up.

  Changing the subject, he asked, “So back to this interview.”

  Lil frowned. “Past is past. There’s no use dwelling on what’s done.”

  He loved it when she went full cowboy on him. Almost as much as he loved it when he knew more than she did, rare as that had shown to be. “Ah, ah, ah, young Padawan. There is always something to be learned from past rides. You have to have analyzed videos of your rides in training.”

  Lil snorted. “Videos? Who’s got time—or money—for videos? Granddad gave me all the feedback I needed, most of it ‘needs improvement.’”

  AJ smacked his palm on his forehead. “Unbelievable. Nothing is a better teacher than seeing how embarrassing your form is for yourself. I’m recording your next ride. That’s it.”

  Lil laughed. “You go ahead and do that, but there won’t be anything embarrassing about my form.”

  For a moment, her words hung between them, hot and heavy, until her lips parted and her pulse beat fast in her neck, and he gave them both the break they needed before things went somewhere they might not be able to control.

  Clearing his throat, he chuckled, “You’re probably right about that. But that kind of talk is best saved for the locker room. I hope you went more hopeful and inspiring for your interview.”

  Lil stiffened, an expression of discomfort coming to her face. “What do you mean?”

  “Ranch girl with big dreams to change the world of rodeo?” he asked, lifting his eyebrows. It was the obvious angle.

  Her shoulders relaxed. “Something like that.”

  He eyed her suspiciously. “Did you tell them where you’re from?”

  Once again she squirmed. “You mean, Muskogee?”

  “No. I mean where you’ve been to get to be so good? Where you learned moves I’ve never seen or heard of.”

  “And you’ve been everywhere?” Lil asked.

  “Just got back.” He grinned.

  Lil smiled and AJ’s gaze caught on her lips.

  What was going on with him? She’d proven time and again he couldn’t afford any distractions. And he knew from personal experience just how distracting her lips could be.

  “Obviously not everywhere,” she said.

  “Where’d I miss?”

  “The middle of nowhere.” She lifted an eyebrow at him. “Your advice is starting to sound a lot like spying.”

  His answering grin was as unrepentant as it was bold. “I need every advantage I can get when it comes to you.” The sad thing was, it was true.

  “We didn’t get into the nitty-gritty of my technique, no. And we didn’t really talk about my ranch or Oklahoma, or what I did in my time off. Nothing like that.”

  “It’s pretty clear by now that all you do is cowboy. Sunup to sundown, 24/7.” Though cowboys didn’t typically have “time off” from rodeo. They gave it everything it wanted from them until it didn’t want them anymore, or they walked away on top. There wasn’t usually an in-between.

  Lil didn’t argue, saying with a smile, “As I was saying—boring.”

  “How long?”

  “Five years.”

  AJ whistled. “You poor thing.”

  Humor danced across Lil’s stormy eyes like lightning. “Not all of us live and breathe rodeo,” she said.

  AJ frowned. “I refuse to believe it.”

  Lil laughed. “It’s true. But before I walked away, I rode in college and for the INFR.”

  AJ could picture it. The Indian rodeo circuit bred tough cowboys, but the PBRA resisted crossover. He’d never understand why so many people were committed to the idea that there wasn’t enough pie to go around.

  “So what brought you back?” he asked.

  Lil said, “Oh, just the usual—saving the family ranch.”

  AJ’s eyes widened. “Oooo. That’s the juicy stuff. I hope you gave them some of that in your interview.”

  Lil frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “For your feature. Saving the country home you love? It’s a good rodeo angle.”

  She shook her head. “It didn’t come up specifically.”

  “No?” he asked.

  “No.”

  “What’d you talk about?” he asked, a sense of unease developing in his stomach—the feeling he always got before a bad ride.

  Lil rolled her eyes. “Girl power and my relationship status.”

  It sounded like a waste of an interview, then, given the rich material she had to work with, but that was neither here nor there as her comment opened the door for more important avenues of inquiry. “Which is?”

  The look she gave him was dry enough to use as a towel. “I’m single.”

  “And?”

  She frowned, confusion all over her face. “That’s all. I’m just single,” she said.

  “Does anyone else live on the ranch with you?” he pressed. She’d thought he was only flirting. Fortunately, he was an adept multitasker. Telling her story to him was practice for telling it to the camera.

  “My grandmother.”

  “That it?”

  “And my cousin and our ranch hand,” she added.

  “Are you Amish?”

  “What?” she asked.

  AJ grimaced. “You’re boring, but it doesn’t matter. You can ride. What about your parents?”

  She opened her mouth, then closed it and he realized he’d touched a nerve. It was long enough before she finally responded that he had begun to think she wasn’t going to. “My mom died when I was young and took the secret of my paternity to the grave with her. For most of my life it was just Gran and Granddad and me.”

  “How’d she die?” he asked, familiar with the pain of losing a parent young.

  But instead of answering, her expression shuttered, the light in her eyes went dark, hidden behind a cold veil. “Sad and alone, but nobody wants to hear about all of that. Past is past. Besides, all it seems anyone with a mic and camera around here cares about is the kind of parts I’m equipped with and who I’m kissing.”

  A deep blush stole over her face as soon as the words left her mouth. She’d obviously meant the comment to be a joke to change the subject but he knew she was thinking about the kiss they’d shared—and he’d be lying if he said that being the one she’d been kissing didn’t bring a sense of satisfaction with it. But she was clearly mortified by the slip of the tongue.

  Giving her an uncharacteristic break, AJ asked, “You said you started young. How young was that?”

  She smiled, not her move-space-and-time smile, but one that softened the lines of her face, drawing the eye to fanciful details about her, like how her eyelashes curled and that her lips, upon closer examination, were
near purple-rose in duskiness, and even fuller than they appeared at first glance.

  “I was a pest after my grandad, so he figured he might as well put me to work,” she said, jumping onto the questions like a lifeline. “I always say five, but I couldn’t have been older than preschool aged.”

  That gave her a head start on AJ of a good decade or so, but the detail fit the packaging.

  In the distance a bell sounded, signaling the end of the event. At the end of the night the caravan would be rearranged according to the new rankings.

  Lil had beat AJ in three out of five events, which meant it was going to be him and Winnie for another stretch of the road.

  At least until they got to Shamrock, Texas. Then things would change. He’d make sure of it.

  Lil pushed away from the barn and held out a hand.

  AJ reached out and took it, still mystified that such a small hand belonged to a rodeo pro, and was startled by the electric current that passed between them on contact.

  “Well fought,” Lil said, grinning with a shine to her.

  AJ smiled. “Well fought, though I think we both know the score...”

  Like any good punk kid, she couldn’t hide the gloat in her voice. “There’s always next round...”

  AJ snorted. “Just enjoy it while it lasts, shrimp—it never does.”

  This time Lil snorted. “Spoken like a true role model.”

  They walked back to the ring together, laughing all the way.

  13

  Who had ever heard of a world record bonus?

  Lil grumbled and groused mentally as she shoved clothes into her duffel bag, altogether ignoring the voice in her head that sounded like Gran and had a lot to say about this being exactly the kind of situation that proved it was a good idea to keep her things tidy.

  Being more inclined to keep things strewn about, she was now scrambling to get things packed up just as frantically as the boys in the bullpens were.

  Of course, they were reshuffling because twenty-five of them were going home tonight.

  She just had to switch RVs with AJ.