Beauty and the Bull Rider (Hotel Rodeo #3)(3)

“How ‘my s’posed to answer when you told me not to talk?” Ty took a wincing breath and then struggled to sit up. “Ain’t nothing I can’t handle.”

“You really dodged a bullet this time, cowboy,” the medic said.

“Maybe the bullet but not the bull.” Ty grimaced and waved the stretcher away. “Give me a hand, will you, Zac?”

Zac reached down to help Ty to his feet. “I owe you, Ty.”

“You don’t owe me nothin’,” Ty replied. “We may have fallen out for a while, but I’ll always have your back.”

Ty’s remark brought home how much he’d missed his best friend. Zac swallowed hard to dislodge the lump from his throat. Holding his ribs with one hand, Ty reached down with the other to retrieve his hat.

The moment Ty set it back on his head, the crowd went wild. Ty turned toward the chutes with a wide grin stretching his mouth. With a tip of his hat, he limped off to rejoin Monica in the stands.

Zac turned to find his brother, Kade, standing beside him, brushing off the arena dirt that covered him head to foot. “What the hell happened to you?” Zac asked.

“Catapulted by your damned bull.”

“You okay?” Kade was one of the best bullfighters on the pro tour, but Zac still couldn’t suppress his protective instincts toward his little brother.

“I’m fine. If I’ve learned one thing since I’ve been doing this, it’s how to take a fall,” Kade laughed. “Eighty-eight, in case you’re wondering.”

“’Scuse me?”

“Your ride. Thought you might not have caught the score with all the commotion. Damn good for a left-hand ride, let alone for a right.”

“Eighty-eight?” Zac repeated in amazement. It was his highest score in months. He might not be bowing out of the game with a championship title, but at least he was ending his career respectably.



At the end of the night, Alvaro finished with the championship, as expected, but to everyone’s surprise, Zac McDaniel’s was the highpoint ride, even with his hang-up.

After the bull riding, Kade and Zac returned to the hotel in full celebration mode. “The drinks are on me,” Zac called out to the bartender. “Ty saved my ass tonight.”

“I saw it all on the television,” Gabby said. “I can’t believe you did that, Ty. That bull could have killed you.”

“It didn’t,” Ty replied with a shrug. “I’ll have a beer.”

Zac ordered a whiskey, downed it in a swallow, and then called for another round.

The bar was quickly filling with fans from the bull riding. Within minutes, the three cowboys found themselves surrounded by a half dozen buckle bunnies. As the hero of the hour, Ty drew particular notice from a blonde name Josie, who was flaunting her double Ds in a low-cut tee. Rather than enjoying the attention, Ty looked about as edgy as a bull calf entering the chute for the first time. It didn’t take long before he said something and gave a nod in Monica’s direction. Josie replied with a toss of her blond head and moved on down the bar to wrap her arms around Kade, who pulled her full onto his lap.

Zac paid the women little heed, which, to his annoyance, only seemed to make them try harder, but even a whispered proposal for a threesome failed to get him excited anymore. He was too old for that kinda shit and had wearied of women with more notches on their belts than he had. Where was the challenge?

Ty had moved a few stools down to join Monica. He watched them exchange some heated words, no doubt over Josie, but the showdown ended with Monica wrapping her arms around Ty’s neck. He’d thought his buddy had won the round until Monica got up and left the bar alone.

Ty watched her leave like a hungry man who’d just been served a prime aged T-bone only to have it swiped out from under his nose. Ty was a ladies’ man from way back, but Zac recognized that his interest in Monica was different. Had Ty finally found a woman who could hold him for the long haul? It appeared so.

Zac felt a fierce stab of envy. In fifteen years on the circuit, he’d never wanted for female company, but in all those years there had only been one woman he’d ever truly wanted—Ty’s ex, Delaney. He and Ty had both met her at the Houston Livestock Show. He’d had his shot at her then but he’d blown it. Ty got the girl and Zac had to live with the worm of envy that ate a hole in his heart every time he saw them together. What made it all worse, Ty hadn’t made her happy.

Grabbing his glass, Zac straddled the stool beside his buddy, following Ty’s gaze with a fateful shake of his head. “Never thought I’d see you with another one like that.”

“What do you mean?” Ty asked.

“Big city. Big money. Didn’t exactly pan out for you the first time around.”

“That’s where the similarity starts and ends,” Ty said. “Monica’s nothing like Delaney.”

“If you say so,” Zac replied with a smirk and raised his glass to his lips.

“I mean it, Zac. There’s no comparison between ’em. Monica’s a successful investment banker who needs nothing from me. Delaney was a beauty queen who stole half my ranch.”

Zac raised his hand with a glare. “Look, ol’ boy. That ain’t how it was, and you know it.”

Ty hadn’t been any more ready to settle down back then than a bull in a breeding pasture, but he and Delaney had eloped anyway. Initially, Zac had thought maybe it was Delaney’s money Ty was after, but he’d proven that wasn’t the case. Instead of gaining from the marriage, Ty had lost half of everything. Zac still didn’t understand how it had all gone down, but the nasty divorce had left Ty embittered and disillusioned. But now, it was looking like Ty was considering giving it another go with Monica Brandt.