Page 112 of Untamed
A PBR bull ride is an eight-second contest of strength, balance, endurance, and effort between the world’s best bull riders and the world’s best bucking bulls. A rider must ride for eight seconds with one hand in the bull rope and one in the air in order to earn a score. The clock starts when the bull’s shoulder or hip breaks the plane of the gate. It stops when the rider’s hand comes out of his rope—voluntarily or not. The clock also stops if the rider touches himself, the bull, or the ground with his free arm during the eight-second ride. If the rider makes the eight-second buzzer, he receives a score. If he does not make the eight-second buzzer, then he receives no score for that attempt.
I don’t know where he got it from, because he’d been crazy all his life, but my dad used to tell us boys before any big ride, “If they stand behind you, protect them. If they stand beside you, respect them. If they stand against you, defeat them.”
This bull, he’s standing against me.
“Bulls,” Wyatt says, pointing to Asteroid with his tiny finger. He loves going behind the chutes to look at the bulls. And then he wiggles, trying to get closer to him. “I ride?”
I pat him on the butt, holding him closer and careful not to let him stick his hand in there with them. “No, not yet. Maybe when you get older.” Kissing his temple, I smile at him. “Daddy’s gonna ride him tonight.”
He smiles, too. “You win?”
“I’m hoping to.”
It’s been a good week here so far. Maesyn’s here with me, Ty brought Haylee, and it’s all gone pretty smoothly. In round one, I rode Dumber for a score of 86.6. In round two, Mr. Black for a score of 87.5. In round three, Here We Go Again. He didn’t perform like I wanted and I was handed a score of 69. I declined the re-ride. In round four, Freakster for 86.25 and a torn ACL. Round five, Hokey Dokey for 85.5. Now I was up against Asteroid for the final round. Same bull I rode in the championships last year and won. Now it seemed the two of us have come full-circle.
“You’re gonna give me a run for my money, aren’t you, boy?” I whisper to Asteroid. Usually I don’t know too much about the bulls I’m on, but there’s a few I do. Asteroid’s one of them. I know every rider who’s drawn him this year and since the World Finals last year, he’s gone unridden. He’s not the biggest of the bulls, but his buck off rate is 94.5 percent which makes him number one right now. And that’s the bull I want to ride. The best. I want to know I’m given the craziest son of a bitch because when I stay on him, I’ll know I won because I’m the world champion.
Wyatt squirms in my arms as Britany and Maesyn approach us. Wyatt lunges for Britany before she has the chance to grab him and he practically falls to the arena floor. She gasps, grabbing her baby bump and our squirming toddler. “Holy shit,” she breathes, one hand on him, one hand on her heart.
“Holy shit,” he repeats, grabbing her cheeks and then saying again, “Holy. Shit.”
He’s a bit of a repeater these days. I laugh, as does Maesyn, though we both know it’s not funny, but it kind of is. There’s nothing cuter than a child cursing if you ask me. Totally inappropriate, sure, but fucking cute.
“You have an autograph session in about twenty minutes,” Britany tells me and then holds Wyatt tighter. “And you, little man, you’re gonna take a nap.”
He shakes his head immediately. “No I not. No nap.” More aggressive head shaking follows. “No.”
Rarely does he win the battle against no nap. Britany takes off with Wyatt and leaves me with Maesyn. She worms her way into my arms, smiling, and then lays her head on my chest. “It smells like shit over here.”
I laugh, kissing her temple. “It’s because you’re standing in it.”
Gasping, she pulls back and stares at her boots. “Damn it.”
Things with Maesyn and me are different in the last month. She enrolled in school and is set to start this winter in Austin. I’m not wild about her being four hours away, but she refuses to move in with me. Says something about boys and girls don’t have to live with each other right away. This coming from the girl who practically lives with me now, even after she and Haylee got an apartment together in Austin.
What’s not different? My feelings. I’m still, without a doubt, in love with this girl.
My stare moves to the necklace she’s wearing. After Henry broke it, I had Britany get the beads back for me and tried to fix it, but it wasn’t the same.
“I have something for you,” I tell her, reaching in my pocket for the bead covered in tiny diamonds I found in a flea market in Greensboro. I hold it in my palm for her, the diamonds catching sparks from the arena lights above us. I’m not saying I want to marry her,not yetat least. She’s too young for that shit. But I can give her a goddamn bead for a necklace that means the world to her. “I know your grandpa only gave you beads, but I saw this and thought of you.”
Those tears surface again. “Wow. That’s really beautiful.”
I wink. “So is the girl with cow shit on her boots.” And then I nod in the distance to where her dad’s standing, smiling at her. It was never that she was trouble for him, from what I can understand. It was that he was scared of her rebel-wild ways. He thought for sure she’d get herself into something she couldn’t handle. At least that’s what he told me when I asked him to come here to the World Finals. I had my reasonings, and if I was gonna keep this girl, she had to make it right with her dad.
Maesyn gasps and stares at me. “You seriously invited my dad?”
“Yep. Paid for his flight to come here so you could talk to him.”
“You can’t do that.”
I laugh, wrapping my arm around her. “Actually, I can. And I did.”
She stares at me like I’ve lost my mind. “Why? I could have seen him in Ellensburg.”
“You could have, but he’s never been to the World Finals and it’s something every bull riding fan should see.”
“What makes you think he’s a fan?” she whispers into my shoulder, watching her dad walk toward her.
