Page 118 of Knox
Glo put down her Dobro. “I’m always in the mood for eye candy.”
Tate’s mouth tightened as he stepped back to let them through. “Just stay in the hallway. I don’t want anyone to see you.”
Tonight’s stage would be pushed out onto the arena floor after the rodeo. Kelsey walked down the tiny hallway, standing at the opening that led out to the auditorium. A walkway ringed the arena floor, a shelf that separated the dirt from the stands.
NBR-X had thrown everything into this night. American flags hung from the ceiling in between banners printed with the pictures of rodeo and stock champions. Her gaze fell on the one of a white bull and a handsome cowboy with a half smile, a dangerous twinkle in his eyes. He looked familiar, but she dismissed him as one of the regular bull riders who competed in the NBR-X events.
She hoped the man lived through this night.
She heard a shout, then the crowd roared as in the arena a black-hided bull burst from the pen, twisting its body as a cowboy gripped the bull rope, his red chaps flying.
“It looks so painful,” Glo said, coming up to stand beside her. Dixie was leaning against the wall across from her.
“It is. You can sprain your wrist, tear ligaments in your arm, break fingers, strain your back, not to mention break your neck and get gored,” Tate said. “It’s for the crazy, or maybe the not real bright. These guys have landed on their heads one too many times.”
“Knox was a bull rider.” She glanced over her shoulder to Tate.
He was grinning. “I know.”
Oh. She grinned back, and it eased the deep ache for a moment.
As if he might be suggesting that Knox was an idiot for not running after her.
She turned back to the rider, now scrabbling through the dirt toward the rail. The rodeo clown distracted the bull, then ran to the rail to dodge the animal as it charged.
Tate’s words about Knox the rodeo clown thrummed in her head.He could read a bull, tell which way it would go, taunt it, then run the other direction.
She refused to apply that comparison to her. Maybe she’d done the taunting, then ran the other direction.
This clearly wasn’t working to get him out of her head.
The lights suddenly went down in the arena, and a spotlight hit the center floor as a cowboy walked to the middle. He looked familiar.
Right. Tori’s dad, from San Antonio.
He raised his mic and waved to the crowd. Good-looking with brown hair, a lazy smile that tweaked up one side, and a lean, sculpted body outlined in a teal blue snap-button shirt, and a pair of black chaps and a black Stetson. “Hey, y’all. My name is Rafe Noble, and I’m one of the NBR-X organizers. Thanks for comin’ out tonight! I hope y’all are having fun!”
The crowd rose to his greeting with a roar of applause.
“Rafe is a three-time champion bull rider with the PBR,” Tate said as the applause died.
“We have a special treat for you tonight. A couple of old cronies coming out of retirement for one spectacular ride tonight, just for you.”
The crowd began to murmur.
He turned, and someone was running out into the area holding a protective vest and a helmet. Rafe handed the man the mic and donned the vest as the murmurs grew. He grabbed the mic again.
“It’s a great night to get back on a bull.”
“Oh my…” Tate said, almost in a whisper. “He’s going to get killed.”
The crowd was roaring, and Rafe held up his hand. “And the bull I’m going to ride is a champion himself, a three-time PBR Bull of the Year, with a power ranking of 90.14 and an average buck off rank of 86.7 percent. Out of fifty-one attempts, only seven cowboys have stayed on this powerhouse. He’s a nineteen-hundred-pound monster, nine years old, and was the sire of PBR champion bull Hot Pete, who passed away recently. And tonight he’s back, for one show only, to see if he can get another old dog off his back!”
The spotlight shifted away from Rafe and over to the bucking pen.
Kelsey drew in a breath as the light lit up the animal. But her gaze didn’t land on the massive, leathery white Brahma bull who bucked in his chute, giving life to Rafe’s words, but—
But on the man who stood on the gate, settling the bull down. He wore a red shirt with the NBR-X logo on the front, a white hat, and as the spotlight settled on him, he looked up and waved.