“I figure it’s a combination of not having the daily stability of her job and her worry about wanting to be with both of us.”
“You got that feeling too, huh?” Kyle said. “I caught the tail end of her phone conversation with Tanna yesterday.”
“What’d you hear?”
“Nothin’ specific, just the impression she’s ready, anxious even, to be double-teamed by us. Not the way we’ve been doin’ it, if you get my drift.”
“We talking no-holes-barred?” Hank asked casually.
“I reckon. I ain’t exactly sure how that’ll work.”
“Me neither.”
The announcer tried to rile up the crowd for the next event.
“This morning after you went to check in, Lainie crawled up in my bunk,” Hank said, during a lull.
Kyle’s head whipped toward him. “She did?”
“Nothin’ happened, but I got the feeling she was only there out of guilt. Trying to make me feel better for her havin’ alone time with you last night.”
Pause. “Son of a bitch. She did the same damn thing after we left Muddy Gap. That afternoon in Gillette, she sought me out to reassure me and we ended up . . . Ah, hell. She shouldn’t be reassuring us, Hank; we oughta be reassuring her.”
“I know. I ain’t bein’ a dick when I say it’d be easier all around if we nixed the individual alone time with either of us from here on out—unless she requests it.”
“Agreed.”
Hank shot Kyle a look from beneath his hat brim. “That was quick.”
Kyle shrugged. “Don’t make much sense to argue when we all want the same thing.”
“True. Don’t know what we’ll be able to do about reassuring her tonight, since we’ve got a long-ass drive to Miles City after we leave Red Lodge.”
“We have to come up with something. Figure out how to make time, bein’s we’ll be spending the majority of our time on the road the next two weeks.”
“She asked if she could drive tonight.”
“I say we let her.”
Hank allowed a grin. “Then we’ll be rested up.”
“I’m in. I’ll follow your lead. Until it’s time for you to follow mine.” Kyle pushed back from the fence and slung his bull rope over his shoulder. “Gotta get my head in the game.”
When the time came for Hank to hit the dirt, he was ready. The quality of both the bulls and the riders was high. But sometimes during afternoon events, in the hot sun, the livestock were lazy. Neither broncs nor bulls bucked hard. Which wasn’t bad for him—a lethargic bull usually wasn’t problematic. But riders needed ornery, rough stock to score well.
A few bull riders cleared the eight-second mark. None of the judges’ scores were impressive. Except for the one they gave Kyle. He’d ended up with a replacement bull that wasn’t happy to be in the bucking chute. When the slavering beast burst out, he tried like hell to get Kyle off his back by any means necessary. And Kyle stayed on, spurring like crazy. When the buzzer sounded, and the bull ran off with no prompting from the bullfighters, Hank suspected he’d just seen the winning ride.
They stood side by side in the dirt as they waited for the score. Eighty-eight. Hank slapped him on the back. “Looks like we’ll be sticking around to get that winner’s check, huh?”
The next eight riders didn’t come close to Kyle’s score.
Hank didn’t bother to shower or change out of his bullfighting duds after the rodeo. They’d be cutting it close to get to Red Lodge.
Kyle picked up his winnings and they booked it back to the camper. Lainie had made sandwiches, a thoughtful gesture that wasn’t lost on him or Kyle. It was her sweetness, a genuine desire to please them, not for any reason besides that she liked to do it, that made Hank take notice. That kind of care was rare—and all the more prized.
When Lainie marched over to the driver’s side, he and Kyle exchanged a look—which she returned with irritation. “What?”
“No offense, sugar, but we need to get there fast, so this ain’t the time for you to be learning how to drive a rig with a three-thousand-pound camper attached.”
Wrong thing for Kyle to say. Venom sparked in Lainie’s eyes. “You think I can’t drive a truck? I drive a goddamn ambulance! I’m certainly capable—”
“Whoa. Let’s all take a deep breath,” Hank said. “We’re not questioning your driving skills. But the truth is, me ’n’ Kyle have driven that stretch of twisty highway many times to go skiing or to unload cattle. You haven’t. If you wanna argue about it in the truck on the way to Red Lodge, fine. But we need to get goin’ now.”
Lainie had that stubborn set to her chin and Hank braced himself for a fight. But she climbed in the back of the cab and slammed the door. Hank tossed Kyle the keys. “Let ’er rip.”
She didn’t speak until they were out of town. “I’m driving to Miles City tonight.”
“Fine. You coming to the performance?”
“Nope.”
Kyle slanted her a look in the rearview mirror. “So you’re goin’ shopping for fancy shoes? Or souvenirs for your mama while me ’n’ Hank are risking life and limb?”
Fuck. Way to be a smart-ass. Hank was about to cuff Kyle in the back of the head and apologize for him when Lainie laughed.
“You are such a jerk, Kyle. Only shoes I’ll buy are the pointytoed variety to kick your butt with.”