Chapter 67 RJ Falls
“I’m ready right now,” he said. “My name’s RJ.” He extended his hand to her.
“RJ?” she asked, surprised. “RJ Falls? You just won the go-round in the bull riding.”
“That I did,” he grinned. “We’re going to stop off at the pay window on the way, so that I can buy your dinner.” They started across the fairgrounds toward the pay window.
“I’m Alexandra, by the way,” she said. “I didn’t mean to be rude.”
“You ain’t rude, Alexandra,” he said. “That’s a purdy name. I like it. So, what do you do for Evelyn?”
“I groom her horses and get them ready mostly,” she replied. “Sometimes I help her warm them up.”
“So, y’all ride a little then.”
“I ride some,” her face lit up. “I love it and I love the horses too.”
“I like to ride too.” His face lit up to match hers.
“But you ride bulls. I could never do that.”
“It’s easy,” he grinned. “You just keep a leg on each side and yer mind in the middle.”
They laughed together. She had heard that line somewhere before. She suddenly grew serious when she remembered that Evan had used it when he was teaching her how to ride. She fell silent as she realized that thoughts of Evan hadn’t crossed her mind in a while. RJ actually reminded her of Evan in many ways. It was part of what had broken down her defenses so quickly.
“Actually, I like to ride horses too,” he said, breaking into her thoughts.
RJ showed his permit when they arrived at the pay window, and the clerk counted out the cash into his hand. Alexandra took in his frame. He was about her same height. His upper body wasn’t large, and he didn’t have particularly broad shoulders, but every inch of him was packed with tight muscle. His waist and hips were lean, and she noticed how nice and tight his jeans fit over his behind. She was surprised to find that his feet were clad in high-top basketball shoes, which were laced very loosely instead of the cowboy boots that she expected to see. He stuffed the cash he’d received into his front pocket and turned toward her. “Damn! You sure are purdy!”
“Thank you.” She felt her face redden again. Why did he have this kind of control over her? They just met, less than fifteen minutes ago. It was probably a stupid idea to go wandering off with a stranger, but he was so sincere, and it was so easy to be drawn in by his relaxed manner.
“Let’s go get that steak,” he said. They walked toward the fairgrounds gate. “How did y’all end up out here from Pittsburgh?”
“I had a fiancé who moved to Glendale,” she said. “I followed him out here.”
“Ah, hell!” he exclaimed and froze in his tracks. It was the first time she had seen him without a smile on his face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t see a ring and I thought...”
“No, it’s okay,” she said, interrupting him. “We’re not together anymore.”
“You’re sure?” he asked. The serious look was still on his face.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure that we’re not together anymore.”
“It’s okay?” he asked again. “I don’t want to get mixed up in some other man’s business.”
“It is perfectly okay,” she laughed. Why had she said ‘perfectly’ okay? She was going out to eat with a total stranger. Nothing was ‘perfect’. Well, okay, on second thought, those were perfectly gorgeous blue eyes, and his smile was to die for. It didn’t hurt that he had so much confidence and actually had manners to go with it. All things considered, it was pretty damned good, but not perfect, right?
“I guess I’ll just have to trust you,” he said. “Y’all would be surprised at how many times some engaged or married gal has lied to me, just to spend a little time with me. It gets old pretty fast. No angry boyfriends or husbands or fathers?”
“No,” she assured him. “Why would they lie to you?” She knew the answer before she asked it, but she couldn’t help herself.
“Believe it or not, some people are just that way,” he replied.
Feeling Alive Again
It wasn’t the answer that she was expecting. She expected him to say that some people want to be seen with a champion bull rider or even for him to be cocky and say that it was because of his good looks. It was rather odd. He was good-looking; she knew that he had to know it, but he didn’t seem to put it right out there in your face. He was confident and sure of himself, and he could easily pick any girl that he wanted. So why had he picked her? There were plenty of women around who were prettier than her. Why didn’t he pick one more like “what’s her name”, the slut she’d caught riding Cameron like a wild bull? For someone who had everything in the world going for him, he was humble and easy to get to know. “Where are you from?” she asked. She knew that she should have remembered, and she hoped that it didn’t insult him.
“Take a wild guess,” he said, grinning broadly.
“Oklahoma?” she asked.
“Nope.”
“Texas?”
“Nope.”
“Tennessee?”
“Nope, but you’re getting warmer.”
“Kentucky?”
“Nope. Keep going East and a little bit south.”
She racked her brain trying to think of states that were south and East of Kentucky. “Virginia?”
“Damned close.”
What was south of Virginia? “North Carolina?”
“Yep. It isn’t exactly where you expect a bull rider to be from,” he laughed.
“I don’t know enough about it to have any preconceived notions.”
“That isn’t a word that you hear a lot on the bull riding circuit.”
“What word?” she asked. She didn’t even realize that she had used a particular word.
“Preconceived,” he laughed. “Not many bull riders use that word.”
“Why wouldn’t they?” she asked.
“Just not something that’s part of the vocabulary,” he said. “I doubt that anyone would say that they were thrown from the back of Little Blackie, because they had a preconceived notion that he was going to turn left out of the gate instead of right.” His eyes twinkled as he teased her. She couldn’t help but smile, and her face was beginning to hurt because she had been smiling every moment since she had met RJ.
“I’m not sure that I follow you,” she said. She really didn’t understand bull riding. To her, it seemed like complete chaos. “There really isn’t any way of knowing what those bulls are going to do, is there?”
“Actually, they have some tendencies,” he began. “The best riders study the bulls for tendencies and understand what they are and at what point in the ride they will use those tendencies. So, when they draw a particular bull, if they don’t know him, they ask the other riders and the stock contractor about his tendencies so that they can put together a game plan to ride him.”
“You guys share secrets?” she asked. “But you’re competing against each other. Isn’t that making it too easy for the other rider?”
“Alexandra, there isn’t anything easy about riding a 2,000-pound piece of meat that would just as soon take a bite out of your britches as look at you,” he said. “Of course, we share. It’s really us against them, more than us against each other. Life comes and goes too quickly in this sport to be hung up on competing with each other. I’m on top right now, because I’ve been lucky with my draws and I’m pretty healthy, but tomorrow it could all change. We have to stick together to survive.”