Page 105 of Worth the Fall
“Of course!”
He was beaming, his whole face lighting up. “Good to see you, Billy,” he said politely.
She was staring, a flirtatious look on her face. “Looking good, Nash.”
He gave me a confused look and ran off to finish getting ready.
I lightly smacked her. “You have no shame, do you?”
“Not an ounce,” she admitted. “All right, what do we need tonight?”
I looked through my notes on my phone. “This is high stakes, so I only want to focus on the cowboys and girls that are in the top twenty and wearing the Agri-Corp vest. Other thanthat, we won’t worry about it.”
“Got it.”
“We’ve got some big names sliding on the bubble. We’ve got men like your number ten in the world, fighting to hold onto that Top 15 spot with everything he’s got. The pressure is high, the ground is fast, and the stakes? Well, they don’t get any higher than this.”
There was a loud bang in the chute beside us.
Billy and I turned to see Colton climbing on the horse. His wrists were wrapped in the thick athletic tape as he shoved his hand under the rigging. He was nodding at the cowboys around him, but I knew that look in his eye. He was in his own world; everyone around him didn’t exist right now.
“Let’s hear it for the number ten bronc rider IN THE WORLD!” the announcer boasted, “Colton Nash!”
He nodded sharply at the gate, and it was thrown open.
“Jitterbug” erupted out of the pen, launching immediately six feet in the air. Colton’s body snapped like a rag doll in a hurricane. His head whipped toward his spine, making me dizzy. Cold sweat covered me from head to toe.
Every time the horse’s hooves hit the dirt, the impact traveled up Colton’s arm and burst in his chest. I could hear the grunt of air being physically forced out of his lungs even over the crowd and announcer’s screams.
My hands were shaking. I clenched them into fists to make them stop.
Five seconds into the ride, the horse shifted its weight midair. Colton’s seat slipped. He hung off the side, his hand still trapped in the rigging, his head now inches away from the metal fence the horse kept brushing against.
I stopped breathing, my vision tunneling.
If he fell back any farther, he would slam into the fence, which would either kill him or, at the very least, be life-threatening.
I gripped my stomach, unable to move.
“Miss Ford?” I could vaguely hear Billy yelling at me.
The crowd was screaming so loudly that it was vibrating the arena.
The buzzer roared, and the pickup men swooped in like cavalry. Colton was able to release the riggin, and his body fell into the dirt with a heavy, sickening thud I felt in my teeth.
Was he okay?
Oh my gosh, he wasn’t getting up.
I needed to go get him.
Somebody call an ambulance!
I was half a second from storming into the dirt when he finally pushed himself to his feet.
The crowd cheered as loudly as they could. He raised his hands triumphantly, and they lost their minds, shrieking for him.
He tapped his head twice, with two fingers, a crisp, silent salute, before turning all the way around to send it right to me.
