BUCKED Box Set: A Bull Rider Western Romance (32 page)

To my surprise though, my stepfather
didn’t get angry. Instead, he amended, “You know what, Tyler, you’re right.
Your mother and I have spent a lot of alone time with one another. We are still
in the honeymoon phase, though, and it is completely normal, but I do
understand. It isn’t fair that we have been neglecting you two and it is time
for that to change. So, that is why today, we wanted to get everyone together
and spend the day as a family.”

I shrugged, realizing that I didn’t have
much choice in the matter as my eyes raised to Ashley.

It was then that I realized this might not
be such a bad thing. To be fair, it was a longshot, but then again, stranger
things have happened. This could be just the forced quality time that I needed
with Ashley to get back in her good graces, which would rocket me back on
track.

It was perfect. I had to spend time with
her and more importantly, she had to spend time with me. And since we were
going to be with our parents, I had to behave or risk everything going to hell.

With this all tumbling around inside my
mind, I smiled at the thought and she scowled at me, before returning her
attention to her father, “When are we leaving?”

“As soon as everyone is ready. Just get
dressed and meet us by the car!”

In response, Ashley nodded and made her
way up the stairs toward her room.

Since I was done with my breakfast and was
only hanging around because I had to, I followed at a close distance behind her
and disappeared into my own room before she could say anything about me being
behind her.

As I changed my shirt, I looked in the
mirror and checked out my biceps.
Your
body is truly a piece of fucking art…
I thought to myself as I contemplated
my moves for the day. I knew that I needed to do something that would win her
attention back to me, but I had no idea what that could be.

Even though I thought I had found that
sweet spot, I had learned with dismay that I was wrong. The other night had
really kicked me down a few pegs and I was seriously in need of a new play.

So, after ensuring that my body was still
the temple that I treated it as, I focused my attention on trying to look good,
both inside and out, for Ashley.

The other night, despite my drunken
thoughts, there was nothing that had
discouraged me. In fact,
it had only upped the reward to such a challenge.

I knew that I needed to figure out what I
was going to do and I needed to figure it out fast. After all, it wasn’t every
day I was handed such a gift and I had every intention of taking full advantage
of it.

I’m
not going to let this shit go to waste.
I pulled my shirt over
my head and searched around my messy room for my shoes.

I wasn’t lying when I had told Ashley’s
father that I had a date with the gym today, but once I realized what an
opportunity I was given, the gym, at least for the immediate moment, didn’t
matter. I could do my work-out any time; now was the time to go after what I
really wanted.

When I was finished getting dressed, I
made my way downstairs, just as I heard the car horn blast.

I quickened my step in order to get the
good seat in the car. I knew from the way up to the beach house that my
stepfather liked to pack heavy on one side and therefore, I wanted to get into
the car so that I could get the good side. I wasn’t quite sure how long the
ride was going to be, but I was sure that I didn’t want a seat that was forced
forward just enough to be annoying, so I made sure I staked my claim.

Then, when Ashley came out, I locked eyes
with her and I could see the disappointment of getting the raw end of her
father’s packing welling up in her eyes. She glared at me and her shoulders
fell. I carefully smiled at her, made a motion as though offering up my seat
and then nodded in a caring way before sliding over.

She simply glared at me as she approached,
but when she got into the car, she smiled slightly and said a quiet, “Thanks,”
which was plenty of encouragement for me.

I beamed at her with a dangerously
debonair expression before I leaned my head back as much as I could, given the
forward pointing seat. It wasn’t comfortable, but it was glorious. I couldn’t
have asked for a better prospect.

Even though we didn’t speak much on the
short drive to the amusement park, mostly because our entire family had
literally nothing in common, I was happy to see that I had made some headway
already in the pussy pursuit that I refused to give up on.

At this rate, I was sure by the end of the
day, I would have her eating out of the palm of my hand and begging to go down
on my dick just as soon as we were out of parental sight.

I smiled, thinking about all of the
interesting places we could probably fuck and get away with it in an amusement
park.

Still, I reminded myself that today was
not about having sex. Rather, it was about gaining her trust.

Unless circumstances changed dramatically,
i.e., she got hit in the head, had amnesia and forgot all of the shit that I
did to her up until this point in our relationship, I would not be pressing for
sex in any way.

Today was about proving to her that she
could still have fun with me without fearing that she was going to get into
trouble. That was basically the entirety of my goals and come hell or high
water, whatever the hell that means, I was going to stick to that plan, knowing
it was virtually the only way to reach my ultimate goal; and I was not going to
rest until I had taken ahold of that goal and suffocated the life out of it
with my bare hands…and other extremities, of course.

Chapter
19

Ashley

Throughout the ride to the amusement park,
there was a looming sense of faked emotions and an underlying sense of
aggravation.

The car ride was slow and almost painful.
I hadn’t been in the car with my father in years and this was not exactly the
situation I was looking forward to, especially in light of his current attitude.
There was nothing that I wouldn’t do to get him to just turn the car around and
take me back to the beach house.

I would love to have a day where the
family, where his family, left me home to enjoy the solitude and pretend my
life wasn’t falling apart around me. But of course, my father wanted to include
me and like an idiot, I had gone along with it.

Why
is it that the second he is nice to you again, even a little, you crumble into
a million pieces and everything is forgiven?
I asked myself as
I crossed my arms and tried to ignore virtually everyone that was in the car
with me.

Granted, it wasn’t all that difficult,
seeing as how no one spoke, except for Theresa trying to keep the peace and
asking us questions every once and a while.

Those questions usually remained
unanswered, or just returned with one-word responses, but this was the life she
chose. She had a son who was one of the most awful people I had ever had the
displeasure to meet and married a man who was certifiable.

I had to admit that his daughter wasn’t
much better, but I certainly wasn’t as bad as my father or as evil and
conniving as Tyler; at least not yet and therefore, I did feel slightly bad for
her.

Even though I wasn’t with her all that
much, whenever I was, I couldn’t help but notice that the world seemed to
almost forget her. Everyone did their own thing, even my father, and although
she tried, she was always cut out or just stuck in the middle.

Perhaps not to the extreme that Theresa
seemed to find herself in, but I felt badly for her because in a way, I knew
that I could relate to her. When my parents would fight, I would always try to
be the peacekeeper and it while it never worked, I always ended up feeling
worse than they did. But that didn’t mean that I was willing to accept her as
anything more than my father’s child-wife, along with her lunatic son.

When we arrived at the amusement park, I
was at least happy that there was something fun going on today. After the past
few weeks of having my emotions rocket up and down, with very little change in
what was actually going on, it was nice to at least be in a newer place.

Every year we would go to the amusement
park at least once and I would always love it; but this memory, although it
involved my mother, it did not center on her, like the others on the beach and
in the house.

Rather, this was a memory that I
associated more with my father, even now that my mother was gone. She never did
like rides. Like long car rides, my mother would often get sick when she
decided to go on even the gentlest ride and therefore, even as we made our way
through the gates, it gave me a sense of nostalgia that for once wasn’t
painful.

After all, my father was with us and we
were probably going to have a good time, just like we used to; that is, if I
had kept my father’s sense of adventure for these things.

Five years was a long time and I couldn’t
quite be sure.

“Do you like rides?” I asked Theresa.

She laughed at me, as though her answer
was obvious; that or the mere mention of rides made her sick to her stomach.
“Oh, no…Tyler has always loved the thrill, but me personally, I have never been
able to get into them.” She
smiled back at me,
turning her body with interest as she answered, “I just wanted to tag along and
watch you three have fun.”

I smiled back at her before I let my eyes
wander up to the large rollercoasters that I remembered so easily from my youth.

Hopefully I would be right and I would be
able to find solace in this place. I even thought, that by going to a place
that both my father and I enjoyed, I would be able to have a breakthrough so
that this summer didn’t completely suck.

If I could connect with my dad on any
level, after the lack of relationship we had sustained so far, I would have
counted it as a win. Right now, I was hopeful that this daytrip might actually
do the trick.

After we paid our admission and made our
way into the park, I was once again struck with a sense of excitement and
pleasure. I hadn’t wanted to come this morning, because I had next to no
interest to spend time with my father and the others that seemed to be attached
at his hip, among other places. But now that we were here, I was glad that I
hadn’t fought to go.

I looked over at the sparkle in Tyler’s
eyes as he caught sight of the whirling rollercoasters and other thrill rides,
realizing that I was once again not alone in my feelings.

“So, what do you say we start with our
favorite coaster?” my father asked, placing his arm around my shoulder and
hugging me into him.

The hug felt strangely familiar. When I
was little, he did this often, but now, we rarely were in the same room with
one another and as the familiar feeling surged through my bones, I couldn’t
help but smile at him, happy to have felt at least a little glimmer of the way
things used to be. Finally.

“Sure, Dad. That sounds great!” I
exclaimed, before we made our way toward the tallest, fastest rollercoaster in
the park.

Tyler didn’t say very much, but he
followed right on our heels, as though he wished that he could be closer in the
connection of this moment.

If I didn’t know any better, I would
actually venture to say that he was jealous of what was going on between me and
my father, which was a very strange reaction for Mr. Meathead-Cool to have, but
I didn’t question it.

I certainly wasn’t against him getting in
on the moment, even though I probably should have kicked him out as harshly as
I could just for spite; but instead, I slowed down and allowed him to fall into
step next to us.

I
know I’m a sucker. What can I say?
I thought as I tried to
defend my actions to myself. After all, it wasn’t like I was going to do very
much to stop him hanging around with us. And despite what he might believe
about me or what I might want to believe about myself, underneath all of the
hurt of my own, I was still a good person. I didn’t want to have to worry about
getting revenge for something that I really couldn’t even correctly identify.

Sure, I was fairly angry with them and my
whole world, but by finally having a connection with my father after all of
these years, I wanted to embrace it instead of trying to figure out the best
way to keep that feeling from Tyler.

We didn’t say much while we were in line,
but I still felt like no matter what, I was doing a lot better than I had in a
long time. For once, at the very least, I was interested in where I was at the
moment, instead of constantly counting the seconds until I was going back to
the place I considered home.
I wasn’t drunk, or doing
something morally compromising. I was just having fun with my father, the only
family that I had left.

When we got on the ride, I thought it was
strange that while I sat next to my father, Tyler made it a point to go over
and sit on the other side of my father.

I would have thought that he would have
wanted to sit by me, or at the very least, right in the middle so he could
continue to be even the slightest bit annoying, but he didn’t. I thought it was
nice of him to finally do something for someone else for a change, but I still
noticed it far more than I should have and I wanted to know why.