number. I’ll check back with you. Meanwhile, call me if you need anything, Rianne—anything at all.”
“Thanks for offering. I’ll manage. If I can’t, I guess I’ll have to learn.” Rianne turned to Shane. “Thank you for coming by. Forgive me for not introducing you to my friend. I’m too muddleheaded to remember your name.”
“It’s all right. Miss Champion and I have met,” Shane said. “I promised Cory I’d bring you his prize check. I’ll go and pick it up now.” He glanced at Lexie, tilting one sooty eyebrow. “If you’re leaving, Miss Champion, I’ll walk you to the parking lot.”
“Fine.” Lexie had a few choice words to say to the man, but not here. She would wait for a better time and place.
Rianne had left them to go back to her husband. They stood side by side, waiting for the elevator to arrive.
“I didn’t know you were friends with Cory and his wife,” Shane said, breaking the awkward silence.
“The three of us were in the same class, all the way from kindergarten through high school. How do you know them?”
“I know Cory from the rodeo circuit. Her, I just met. Tough break. I hope he’s not out for the season.”
“You don’t know? He didn’t tell you?”
“Tell me what?” His eyebrows came together in a worried frown. “What’s wrong with him?”
“According to Rianne, he can’t feel his legs.”
His throat moved. He muttered something under his breath—most likely a curse—as the elevator stopped and the doors slid open. An elderly man using a walker exited and made his way into the waiting area. Shane and Lexie made room for him to pass before stepping inside.
“They’ll be doing an MRI.” Lexie continued the conversation as the elevator door closed. “There’s always a chance the doctors will find something they can fix, like a pinched nerve.”
“Or not.” His voice was flat with cynicism. Lexie knew he’d seen a lot of bad injuries. Well, so had she, and she wasn’t ready to give up hope.
She was readying a reply when the elevator stopped, the door opened on the hospital lobby, and he changed the subject.
“That bull of yours was pretty impressive tonight.”
“Whirlwind is always impressive.” Lexie kept her voice level, her expression neutral. But the memory of how Shane had tried to deceive her rekindled a blaze of anger. She held it in check while they were still in the building.
“For a second there, I thought Jay Walking Bird was going to last on him,” he said.
“Walking Bird’s a good rider. But you saw what happened.”
“There’ll be even better riders in the PBR. And better bulls.”
“I know. But Whirlwind will learn. He’ll get tougher and smarter.”
The double doors opened automatically. He stayed by her side as they passed through, headed for the visitor parking lot.
“Lexie,” he said, slowing his pace, “I hope you won’t hold what happened today against me. I should’ve told you up front that I was working for Tolman.”
“Then why didn’t you?” She kept on walking. “Didn’t Brock Tolman tell you how much my family hates him?”
“Not exactly. But I had a pretty good idea of how things stood.”
She stopped and turned to face him. “So was it your idea or your boss’s to have that drunk come on to me so you could rush to my rescue?”
“What?”
It was all Lexie could do to keep from slapping that innocent look off his face. “Don’t play dumb with me. I saw you on the midway, paying the man off. You paid him extra for getting his nose busted. So whose idea was it?”
He hesitated, a faint smile playing around his mouth. Did he think this was funny?
“Do you have any idea how scared I was?” she demanded.
“He wouldn’t have hurt you. He wasn’t even drunk, just splashed with some cheap whiskey.”
Lexie’s simmering anger boiled over. “I didn’t know that. I thought I was about to be raped, or maybe worse. I was getting ready to fight for my life when that brute stumbled into the fence.”
He exhaled, shaking his head. “All right. It was a stupid idea that got out of hand. I just wanted to meet you and pass on my boss’s offer to buy your bull. I figured if I’d come to your rescue, you’d be more inclined to listen.”
“It was more than a stupid idea. It was a low-down, dirty trick.”
“Agreed.” His expression relaxed into a charming grin. “So now that we’ve got that out of the way, I’m hoping you’ll let me buy you a beer and apologize.”
The man