Page 40 of For the Love of the Bull Rider

His uncle slid off his glasses and grabbed a napkin to dry his eyes, handing one to Tim, as well. The two men sat, staring at each other for a few minutes before Josh nodded and picked up his fork to finish his breakfast. Conversation done.

Tim wasn’t really surprised because he knew Uncle Josh was the type of man who settled things in his mind once, leaving no need for additional discussion on the matter. Josh Simmons was a man of few words, as everyone knew, but when he spoke, people listened.

When the designer showed up at the Katydid, Tim knew he’d face hell from Aunt Katie for wanting to give her the kitchen of her dreams. After everything Katie and Josh had given him, a thank-you gift for their love and support over the years was definitely in order. He’d probably have to guilt them into accepting it, but Tim felt up to the task.

Chapter Seventeen

Matthew Collins wasn’t the type of man to brag about his successes, nor was he one to shy away from admitting his failures. Every situation he’d endured made him the man he’d become, and he was still trying to determine if he was happy or pissed about it as he waited for his flight from Roanoke toOklahoma City, then on to his final destination of El Paso… Fort Bliss, to be precise.

Sitting at that half-assed airport gave him too much time to miss the two loves of his life, but he didn’t want to dwell on the absences. He looked around, not seeing anyone who he felt compelled to engage in conversation, so he took the opportunity of being alone with time on his hands to do a little stocktaking. It was beyond time to do something of the sort, so as he sat in the gate area, he thought about things he might have changed if he’d had the chance and forethought.

Matt had knocked up Roberta Stanford, no argument, but upon further consideration over the years, Ryan ended up being an eleven-month pregnancy instead of nine. He and Bertie had a son, and from the moment Matt laid eyes on the boy after he was cleaned up, he was in love with the child, nearly busting his buttons with pride as he stared at the boy through the glass of the nursery window.

When Matt came home between events, he’d sit in his son’s room and hold the boy, happy to see the little smile on his face and listen to the gurgling noises he made as Matt rocked him. He wished for those first two years back, but at the time he was too selfish and only thought about himself and his ranking on the circuit. It was something he’d grown ashamed of.

Of course, back then, he had Lanny Whitehead keeping him sexually satisfied, so he didn’t miss Bertie at all when he was on the road. Matt reasoned their sexual relationship wasn’t really a threat to his marriage because he wasn’t cheating on Bertie with another woman, and he wasn’t fucking anyone.

Matt was the one on the receiving end back then, though he wasn’t exactly thrilled about the situation because Lanny was someone who liked things rough. After their encounters, Matt’s ass hurt a lot worse from the treatment it received from Lanny than any bull he’d ever ridden.

He knew he was missing things at home when it came to Ryan, but he needed to make the money in order to give the boy a promising future, or so he told himself at the time.

During the off-season, he worked with Ed Marshall to learn the farrier trade, and he was with Ryan as much as possible, going so far as to take the boy with him for jobs a time or two when Bertie had other things to do.

Matt was surprised how easily he’d warmed up to shoeing horses and concentrated on learning everything Ed was willing to teach him. He thought he had a handle on the future, and he wasn’t worried about the time when he couldn’t ride bulls anymore. He breathed easier once he felt he had a backup plan.

As if the universe wanted to remind Matt the backup plan was a good idea, the point was driven home at a Professional Bull Riding event in St. Louis. He drew a bull that would be his last ride—Strawberry Fields, a brown and white spotted American Brahman bull that was in the running for PBR Bull of the Year.

Matt was bucked off at the three-second mark in spectacular fashion, getting a lot of height before he came down on his left arm, breaking his humerus in one quicksnap. The titanium rod in his upper arm was a reminder that bull riding was a dangerous sport, and Matt was lucky not to have been killed by the eighteen-hundred-pound beast.

When he returned home and told Bertie he planned to quit riding bulls after that injury, she totally lost her mind. After she called him every name under the sun, she stormed out of the house and left him alone with his son. It didn’t really hurt his feelings. He fed the boy as best he could with his arm in a cast, but the two of them played and laughed together. It turned out to be one of the best weekends of Matt’s life up till that point.

Unfortunately, Bertie returned on Monday morning while Jeri was at his place to babysit Ryan since it was a cold and rainy day and Matt was scheduled to go out on a job with Ed Marshall. Hismother had insisted it was no weather in which to take a baby, so she came over to spend time with her grandson, much to Matt’s relief.

Bertie, being the master manipulator Matt had underestimated her to be, conned Jerilyn into believing her tantrum was over and she was ready to be home and take care of her family while Matt learned the farrier trade. She’d even gone so far as to tell Matt’s mother how happy she was that Matt was home from the road and how much Bertie looked forward to the three of them starting over as a family.

Jeri was thrilled to hear things were headed down a good path that she went home with the belief her son and his wife would talk things over when he got home from work, and the couple would determine the compromises necessary to weather the storms of married life, just as every other couple learned to do.

Unfortunately, Matt returned home from his day and found the house empty. Bertie and his son were gone. He had no idea what to do next, so he did nothing. He sat in their white clapboard house and waited for Roberta to come home and bring Ryan back to him.

When Bertie called the first time and asked him for money, Matt didn’t hesitate to wire it to her and hopped into his truck to go find them near the Western Union address she’d given him outside of Bristol, Virginia. By the time he arrived, they were long gone.

He’d learned from the clerk at the store that the money had been received, but then was transferred to a store in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The clerk couldn’t—or wouldn’t—provide any additional information. It wasn’t the first time it would happen during the time Bertie kept his son away from him.

His then wife kept the boy away from him for three years to punish him for not giving her the opportunity to prance around the PBR venues in too-tight jeans and a low-cut blouse. In Matt’smind, it wasn’t right for the mother of his son to slink around like a whore, even if he didn’t love her. Her desire to step out on him was what caused her to leave in the first place.

When she finally brought Ryan home to him, it was because Matt promised her a check for one-hundred-thousand dollars if she kept her word and left the boy in his care. It was the amount of his final year’s winnings, but he wrote the check without question because he wanted Ryan home where he belonged. All the plans he had for the ranch would have to wait—his son was more important.

After he had Ryan at home, things settled for him, and they were working to get into a good routine. Everything was going along just fine until the day he walked into the Southern States with the boy to order large spools of hay twine and a new hay pick for the tractor, along with some fly spray for the upcoming summer.

When Matt first set eyes on Timothy Moran, his heart skipped a beat or two. He was the most handsome man Matt had ever seen, with blond hair and big, hazel eyes that seemed to glow when they cast their gaze on him.

It wasn’t an easy road for the two of them, but they had finally arrived at the place Matt always wanted to be with the man who had filled many of his nights with wonderful dreams of what Matt wanted most…making a life, together. He wanted a stable life with Tim Moran and his son, and he wouldn’t allow Bertie or her mother to fuck it up for him going forward.

“Please put your seat up,” the flight attendant asked, drawing Matt from his memories as the plane landed. The emptiness in his heart from being away from his family would have to settle because he had something important to do.

Matt had to ensure his lush of a mother-in-law wouldn’t succeed in taking away Ryan, nor would he allow Mona to cast doubt on his relationship with Timothy Moran as anything buta loving, nurturing environment to raise the boy. It hadn’t been easy to hammer it out, but Tim was on the verge of moving in with them to start a life Matt had dreamed of for a long time.

“Sure, ma’am,” he responded as he adjusted himself in the aisle seat of the small plane he’d taken for his connecting flight from Oklahoma City to El Paso.

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