Page 54 of For the Love of the Bull Rider

“I built a tack room, babe.” Matt wrapped an arm around his man’s neck to direct him to the room in the barn with new, pine saddle frames. There were hooks for bridles and wooden arms extended from the walls for saddle pads to hang so they’d dry.

Matt had kept it a secret from Tim, and he hoped it was a good space for storing the tack they’d need at the ranch. Matt had decided to move the office from the house to the barn and put it next to the tack room with more permanent fixtures, just as they had at the Katydid. It would just take some time.

Tim turned to stare at him, the surprise evident before he pulled him down for a kiss. “It’s so fantastic, Matthew. Where do you want the hay?”

Matt’s gaze shot up. “What hay, baby?”

“The bales for… The bales for Josie and Chester. When it gets too cold, they’ll need to be inside at night during harsh weather, so we need horse hay. Uncle Josh gave us a hundred bales. We need to order horse feed from the MFA, but I’ll call Dean and talk to him about it.”

“Oh!Shit, I didn’t think about that. I guess we can put it over in the corner behind the wet stalls, Naw, that’s not a good spot because they’d mold over there. Um, let’s put it over by the back wall. There’s some crap over there, but I’ll get it moved and then we can stack the hay there. How much I owe Josh?” Matt held Tim in his arms.

When Tim grinned at him, he was surprised. “It’s an early Christmas gift from Uncle Josh. I’ll get Mickey to help me stack it. Go back to what you were doing, babe. I’ll see ya later.” Tim sauntered out of the barn.

Matt sighed as he watched the attractive ass walk away. It was a sight he always enjoyed.

The bull rider turned to the task at hand—the shit against the wall of the barn. “Well, it ain’t gonna move itself, dumb ass,” he announced to nobody but Chester and Josie. Matt turned on the radio and began going through the junk that had taken up residence in his barn.

Matt laughed to himself as he assessed the viability of all the crap he’d accumulated since he bought the place—broken chain saws that never got fixed but were kept for a rainy day or parts. Matt didn’t know how to fix a chain saw.

Old feed and water buckets with broken handles and holes. A roll of barbed wire left in the rain to rust. He shook his head at the stack as he moved it outside to load into one of the trucks to take to the dump.

As he worked, he knew how his dad felt when he’d cleaned out his barn once he retired from the cattle business and turned it over to Matt. The shit one would keep on a what-if whim was a joke. Cleaning up the junk for a better purpose was a great motivator.

Matt had a pickup truck filled in about an hour, acknowledging the spot by the back wall was the perfect place for hay. It was the best way to start the next chapter of their lives together, cleaning out the old to welcome the new. Matt was truly looking forward to the new.

Chapter Twenty-three

Tim walked into the house at the Katydid on Christmas Eve, glancing around to take in the pure beauty before his eyes. Aunt Katie always loved Christmas and had, once again, gone above and beyond with her decorations. The ambiance automatically reinforced the holiday spirit Tim had coursing through his body, flooding his heart.

The holidays hadn’t been a great time at his home but were even less so after the death of his mother. He’d been in the barn office working on updating the farm’s records, becoming more aware they probably needed someone else part-time on staff to do it daily, though he wasn’t about to suggest it to Uncle Josh. He just needed to figure out a better way to manage his time so he could handle everything at both places.

Aunt Katie had tried over the years to encourage him to embrace the holiday spirit, but Tim never really bought into her bill of goods, learning to be excellent at faking it so he didn’t ruin her holidays. Christmas, she always said, was when she missed Shane the most because there was nothing like having your children home for Christmas.

Finally, Tim understood what she’d meant by her observations because he was looking forward to seeing Ryan’s face on Christmas morning. He firmly believed his aunt was right.

Ryan only had half a day of school, so Tim planned to take him shopping in town for his few remaining gifts. Waiting in the back of the truck was a large, red, crushed-velvet bag full of gifts for Cindy and Rocky Whipple to be covertly left on their front porch, just as they’d done with the coat after Thanksgiving.

The personal gifts for Cindy were purchased with the aid of Jeri and Katie, while Farris March helped Tim arrange for the delivery of a new stove and refrigerator scheduled for that afternoon at the Whipple home, along with the installation of a new hot-water tank and an updated electric bill so the small family could have heat and hot water.

There was no trace of who it was coming from, but Tim was taking Ryan by the house, hoping they could see any proof the Whipples were okay. They’d also arranged for food to be delivered to the home in time for dinner that night.

Tim hoped it wasn’t overkill, but Ryan had been the one to tell Santa what he wanted when Tim and Matt had taken the boyto Roanoke to do more shopping and visit Santa. It was Ryan’sChristmas wish, as he’d told them, so they honored it. When Santa and his elf, Snowflake, started to cry as the boy explained the situation, it brought tears to Tim’s eyes as well.

“See, I don’t need nothin’, Santa, but I got this friend, well he’s my best friend, Rocky Whipple. I think you mighta lost his address since he and his momma had to move, and maybe you don’t know how hard it is for them now ‘cause you get busy this time of year. See, she’s real sick and she can’t work. They had to move from their good house to a bad house, but his mom made it real nice. Trouble is, the stove don’t work, and sometimes, the hot water thing don’t either so he has to take a cold shower and he don’t like it so he skips it more than he should.

“For my wish, I want Rocky and his momma to have a nice place to live that’s warm and has lots of food and hot water. I want him to have clothes that fit him…well, I bought ‘em…actually, Tim bought him stuff to wear, but we’re gonna make it out like you did ‘cause I know you prolly don’t know his size since he hit a growth spurt. Anyway, I want his momma to get better so they can do stuff together again like they used to since he don’t got a dad. I’m lucky ‘cause I got two dads who take care of me really good, so I wanna use my Christmas wish for Rocky and his mom. That’s okay, right?” Ryan asked as he finished his request.

Tim and Matt were standing off to the side, and when Matt reached up to wipe his eyes, Tim couldn’t help himself. “We have an amazing boy,” he told Matt, who leaned down to kiss his cheek. It was an incredible moment, and there wasn’t a dry eye among the crowd who was within earshot of Ryan’s visit with Santa.

In search of sustenance, Tim headed into the farmhouse kitchen where Aunt Katie was at the stove cooking up a storm, which didn’t surprise him at all. He was, however, surprised to see Mickey Warren in an apron with a knife in his hand chopping carrots.

“Well, well. Another cook-in-training at the knee of Chef Kathleen Simmons,” Tim teased, slapping Mickey on the ass before he went to the fridge for a glass of sweet tea.

Aunt Katie laughed before she walked over to give him a kiss on the cheek. “Hello, Timothy. Stan Hanson called. He’ll be here about one o’clock to deliver that stallion. He said you promised him cash for a saddle?”

Tim smiled. “Oh, wait until you see him, Aunt Katie. He’s a magnificent beast, and I’m sure Matt would be willing to breed him to some mares here at the farm if you and Uncle Josh were interested. He’s a beaut,” he told his aunt excitedly. Tim couldn’t wait to see the stallion in the barn at the Circle C. Seeing the bull rider on the back of the large horse would make his day.

Aunt Katie pulled Tim into the dining room with a somber look on her face he wasn’t exactly thrilled to see. “Tim, hon, what if this gift istoomuch? What if Matt didn’t spend as much on you for Christmas? You’ve only been together for a few months, you know, and he might not think you’d give him something so expensive for your first Christmas together. You don’t want him to be embarrassed at your extravagance, do you?”

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