Page 3 of For the Love of the Bull Rider

He’d get a smile, and he’d walk over to her, regardless of when or where they were. He’d pull her into his strong arms and kiss her like they’d been apart for years. She’d eventually pull away, breathless, and she’d giggle and gently slap his chest. It gave Tim comfort to see people who actually loved each other demonstrate it. It hadn’t happened in his own family.

In fact, it had been quite the opposite. After Sherry and Tim relocated to New Jersey for his senior year of high school, Sherry filed for divorce. For a while, things were calm, and Tim and his mother had a decent life in Trenton.

Unfortunately, Tim’s dad tracked her down after he was served with the divorce papers and acted out a murder/suicide scenario, though not successfully. Sherry was dead, but his father was in a coma.

At the end of the day, Tim’s grandmother, Joanne, was the one to pull the plug on the son she didn’t like. Of course, she was less than happy to find out her grandson was queer after her son was dead, so Tim was nothing to her. He didn’t want anything to do with the bitter old woman either.

“Before you go over to the Collins’ place, I should give you a little background. Matthew is one of the most sought-after bachelors in the county. Unfortunately, he has some baggage that puts him off the idea of any kind of relationship, I suspect. After Matt graduated high school, he started ridin’ bulls full-time during the season. He’d done the amateur circuit during high school, and he was good at the task, so he advanced to theprofessional ranks after a few years, and he did well for such a tall guy, or so Josh tells me.

“Matt started seein’ a girl from town when he was home after his third season in the pros. He’d done well over the years, but he was yet to rank above the top fifteen in the world, so he wasn’t exactly famous. However, Matthew was on his way to becoming a world champion in the not too distant future, and he was only twenty-four.

“The girl’s name was Bertie Stanford. She was fresh outta high school and worked as a waitress at Pete’s Place.The girl had always been bad news from what I heard around town, though I try not to listen to gossip too much, Jeri, Matt’s momma, didn’t have any kind words for her.

“When Matt came back to recuperate after he broke his arm on a devil bull that season, Bertie saw her shot at hookin’ up with a cowboy—permanently. In the process, she got pregnant and demanded that he marry her.”

Tim got it. Matt was straight. It wasn’t a surprise.

Katie continued. “Matt, bein’ the kind of man he is, did the honorable thing and married her, even though we all speculated he didn’t love her. He bought ‘em a place outside of town with a cute white farmhouse and a fair piece of land, and in the off-season, Matt apprenticed with Old Ed Marshall, the blacksmith back then. When rodeo season came around again, Matt went back to bull ridin’ and left Bertie at home to have the baby with his mother lookin’ after her.

“Long story short—when Ryan was three, Matt quit the circuit because Bertie complained about bein’ a single mom. She got mad at him because his quittin’ wasn’t what she had in mind. She wanted to go on the circuitwithhim and leave Ryan with Matt’s momma. It was more important to him that the boy should have a normal life with a mother and father at home, so Matt quit rodeo. Bertie didn’t take it well, so to punish Matt forspoilin’ her dream of bein’ a buckle bunny, she took Ryan and ran off. Matt looked for the two of ‘em for three years.”

Tim was surprised someone would go to such lengths as to take away a child to punish their spouse for a change of vocation, but Matt’s comment at the co-op about just getting Ryan back made more sense.

“She’d call Matt demanding money, and he’d send it every time, but she never stayed in one place long enough for him to find her. All he wanted was that little boy. She finally brought the boy home six months ago for no reason anyone’s ever heard, and Matt gave her divorce papers. Supposedly, Matt wrote her a big check to sign ‘em, and she left town after the papers were filed. As far as I know, nobody’s seen or heard a thing from her since.” Aunt Katie stopped to take a breath.

She took Tim’s hand and squeezed it as she looked into his eyes. “Son, Matthew was hurtin’ somthin’ awful until that little boy was safe at home. He’s a good man, sweetie, but he’s in a mess right now as he’s tryin’ to figure out a life for the two of ‘em.”

Tim took a deep breath. “Aunt Katie, I’m not going to corrupt the hometown hero, I swear. I’ll go over and try to figure out his computer problem, and I’ll be home for supper.”

She smiled and laughed. “I’ll keep you a plate.”

With that, she left him alone. Tim had no idea what the hell she thought he was going to do with Matt Collins, but Tim wasn’t one to hold out the vain hope he would be bumping into Matt at a local gay bar—if there was such a thing. The bull rider was hot, and Tim didn’t believe that the man would give him the time of day, even with the baggage Aunt Katie had just explained. Matt had a computer-related problem, and Tim was a techie. Nothing more, nothing less.

Chapter Two

Tim drove up the long, gravel driveway to the house where Matt and Ryan Collins lived. He saw a large barn to the right and a lot of cattle in the pastures. The house was a white, two-story clapboard with a large, wraparound, front porch, hosting a two-seater swing and blooming flowers in white window boxes. There were hanging baskets with lazy petunias of many colorsacross the front. He could see it was a home for a family, and he smiled.

He walked up to the back porch and knocked, as people were known to do in the country. When little Ryan opened the door, he gave Tim a thousand-watt smile. “Hi, Mr. Tim. Come on in. Daddy’s cussin’ in the office.’ The boy shook his head, which brought a grin to Tim’s lips.

Tim laughed as he picked up Ryan, unable to resist for reasons he didn’t understand. “Okay, cowboy. Show me where to find the office.”

Ryan pointed down the hall, and Tim followed his directions, slyly taking in the house to see it was clean and comfortable. It wasn’t a designer anything; it was a simple home. It was the best kind of home to have.

The two of them continued down the short hallway and turned into a room which seemed to be a den. The cowboy-in-question was sitting behind an oak desk in shorts and a T-shirt with the Professional Bull Riding Association emblem on the front.

“Mr. Collins, I heard you were having a problem with your computer.” Tim carried Ryan into the room and deposited him on the floor next to the desk.

The drop-dead, gorgeous man looked up and sighed. “I should have known better… Well, don’t open emails from people you don’t know, but the subject line read that there was interest in one of the bulls I’ve advertised on an auction website. When I opened it, the whole computer went crazy, and I can’t even get the damn calculator or calendar to work, much less everything else I have on here. This thing has all my financial records, along with all the information about the cattle for sale and my address book,” Matt complained.

Tim held the laugh as he witnessed the man’s hands flailing at his sides before pointing to the offending laptop. He turned to Ryan who looked equally as upset as his father. “Can you getme some water?” The boy nodded, hurrying out of the room and down the hallway, little feet scurrying over the hardwood.

“I need to check if someone attached a virus to it. The sooner I know what it is, the faster I can fix it. I won’t bore you with the details, but it’s not my first time atthisrodeo. My roommate in college used to download shit on his computer from porn sites all the time. I used the example of his computer situation as my senior project before I graduated. Kenny ended up going to Hollywood to work as a production assistant at a porn studio, or so I heard. Go figure.”

Tim slowly walked around the desk and stood next to the chair where Matt remained seated, appearing to be confused. His eyes grew bigger as Tim got closer to the device, so Tim stopped.

He could see Matt wasn’t exactly impressed, nor was he comfortable with Tim’s ramblings, so he shut up and prepared himself to work his magic. He wasn’t talented regarding singing, dancing, or anything that would turn heads in the fine arts. Tim didn’t advertise his formidable cock-sucking skills—according to theoneguy he’d sucked off—because he wasn’t interested in becoming a male hustler, nor was he looking to get his ass kicked for being queer in southern Virginia.

Tim could, however, ascertain any problem with any computer system, regardless of how shitty it might be, and with a few exceptions, he could work around the issues and get it up and running. His skills weren’t sexy, but he could become the most needed guy in the room if someone couldn’t access their email, Insta, or TikTok.

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