Page 63 of Bull Riders Don't Swoon

“You remember that?” I ask as I sit across from him.

“I do. You didn’t call much, but you called that day, and I knew there was something more to it. I figured you’d tell me, eventually. So it was because of this guy?”

My dad’s hand shakes far too much to get the soup to his mouth, and the liquid falls off the spoon. Jamie, without missing a beat, takes my dad’s spoon and brings a spoonful of soup to his mouth. For a moment, I think my dad will tell him to piss off and he doesn’t need spoon feeding, but he doesn’t.

“Yeah, it was me. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be here today. Seems like you and I already have a lot in common, Mr. Shepard.” My dad opens his mouth for another measure of soup and Jamieson just keeps feeding him like it’s not weird to meet your boyfriend’s father and start spoon feeding him.

“Call me Charlie.”

Jamie smiles. “Okay. Charlie, it is.”

Dad coughs on his next swallow and shakes his head that he’s had enough.

“Sorry. Two young bucks like yourselves shouldn’t be here acting like n-nursemaids to an old man.” He slides a shaky and age-spotted hand across the table to me and offers the other to Jamieson. “But thank you. I hope we can do this again and I'll be able to feed myself instead.”

“I’d love that,” Jamieson says, and I know he means it.

“Hey, babe. You okay?”

After the rehab workers picked Dad up and we had a tearful goodbye, Jamieson and I spent several hours cleaning dad’s place. We even ran his old mattress to the landfill, and I’ll get him a new one when he needs it.

If he needs it.

We came home to my place late last night and now after breakfast I’m staring at the wall with my hands in a sink of cold dish water.

“I think I will be. I’m just running through so many scenarios and hoping for something good. He liked you. I want him to know you like I do.”

Jamie circles his arms around my waist and rests his chin on my shoulder.

“Keep thinking good thoughts. You’ve done what you can.”

“You’re right.”

He laughs and turns me around. “Of course, I am. I’m doing some weight training with Hunter and Jackson today. Want to join us?” He kisses me softly and I sigh. Fuck, I cannot get enough of him kissing me.

“Not today. Could we meet up later? Maybe at the Thirsty Cow? It’s been ages.”

“That’s a great idea. I’ll text you with theplan later?”

Jamie gathers up the stuff he left lying around the living room and before he leaves, he runs back to me in the kitchen and kisses me breathless.

“What was that for?”

“To let you know I’m yours and I want to get naked with you for the rest of my life.”

Laughing, I push him off me.

“Noted. Now get out of here or you’ll be late.”

Jamieson leaves like the whirlwind he sometimes is and when he’s gone, I miss the space he takes up.

twenty

Jamieson

“Jamieson, goddammit you’re going to hurt yourself.”

Hunter lifts the barbell from my shaking arms and replaces it in the cradle.

---