Bullheaded Read Free Page A

inevitable invites that wasn’t too obvious.
    It was times like these he wished he still smoked. He would have liked the calming effect of taking in a deep drag of the smoke, watching the burning ember arc through the air when he tossed it away to land in a little shower of sparks, grinding the butt out with his heel….
    He’d started up at fourteen to look cool, but quit once he began working on a ranch after school. He needed to be fit to ride. And now there was no way he could run and jump and turn somersaults in the ring if he smoked. It was a dirty habit anyway. He hated littering, and the parking lot was enough of a mess without him adding to it. When he used to smoke, he always picked up the butt after stepping on it and tossed in a litter bin because he was kind of a stickler for keeping Mother Earth clean.
    He shoved his hands into his jacket pockets and started walking. He would have time for a shower before Cody made it back from the bars.
    The sight of Cody’s hand stuck in the rope had terrified him. A rider could be hurt bad hung up like that, especially if he couldn’t stay on his feet next to the bull. He’d been too far away to reach Cody and yank the tail of the rope, and yet he’d done it. The bull had then sent him flying when Cody finally came loose and rolled to a stop in the dust. When Johnny saw over a ton of beef poised to crash down on Cody, somehow he grew wings on his heels. That was the only explanation for how he managed to run the bull down and then fly over its head to distract it. When Vern played the video of the evening’s program, he saw how it happened. He jumped and the bull had gotten under him somehow. The horns got caught in his baggy shirt and flipped him. He laughed when he thought about how simple it was in retrospect.
    Vern was right. It was a good night when the riders and the fighters all went home.
    The hot shower felt like heaven, beating down on Johnny’s sore shoulders. After one final, bone-crunching stretch, he turned off the water. It was good to feel clean again. He loved his job, but after a good night in the ring, gritty dust got stuck in the sweat, and there was the smell of the bulls that clung to you. He corralled his long, wet hair into a ponytail and put on a clean pair of jeans before wandering through the connecting door into Cody’s room.
    The room was a giant step up from the ratty motels he’d stayed in when he used to work the touring division, clean and luxurious. Cody could afford it, even if he couldn’t. Johnny settled onto the couch in front of the TV and wrapped a blanket around his shoulders while he surfed for the sports channel.
    The sound of the lock clicking open shook him from a light doze.
    “Anything good on?”
    “You smell like beer and bulls.” Johnny thought Cody looked almost good enough to lick clean, but didn’t say so.
    “Hey, it’s manly. Bull-rider aftershave. Gotta love it.” Cody grinned and tossed his hat onto the desk.
    “Yeah, well, take a shower anyway and I’ll love it even more.”
    “Okay, babe. Stay awake for me.” Cody dropped a quick kiss on Johnny’s forehead and went to the bathroom, dropping each item of clothing at his heels as he walked and stripped.
    “Fucking slob,” Johnny muttered, but he was too pleasantly drowsy to get up and police the mess.
    He woke up again when Cody’s arm slipped around him.
    “Better?” Cody lifted his other arm so Johnny could sniff his pit.
    “Fuck you.” Johnny batted his arm down.
    “Not tonight. Gotta keep a good seat tomorrow.” Cody gave him a grinning leer.
    “Same here, so don’t get any ideas about tapping my ass.”
    Cody comfortably tangled their legs together. “You’re wearing too many clothes.”
    “I can fix that.” Johnny unzipped, and then lifted his hips to slide his jeans and underwear off.
    “Better,” Cody approved. He rubbed Johnny’s thigh with his free hand, trailing his fingers lightly through the hair. “When I was lying