Bullheaded

ways, but it’s more attitude and looking south longer than most guys do. You get so you recognize the signs.”
    “Did your parents know what you were doing?”
    Soberly, Cody shook his head again. “Not until a cop brought me home one day and told them what he caught me doing. He didn’t want to arrest me because I was underage, but he said it was dangerous and he thought they should know.”
    “That’s how you came out to them? Man, that sucks. What did they do?”
    A funny look came over Cody’s face, almost as though he wanted to cry, but Cody never cried. “Told me to be careful. And then they hugged me.”
    “Wow.” Johnny didn’t think he could have loved Cody’s parents more than he did already, but this story did it. It helped him understand their immediate acceptance of him in Cody’s life. “They didn’t ground you?”
    Slowly, Cody said, “I think it would have had the opposite effect of what they wanted. Made me feel trapped and I would have acted twice as bad. This way—I knew they cared about me. It made me take a minute to think about my own safety. Probably saved my ass a couple times.”
    “So they didn’t care you were gay?”
    Cody laughed. “Nah. They’re love children of the sixties. Anything goes, right? What about your parents? How’d you come out to them?”
    Hearing a familiar haunting sound, Johnny looked up and spotted an eagle soaring above them on the thermals and pointed at it. “Look at that. Always wished I could fly like that.”
    “You do. You can,” Cody said, giving him one of those intense looks Johnny was at a loss to interpret but almost always led to sex.
    It turned out this was one of those times. Cody got them sitting on a smooth fallen log facing each other, their jeans pulled down, hands on each other’s cocks while they leaned into each other, kissing.
    Johnny watched the green reflection of the trees glimmering in Cody’s eyes until he closed them and lifted his head in ecstasy, coming with a gasp instead of a shout. Then it was his turn to drown in the pleasure of Cody’s hands on him.

Chapter 4:
So, You Wanna Be a Bull Rider

    J OHNNY sighed at the sight of the four kids lined up in front of them. They were so young, probably in their early twenties, and yet already three of them showed off that cocky swagger indicative of extreme youth, insecurity, and the ego of a rider. He wasn’t much older, but he hoped he hadn’t been that stupid at their age, even though he didn’t have too many illusions about how smart he’d been. Add in the confusion about being gay and he’d probably acted even more like an idiot.
    “Thanks for coming out here to the Circle G,” Cody said laconically. “Bunk house is behind you. You can pick a room and stow your gear, or you can stay in town if you prefer. There’s a cheap motel and a couple places to eat. If you want to stay here, we’ll give you all the grub you can handle. My mom’s an excellent cook.”
    “Do we have to pay extra for it?”
    There was always one, Johnny thought. One guy who thought he was trouble with a capital T and set out to prove it every chance he got. The kid was already giving him and Travis the hairy eyeball. Johnny hoped he wasn’t an idiot skinhead.
    “Nope. Part of the service. The bunkhouse is sitting there empty anyway, and my mom’s never happier than when she’s feeding up a bunch of hungry cowboys.”
    Johnny noticed the quiet one seemed to perk up at being called a cowboy instead of a greenhorn.
    “That there is the main house,” Cody continued, pointing at the white house. “That’s where we’ll be eating in the kitchen. Mom will ring the triangle when the chow’s ready. We’ll get started in the corral tomorrow at ten sharp. If you want to go into town, I’ll have someone give you a lift. So, what’re your names?”
    The cocky one took charge, pointing at himself and then going down the line as he said their names. “Bobby Blue Chandler, top rider. Aubrey Matthews, Tommy Benson, Zane Winslow. We want to know what the program is.”
    The quiet one with close-cropped black hair, Zane, seemed as though he hadn’t signed up for a tour guide, Johnny noticed, and the expression on Aubrey’s face when Bobby Blue named himself top rider made him figure they’d be breaking up a fight at some point.
    RJ was as imperturbable as always with the ever-present toothpick hanging out of his mouth, but Travis rolled his eyes like the clown he was. Luckily he