Bullheaded

one of them?”
    Cody sensed a tinge of jealousy and smirked. He didn’t want to hurt Johnny, but he liked that hint of possessiveness. “Nope, never was. Never wanted to. He’s a friend.”
    “So if you wanted to do, I don’t know, Bobby Blue, you’re saying you could get him?”
    “Not that I’d want him, but sure. You just fuck with their heads a little, you know, male friendship, remember the Spartans, that kind of crap. Get them thinking with junior, you know?”
    “No, I don’t know.”
    “Guys have needs and sometimes a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do. It wasn’t ever serious but I got my rocks off and they got theirs.”
    “Holy fuck, you are blowing my mind. Don’t you ever worry one of those guys is going to, I don’t know, tell about you?”
    “No, because he’d be telling about himself too, wouldn’t he?”
    “Not if he said he heard it or witnessed it or something like that. You know, if he was pissed because you keep pounding him into the ground on tour.”
    “I don’t know. I never gave it much thought. You going to wash up?” It always made his knees melt when he looked at Johnny without a shirt. Those lean abs!
    “Yeah.”

Chapter 5:
Val Loves Johnny

    A FTER lunch, Johnny walked out to the mailbox by the road to put out his letter for pickup. He dawdled on the way back, in no hurry to rejoin the class in the ring.
    After the morning teaching session, Johnny was short on patience, both with the boys and Cody. He wasn’t sure if it made him madder to find out about Cody’s sordid cowboys-with-benefits past, or the fact he thought that mouthy Bobby Blue was good-looking. The boys’ ignorance he could overlook; learning the theory behind the riding was important, but nothing would move you forward better than actual experience. It was their disdain for Cajun Spice that got to him. Aside from Zane, they didn’t seem to grasp why Cody was making them ride a horse.
    You could get hurt falling off a horse, but you could get hurt much worse falling off a bull. Bobby Blue, Aubrey, and Tommy appeared to think once they got on a bull’s back, it would all magically come together, but the bulls they’d been riding in the touring division were nothing compared to the higher-ranked bulls.
    “That’s some rainy-day face, Johnny.”
    He glanced up and smiled at Val. Her hat was hanging down her back by the lariat, and her hair gleamed silver in the sunlight as she sat on the railing of the log bridge.
    “Shouldn’t complain. I’ve got a roof over my head and food in my belly.” Even he thought he sounded a bit pathetic.
    “It’s a sign things aren’t all right when you have to remind yourself of your blessings. It’s nothing to do with Cody, is it?”
    Was it his imagination, or did Val look anxious? He hurried to reassure her. “No, it’s those would-be riders. Half of them have too much confidence and the other half not enough.”
    “They didn’t hurt my Spice girl, did they?”
    Johnny laughed. “You should have stuck around to watch. She rubbed their noses in it good. You’d have enjoyed it.”
    “So she didn’t hurt them too much. She can always tell who’s a tenderfoot. Such a good girl.” Val patted the log she was sitting on in invitation. “I’m trying to be delicate here, but if you needed money, I hope you know you could come to us.”
    Touched, Johnny said, “Well, I wouldn’t borrow money if I could help it, but I’m okay. Hell, you already feed me more than I should eat and give me a place to live rent free.”
    “We love you, Johnny, it’s no hardship to keep you around.”
    Her easy acceptance made him ask a question that had been on his mind. “How did you feel when Cody came out to you? You seem so—casual about it.”
    “Gay people weren’t invented with your generation, you know. Amazing as this may seem, I’d actually heard of it before,” Val said dryly. “Travis was one of my best friends on the circuit and he trained me to embrace the gays early. He’s my BFF.”
    “Wow, I didn’t realize you’d known him so long.”
    “We did a lot of driving together, going from one event to the next. I went for bucking broncs and he went for the bulls. Did pretty well too. He made a decent living in a time when it wasn’t easy for a black cowboy.”
    “And you gave him a job when you both retired?”
    “Something like that, but he’s more a part of the family, and when he hooked up with RJ, well, he became family too.”