by Jodi Payne
“That’s the point, right?” Matt’s hands were sure, strong, rubbing and dragging on his skin.
“Mhm.” He straightened up and let Matt steer him toward the bed. “Is there more?”
“More points? More massage?” Matt eased him down and straddled his ass, rubbing his back now.
“I don’t care, just keep doing…that. All of that.” Tyler sighed, sinking into the comforter, letting his eyes close. “You have good hands.”
“I work with them a lot. Jesus, you’re fine to me.”
Matt’s voice was husky, almost a growl, but warmer, infinitely more sensual.
“I’m so glad I just…got on that plane.” He wriggled out of his T-shirt and tossed it. He’d panicked. He’d needed air. He’d needed Matthew’s air. “You’re the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen.” Tan, strong, solid.
“Thank you. Don’t think anyone’s ever said that to me before.”
“I don’t believe you.” He didn’t. Surely Deb had told him how handsome he was. “But if that’s true, that’s just another reason why I’m glad you showed up at my bar.”
He knew he mumbled the end of that, Matt’s hands felt like heaven and he was going totally boneless. He told himself not to doze off. If all he did was sleep what would Matt think? What kind of house guest would he be?
Still, Matt’s hands were hypnotizing, so warm and the bed was so soft, and he knew better. “Thank you, baby,” he muttered, so relaxed there was no fighting it anymore.
12
“Daddy! Watch me!”
“Boss, where do you want this shed?”
“Boss, can I have your keys? I need to move the truck.”
“Bubba, I need you to sign the paper I emailed you.”
“Bubba, can I stay at yours after Momma’s shindig?”
“Boss, you’d best turn that burger.”
“Son, can you send someone out to help Noah with his chair?”
Matthew signed and directed, watched and flipped and chopped and answered and sent.
He pondered just going to work in the barn some. No one would notice.
“Daddy! Watch me!” Emma waved her arms and jumped.
“Cheese for the burgers. And buns.” Lisa came down from the house with her hands full, in a flowy cover-up and flip-flops. “You keep the plates out here someplace, right?”
Momma kissed his cheek. “I just love this new outdoor space, Matty. Where do you want me to put my salad?”
“Just set it on the counter. There should be spoon deals in that weird little drawer.” He pointed with his chin to the stack of paper plates.
“What else do you need, Matt?” Lisa put her sunglasses on. “You want me to pull ketchup and stuff out of the fridge? Watch the girls? Where’s your man?”
“Here! Here. I’m here, sorry.” Tyler came out of nowhere in his trunks and a T-shirt that read, “Not Throwing Away My Shot,” and went right up to him for a kiss. “Sorry. I crashed so hard.”
“No worries. You’re on vacation, honey.” Matthew was not going to blush at the look Momma gave him. No way. “Lis, can you grab the mustard and ketchup? Does anyone need mayonnaise?”
“I’d love some.” Tyler looked sweet and a little sleepy, still. “You want me to get it?”
“Hang on, Tyler, I think…” Lisa had her nose in the minifridge. “Yep. There’s some here.”
“Thank you.”
“Hey, Uncle Dub.” Elias walked up with a huge watermelon. “You remember Sam?”
Sam was a tall, bean pole, and very hard to forget. “Hello, sir.”
“We’re gonna swim. Cool?” Elias put the watermelon on the counter.
“It is. Where’s your brother?”
“Uh—Papaw has him. He’s wanting to get in the pool too.”
Okay, damn. “Have Little Tim run and help?”
Tim was the size of a Mack truck, and the sweetest man on earth. He could carry Noah, if he had to.
“You boys go ahead, I’m on it.” Lisa gave Matt a nod and headed for the crew at the playhouse. “Kris!”
“Just lunch, huh?” Tyler leaned on him. “What can I do?”
“Just lunch.” He couldn’t remember the last time he was in this house without a bunch of folks for one meal or the other. “Can you please open the buns and get the first pack out? They’ll all serve themselves.”
“Yeah, sure.” Tyler got to work laying out buns. He looked completely comfortable when his hands were busy. “Seriously, this is a lot of people for lunch. You do this a lot?”
“Once a week or so. It’s a good way to build family. It’s bigger in the summer. In the winter things slow way down.” But right now they were calving, building, moving cattle, raising up all the babies. He needed his cowboys fit and happy and ready to work.
“Neat. Crazy, but neat.”
“The playhouse went up like a dream, Boss. It’s good to go.” Krissy pulled a bottle of water from the cooler. “It’ll be cute with some curtains and all.”
“You can decorate it for us.” Matthew met Krissy’s glare head on, managing to keep his face straight.
“I will beat you to death, Boss.” Krissy went over to the triangle on the porch, ringing it good and hard.
Tyler nearly jumped out of his skin. “Okay. So I’ll know to expect that next time.”
Krissy glanced over at Tyler and laughed. “Welcome to the ranch, Yankee.” She gave Tyler a chuck on the shoulder with her work gloves and walked past him, probably headed to talk to Lisa and the girls while the cowboys got food.
“Yes, Tyler. Welcome to the ranch.” Leanne, one of the sweetest cowboys he’d ever met, came up to Tyler, shook his hand. “Krissy’s a hard ass. Don’t worry about her.”
Tyler was all smiles. “Thank you. We actually met this morning before I’d even had my coffee. We’re good. I didn’t get your name.”
“Leanne Gentry. I work with the horses, and I have some veterinarian training, so I’m always in the barns.”
“That’s cool. Matthew pointed the horses out last night. I’ve never seen them up close. They’re beautiful.” Tyler reached for another package of buns to put out. “You’re going to take me for a closer look soon, right, Matt?”
“We’ll go riding, honey.” He would put Matt on one of the old steady riders, one that the girls were safe on.
“I’m game. It was good to meet you, Leeann.”
“Matt, can I grab a rare one for Noah? I’m not going to roll him through here.” Alan grabbed a plate. “No cheese for him.”
“Where’s Hannah?” he asked, dishing up a burger. Noah and that little girl were joined at the hip.
“She’s at physical therapy. Her mom’s bringing her by, and Mamaw Whitehead said she’d run her home after supper tonight.”
“It’s good to know they’re both getting better.”
“Thank you. You must be Tyler. I’m Alan.” Alan stuck out his hand. “Rachel had a hair thing and…honestly I think she was glad to be rid of us for the day. She says she’ll see you Saturday.”
“Sure. Good to meet you.”
“Yep, you too. Gonna run this over to Noah.” Alan nodded and left with the burger.
“You’ll help me when I forget everyone’s names, right?” Tyler tickled his elbow.
“God yes. No one expects you to remember, honey. Shit, I forget sometimes.” Which wasn’t true. His job in the world was this—to organize folks, make them happy, encourage them to work.
“I was kidding. I’m not going to forget, I’m a bartender. It’s my job to get to know people. This is just a lot of new people all at once. They’re nice, though. Everyone’s really nice.”
“They try.” He winked over, going for comforting. “They are cowboys. Things can get wild now and then.”
Wild. Things could get downright western.
Hell, he’d just bailed Ed and Jimmy out a few weeks ago for fighting down to the bar.
Tyler laughed. “You forget I work in a gay bar. Might be a slightly
different wild, but it’s still wild.” Tyler bumped shoulders with him. “Your burgers look really good. I think the kids are coming over.”
“Have one.” He put together one with cheese, one without. “Can you put mustard on the cheese one and ketchup on the other, please, sir?”
“Mustard on the cheese one…” Tyler scooped up the mustard and ketchup. “And ketchup on…all set. For the girls? Oh, and here come your parents.”
“Both with cheese. They’ll make their own. Emma is the ketchup.” Matthew grinned at his babies. “Having a good day?”
“Uh-huh. Can we have popsicles after burgers?” Sophia grinned at him, nose all freckled from the sun.
“Yes, but not in the pool, okay.” The red dye was nasty.
“I see my boy’s already put you to work.” Momma patted Tyler’s hand. “I don’t think there’s anyone on this ranch that knows how to sit down.”
“It’s all good.” Tyler shrugged. “I like to keep busy. I wouldn’t want to sit down today anyway.”
“Ha!” Krissy and Lisa were waiting behind Momma and Daddy and they started laughing so hard they had to take themselves right out of line.
“Oh. I didn’t mean—uh. Wow.” Tyler blushed bright red like he’d been out in the sun for a week.
Matthew didn’t even begin to know what to say, so he didn’t. He just fought his grin. He’d been a kid when him and Deb were married, and he’d never felt like he was grown enough to tease with Momma and Daddy. Now he was old enough, but he didn’t quite know how. Christ, he was going to get an earful from Sister tonight. “Get your burgers, y’all!”
“Yes, sir!” Everyone who hadn’t eaten yet lined up and the first round of burgers, and most of Momma’s salad and half the watermelon was gone.
By the time he got his lunch, the girls were having their popsicles with Momma up by the new playhouse, Hannah had showed up and was sitting with Noah on the steps in the shallow end of the pool, and Daddy was chatting with a bunch of the boys. Tyler had wandered off to eat and was sitting on the steps up to the house, sipping a Coke.
He leaned back against the house and rested, breathing where he—
“Daddy! Bull! Bull!”
Matthew was running for the fence before he even thought, before he looked, whistling up his dogs. He and Krissy hit the gate at the same time, hollering and waving their hands, desperately trying to distract Nutterbutter from whatever had caught his goddamn attention. Someone threw Krissy a rope, and he pulled his Colt from his ankle holster.
The dogs were nipping and biting, and that slowed the big black asshole some.
“Come on, you bastard! I don’t want to shoot you.” He stood his ground while Krissy threw a loop over one horn and pulled hard.
The bull turned on a dime, and he grabbed the fence and pulled himself over. Little Tim showed up on Cimarron, grabbing him and dragging the bull out of the near pasture.
“Good deal.” He holstered his weapon and loved on the pups, praising them. “And you, Miss Em. Good eyes!”
“Just luck, Daddy.”
Krissy coiled up the rope and stalked off. “C’mon, Jimmy, let’s go see how he got out.”
It took a minute, but everyone went back to what they’d been doing. Except maybe Tyler, who was standing instead of sitting, looking like he didn’t know what to do next.
“Hey, honey. That was Nutterbutter. He’s a shit.” He grabbed a hamburger and tossed half to each dog.
“That was…intense.” Tyler’s brow furrowed. “And you carry a gun.”
“Yep.” He stretched up, his back popping, and Daddy came over.
“Shit, boy. Look at you, clearing that fence. You’re younger than you appear in the rearview.”
“No shit on that.”
“That was a pretty impressive jump.” Tyler stuck his hands in his pockets. “Where did he come from? Is everything okay now?”
“He pushed through some fence. He’s my top producer because he’s still so active, but he can’t be tromping around up here. I imagine he heard all the fun and wanted to join in.” Nutterbutter had loved working, loved showing off still, but he was headstrong and smart as fuck. Still, at fifteen a straw, it would have been a shame to kill the evil shit. “The guys will find where the fence went down. No worries.”
“Remember that time you shimmied up that tree when Radar got out?”
“Up a tree?” Tyler looked horrified.
“I had to climb up there and get him down like a fireman.” Daddy laughed, and he loved that sound.
“How old was he?”
“I don’t know. Matty? Maybe four? Five?” Daddy shook his head. “Little.”
“Lord yes. I saw that big beast, and I swear fire was shooting out his nose.” He remembered how scared he was, how he’d frozen in the live oak like a cat.
“Jesus. That’s dangerous.” Tyler rested a hand on his arm. “Are you okay?”
“I am.” He wouldn’t be maybe, after an hour or two he’d have a little adrenaline let down. And him and Krissy were fixin’ to have a come to Jesus meeting about the fences. “You? You look a little rattled.”
“Yeah. A little. I’ve never seen anything so big and angry in my life. I thought it was ready to kill somebody.” Tyler took his hand. “And you actually hopped that fence to get in there with it? That’s insane.”
“That’s the job. We have a dozen buckers, plus the regular livestock, the horses—they all have minds of their own. It takes a bit to get used to the whole big critter thing.” He didn’t remember not riding, not knowing the livestock, but Deb had been incredibly worried at the beginning. She’d been a townie, and her eyes the first time she’d seen him with his arm up to the shoulder in a cow…
It had been a bad date.
“It’s a fucking scary job.” Tyler shook his head. “And where I come from you don’t pull out a gun unless you’re going to shoot someone with it. Talk about making my heart race.”
“Well, I was hoping I didn’t have to.” Matthew winked at Tyler, hoping to ease the worry. “I love that crazy old bull, but I couldn’t risk my girls.”
“No, no. I get it, I just…it’s just a lot. I’m glad everyone is okay.”
“Funny thing.” Daddy squinted at Tyler from under his hat. “Most of these boys wouldn’t know what to do with themselves up in New York either. You just give us a little while.” Daddy tipped his hat and headed for the pool.
“I will,” Tyler called after him.
Matthew didn’t know what to say, really, so he held his tongue, just smiling at Tyler every so often. “Soon I’ll have to show you the rest of the house. You haven’t seen the library, the media room. You have rooms to explore. My office is up there over the garage.”
“You have time to sit in an office?” Tyler leaned on him. “I don’t believe it.”
“I am up there a couple days a week, sometimes. If it’s slow.” That little lean, the pressure and warmth, that did it for him. “I usually just check my emails at the kitchen table.”
“I can’t wait to see everything. And don’t worry, if you’re busy the girls can show me around.” Tyler grinned. “I can ask them all about you.”
“Oh lord.” He could just imagine. Actually, he had no idea what they’d say. They were basically healthy, happy, peaceful babies.
“Uncle? Are there more hamburgers?” Lord, Rachel’s boys were eating machines.
“Yeah, turn the grill back on. There’s more,” he hollered back.
“I’ll make ’em,” Daddy said. “You show Ty all the roses and stuff.”
Tyler snorted a laugh. “Yes. Show me the roses, baby. He’s funny. I mean, I love flowers. But I guess he thinks that’s more my speed?”
“No. No, come on, you’ll see.” Oh, this was going to be fun.
He led Tyler around to great-granny’s roses that led from the side of the house. They were huge now, bushes that grew well over Tyler’s head. The roses were in the last stage of their first bloom, the scent strong
and familiar. “My great-granny planted these, and we’ve all cared for them. They lead to a—well, come on, you’ll see.”
The folly had fascinated him as a little boy. A little set of facades made to look like an Old West ghost town, with doors that opened into a big old circus tent. The big meeting area behind had been remade a dozen times, and it wasn’t safe for the kids to play in anymore, but he couldn’t tear it down.
“Oh wow.” Tyler worked his way around it, eyes wide as he brushed away growth and tested what it was made of. “What is this? This is so cool.”
“They used to have dances here, revivals, weddings. Bridge parties. I used to want to sleep out here, but it was already dangerous.” He loved it though. There was something wonderful about it, but more than that, it was history. Their history.
“So neat. It’s actually really cool just like this. Have you ever thought about fixing it up?” Tyler stepped in just a little to have a look.
“All the time, but when? I mean, maybe when I’m ninety and I’m not taking care of grandbabies and critters. One day, huh?” It was dirty and damp, and he could see where critters had been in there.
“I think it could be neat.” Tyler came over and hugged an arm around him. “The roses are amazing, and they smell so good.”
“They do.” And this was a perfect, romantic spot to steal a kiss, so he did. He cradled one hand behind Tyler’s neck, tilted his head, and brought their mouths together.
Tyler had obviously been craving the contact. He made a soft sound and leaned right into it, fingers reaching to stroke Matt’s beard.
“Mmm…” He could lay Tyler down, right here, and love him into oblivion.
“I’ve been watching you. You’re hot as fuck taking charge out there, everyone looking up to you.” Tyler’s hand was warm as it slid across his back and teased him, tucking into his back pocket.
“Just doing my job, honey.” But the words pleased him, heated him. He always told his girls to learn to accept a compliment. “Thank you. I’ll take hot as fuck.”
Tyler gave him another kiss. “Watching you do your job works for me. Like whoa.”
