by Sunny Day
Recovery 2
Keeping a Cowboy
It has been fifteen years since Leslie Kilmer met and fell in love with Asher Foster. Despite obstacles they faced, it has been a good fifteen years.
Then Leslie’s life suddenly careens out of his control. A terrible accident lands him in the hospital, and Asher is behaving strange. The problems persist even after he is out of the hospital and back home. They have already broken up once, and Leslie can’t allow that to happen again.
Someone vandalizes his home, and sheriff’s latest theory causes his blood to run cold. Can he fix both his life and relationship with the only man he ever cared about in time?
Genre: Alternative (M/M or F/F), Contemporary, Western/Cowboys
Length: 28,838 words
KEEPING A COWBOY
Recovery 2
Sunny Day
EROTIC ROMANCE
MANLOVE
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Erotic Romance ManLove
KEEPING A COWBOY
Copyright © 2012 by Sunny Day
E-book ISBN: 978-1-61926-841-8
First E-book Publication: July 2012
Cover design by Jinger Heaston
All cover art and logo copyright © 2012 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
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All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
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Letter to Readers
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Regarding E-book Piracy
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KEEPING A COWBOY
Recovery 2
SUNNY DAY
Copyright © 2012
Chapter 1
Leslie wasn’t fond of repairing fences. However, it was a job that needed to be done, and besides, in the state he was in, he was finding that the routine of a simple physical job calmed and soothed his nerves. He’d focused completely on the job, and the wire, chasing everything else out of his mind. He had been unsettled and uneasy when he’d left the house that morning, and the fact that the fence needed repairing was just another annoying occurrence in his life. He’d headed in that direction purely because he wanted to punish himself, and it was better than staying in the house or doing something he actually liked and screwing it up because he was angry.
Leslie sighed and pulled viciously at the wire, ignoring the sting in his fingers. He knew what his problem was. It wasn’t a new occurrence. He had been dealing with it for years, but each time it got worse. He had constantly been on edge for the last two weeks, and he was afraid he was going to lose control and say something he wasn’t going to be able to take back later. That was something he wanted to avoid at all costs. He needed to take matters into his own hands, except that it wasn’t that easy. Leslie snorted. Love was always complicated. Being thirty-two didn’t make him exempt from behaving like a lovesick teenager.
The sound of a car engine huffing its way toward him caught his attention. Leslie glanced at the mostly repaired fence, then up at the sky. The sun was low on the horizon, signaling the end of the day. He pulled off his heavy work gloves and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He rolled his shoulders and stretched his arms, wincing as his stiff muscles uncurled. He’d lost track of the time, and his body was paying the price. He looked again at the car. The old pickup was one of his. The dust had long ago hidden its color, and it wasn’t new even when he got it. However, the engine hummed evenly as the car approached, and that, as far Leslie was concerned, was what mattered. As long as it did what it needed to, he wasn’t going to be overly concerned over its looks.
The car came to a stop, engine slowly dying away. The door opened, and a man stepped out of the car, grinning sheepishly at him.
“Hi, boss.”
“Calvin,” Leslie answered, sparing the older man a glance. Calvin always insisted on calling him boss, even though he had long ago earned the right to call Leslie by his name. He was Leslie’s first employee, and Leslie valued his advice. He wasn’t the only one anymore. There were two more hands on Midnight Stars, and Calvin’s position was now of ranch foreman. Leslie wouldn’t have called him his friend. He’d never had one, and he wasn’t sure he even wanted one. He suspected Calvin felt the same, even though his reasons were different. But during the years they spent working side by side, they had built some kind of rapport. On the outside, they didn’t have a lot in common. Calvin was old enough to be Leslie’s father, and had, in fact, a daughter who worked as a doctor in the town hospital. He was also a recovering alcoholic. He used to have his own spread. He lost it, and ruined his marriage, because of drink. He was reduced to doing odd jobs to survive, and more often than not, to buy himself another drink. Leslie was a foster child, his uncle taking him in simply because there was no one else, but he had never truly felt welcome. He’d bought his home, the ranch Midnight Stars, from the money he’d earned while competing in the rodeo. He had never been able to openly claim the love of his life. Calvin had come to Leslie when he’d bought the Midnight Stars. Leslie’s savings were pretty depleted then by the hefty payment on the ranch. It didn’t matter to him, since that was what he intended the money for. In the end, he had gotten what he wanted. He wasn’t sure he could afford to pay someone to work for him. It would certainly make things easier for him, since the Midnight Stars had suffered during the previ
ous owner’s long illness. Calvin didn’t ask for much, and Leslie knew him to be a hard worker when he was sober. The trick was keeping him that way. Leslie had decided to take a risk. Most people in town figured he was nuts. The ones who knew he’d hired Calvin warned him that the first time Calvin got drunk he would screw something up, and Leslie would have to pay the price. Fortunately, Leslie never cared what other people were thinking. He and Calvin struck a deal. They agreed not to judge each other. It worked for them so far. Now, after seven years, they trusted each other.
“Come to pick me up?” Leslie started to gather his tools, deciding that maybe it was time to call it a day.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Calvin’s old, scruffy, and well-loved boots make their way toward him. They stopped next to the fence.
“Looks good,” the old cowboy said in a no-nonsense voice, eyeing the patches. He gave the other man a measuring look.
“I thought this wasn’t a rush job.”
“It wasn’t. It still needed to be done.” Leslie shrugged. “Better now than later.”
“You do know that you are paying us to do the job, right?” Calvin attempted to joke.
Leslie went to the truck without sparing a glance in his direction. He tossed the tools inside without his usual care. “Yes. It doesn’t mean I’m unable to do it,” he answered in clipped tones.
Calvin raised his eyebrows.
“I never implied that.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I’m not in the best mood today.” Leslie leaned heavily onto the passenger door, staring dejectedly at the ground.
“I noticed that this morning. I’d actually hoped you’d feel better by now.”
Calvin knew him well, it seemed.
“I am.”
“Then I guess the morning sucked for you.”
Leslie shuddered, remembering the angry knot his thoughts were that morning. “I needed to get out of the house.” He looked at the sky again, then at the land surrounding them, the dark spots of slow-moving cattle, the mountains in the background. The people who saw it always told him the view was breathtaking. Leslie didn’t care about the view. He cared about the fact that this was his.
Calvin looked at him sideways. “Look, we both know I’m the last person who should be giving you advice on your love life, but don’t you think that avoiding him will only worsen the situation?”
Leslie looked at him through narrowed eyes. “I’m not avoiding him.”
Calvin snorted. “Of course you aren’t. That would be why you spent the whole day doing something that any one of us could have done anytime when there were other jobs you could have done closer to the house. You knew Asher was going to come home earlier tonight. Trust me, boss, you’re avoiding him. And if I know that, you can bet the Midnight Stars he’d noticed, too.”
“This is my place, and I’m old enough to make decisions for my own life,” Leslie said sharply.
“Whoa, easy. I didn’t say differently.” Calvin raised both hands in a placating gesture. “Don’t think I’m not aware of that.” He huffed indignantly. “I just didn’t like having to tell Ash you weren’t there. Again.”
Leslie’s mouth twitched despite his mood. Ash was a Foster by birth, and Fosters were one of the wealthiest, and most influential, families in town, hell, maybe even in the state. He managed his family spread, Fourteen F, and knew both how to give orders to men and to express his displeasure without saying a word. Calvin obviously wasn’t immune.
“You’ll live.” Leslie grabbed the door handle. “Are we going then?”
Calvin grumbled something in answer. He followed Leslie’s example and entered the truck.
He fumbled with his seat belt before keying the engine. But he wasn’t yet done with their conversation.
“Look,” he said suddenly, startling Leslie out of his thoughts, “I didn’t say you have to wait on him at home each day like a damn housewife. Just…clear out whatever is between you two, all right?”
Leslie sighed, resting his aching head on the seat. “That’s easier said than done,” he mumbled. His calm was rapidly dissipating, but he couldn’t deny that Calvin had a point. Ignoring the problem wasn’t going to make the problem disappear. Tension between him and Ash was growing more noticeable every day. He didn’t know how long he was going to be able of pretend it wasn’t there. The way things were now between them, one of them was soon going to break. He was afraid of that. Calvin suddenly made a sharp turn, the truck veering dangerously to the left, jostling him in his seat. He must have done that on purpose, because he usually handled the old truck much more carefully. It was his baby.
Leslie’s eyes flew open. He reached for the wheel automatically. Calvin batted his hand away. “I got it under control.”
“Do you?”
Calvin gave him hard look. “I do. Nothing good ever comes easy. You of all people should know that. Don’t throw away what you have, Leslie. You’ll regret it. Not everything could be made right.”
Leslie winced. He couldn’t say anything to that. He knew that Calvin had truly loved his wife and he didn’t blame her for leaving. He was still trying to repair his relationship with his daughter. She didn’t want to have anything to do with him, refusing to believe he’d changed. Calvin acknowledged that she had a right to doubt him, but he was determined to prove he was another man. He had made mistakes. He was willing to be patient. Leslie knew how much it was costing him. He appreciated Calvin’s brutal honesty, even if he didn’t like it. He wondered how hard for Calvin it was to talk to his boss about his relationship, and one with another man. He stared through the windshield at the fast-approaching outline of buildings.
The house on Midnight Stars wasn’t anything fancy. In comparison to other ranch homes in the neighborhood, it was both small and plain. There was just one level and all the rooms were in a row, the so-called shotgun house. It was also completely hidden from the view by a row of trees. Leslie wondered which of the previous owners decided to build it that way. Both the bunkhouse and the rest of the outbuildings were more than fifty feet away. They were relatively new. His uncle had built them. There was a dirt road connecting the bunkhouse with the main road to the Midnight Stars, but whoever came that way was unable to see the house at first, tucked as it was behind the trees. In the beginning, Calvin had argued with Leslie that Leslie should move into the foreman’s cabin, and he might as well stay in the bunkhouse. Leslie had declined. He liked the privacy the old house afforded him, liked the fact that he was alone in it, liked that he could climb into the bay window in the living room and watch the stars until deep into the night. Most of all, he loved the fact that this was his and that no one could take it away from him. He was willing to deal with some inconveniences because of that. The biggest problem was that there was no driveway. Leslie had seriously entertained the thought of cutting at least some of the trees so that a truck could drive up to the house, mostly because of Ash. Ash still lived on Fourteen F even if he was spending most of his nights on Midnight Stars. He drove home to Leslie each evening, and returned to Fourteen F early in the morning. However, he’d never commented on the fact that he had to leave his truck in front of the bunkhouse, in the plain view of everyone, so Leslie had abandoned the idea.
“The boys are already gone,” Calvin informed him as the truck neared to a stop. Leslie nodded.
“The boys” were how Calvin referred to Leslie’s other two hands. “I know. Brian asked my permission to leave earlier.”
Brian had a girlfriend in town. Leslie had no idea what Jared’s excuse was, but frankly, he didn’t care.
He started unbuckling his seat belt when he noticed Calvin hadn’t moved yet.
“Something else you wanted to talk about?” he asked carefully, recognizing the older man’s uneasiness. Calvin squirmed. He didn’t look at Leslie.
“I went to the town today.”
Leslie blinked. “That’s right, our order was supposed to arrive today.”
Calvin sighed. “Ben
said he doesn’t have it yet.”
“Again?” Leslie asked in disbelief.
“He said there was a mix-up,” Calvin explained, turning in his seat to look at Leslie. In the dim light of the truck cabin, Leslie could clearly read uneasiness on his face. He snorted.
“No kidding. If I’m not mistaken, that would be fourth mix-up in the last six months.”
“Yeah, well, he doesn’t like me.” Calvin looked embarrassed and apologetic. Some people weren’t willing to forgive Calvin his past. Leslie shook his head.
“Calvin, he doesn’t have to like you, or me, to take my money. He has done that before. I’ll deal with it.”
“That…might be the best,” Calvin agreed reluctantly. Leslie paused. “Why didn’t you tell me Ben was giving you problems?”
Calvin looked uncomfortable again.
“You know that his mother was a Foster.”
In other words, he was Ash’s cousin. Leslie’s mouth tightened. Calvin was worried about that?
Abruptly, he pushed the door open and exited the car. A shiny, new black pickup truck sat in his driveway. He didn’t need to see the Fourteen F insignia emblazoned on the doors to know whose it was. Next to it, Midnight Stars’s remaining truck looked understandably shabby and unattractive. Leslie squelched down the impulse to kick at it. He heard Calvin call him. “I’ll return the tools.” He followed Leslie’s gaze to the black truck and grimaced.
Leslie nodded. “Thanks,” he said curtly and headed for the house. He shivered as the evening air nipped at his skin as he made a short trek to the house. There was a light on the outside porch, even if it wasn’t that dark outside yet. The leaves rustled ominously above him, a sharp contrast to the welcoming atmosphere the house exuded. The wood creaked in protest as Leslie dragged his feet reluctantly toward the door. He hesitated shortly with his hand on the knob. Anger from the morning, briefly doused but not extinguished, spiked inside him. Screw it. Now he was afraid of entering his own house?
