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I’d said it, and more than that, I meant it.
“That’d be okay, I guess. Never done thin’s that way ‘fore. Never had nothin’ but…you know, the sex stuff.”
“A lot of sex stuff?”
“Sure. Why not?”
I liked him more every second. “Not a damn thing wrong with that. Listen, Joel, I don’t want to make you feel like you have to do anything with us. Let’s start as friends and see where it might lead. I don’t want the,” I had to swallow a chuckle before I could continue. “I don’t want the sex stuff in the way.”
“Friends is good, sure. I’m goin’ out o’ town for a few days to rodeo. Can we make friends when I get back?”
“Sure. That would be great. Get my number from Eli and call me. We’ll invite you to our place and maybe have dinner or something.”
“Yessir, that’d be fine.”
We rose and he gave me a nod, then a smile grew on his lips before he could turn away to hide it. That was the one gesture I couldn’t get off my mind for the rest of the day. When I spoke to Eli after, I must have shared that smile.
“You had a good talk.”
“We did. He’s…something. I have a feeling he was waiting on me or us to do just that.”
“What did you say?”
Eli was my friend, so the question didn’t come out of gossipy intent, but still, it felt wrong to divulge it. “We’re going to have dinner when he gets back from doing some rodeo.”
“Dinner,” he said flatly, staring at me for a punchline.
“Yeah, it’s the meal at the end of the day,” I teased, then remembered Noah’s word for it that Eli used now. “Supper, I should say, to you country folk.”
“Fuck off,” he said laughing. “You know what I mean. You don’t do dinner and dates.”
“How would you know?”
Eli rolled his eyes, and it was adorable, but so was he. “Yeah, how many of your conquests got dinner first?”
“Maybe he’s not a conquest, Eli. Maybe he’s, you know, the one.”
I got a kiss for that, right on the lips, and I looked around after, expecting to see Noah pointing a gun at me. “Watch that. Your old man will kill us both.”
“I’d die happy. You look like he threw you for a spin. I like that. And I like him.”
It suddenly became all too clear. “You want Joel with us, so you know the guy! You don’t want us bringing home a stray.”
“Maybe. I am as protective of you as you are of me. Besides, I really like him, and you and Damon would be good to him.”
For that, I gave him a hug, but it was a quick one that still made me take a look around for Noah and a rifle. When I got back home, I found Damon in the barn, on speaker with Roland, speaking of strays.
“I think that would work,” Damon said in the direction of his phone, which was on an errant sawhorse.
“What will work?” I asked Damon before I said to the phone, “Hey, Roland.”
“Burke, hey. I have drawn up a few things for you guys and sent them along. Damon was just checking things out.”
“Good! That was fast. Maybe if we molested all our contractors, we’d get the same results?”
“I work hard for all my clients,” he started, but added, “But that didn’t hurt. Well, it hurt, sure, but it helped me get busy, that is.”
We had a good laugh at that, and I resisted the urge to ask him how his ass felt. I could, actually, separate business from pleasure when it was called for.
