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He didn’t like talking about it, fidgeted for that entire conversation, so we changed the subject to the club. He liked that. Volunteering to help with all of it. Damon and I thought it was a great idea.
Roland came that first week, to bring the final blueprints, and bringing a man to meet us from the city, Devlin Grant. Devlin, who asked us to call him Dev, said he could do all the work with a small crew, and we could put him and his crew in the guesthouse to save some of the cost.
He even said he’d start on that too, with updating and fixing the things wrong with it. And, the best part, he could start right away, and did, his crew showing up the next morning, bright and early.
Everything was coming together. Like a miracle, we had our permits, the construction ready to start, and the guesthouse would be ready at the same time.
And the best part was, we were getting closer by the day to claiming our boy.
One night we had Joel over for dinner again, he had a ton of questions about the club, and we answered them all as best we could. He was bouncing with his excitement over it, and we saw him that night as someone that could move into the lifestyle seamlessly. It seemed that part of our future was finally coming into focus.
What came next, however, was all for them, Joel and Damon. I waited until Joel was finished with the work at Noah’s and had been coming regularly to our place. I casually suggested to him that the fencing around the main yard should be reinforced, just in case we ever got animals.
He wanted to build a corral, and I didn’t want Damon to see that and guess my surprise. That could come later, that corral Joel wanted. For the time being, he worked days getting the fencing nice and tight.
See, Damon’s constant hinting about animals had stopped. He’d set himself into believing that I was against them. I think he’d hoped that once Joel was with us officially and sexually, he could help him talk me into getting some.
And with Eli’s suggestion that Joel took to animals better than people, it made sense to do.
What I’d done is get ahold of a man from the city. He lived outside of it, in the rural outskirts, and I found him when looking up LGBTQIA businesses. He came up first on the list of three under horse sellers, though he mostly boarded them. I loved the name of the business most of all. Pink Saddles. I only hoped that choosing it that way, from the name, didn’t make me regret calling.
I spoke to him, and he agreed to bring out the horses right to us. I made certain he knew that I wouldn’t take them if my partner didn’t like them, and he understood, having a partner of his own.
So, one day, which was luckily one where Joel was visiting, we were out in the barn, watching Devlin’s crew starting to set up to work. Joel was eyeing one of the men from a corner, where he could hide and not be forced to talk to any of the strangers.
I took him outside the barn to talk so we wouldn’t be overheard and asked, “Joel, you okay?”
“Yessir, I’m jus’ fine. That boy in there has a nice’un, though.”
“Yes, I’m sure,” I said, holding my laughter back. “Why don’t you help me with something? Someone’s coming and I’d like you to meet them.”
“Meet ‘em?”
Digging the toe of his boot in the dirt, he had his head down so his hat covered his eyes. I placed two fingers under his chin and made him lift his head to look me in the eye. “Why don’t you like meeting people? You’re good with them.”
“I…don’t rightly know.”
“Honey, you’re sweet and funny and you made us like you right off, even when you were being shy.”
He blinked at me, and it melted my heart. “Ya did?”
“Yes! Not to mention, you’re fucking sexy as hell.”
I loved that he blushed brightly and ducked his head again. “Shit.”
“Joel, we’re only staying out of the bedroom with you because we want to show you that we care about more than that with you. Others? We’d fuck them right off, but not you.”
There, I got to see those eyes then, and more, as he took off his hat, showing his mussed hair. “What’s that?”
“What I said. Joel, from saving Eli, who is my best friend in the world, to being yourself around us, I have felt myself falling for you for a long time now. I want you in our lives, and even if this doesn’t work, I’d want to stay your friend. I like you, and others do too, when you’re able to let them in.”
“Yeah?”
He kept asking like he couldn’t believe it. “Of course! We’ve told you a lot of this already.”
“It’s jus’, well, didn’t think anybody would want me like that. Fuckin’, sure, anyone wants a go wit’ me! The other stuff?”
“Why wouldn’t we?”
