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“I did too, Burke.”
“No. I saw it. You were being cautious because I was. You wanted to jump in with Joel the second he showed an interest in us. No more slowing down for me, though. We’re his bulls,” I said, waving a hand at the painting. “That’s how they see us, Damon. Firm, tall, menacing, but…but there, behind him. Like we’re always keeping watch on him.”
“We are, Burke.”
“Yeah. It’s time we make sure he knows it.”
Damon came around and knelt in front of me. His eyes implored me as he whispered, “Joel knew before we did. This…he and Xen have spoken from the start, or, you know, communicated. Xen saw this then, before we’d even made love to Joel. Joel knew he was ours. He was just waiting for us to sort out the details.”
“I want him to always know how much he means to us. Damon, I love that guy, like crazy love him.”
“Me too. That’s something we can tell him, every single day, while we’re always making sure he knows that we want him here, that we’re never letting him go, ever. He and Xen have that in common. They wanted to know that their men weren’t going to get tired of them, throw them away.”
“I’d never…ever throw him away.”
“Me either. So, let’s go in and celebrate, and Memphis should be here in the morning for his boy and then we can get back into the swing of things with ours.”
“We have so much to do,” I lamented, but said, “But one full day devoted to our boy.”
“After chores,” he reminded me.
“After chores.”
We called Noah and Eli to join us for our last dinner with Xen before he left, and both of the men stared at the mural with wet eyes.
Eli was first to say it. “This is you, all of you! It’s fucking incredible!”
“Nice job, Xen,” Noah said to him. “Might have you come do one on our barn just for the hell of it.”
With the mural done, and most of the rest of the club complete, we all had a rousing talk about the opening. Eli asked a million questions, mostly about when it was going to open.
“Well,” Damon said, “We thought about at least getting in a month or two before the big snows hit. So, what’s that, Noah?”
“Could be September to November, depending on the year, but this year, likely smack in the middle of that. October we’ll likely get hit pretty hard.”
I looked at Damon, then over to Joel. “Joel, pick the opening weekend. Look on your phone for August.”
“Me?”
“You are literally the face of the club now,” Damon teased.
“You are a couple of bulls,” Noah said, laughing. “Xen, if anyone could have painted them better, I’d never believe it.”
Xen’s head fell to the side as his lashes fluttered.
Eli concurred, “I cannot believe it. They are Joel’s new bulls. And Xen, you saw that last time you were here, Burke said.”
“He sure as hell did,” Joel bragged on his friend. “I tol’ him I liked ridin’ bulls that first day, and he started shakin’ his head, worried over me, like y’all. He is the one that tol’ me, I had two bulls right ‘ere on the place. Well, sir, I sure do.”
Eli and Noah hugged Xen and then all of us before they drove off down the drive, and we watched Joel and Xen hurry up to the attic, Joel wanting to start their last night hanging out together.
Damon stood with me on the porch and we both felt the same way. Complete. “I’m gonna miss him tonight,” Damon whispered to me, and it was so quiet, it almost got blown off on the wind that had picked up that evening.
“Damon, I want to do something, for Joel. It’s…extreme, but I think he’ll appreciate it.”
“What’s that?”
“Let me think on it, and if I can get Dev to help me out tomorrow, I’ll let you know.”
