“Mm-hmm. It’s our little morning ritual. I feed them in the morning. I think I’ll set the live trap today, again, and put some canned food in it. Maybe I can get Ruggerio to step inside it.”
“Maybe.” He rubbed at his face with both hands. His shoulder seemed much improved, for which I was glad. “Fuck. I should get going. I got work today. Promised Jesse I would ride out with him to check on fencing before we let the cows and calves out on summer pasture.”
“Of course. Would you like some coffee? Oh, I have eggs. Not from Roberto obviously.”
He rolled us over, moving above me then holding himself up with one arm as he ran the back of his fingers along my whiskery cheek.
“The day Roberto lays you an egg is the day you get rich.” I laughed. “Can I kiss you?”
“Please yes I would love that.”
And he did, soft and deep, and I held him close for the longest time, tasting his lips. Then the cat leapt at the window, pulling the screen out with a crash. We both started.
“Damn cat,” he mumbled, dropped a kiss to my nose, and then sadly left the bed. I glared at the twosome staring through the glass at me before rolling out to help Hoyt with his sling. “I’ll have to pass on the eggs. I’m already late. Jesse will be looking for me. Next time?”
“I would like a next time, yes, very much. And if you have the urge, jot down your poems and bring them to me. I will read them to our fellow Chance poets with great joy.”
He pulled me in for a tender hug, one armed, then kissed me on the hair. “I like you so damned much.”
“Same. Very, very much the same.” I pushed my nose into his shirt for one final sniff of Hoyt before I let him leave. After he was gone I lingered at the front door, daydreaming about what a lucky little bookseller I was. Someone pecked my knee. I glanced down to see Roberto and Ruggerio sitting on the threshold staring at me hungrily. The cat meowed. The rooster crowed in my face. “Right, got it. On it. Reality waits for no one, even he who is befuddled and bemused by a sexy cowboy with a tender heart.”
They seemed unimpressed with my romantic dithering.
Off to the shed I went with a can of salmon cat food, a dry bread crust, and a head filled with floaty heart emojis.
Chapter 10
Hoyt
Well fuck.
My brother was waiting for me. Inside the trailer. Sitting there on my cot as if he owned the place which he did not. Wholly. He had a quarter. Fine. He owned a fourth of the land my trailer sat on. Whatever.
Sliding to the ground I paused to watch a slew of teenagers passing by in a pack like they do, phones in hands, cowboy boots and hats, dirty jeans. What the hell was going on with the kids here day in and day out?
“Morning,” Jesse called as I made my way to my little home on wheels. “I knocked a dozen times. When you didn’t reply I got worried and let myself in.”
“Guess I need a lock,” I muttered, climbing the ramp then stepping over his long legs to get to the mound of clean clothes in the corner. “Ever occur to you to look to see if my truck was here?”
“It did. And it wasn’t.”
“So you just broke into my place anyway?” I lifted a blue tee from the pile, sniffed it, and concluded it was dirty. Huh. I could have sworn I had done laundry just a few weeks ago. Guess itwas time to do more. I’d just wear what I had on. This way I could avoid having to fuck with the sling. Next week could not come soon enough. Being free of this miserable thing was a step closer to hitting the road. And man did I long to get back on a bull. Yep. I couldn’t wait.
“Not sure breaking in applies if the door has no lock,” Jesse fired back while I rummaged around in a cloth sack for something to eat. “What the hell happened to your neck?”
I plucked a box of toaster pastries from my snack rations. I did not answer as I hid the shame on my face by concentrating on opening the box of tarts. Frosted this time. I chucked a silver packet to my brother. He caught it with ease but his gaze was tight to the love mark on my neck.
“I was out last night.”
“That’s obvious. Did you hookup with one of the hands?”
“No, I don’t shit where I sleep,” I flung back then ripped the packet open. “I just…met someone. It’s nothing.” I glanced over from my tart to my brother. His face told me he was feeling that it was not nothing. “Don’t start. It was nothing. Just a…a thing. A thing that happened. No sex.”
“Sure, okay, so some guy just sucked on your neck but not your dick. Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”
A young girl ran past, a guy on her heels, both giggling like drunken geese.
“Why the hell are there so many kids here so fucking early?” I sat down beside him to eat my breakfast. He tonked me on the head with his tarts. I growled around a mouthful of goodness.
