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But if I thought having Charlie at the ranch was hard, it was nothing compared to working alongside him all day every day.
Two weeks into the project, I was exhausted from keeping my hands to myself. From keeping my lust to myself. From keeping my dick to myself. From jacking off several times a night thinking about the man down the hill in the bunkhouse.
“You’re doing it again.”
I turned around and found Charlie straightening up from where he’d been leaning over a folding table jotting notes on a legal pad.
“Doing what?” I asked.
“Staring off into space.”
I was staring at the way your silky hair falls down around your face when you lean over. And how your front teeth sink into your bottom lip when you’re concentrating.
I cleared my throat. “It’s getting late. You want to go grab some dinner at the Pinecone? West and Nico texted to say they were headed over. I guess Goldie showed up to spend some time with Pippa and booted the two of them out.”
By then, Charlie had been around the ranch enough to have become familiar with my family, at least the ones who lived full-time in Hobie. Since my brother West was my closest friend in the world and the local physician in our small town, Charlie had seen plenty of him and his family.
“Cheers. Let me make a few more notes first,” he said before leaning over again. This time when the hair fell down in his way, he absently scooped it all up in a messy bun on the back of his head with an elastic band he kept around his wrist.
Had you asked me several months before how I felt about man buns, I would have laughed you out of the room.
But were you to ask me now?
I’d get a man bun boner before you even finished the question.
I looked away and took the opportunity to determine what lights I needed to turn off before locking up. By the time we exited the papered-over glass doors at the front of the pub, I was already thinking about the rum and Coke I was going to order as soon as I sat down to dinner. Lord knew how much I needed to chill the hell out about everything. The job, the delay on some of the millwork, and my attraction to Charlie.
The two of us had spent many meals together over the past couple of weeks. Quick working lunches on a folding table at work. Long, lazy takeout dinners in the bunkhouse discussing the budget for the interior design of the pub. And even a couple of chaotic family brunches at Doc and Grandpa’s in which no work was discussed but Charlie was undoubtedly the center of everyone’s attention. Within a span of a couple of weeks, Charlie had become almost an extension of me. Where I was, Charlie was too. Where Charlie went, there I followed.
And during all of it, we both acted the height of professionalism. It was as if I’d never seen him naked, never had his hard dick pushing into my mouth or his slender finger sneaking into unspeakable places. We were coworkers. And that was all.
When we got to the restaurant, West and Nico were already seated in a booth, talking quietly with their heads together. I stepped back to let Charlie slide in first before I took the seat next to him.
West pulled his focus away from his partner enough to greet us. “Hey, guys, dare I ask how the project is coming along when you both look like warmed-over shit?”
“Gee, thanks, brother,” I mumbled. “Such a sweet-talker. Nico, you lucky bastard.”
Nico’s eyes crinkled as he laughed and bumped his shoulder into West. “While I wouldn’t have said it in quite the same way, he’s kind of right. Are you two getting any sleep?”
This time it was Charlie who answered. “I’m getting enough sleep but not nearly enough time outside with Mama. There’s a sheep trial coming up down near Austin in a couple of weeks I was hoping to go to. If I can’t get some training time with her, I’ll have to scrap it.”
A young woman introduced herself as our server and began taking our drink orders. When it came time for Charlie to give his, he looked up at her with his natural flirty nature. “What’s good here, love?”
Nico snorted into his fist, and West grinned from ear to ear. The server, swear to god, almost wet her pants and fainted on the spot.
“Ohmygawd, your accent! Where y’all from?”
“Ireland. Have you ever been?”
Nico tilted his forehead against West’s shoulder to bury his laughter in his husband’s arm, while West reached up to run his fingers through Nico’s dark hair.
“Ohmygawd, no! I’ve never been but that…” She swooned and sighed. “That’s just awesome. Seriously awesome. Say something else. Say something to me in Irish.”
