AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You’re observant.” Sol smiled. “No, I never married. I came close once, but…”
“Can’t say I ever got that close.” Butch grinned. “I’m obviously picky when it comes to women. I remember you, though. You never dated, not once. So maybe you’re just as picky as I am.”
Sol was done hiding.
“Or maybe I just never met the right man.” Except that wasn’t true. Liamhadbeen the right man—until fate robbed Sol of him.
The only sounds came from outside, the muted calls of birds overhead.
Butch stared at him. “You’re gay?”
Sol nodded.
“Since when?”
He smiled. “I’ve known since high school. I kept quiet about it, for obvious reasons.”
Butch’s brows knitted. “I don’t get it. You, me, Cal, Pete… All the stuff we came out with… and you never said a word?”
“Yup. I was a Prince, wasn’t I? I couldn’t come out so I hid, picking on other kids, calling them names…” They were steering dangerously close to forbidden territory. Any second now, Butch would call a halt.
Sol didn’t want to talk about those times either.
“Well if that don’t beat all.” Butch shook his head. “Is everybody gay?”
Sol blinked. “Excuse me?”
“When we were kids, I could point to one, maybe two people we knew whomight’vebeen gay. Maybe. Now? You can throw a rock in any direction and you’ll hit a gay guy. There’s a few on the ranch.”
“And where do you fit in that lineup?”
Butch stilled. “Me?”
Sol nodded. “I mean, you’re not exactly straight, are you?” He couldn’t resist a smile. “At least, not according to what I’ve heard.”
He’d been honest with Butch—he expected the same honesty in return.
Butch narrowed his gaze. “Who’s been shooting their mouth off? And what did they say?”
“Something about you and the ranch foreman… Teague? Not that they went into details. In fact, they were deliberately vague.” Sol shrugged. “I kinda read between the lines.” He peered at Butch. “So it’s true?”
For a moment he got the feeling Butch was going to clam up, tell him to go to hell, or just walk out of there.
Butch shook his head. “Someone up there is laughing his ass off right now.”
Sol waited.
“Itwastrue, okay? We… we had a thing going on.”
Sol chuckled. “Sounds like a line from a song.”
“But I’m not gay, all right? I wasn’t back then either.”
Sol arched his eyebrows.
Butch paced up and down, his hat still in his hand. “I… I’ve been going through some stuff lately. Personal stuff. Me and Teague? It’s over. Not that we were ever an item, you understand? It wasn’t like that.” He came to a stop. “And I don’t have a fucking clue why I’m telling youanyof this.”
“Because we were friends once? Because you get the feeling I might know what you’re going through?”
