AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I can guess. Talking things out, yeah, it helps. I went to enough therapy to know that. After my folks died, I was sent to a dozen. Only a couple really helped, though. I stopped going altogether when I got into the lifestyle. Most don’t like it.”
“Eli’s does! Shoot, he comes to Cowpokes!”
“I know. Brian Lauder is an amazing man. Eli was lucky to find him.”
Joel’s demeanor changed suddenly, and his eyes narrowed and darkened like clouds had covered them. “I’ll tell ya, Kan. My men, they’s big an’ all, but I know thin’s they don’t. Iffin that rich‘un hurts ya? I’ll feed him to Theo’s pigs. That ain’t bullshit, neither.”
“I’m working for him, Joel. I’m not dating him,” I denied, though it felt hollow to me somehow.
I got a hard side-eye, then he laughed. “Kan, ya ever look at yerself?”
“Look at myself, yeah, Joel. It doesn’t matter if I’m good looking, Joel. If he’s not gay, he’s not gay.”
“Suuuure.”
We arrived at the gate, which magically opened the moment we got there, making Joel giggle and point at the thing. “How’d it know?”
“It’s some kind of sensor, but I don’t know if it knows what cars it opens for. It’s…something I need to ask about.”
“Well, hells bells, that’s sumthin’.”
After the long drive to the house, Joel was glaring around at the place like there was something ready to hurt me behind every bush. “Joel, I love you. You know? I think I’m gonna be okay, and if not…we’ll visit those pigs together.”
With a slap to my knee, he said, “Alrighty then.”
We got the truck unpacked as Damon and Burke spoke to Rick, who was showing them around the guesthouse. He invited them to visit anytime and asked Joel if he’d like to see the stables and the horses he kept there.
“Maybe next time,” Damon assured him. “Joel’s not good with strangers.”
“Then I hope we’ll soon be friends,” Rick said pointedly at Joel.
“We’ll see,” Joel mumbled, casting a suspicious glance at him before hiding his face back behind his hat.
After we both waved goodbye to my friends, Rick confessed, “I’ve seen them around town, especially Joel and his mother. His mother, Pam? She’s…fiery.”
“Yes. I’ve met her twice. She threatened me right off until she found out I wasn’t part of their…triad,” I said, but regretted it. “I mean…”
“I’m not so old I don’t understand about those kinds of relationships. I don’t know anyone in one, well, except the three that just left.”
We sat on the couch in my new living room, at least for as long as I was there. “They’re very much in love. They’re great for each other. I don’t think I could ever be in one, but for them, it works.”
“It takes a lot of different loves to make the world go ‘round. I’ve yet to find anything that seems to stick. Not to say my first marriage wasn’t wonderful. She was…my very best friend. Losing her was hard, but she gave me something special before she passed. I only hope for my children that they find what’s right for them, no matter the genders, the number or whatever.”
That was progressive of him, which was good, being his son wanted to reveal his sexuality. “That’s good of you, to want that for them. A lot of parents don’t feel that way.”
“Did yours…know…you know, before…?”
I lowered my eyes as I shook my head.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t bring that up. It’s painful.”
“No,” I whispered. “It’s not that. I mean, it is painful, but I don’t regret that I never told them.” I looked back at him and said, “They worked with a lot of dancers. Quite a few of them were gay, I think. Two of them were close to my parents and always came to our house together. My parents loved them, so I like thinking that they’d be okay about me.”
“I’m sure they would have been.” He squirmed a little and I could tell he wanted to say something. I had the fleeting thought he may want to confess his own thoughts about being gay, but he surprised me. “Do you think…I mean, I’d never ask you to spy, but…if Chandler tells you things, something he might be uncomfortable speaking with me about…?”
“I can’t break his confidence, Rick. I understand he’s your son, and you, by all means, have a right to know things, but…”
“No, I’d never ask you to do that unless it was something that could hurt him. Like, you know, drugs or something more dangerous.”
