“For you? Always.”
He whispered something, I’m assuming to Kess, then came back on the line. “What’s going on?”
“Question: have you ever been around a confusing straight man?” I asked as I wound around the Baker Dude Ranch’s well-maintained drive toward the highway.
“Of course,” he answered with a laugh. “It’s the curse of our kind.”
“Agreed. But now comes the real question: How insane does it sound thatKitmight have a little crush on me?”
“Bitch.”
“Gurl.”
“What the fuck are you saying?” he asked, his incredulity loud and clear. “Did he hit on you at Stevie’s party? I saw the way he was looking at you.”
“Not this time,” I said mysteriously. “And how was he looking at me?”
“He was hungry. And what do you mean, not this time?”
Hungry?I could work with hungry.
Rowdy made a sound, like he was tapping on the phone. “Hello? What did you mean,not this time?”
I blinked out of my walk down memory lane and tightened my hands on the wheel. “So, remember when I left pasta night to go take care of Kit’s knee?”
“Yeah . . .”
“He was in a lot of pain, and we couldn’t even take off his boots.”
“Why were you taking off his boots?”
“Because I was having him take off his jeans so I could get a better look at the knee. “
“Okay . . .”
“With the amount of pain he was in, plus his abject refusal to go to the hospital, I had him take a few shots of alcohol to get him to where I could work the boots off his feet.”
“I see you, alternative medicine queen,” Rowdy cracked. “And then what happened?”
“Somehow, we got onto the subject of what we liked . . . sexually,” I said, finally coming to the highway. I turned on my blinker. “And I wasn’t thinking anything about it, but I showed him the picture I took in that peignoir Daddy Big Bucks bought for me.”
“You showed himthatpicture?”
“All of my parts were covered up,” I answered, turning onto Devil’s Backbone behind a semi carrying a prefab house.Fuck.
“Sure. But you were thirst-trapping Daddy Big Bucks. Were you trying to thirst trap Kit?”
“Er. I might’ve been teasing him,” I admitted, hating that this part of the highway was a twisty two-lane and I couldn’t pass the slow-moving behemoth.
“Mighthave been? That picture would turn the straightest man gay.”
“Which might explain why he kissed me.”
“HE KISSED YOU?” Rowdy shouted through the line.
“Yes, and keep your voice down,” I hissed, worried Kess would overhear him, which would mean everyone else would find out. “Besides, like I said, he’d had a few shots and was not entirely in control of his faculties.”
The line went silent.
