Out of the corner of his eye, as Leland stood on the front porch of the office building, he saw Jamie trundling past with a wheelbarrow loaded with hay. Though his shirtsleeves were rolled up, his hat was properly on, hands gloved, and he looked adorably efficient as Leland’s eyes tracked him as Jamie went up the hill to the supply barn, where the compost bins were. Maybe the hay came from a horse trailer, or maybe something else, he didn’t know. What he knew was that Jamie was working hard and not taking advantage of the fact that the two of them were an item.
“Huh,” said Bill. When Leland looked at him, Bill gave him a gentle slap on the shoulder, which Leland took as approval about the relationship between him and Jamie, which was nice to get.
A full hour before dinner, when all the staff would gather in the dining hall for a well-earned break of eating on their own without having to worry about guests and their needs, Leland stopped and went back to his little cabin.
There, he took a shower and shaved slowly and carefully, shaved again, then smacked his cheeks with cologne, and called himself all kinds of a fool as he looked at himself in the steam-fogged mirror. And maybe he was a fool, a fool of a foreman who had fallen for a drifter. And there wasn’t anything he wanted to change about that.
When he arrived at the dining hall, neatly dressed, clean and spruce, everything had a relaxed air, with no guests to wait on or impress. Staff and leads mingled at tables and chatted, trays in hand, while all around the good smells of chili and cornbread floated in the air.
Leland got himself a tray and heaped on food on his plate, thinking only too late about chili stains and such, and went over to where Clay and Brody and Quint were already sitting, elbows out as they plowed into their food.
“Look at you,” said Clay with a grin. “All dressed up, even though there’s no dance tonight.”
“No dance tonight,” said Brody, shaking his head with a sorrowful air.
Quint just grunted and kept on eating.
“Never you mind,” Leland said, not minding the teasing about him being gussied up like a lovesick fool.
He put his tray on the table and looked around the dining hall, and when his eyes focused on Jamie, and Jamie saw him, he waved Jamie over. Yes, he’d just invited Jamie to sit with him and his leads. Jamie belonged at Leland’s side.
If Jamie wanted to sit with the other ranch hands, or wherever he wanted to be, that was fine, too. But Leland was pleased, just the same, when Jamie’s smile brightened and he hurried over to the table.When Jamie got close, his eyes widened as he took in Leland’s appearance.
“You look nice,” Jamie said. “Should I have cleaned up?”
“You’re fine,” Leland said. “You’re fine just the way you are.”
They sat side-by-side, their elbows touching, and as they ate, the conversation resumed around them. Leland shared the details about the ice maker fiasco, and Levi talked more about the quality of potatoes he was expecting to get from their new supplier. Quint brought up adventure riding yet again, and while Leland didn’t shoot him down, he cautioned Quint as to the reputation of the ranch, should someone get hurt.
“What’s adventure riding again?” asked Jamie, leaning close, keeping his voice low.
“Where you ride to more rugged places, and do a bit of survival type camping overnight,” Leland said, leaning close right back.
“Would someone like Dorothy like something like that?” Jamie shook his head even as he was asking this.
“No, she wouldn’t, and I don’t think most guests would,” Leland said. “But people have ideas, good ones, and everybody deserves to be heard.”
They ate their dinners, and Leland loved every minute having Jamie right there, and considered himself the luckiest man on Earth.
32
Jamie
It only took Jamie a minute of eating his dinner while sitting next to Leland before the feeling of being at the cool kids’ table, and maybe doing something he shouldn’t, wore off. He had worked with both Brody and Clay before, of course, and besides they seemed so casual about him being there, very casual about the fact that he’d been invited by Leland himself. Jamie had sat with Leland before, but that time he’d invited himself. This time, it was different.
The conversation moved around him, paused, and then started up again. He was just happy to be there, at Leland’s side, their shoulders brushing, the heat of Leland’s body soaking into his.
Leland smelled nice, and when he spoke, his voice rumbled from his chest. When he leaned, it was toward Jamie, to catch Jamie’s eye, to check on him, to make sure he was okay—all of this Jamie read in those grey-blue eyes, the curve of Leland’s smile.
“Looks like you got a bit of a sunburn,” Jamie said, seeing the pink in Leland’s freshly shaved cheeks.
“Dunked my head in water, didn’t put my hat back on.” Leland shook his head at his own foolishness. “But I was distracted at the thought of something—of someone—else.”
When Leland looked at him, Jamie became the focus of his attention, all of it. Jamie put his hand on Leland’s thigh, bold as anything, and petted it, long and slow. In that moment, it felt like they were alone together, like it had felt at the dance. This was all new to him, all bright and sweet and good, and he wanted to roll in it, over and over, with Leland in his arms, with him in Leland’s arms, until they became dizzy with it.
“You fellows ought to get a room,” said Quint from where he was concentrating on his chili.
“You can mind your own business,” said Leland, the words tart.
