Austin waved him up in the line as usual, but Clay waved back and shook his head. Insistent and with a smile, Austin moved down the line to join Clay.
Austin looked newly shaven and bright-eyed, like he’d gotten a good sleep and was ready for anything. His hair shone like dark copper and when he looked at Clay, his eyes were a deep green, like the greenest valley in springtime after a hard rain.
“What’s with this?” asked Austin.
“What’s with what?”
Austin touched the space between Clay’s eyebrows with a gentle thumb. “This. A worry line. I’m not used to seeing it on you.”
“Oh,” said Clay. He grabbed a tray, a plate, and a knife and a fork, shuffling his way down the line, taking a stack of pancakes, which was what his mouth wanted. “I’ll tell you when we sit down. Alone, you know?”
“Sure,” said Austin, obliging, as he ever was.
When they sat down, it was side by side at the end of a long table along the wall. Not a prime spot for the view, so it was spare of people. Plenty of privacy.
“Okay, now,” said Austin, digging into his eggs and bacon with a sigh, like he’d been starving. “Tell me what’s going on?”
“Okay, so.” Clay swallowed a mouthful of pancake, then swallowed some black coffee to get that down and realized he was stalling. “I thought to make you a gift of—uh—not jerking off until you were ready to go—”
“You did what?” Austin’s fork paused halfway to his mouth. “Why would you do that?”
“For you,” said Clay. “I would wait for you, only I was all worked up last night after that kiss, and then again this morning, I finally gave in.”
“Don’t do that.” Austin shook his head and seemed to be arranging things on his tray to give his energy somewhere to go. “Don’t do that for me. I’m touched that you would think of it, but you don’t need to do that. Not for me—”
“But for you—”
“Not foranyone, okay?” Austin shook his head again, like they’d been arguing for hours over this. “I appreciate you being patient with me, but I don’t want you to deny yourself, well, something like that.”
There was flash and passion in those moss green eyes, and color on Austin’s cheeks. His jaw was firm as he looked at Clay, and Clay knew he meant it. Every word. That it was okay if he took himself in hand, that he didn’t need to wait for Austin. Which was a gift.
“I don’t know what I’m doing,” said Clay. He shoveled in more pancake, loaded with butter and real maple syrup because, really, what problem couldn’t be solved with more pancake?
“I don’t either,” said Austin.
While Austin’s voice was solemn, his smile was sweet. Clay’s heart curled around itself, all heat and the roll of desire, and the promise to himself that he would find any way possible to see that smile on Austin’s face all of the time instead of some of the time.
When they finished their breakfast and bussed their table, Austin headed off to his day. Clay headed off to his, which involved, among other things, cleaning stalls in the barn. After which, he went to help Jamie repair a line of wooden fencing at the top end of the service road that went behind the barn.
He was already sweaty and tired and not paying much attention when he heard a high-pitched rattle and saw a movement of brown and darker brown diamonds, a thick, sage-dusted body and a diamond-shaped head, all curled around the fencepost just one foot away.
In that second, the snake lunged at him, hissing, rattles shaking to show Clay the snake meant business. The snake lunged again, postponing up on its coils, the rattle sound sharp the dry air.
Clay fell back, scrambling away from the snake, his hands and heels pushing against the dirt as the snake hissed and lunged at him again. Clay was out of reach now, but only barely.
“Shit.”
Because of the rain, the grass was damp and the rattlesnake probably only wanted to warm itself. All God’s creatures and all that. But to have a venomous snake on the ranch where guests from the city might not understand how dangerous the animal was, was another thing entirely.
“Jamie.” Shaking, Clay barked out Jamie’s name so Jamie would know it was serious.
When Jamie, two fence posts along, stopped his pounding of nails and looked up, Clay pointed at the fence post with his chin, sweating the whole while.
“We need to get in the truck and call snake control.”
“Got it.”
As Jamie made a wide circle to the truck, Clay kept his eye on the snake. It was big and healthy and if Clay had a gun, he would have shot it, despite Leland’s rule about snakes.
