“C’mon,” he said, pulling back, licking the taste of Austin’s mouth from his lower lip. “Let’s go eat before we all starve to death.”
They all got into the truck and Clay drove slowly down the ridge, let Austin open and close the gate, then drove even more slowly down the main road of the ranch.
Along the roadside, guests were headed to story hour around the fire pit, and though Clay had the urge to stop and help them set up, as he’d done many times before, he kept his foot on the gas and kept on going. There would be many more story hours around the fire pit, all summer long, but this was their night together.
Clouds had formed over the mountains, and when the sun dipped behind them as it slowly went down, the sky became streaked with soft-edged shards of blue-pink and purple-blue and swirled with echoes of circles of clouds drifting on the high breeze.
“Think you can paint that?” asked Clay, pointing through the windshield.
“I’d like to try,” said Austin.
He rolled down his window, and Clay rolled his down and turned off the air conditioner so they could drive with the breeze coming through the window. Bea unbuckled herself to come forward in the cab. She was leaning over until her hands were on the edge of the open window, so Austin took her in his lap as they went slowly along the backroad to Chugwater, which was, as everyone in the truck knew, completely against the rules.
“Just till the main road,” said Austin.
“Just till the main road,” agreed Clay, slowing down to drive even more carefully than ever. But it was worth it to see Bea’s face as she looked at the waving grass and the blue skies, and the lone grouping of cattle beneath the slowly shining and slender iron windmill above a metal tank of water that flashed a reflection of the sky as they drove past.
Finally, at the point where the dirt road turned into pavement, Bea obediently clambered into the back and buckled herself in, which was when Clay could speed up and deliver them to Chugwater, where he pulled up in front of the Chugwater Soda Fountain.
“They have shakes too,” he said as they all got out.
He looked down the road to where the Stampede Saloon was, where cars were gathering beneath the lights in the front parking lot. And where someone, perhaps, was in the back parking lot between the saloon and the railroad tracks waiting for dark and looking for a good time.
He’d have to tell Austin more about all those other men and how Clay had imagined he’d meet someone nice that way. But maybe not today. Today was for painting and kraut burgers and introducing Bea to Wendell, the very much loved and very much stuffed elk on the wall of the soda fountain.
“Let’s eat,” he said, opening the door to the soda fountain, and bowing to Bea as though she was a little princess, which she was, at least in his eyes.
30
Austin
The first thing to happen to Austin after he’d had breakfast with Bea and packed up her little backpack with overnight stuff and waved her off as Sue Mitchell’s dun-colored and well maintained Travelall pulled out of the parking lot was that his phone went off, signaling he had a text.
Pulling out his phone, he tapped the text messenger icon and read the message.
Leland says Bea at sleepover?
The reason Leland had known was that he’d gotten a call from Sue about the sleepover and had passed the news to Austin at breakfast. With Bea sitting right there, there was no way he could have said no. And no way he would have wanted to.
Clay’s text was a question, though he ought to have known that any news coming from Leland was one hundred percent accurate. Beneath the simple question was another, more complex one, as Clay was following up on his suggestion earlier that week that they should fool around some more.
If Bea was out of the cabin for the entire night, the time was probably right for them to get together, though he went a little cold at the thought of it.
Bea always came home from being with the Frontier Girls all bright and cheery and somehow more steady within herself. Same with the day camp that Sue ran, which Bea had attended on Tuesday and Wednesday that week.
Now it was Thursday. Bea would be gone all day and all night. Clay knew that, and now Austin needed to take the next step. He’d already said yes with his heart, but his body wasn’t so sure.
Yes, he was ready at the same time he knew he was very much not ready. Still, Clay deserved an answer. Maybe this was the same crossroads moment he’d experienced when he’d discovered Mona was cheating on him. The same decision he’d had to make when he’d been offered the accounting job at Farthingdale Ranch. Yes or no. Left or right.
Though, come to think of it, with each step away from Mona, he was cutting himself off from her pull on him. He could do anything he liked, really, as long as Bea knew she was loved. He could take her with him wherever he went, except there was nowhere he’d rather be than right where he was, standing in the parking lot in front of Maddy’s office with his cell phone in his shaking hand.
Clay would be good to him, kind to him. Being a man, being who he was, Clay wouldn’t think, at least probably wouldn’t think, that anything about Austin was icky or needed fixing.
Austin hadn’t been naked in front of another man since he took gym in his college days. But showering with a bunch of other guys as they laughed over the score of a basketball game was different from sliding between the sheets with one man. One very handsome man with a charming smile and easy-going manner, not to mention those sweet dimples.
On the other hand, if this was to be his first time, he would rather it was with Clay than anyone else, anywhere, ever. So, though his hand was still shaking, he pulled the phone close to his stomach, as though someone might try to peek over his shoulder, and typed a response with his thumbs.
Yes,he texted.You, me, and an empty cabin.
