“How’s Wright doing? I see you two sitting on the porch most days after supper.”
“He’s stubborn as hell,” Xander said. He tried to come off as annoyed, but even he could hear the adoration in his voice. He double checked that Luna’s stall was locked and they both grabbed the stuff to feed all the horses for the night. “He keeps trying to do things on his own and then complains that he’s hurting. We end up sitting outside or on the couch watching a movie.”
“Are you sure he’s not doing it on purpose?” Patrick laughed when Xander looked over at him. He was on the other side, feeding Raven and Willow. “I’m just saying. The way you two look at each other is something else.”
“You’re reading too much into it,” Xander grumbled. He grabbed the water hose from the wall and turned it on to fill each of the buckets for the horses. “He’s hurt and I’m just trying to make sure he follows the doctors’ orders.”
“It’s okay if you’re attracted to him,” Patrick said. He was following him from stall to stall. “We got all his paperwork and filled out the forms to get him a new ID. He is nineteen. Birthday’s in August, actually, so he’s close to twenty.”
“I wasn’t worried about that,” Xander said. “I trust him when he says he’s over eighteen. That isn’t what this is about.”
“Then what is it?” Patrick asked. Xander moved back to roll the water hose back up and hang it on the wall. “I know your past, Alexander, and you’re not one to keep your feelings to yourself.”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Xander said. His brother was pulling the older sibling card and he knew it. He also knew that in the week since Wright showed up, he’d been acting differently. He was still doing his work, still getting things done, but he wasn’t volunteering to stay out later with the ranch hands to finish a job. Of course, Patrick would notice.
“I won’t push it,” Patrick said. “But Wright is a nice guy. I think he’s been through enough and deserves a little happiness. Mom would have loved him.”
Xander didn’t say anything to that. Their parents passed within a year of each other. His mom was in a car accident and seven months later, his dad passed from a heart attack. He’d been having false heart attacks- Broken Heart syndrome, the cardiologist called it- but the last one hadn’t been a false alarm.His parents were the true definition of love. It had been hard losing both of them so quickly. It would be six years this winter.
He walked out of the barn and headed toward the guest house. Toward his home and where Wright was. When he walked in, though, he was met with a scene no different than the last six days and sighed.
“No, okay. Don’t give me the lecture again. I have a reason for this, Alexander.”
Xander stopped short and stared at Wright. He’d never used his full name before. His slight agitation turned to curiosity. “What did you do?”
Wright stopped his movements. He wasn’t even wearing his sling. He claimed yesterday that his shoulder was feeling better, but Xander knew he still needed to wear it, to not put so much work on it so soon. Even if the shoulder was healed, he still had bruising and the cut to worry about. It had to make his body feel stiff.
“Tracy said that her, Patrick, and the kids were all going into town for Victor’s training or something. So she wasn’t cooking dinner tonight. And I know you like to shower and then eat, so I figured I could get a recipe from Tracy and make you dinner here tonight.”
Xander was torn between what to do. Thank him or fuss at him. He took his hat off and hung it on a hook just beside the front door. He grabbed a paper towel from the counter and wiped his forehead off. The late June heat was kicking his ass. He started unbuttoning his shirt, letting the cool air hit his skin.
“Thank you, but you should have waited for me. I would have helped you.”
“That would defeat the whole purpose of me doing something nice for you,” Wright argued back.
Xander stepped forward, shucking off the overshirt. He had a white tee underneath it, but he knew it was sweaty and hereally needed a shower. Wright also knew that, from experience. His happy expression fell and he started backing up slowly. “No. Alexander Lawson. Don’t get near me when you smell like horse poop.”
“Poop? Really? You’re nineteen, Wright. You are allowed to say shit.”
“I’ll say a lot more if you come any closer.”
While Xander was still annoyed that he had been disregarding what he was supposed to do, he also liked the thought of coming home after a day and having a meal with just the two of them. He liked to cook himself, and his brain supplied a future moment of them working side-by-side in the kitchen.
“Ow, shit.” Those words brought Xander back to the moment. And not in the way that he jokingly wanted to hear it. Xander straightened up and moved to stand by his side.
“What happened?”
“I just bumped my hip on the counter,” Wright said. “It’s nothing. Just give me a second.”
“No, that’s it. You’re going to go lay down and I’ll take a shower and finish cooking.”
Xander held his elbow and led him down the hallway. He could see on Wright’s face that he was in more pain than he was letting on. He had a smear of something against his cheek. He was wearing the same clothes he had on last night so at least he hadn’t exerted himself with changing his clothes.
“Do you want to change? And where did you put the sling?”
Wright rolled his eyes at Xander’s questions, but he could see the slight blush on his cheeks. Xander had been helping him change in and out of his clothes, not wanting him to bend or stretch. William brought him two boxes to go through, mostly easy, comfortable clothing. He figured jeans would be too rough against his skin. Xander knew from a side conversation that they had gone out and bought a few new items to mix in, to make surethings actually fit him. They’d torn the tags off to make it look normal. Out of the underwear they bought last week, Wright preferred to wear the black briefs, similar to the ones William had given him, but not as tight. He refused to let Xander help him with that or showering but let him do the rest.
“I need to shower first,” Wright said. “I went back to sleep when you left and then spent the day reading. Time got away from me until Tracy came by with lunch and we got to talking. She told me they were leaving this evening and you don’t have a lot of food in your fridge so she brought over some items. Before you say anything, she offered to help but I told her it would be okay.”
