Beau just nodded. “Okay, okay. On Doc’s recommendation and my say so, Ace announced your retirement, too.”
His mouth opened and closed.
Then opened.
He.
That.
But.
“I… are you pissed, Poot? I just. Doc says you get hit one more time, it could be the end.” Beau stared at him, those eyes so worried.
He didn’t know. He’d wanted to retire—hell, he’d been talking about it hard, but… He couldn’t believe it was so bad that Beau’d retire him. And why was Beau retiring? And it couldn’t be that bad, right? He just talked and talked, asking questions and jabbering and just spilling his guts.
“My heart ain’t in it without you, baby.” Beau leaned close, breath fanning his cheek. “It’s time to stay home and raise bloodhounds, huh? Maybe some cutting horses, a couple of real good buckin’ bulls?”
He looked at Beau, searching those tired eyes. Oh, God. He nodded, moaning at the spike of pain. It was worth it, though. Yes.
“Yeah. I want to go home.” Beau grinned. “They say we might be able to move you closer to home by next week.”
Closer? He frowned. No. Home. Home, home. With his dogs.
Beau traced his frown lines. “You have new stains.”
Stains? He leaned into the touch, sighed. Felt so good.
“Mmm. You know that goo they use as antiseptic, yeah?” Beau stroked again, and he got the stains reference.
He wanted to go home.
“Anyway, they say there’s a place in Baton Rouge. You’d only have to be there a couple weeks, just until they got us both trained on your therapy and all.”
No. No places. Home.
He tried to tell Beau, tried to explain. He wanted to go home, to his bed, to gumbo and Granny and the dogs and horses. He wanted to ride fence and rope. He wanted a fucking shower.
“Shh. I know. I argued ‘til I was blue in the face.” Grinning, Beau shook his head. “They’re pretty determined. They say if you don’t, they’ll keep you here in Reno.”
They couldn’t do that, could they?
“We’ll figure it.”
His eyelids were so heavy and he blinked, watching Beau’s face.
“I got you, baby. Rest some more. You know you actually told me to fuck off a bit ago. You’re getting it.” Beau bent to kiss his nose.
He lifted his chin as best he could, touched their lips together.
“Mmm.” He saw Beau blink hard, a good few times. Then Beau kissed him one more time and sat up. “Sleep, Poot. We’ll do what we gotta do.”
Okay.
Okay, he would.
He could.
Chapter Thirty
