Sam arched one eyebrow, stared at him.
“You ain’t supposed to be on ladders.” Yeah, he was screaming like a harpy. Felt good.
“You listen to that I ain’t gonna be on nothin’!”
“You don’t and you’ll bust your head again. You just have to take fucking time to heal.” Jesus, he just…he wanted to explode.
“Walking forever!” Sam started yelling back and only about a third of it made a lick of sense.
“Shut up!” Beau got right in Sammy’s face and screamed, which worked for a few seconds. “You just shut up. You got to start listening. If you had a lick of sense, you wouldn’t have jumped in that chute!”
Sam blinked at him, purely shocked, then one hand covered his mouth, the other on his arm. “You listen.” The words were slow-slow and deliberate. “You are mine. Any day I jump in. Any day. You areminecowboy.”
Beau blinked, his chest heavy with it, his heart thumping hard. He nodded, dislodging Sam’s hand. “I know, baby. I am. All yours. I just…don’t you ever scare me like that again. Not ever. I woulda gone crazy if you’d…”
“I would, for you.” Sam took a deep breath. “Jus’ when you’d for me. But I didn’t.”
“I know.” Beau blew out a breath, wishing he could be more reasonable. He couldn’t. “I can’t lose you, Sammy. Not now. Please promise me you’ll just be careful, okay?”
“Tired of careful. Tired of…” Sam threw one hand out. “I can’t stupid.”
Beau grinned a little. He’d be getting pretty tired of careful right now, too, so he had no room to talk. “I love you, Poot. I surely do.”
“Home.” Sam sighed a little, touched his poor head. “Tired of this shit, hmm?”
“I know. I do. Hell, remember when I broke my pelvis?” That had been hell.
Sammy reached out, stroked his lower belly.
One of the horses started whinnying, stamping, and Sam’s eyes cut over. Oh, no. No horses. Not today.
“I got this one, Poot. Why don’t you go see to the hounds?” Every one of the damned dogs was weirdly gentle with Sam right now, like they knew.
“Miss them, too.”
He tried not to growl. Sam was just being honest. “Soon, baby.”
“Miss me.”
“You’re getting better every day, baby. I’m just glad you’re here.”
Sam gave him this sudden, blinding smile, one that he hadn’t seen in a while. “Oh, Boug. Me,too.”
That said a lot, and it put Beau in a way better mood. They were gonna make it. They were. He wasn’t going to have to kill Sam after all.
At least not today.
Epilogue
“Do I smell gumbo?”
He sniffed, coming in through the back door with a handful of wood. There was a blue norther blowing in, just in time for Christmas. The puppies were all kenneled snug, the horses were fed, and he’d done a good solid three hours of work without Beau blowing a vein.
“You do. It seemed like good gumbo weather.” Beau stirred something else into the pot.
“Mmmhmm. Horses are.” He stopped, thought. “In and good.”
“Cool.” Turning, Beau put the big wooden spoon down and came to kiss him.
