Michael had driven home from Woods Ranch in such a delightfully positive mood he half expected rainbows and glitter to start shooting out of his ears. Between making love with Josiah last night—something he very much wanted to do again, and soon—and their amazing day at the ranch, nothing short of a nuclear detonation in the middle of town could spoil his happy.
Until he saw Kenny’s car parked next to Dad’s pickup. A chill had spread through his entire body, leaving his fingers trembling with anger and shock. There was absolutely no reason on earth for Kenny to have driven up from Austin, none. And yet there was his car, practically smirking at him with its rear lights and shiny bumper.
“What the hell?” Michael yanked the gear into Park and reached for the door handle, ready to storm the house and demand to know what the fuck was going on.
“Do you know who that is?”
He barely heard Josiah’s question over the roar in his own head. “Can’t be.” And then the door opened and the most beautiful sight in the world had come racing toward him. Rosco was there. Rosco was barking and charging the car, and Michael hadn’t been able to think. He’d somehow gotten out of the car and was hugging the life out of his boy. His beautiful pittie, who’d once been days away from being dumped in a kill shelter by his previous owner, until Kenny agreed to buy him from them.
Rosco had been a dream dog from day one. He never bit, he knew a few basic commands, and he was the biggest snuggle bug ever, spending days sleeping by Michael’s feet and nights at the foot of their bed. Rosco licked his face and whined, his round body never stopping its wiggle-dance of joy, big paws stepping all over Michael’s legs and junk, and he didn’t care.
“Oh my God, boy, I’ve missed you.” He held Rosco’s face in his hands so he could look into those intelligent brown eyes. “You look good. So fucking good.” Rosco licked his face again, and Michael had no shame in the few tears that spilled from his eyes.
“Is this Rosco?” Josiah asked. He stood near the car’s fender, body illuminated by the headlights Michael hadn’t turned off.
“Yeah, this is Rosco. Come here, he wouldn’t hurt a hornet if it stung him.”
Josiah came closer and offered a hand, which Rosco sniffed, then licked. “He’s beautiful. I didn’t realize he was a pit bull.”
“Technically, he’s a bit of a mutt, but he’s got the face shape and body that most shelters automatically use to classify a dog as a pittie. We saved him from death row.” Okay, so technically Kenny had saved him from being surrendered, and Michael had been leery at first, but Rosco had won Michael’s heart that first day with his silly grunts and kisses.
And it struck Michael then that Rosco hadn’t driven himself to Weston. He looked up. Right at the porch where Kenny stood next to Dad, arms crossed, his posture oddly relaxed, considering the screaming match they’d had the last time Michael and Kenny had seen each other in person.
Michael stood and strode toward the house with as much authority as he could muster with Rosco weaving around his legs and trying to trip him. Josiah followed at a slight distance after turning off the car.
“What are you doing here?” Michael asked, working to keep his tone even when he wanted to snap and snarl. To protect his family from potential danger.
“It’s almost Thanksgiving,” Kenny replied with a bright, toothy smile, turning on his charm in a familiar way. “I wanted to surprise you.”
“Why? Don’t get me wrong, I’m fucking thrilled to see my dog, especially when you said you rehomed him.” He scratched one of Rosco’s ears. “But you and I don’t have any more business together. You made that very clear when you cut me out of our company and stole my patents.”
“That’s old news, baby. I drove all this way with a barking dog in the car, and it’s freezing up here. Can we go inside and talk?”
Michael looked at Dad, who shrugged. Kenny must have spun a great story to get Dad outside so he could unlock the gate and let Kenny onto the property. And as much as Michael wanted to go inside and slam the door in Kenny’s face, he was curious why he’d made the long drive north. Plus, Rosco time. “Yeah, I guess we can talk.”
He started forward but realized after three steps that Josiah was no longer beside him. Michael stopped and turned. Josiah’s expression was perfectly neutral, but something flickered in his eyes. Something that looked a lot like doubt.
“I’m going back to my trailer,” Josiah said. “You probably need privacy for this.”
Michael’s chest squeezed in an unhappy way. “You don’t have to. I’m with you.”
“I know. Go talk to him. Text me later if you want.” Before Michael could form a response with his tangled tongue, Josiah turned and strode to the trailer. A trailer that, for Michael, was merely a formality at this point. Josiah belonged in the house with him, period. But if space was what Josiah needed, Michael would respect that.
Once Josiah was safely inside the trailer, Michael walked up onto the porch.
“That’s one beautiful dog you got there,” Dad said to Michael. “Friendliest thing I’ve ever met, even more than Jackson’s Dog.”
“Who’s Jackson?” Kenny asked.
“Someone I work with,” Michael replied, not ready to delve into that right now. That he’d failed to sell the house and had gone back to blue-collar labor to make ends meet and take care of his ailing father. He could imagine the way Kenny had probably sneered at the town as he drove through it on his way here. “Let’s go inside.”
He held open the door, and Dad wheeled directly down the hall to his room. Even though Michael’s stomach gurgled softly for supper, he perched on the middle of the love seat, leaving the couch Kenny’s only spot to sit. Rosco stood in front of Michael until Michael patted the cushion. Then Rosco jumped up. Good to see Kenny hadn’t slacked on his discipline. Rosco was allowed on furniture but only with permission. It had made it a lot easier to take him to friends’ houses for visits.
“Why are you really here?” Michael asked. No pleasantries, no polite requests for something to drink.
“I told you, it’s almost Thanksgiving, and I wanted to see you. You won’t answer any of my texts.”
“Gee, I wonder why?”
Kenny rested his ankle on his knee and leaned forward, hands in his lap, a familiar position he took whenever he wanted to charm someone into agreeing with him. “Look, baby, we both behaved badly this past year, and we were so good together for so long that I don’t want us at odds forever. Can’t we find a way to be friends again?”
“Why? Don’t you have a bazillion friends back in Austin? What do you need me for? You made it very clear your only use for me was as an ATM, and once you got everything you wanted, you kicked my broke ass to the curb. Or am I remembering things wrong?”
“Water under the bridge, baby.”
“Please stop calling me baby. I am not your baby anymore, and I am with someone else.”
Kenny blinked hard, his confident veneer cracking the tiniest bit. “Really? You managed to find someone else in this tiny village of obscurity?”
“Yes, I did. He is kind and generous and doesn’t give a shit about the money I do or don’t have, because he can support himself just fine. Unlike someone else in this room.”
He frowned. “I supported myself.”
“Off my creativity and talent, not your own. You saw a meal ticket early on, knew I was someone desperate for approval and acceptance, and I fell for it. Hook, line, sinker, and fucking boat. But I’m not that same gullible college graduate I once was. The only thing you have that I still want is right here, and you know it.” Michael placed his hand on Rosco’s neck. “That’s why you brought him with you. To manipulate me into something.”
“I brought him because you love him, and I wanted to be generous in the spirit of the holiday.”
“Fine. Say I buy that for a hot second. You didn’t drive all the way up here just to wish me a Happy Thanksgiving four days early. What do you really want?”
“Look, Michael, I made some bad decisions. I shouldn’t have dumped you the way I did, and I shouldn’t have manipulated the contracts to push you out of what you deserved. I am so sorry I did all that. I was selfish and egotistical to think I could do this without my number one guy. Without you.”
Alarm bells dinged inside Michael’s head. “Do what without me? You got away with millions, Kenny. Where’s the money?”
For the first time in the last twenty minutes, Kenny melted into a picture of misery. “It’s gone. I got taken in by a long con, okay? I lost everything. I’ve got my car, a few hundred in cash, and that’s it.”
Michael’s initial impulse to gloat about Kenny being in the same position he’d left Michael in warred with his empathy. He knew exactly what it felt like to be almost broke with no immediate way to fix it. And Kenny didn’t have the cushion of a parent to go home to and live with while he got back on his feet. Kenny’s parents had been incredibly homophobic and unaccepting of him, having turned their back on him a long time ago. But Kenny had also lied, cheated, and manipulated Michael, and those things were not easily forgiven.
Not by a long shot.
“You lost everything in two months?” Michael asked. “Including the app I created?”
“Yes, okay? I met someone who promised me everything. He wanted to change the app so it appealed more to the younger generation, and I bought what he sold me. Then he took everything, and I am so sorry I did that to you, Michael. I never truly understood how much I hurt you until someone did it to me.”
“You know, as much as I want to take some sort of perverse joy in seeing you like this, I don’t. And again, I don’t know why you’re here and not crashing with one of your dozens of friends.”
“Same reason you left town.” Kenny’s eyes glistened, and Michael was glad to have a dog on half his lap, because he hated seeing Kenny cry. “Some friends only love you for your money, and they disappear when the money does, too.” He coughed. “I didn’t have anywhere else to go.”
Michael let out a long, disgruntled breath as he stroked Rosco’s neck and back. Rosco began licking his front paw, a familiar gesture of contentment. “I’m sorry you’re stuck, but I don’t know what you expect me to do. The house hasn’t sold. I live paycheck to paycheck right now so I don’t have anything to loan you.”
“Loan?”
“Yes, loan. Do you think after everything that’s happened I’d just give you money if I had any to give? I can give you forty bucks for one night at the local motel, but that’s about as far as my finances stretch right now.”
“Motel? But you’ve got this big house. Surely there’s a guest room Rosco and I can stay in.”
“Rosco is more than welcome to stay here, since I’m pretty sure the motel has a no-pets policy, but if you came up here expecting to crash my life for the next week or whatever, that’s not happening. I have a boyfriend, a job I really enjoy, and a life here in Weston. You are not part of those things, Kenny.”
“If you and your boyfriend are solid, he shouldn’t mind me staying over one night. We’ll leave in the morning.”
The “we’ll leave” pissed Michael off, cementing his suspicion that the only reason Kenny had brought Rosco was as a bargaining chip. A way to guilt-trip Michael into acquiescing to his requests for a few extra hours with his dog. A dog who’d always liked Michael more than Kenny, because Michael had taken him to the dog parks and on long walks and cuddled him randomly throughout the day.
But more than throwing Rosco in his face, Michael silently fumed over the “if he and his boyfriend were solid” remark. Michael didn’t have to prove his relationship to Kenny, and as proud as Michael was of Josiah, he didn’t want to hand Kenny any more ammunition. Kenny was very much the type to throw the boss/employee thing right back in Michael’s face.
“You should have called and saved yourself a hundred bucks in gas,” Michael said. “Especially since it sounds like your funds are limited.”
Kenny flat-out glared. He was used to getting his way and not to running face-first into obstacles he couldn’t bulldoze through or sweet-talk his way out of. Michael never used to fight him, argue with him, or care too much about anything beyond the computer. No more. Now Michael cared about every aspect of his life and the relationships most important to him. Kenny was no longer on that list of relationships. The only way Michael could give Kenny money was to ensure Rosco was looked after and not dumped on another neighbor when things got too hard.
“How are you going to feed Rosco?” Michael asked. “You know he has a sensitive stomach and needs high protein food. You can’t just feed him dollar store kibble.”
“His food is in the car. He hasn’t had dinner yet because I didn’t know where we’d be eating. Actually, I haven’t eaten dinner yet, either. How’s that diner I passed in town?”
“It’s good. Just avoid the soup of the day. It’s the same soup every day.”
“Why don’t you come along and show me what’s good?”
“How about instead, you check out the diner yourself. I’ll stay here, feed Rosco, and then make something for me, Dad, and Josiah.”
“Who’s Josiah?”
Oh yeah, they hadn’t been introduced in the yard earlier and that was Michael’s mistake. No wonder Josiah had fled to the trailer. He’d probably felt insulted by the omission and Michael needed to make it up to him soon. “Josiah’s the guy who was outside with me earlier. He’s been Dad’s daytime caregiver, and he rents the trailer from us.”
He’s also my boyfriend, I think I love him, and he’s the best thing in my life.
“He rents from you and you feed him?” Kenny asked in a sneering tone Michael had heard too many times when Kenny was complaining about his food to a restaurant server. It irritated him then and it irritated him now.
“He’s family. Dad adores him, and he’s a fantastic friend. He also cooks most nights during the week, and we never asked him to, so I can toss a few meals in his direction once in a while.” That was a vast oversimplification of what Josiah meant to his family but, again, Kenny didn’t need that kind of ammunition. He already had Rosco.
Kenny watched him silently for several long seconds. Then his eyes started to sparkle with familiar mischief. “Holy shit, you’re boning the help. Is he this so-called boyfriend or just a piece on the side? You know, I knew you had a thing for our third pool boy, Travis. Were you sleeping with him, too?”
“Who? Fuck, no, I didn’t screw around with any of our pool boys. Christ, I never cheated on you, Kenny, not once. I was too busy padding your bank account and taking your dick up my ass to have any time for fooling around.”
“Interesting. You didn’t deny boning the nurse.”
“My personal life stopped being any of your business the first time you cheated on me. If you want to go into town for dinner, that’s fine. Rosco and his food stay here. You can sleep in Dad’s room upstairs for one night. That’s it. If you choose to stay and keep playing up this Thanksgiving thing, you can go to the motel.”
Kenny scowled. “Fine. I’ll bring in his food and bowls.”
“Fine.”
Rosco barely twitched when Kenny went outside, content and happy to be with Michael again, and Michael felt the same way. He loved his dog so much and didn’t want to say goodbye tomorrow or ever again. But he had no real grounds to sue Kenny for custody of a dog. Even though their shared account had paid the vet bills and bought his food, Kenny had brought him into the relationship and both their lawyers agreed a judge would consider him Kenny’s property.
Kenny returned with a cloth bag, left it by the door, and went back outside. A moment later, headlights flashed and an engine roared.
It only occurred to Michael then that he hadn’t locked the front gate. No sense in doing it right now, since Kenny would be back in an hour or two, and they hadn’t had a single odd incident in the couple of weeks since Josiah’s attack. Instead of worrying, he filled Rosco’s bowls with kibble and water, and then inspected the kitchen for dinner ideas while his beloved dog ate.
Most of his dinner ideas would take too long and he was hungry, so Michael pulled out the stuff to make BLT sandwiches for everyone. Bacon wasn’t the best thing for Dad right now, but it cooked fast in a skillet, and they had plenty of lettuce and tomato. While the bacon began frying he called Josiah.
“Hey,” Josiah said. “Are you okay?”
“I think so. This whole thing is fucking with my head, but Kenny went into Weston to eat at the diner, and I’m making BLTs for us. Rosco’s here too, eating his dinner.” Josiah was quiet for so long that Michael checked to make sure his cell hadn’t dropped the call. “Hello?”
“I’m here. I, um, ate a frozen thing that was still in my fridge, so you and Elmer enjoy the BLTs, okay? I’ll see you in the morning.”
“What? You don’t have to hide in the trailer. Kenny is staying one night, because he’s fucking broke, and that’s it.”
“You’re letting him stay at the house overnight.”
Not a question.
“Yes. One night. I get one more night with my dog before I lose him again tomorrow. I know the timing sucks for us as a couple, but I’d love for you to come over and at least be here while Dad and I eat.”
“I don’t belong there tonight, Michael. Enjoy your night with Rosco. He’s a beautiful dog. I’ll see you in the morning, okay?”
Michael wanted to argue and demand Josiah come back to the house, but Josiah had a stubborn streak that only got wider when challenged. He wasn’t coming inside tonight, no matter what Michael said, and that hurt. It hurt, but he also understood Josiah keeping his distance. He had to be so confused about everything tonight and likely doubting his place in Michael’s life. Michael had no doubt about Josiah’s place and importance, and he vowed to show that to Josiah.
“Okay,” Michael said. “See you in the morning for breakfast.”
“See you then. ’Night.”
“Good night, Josiah.”
Deflated by the conversation, Michael sliced a tomato and pulled a few leaves of lettuce off the head of iceberg. Got four slices of bread ready to toast when the bacon was closer to finished. Once the bacon was draining on a paper towel, he went to get Dad.
“Heard someone drive off,” Dad said. “Who left?”
“Kenny went to the diner for supper. I made BLTs for you and me.”
“What about Josiah?”
“He wants to stay in the trailer tonight. Couldn’t talk him out of it.”
“But you’re not taking Kenny back.”
“Hell no.” Michael pushed Dad into the kitchen so they could eat at the table for a change. Rosco stuck close the whole time, practically attached to Michael’s hip. Once Dad was settled with a drink, Michael assembled his sandwich, added some pretzels, and served him. Toasted his own bread and made his dinner. He sneaked a tiny piece of bacon to Rosco.
The sandwich helped fill the weird pit in his stomach, and Michael contemplated making a second.
“So if your dog is here, I assume Kenny’s coming back?” Dad asked.
“Yes.” Michael snapped a pretzel in half. “I told him he could sleep in your room upstairs for one night. That’s it.” He summarized his conversation with Kenny.
“Figures he crawled back to you. Men like that are parasites. Take what they want regardless of how it hurts the other person. You were right to put your foot down and set him straight.”
“Thanks. I just hate that I hurt Josiah’s feelings without meaning to. But I don’t want to go knock on his door and force myself on him when he clearly wants some distance.” And it sucked even more after the amazing twenty-four hours they’d had together leading up to now. “I’ll make it up to him somehow.”
“I know you will. He’s a good boy.”
“He’s amazing. He’s everything Kenny wasn’t and still isn’t. And even if I hadn’t met and fallen for Josiah, I still wouldn’t have taken Kenny back. To borrow a tired cliché, he made his bed, and that bed can fucking eat him like Johnny Depp in A Nightmare on Elm Street.”
Dad laughed. “Good to hear it. Figured as much, but I like hearing you say it, son. Granted, I didn’t hear about all the crap that Kenny pulled on you until after the fact, but you are a good man. Dunno how much of that is my doing, your mom’s doing, or your own doing, but I’m proud of you. Really proud.”
Something burned behind Michael’s eyes. “Thank you, Dad.”
“You earned it. My only real regret is I didn’t get to tell you sooner.”
Michael opened his mouth to say something, but the sound of a car engine starting snared his attention. He looked toward the living room, as if he could see right through the wall and into the yard. No way Kenny was back. It hadn’t been long enough and the car engine sound was moving away. Rosco loped toward the front door with a soft yip but didn’t go crazy barking like he might have if someone was walking onto the porch.
Josiah.
He stood so fast his chair nearly went over backward. Michael ran to the front door and yanked it open. Taillights on the road disappeared fast, and an empty space stood where Josiah’s car had been parked.
“What the hell?” He barely felt the cold air dancing around his ankles or the way Rosco’s big head nudged at his thigh. Josiah had just driven away at suppertime on a Sunday night, the same night Michael’s ex showed up begging for money. Josiah didn’t know about the money part, though—he couldn’t. And running away wasn’t Josiah’s style.
Michael yanked his cell out of his pocket and typed off a fast text:
Are you okay? Where are you going?
When ten solid minutes passed without a response, Michael allowed himself to panic.