J esus Christ, look at the snow.
Ford had every available guy digging out Christmas lights, Geoff was testing out ten thousand things for Thanksgiving, Quartz was building a Ferris wheel or possibly the White House out of blocks, and him?
Stoney was sneaking a cigarette with Angie and Hetty in the tack room.
Stoney watched the snow falling as he took a drag. “Ty won’t make it for Thanksgiving in this shit.”
“Leastways you don’t have guests to worry on, hmm?”
“That’s right.” Of course, no guests meant no money, but they had enough feed put in to last a bit. Ford had some diabolical plan for a party between now and Christmas, and Stoney was just nodding and smiling.
How were people supposed to get out here? Dogsleds?
That would be adorable. All those fancy-assed biggie wows that Ford lunched and dinner-dated with on sleds covered with dog fur and slobber. He’d pay to see that shit.
“What are you grinning about, monkey?” Angie asked.
“Oh, I’m just being an ass. Ford intends to have a big fancy-assed Christmas party up here.”
“You need to grade the road, first.” Hetty shook her head.
“Tell me how with all this snow and I’ll be happy to.” Stoney just wanted to go somewhere warm for a few days. Surely it was nice in Corpus.
“Oh, don’t start. We’re in for a hard winter, and we all know it. Ford will head out of here, and you won’t see him till April, you watch and see.” Angie sounded so sure, but he didn’t know about that.
The man seemed perfectly happy to sit at his computer and work from the office at Ty’s house.
His house. Whatever. Stoney wasn’t sure he’d ever get used to Ty being gone, and God help them all if the snow kept Ty away. Quartz would lose his shit.
“So, fess up.” Hetty kicked his ankle with the toe of her boot. “What the fuck is up with you and the metrosexual?”
“Up?”
“You know. What’s the story? The whole story.”
Stoney snorted. “It’s a short story.”
Hetty kicked him again, and Stoney sighed. “We were a thing in college. I went for a semester and a half. UNM. It was a fucking disaster, you know? I sucked at it, and Ford? Shit, he didn’t. We came here on spring break, and I did some cowboy work for Ty and got myself a job. I went back and packed my shit and came to work. Ford was pissed.”
“So you broke up with him?” Angie asked. “Did you tell him why?”
“I told him I got a job up here. I didn’t tell him about failing out.” That had been too much to bear, to admit he just wasn’t good enough to do it.
“Oh man, no wonder he was pissy.” Hetty grinned hugely. “You know how emotional gay guys get.”
“Uh-huh. Because you giant dykes all wear white panties and ugly shoes while you grunt lullabies to your kids.”
He could give as good as he got.
“My panties are plaid,” Angie deadpanned.
“So why the fistfight in the yard?” Hetty was relentless once she smelled answers on the wind.
“I hit him in the office, not the yard.”
“She’s talking about when he tackled your skinny ass, not when you decked him and gave him his pretty bruise.” Angie was a bitch; he adored her.
“Oh. We were talking about some family shit. Stuff he didn’t know. He got a little grumpy when I walked out on the chat.” The rest was no one else’s business.
“Did it help?”
“We worked some shit out. It all settled.” That part was actually true. Whatever butthurt Ford had about him and Brit, the man was being damn good to Quartz. In fact, he’d brought Quartz one of those how-it-was-built books from Aspen and turned the kid on to all of the miracle builder shows on Apple TV.
“Good deal. Y’all were kids. Obviously he’s moved on and so have you.”
Stoney nodded. “Obviously.”
Ford had become this classy gay dude, and Stoney’d become a single dad in a world where gay cowboys were for rodeos and movies, mostly.
Angie gave him a shrewd look. “Of course, he’s still single.”
“We assume.” No one knew anything about his life away from the ranch. Not a thing. Even Geoff only knew that Ford loved pizza—which Stoney remembered—and that he did tribal law for the most part. Water rights and shit.
Geoff could find out anything about anyone.
“Hmm. So have Geoff pump him for info.” Hetty looked so proud of the idea.
“Right. I’m supposed to go to Geoff and say, ‘Hey, man. Can you find out if Ford’s fucking anybody right now? Seriously or otherwise. I just want to know where he’s dipping his wick.’” Because that wouldn’t be embarrassing. He didn’t need to know. He had a healthy fantasy life involving Ford, thank you.
That had to be better than the reality, which would be getting turned down.
“I can totally do that,” Geoff said, slipping into the barn. “I need to toke. Anyone want some?”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”
“What? We’re all off the clock. It’s five thirty, and the ladies aren’t driving, right?”
“Nope. I did the feeding already.” Hetty grinned at Stoney. “Your guest room open?”
“Always. Y’all know that.”
“Rock on. Light ’er up, Geoffy. The boss needs a little unwinding.”
Geoff pulled out the biggest doobie known to man and lit up, the acrid smell of green filling the space. Okay, so yeah, he would share.
“So, we’re setting the boss up with Ford? That sort of rocks.” Geoff blew out a stream of smoke. “Want a shotgun, boss?”
“You’re a shit, and I adore you.” He leaned forward, and Geoff took a long drag and held it a second before bringing their mouths together, feeding it to him.
Woo. There was something about a shotgun that made things much more intense.
“That is weirdly hot,” Hetty said.
“You perv.” Angie chuckled and kicked Geoff. “Share, man.”
“You got it.” Geoff passed it over with a grin.
Stoney felt the green start to relax him, his shoulders coming down from around his ears. Oh, man, that was good.
“You’re all stressed out, boss.” Geoff grabbed one of his hands and started massaging it.
“If we’re sharing a joint, I’m not the boss.”
“Sure you are. You also happen to be my friend.” Geoff chuckled. “I hope everyone is okay with pizza and salad for supper. Quartz and Ford conspired.”
“Sounds great. Tell me I get olives on mine.” Geoff hit a tender spot, and Stoney moaned. “Oh, damn. That’s sore.”
“You got bruises popping up all on your knuckles.”
Hetty cackled. “Punching Ford again?”
“Nah. Stable door caught me.”
Both ladies winced. They knew how that went. Geoff hummed in sympathy and rubbed in long, gentle strokes, easing all his ouch.
Stoney drifted, wondering what Ford was doing, if he was alone at his desk. Maybe all the wheeling and dealing Ford did made him solitary when he had the chance, but what if he was lonely?
What if he was on his computer with a lover in Santa Fe? If there was one in Aspen, Ford could just run down, but not New Mexico. That was a ten-hour haul, at least.
“Definitely olives,” Geoff said, snapping him back to the conversation. “I made a new dressing too.”
“Stop with the food talk unless you brought a bag of Doritos,” Hetty complained. “I’m hungry.”
“Oh, Doritos…,” they all spoke in concert.
“Will M&M’s work?” Ford stepped in, shaking a bag of candy. “You guys totally suck.”
“You want a hit? Totally legal, you know.” Geoff grinned over at Ford as Angie and Hetty looked more like they were fixin’ to die.
“Hell, yes. I only share if you do.” Ford came over and sat on a hay bale.
“That’s totally fair.” Stoney refused to act all freaked. He tried to snatch the doobie from Angie’s fingers so he could offer it over, but Geoff got hold of it first.
“You’re not going to offer him a shotgun, boss?”
He was going to kill Geoff. Especially when Ford lit up like Christmas.
“Makes me cough less that way,” Ford pointed out, and butter wouldn’t melt in Ford’s mouth.
“Well, I sure as shit won’t let anyone else do it.” Wait. Did he say that out loud?
Geoff chortled, handing over the joint, and yeah, he was going to do this. Ford leaned close, eyes closing, lashes dark on his cheeks.
Stoney took a deep hit and leaned forward. As he did, he heard Ford pass the bag of candy off to someone.
Then their lips met.
Shit. Stoney knew he was so fucked. He blew the smoke into Ford’s mouth, a long stream of it, not wanting to let go.
Ford slid his hand up Stoney’s arm, holding them together for just another second.
His lungs burned, and Stoney had to pull back, blinking to try to right the world once more.
“That was… something.” Ford breathed deep.
“Uh-huh.” He stared until Ford opened his eyes, a weird little smile on his face.
Ford glanced around. “Uh. I didn’t mean to scare off everyone.”
Sure enough, the only things still with them were the joint and the M&M’s.
“Oh… I…. They didn’t take the green.”
“Yeah.” Ford plucked the doobie from him to take a drag, then grabbed Stoney behind the head with the other hand to draw him close and return the favor.
His eyes rolled back in his head, his cock as hard as nails as the smoke passed between them. He clenched his hands into fists to keep from ripping Ford’s clothes right off. They were in the barn. In November. Smoking weed.
Ford never stopped touching, the fingertips brushing the short hairs on the back of Stoney’s head the most erotic thing he’d ever felt.
When they finally sat back, they simply looked at each other. Both of them breathing hard.
“I want you, Stoney.” Just like that. As if knowing the truth had turned off Ford’s anger.
“Yeah.” He got that. He was going to disappoint them both, though. Stoney knew it before Ford reached for him again. “No.”
Ford’s lips thinned. “No?”
“Not like this, man. I want you more than I want to breathe, but I don’t want neither of us to say we didn’t know what we were doing. I want to remember every second.”
Ford sat back, his frown fading. “No shit. Okay. I can see that. Agree even.”
“Yeah.” He reached out, touched Ford’s bottom lip, dragged his finger over the sweet flesh, which was a little swollen already.
“I—you. Okay, I want pizza if we’re not gonna be all over each other.” Ford grinned at him, so much like the man he fell in love with for a moment that Stoney’s heart clenched in his chest.
“Get on, then. I’m gonna wait for this”—he waved at his crotch—“to go down.”
Ford snorted. “Just do what I do. Use a handful of snow.”
“I always knew you were a sick son of a bitch.” Stoney had to grin, though. Had to.
“Hell, yes. Use what nature gives you. That’s what I always say.” Ford swooped in to give him a kiss that made his ears ring. “Soon, Stoney. I know how good it could be now.”
“Soon. We got things to say to each other.” Naked things.
Ford nodded, then turned on his heel and left. Stoney had to admit, he felt odd, being the one who watched Ford walk off. He usually stomped out of their encounters.
He stubbed out the joint and stashed it, then grabbed a handful of M&M’s. Lord help him, he was a stupid motherfucker.
Stupid, but fixin’ to get laid soon.