Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
“Hey, Cam, man! Long time no see.”
Cam glanced up from checking all of Fire’s tack, smiling at his longtime buddy Hank. “Hey. Yeah, you weren’t in Amarillo, huh?”
“Nope. I was in California that weekend.” Hank clapped him on the back.
“No shit, how’d it go?” He nodded to Hank.
“Good, good. Surprised you weren’t out there. Amarillo is a hell of a harder row to hoe than California is.”
He waved one arm. “This is closer to home.”
One of Hank’s eyebrows winged up in alarm. “Everything okay with your folks?”
“Oh yeah, they’re fine. I just…uh…I’ve been staying close to home helping out a friend.”
It felt weird as all get-out to call Mitch a friend. Hell, he wasn’t sure they really were friends. They were friendly, sure, but what they had going on was way deeper than friendly. It was more like well…it was definitely bigger than buddies.
“Good for you. Sometimes it’s nice to be close to home. I mean, hell, we’re fixing to be home for the duration anyway. I’m guessing you’re doing the stock show circuit?”
He didn’t know. There was a hell of a lot happening between stock show season and now. Besides that, he didn’t know what he was going to do.
He assumed so, but the simple fact was…he wasn’t sure. Maybe the kids could come with him. Maybe they’d have things to do at the house. He didn’t have any idea, and that felt weird.
In fact, it felt weird as hell.
“My options are open, I reckon.”
Hank gave him a look, ever so slightly confused. “You okay, man? You seem a little off.”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just ready to get home.”
That got him an arched eyebrow.
“What?”
“I just never seen you ready to get home before, I guess. So, what’s the plan, then?”
“I’ll rope here, and if I don’t make the short go, I’m heading home.” He had a reason to go, after all.
“Cool. You want to go get a beer after?”
“Sure.” He could handle a beer.
“Good deal.” Hank gave him a careful once-over. “I have a hotel room and a cooler…”
Okay, well that was odd as all get-out.
“I got my own room, but thanks. We can just meet in the hotel bar.”
He didn’t think Hank had asked him to do what he was pretty sure Hank was asking him to do ever.
Not only that, but he thought he’d been relatively clear about the fact he had a reason to get home.
It was the strangest situation, unnerving, in fact.
He found himself staring at Hank.
“What?”
Cam shook his head. “I don’t understand what the hell’s going on. I just let you know I had a reason to get home. A friend.”
Hank nodded. “Okay.”
“Oh, man, you ain’t come on to me the whole time we’ve been riding together, and we’ve had plenty of opportunity. Why now?”
Hank grinned at him, the expression like one of them leprechauns Momma put out in March. “Well, you didn’t say it was permanent. You said ‘friend’, so I thought—”
“I meant good friend. I meant like permanent-type friend. He’s got kids.”
Hank held his hands up. “Nope. No no no. I don’t do that.” He shook his head. “I don’t mess with guys with kids. That’s wrong.”
He knew he was staring at Hank like a goat looking at a new fence. “I don’t follow.”
“It’s just not right.”
He gave up because what else was he supposed to do? He didn’t know what the hell was going on, whatever it was.
“Whatever you say, Hank.”
He did worry on it, though. In fact, he worried on it enough that not only did he break the barrier, but he didn’t even get close to making tomorrow’s short go.
He decided, then and there, to drive home tonight. He was going to check out and head out.
His phone rang as he was closing up the trailer on Fire’s butt and getting ready to drive back to the hotel to get his stuff.
When he saw it was Ramsey, his oldest brother, he almost didn’t answer the phone, but then, sure as shit if he didn’t, there would be some kind of emergency.
Then Momma would be calling, or Leanne would be calling, or some other family member—
“Hey, brother, what you need?” Leave me alone. I’m heading home.
“Called so to see how you did. I’m being friendly and shit.”
He hopped in the truck. “Is Lizzie at work, and you got stuck with the kids?”
“Actually, yes and no. Lizzie’s at work, and your man offered to take the kids, so they’re at your house.”
“So, what you called to gloat about that?” Ramsey never called him just to see how he did at the rodeo. Even if Ramsey had been the one who had ridden the rodeo like him and Dad.
“No. Actually, I called to tell you I think your man is pretty cool.”
“Yeah, so do I. But thank you for that.”
“Why do you sound so weird? You’re not even giving me shit.”
How was it that Ramsey was suddenly developing some kind of sixth sense? He’d never had one before in his whole life. Not that Campbell was aware of, anyway.
“You want me to give you some?” Cam asked.
“No, I want you to tell me what’s going on. I can tell there’s something.”
He got into the truck, sitting there for a minute with his speaker before he even started the engine. He was closed up inside. He could tell Ramsey what was going on. “So there’s this guy I’ve been on the circuit with for a while. His name is Hank.”
“Uh-huh.” Ramsey said it cautiously, and Cam wanted to scream at him that he wasn’t doing that. He wasn’t going to cheat on Mitch, but he didn’t because what did Ramsey know really?
“He came up to me today to ask me how I was doing. We hadn’t seen each other in a while, and he asked me back to his hotel room for a beer—like in a sexy kitty kind of way, man.” It still baffled him.
“Have you guys had, uh, relations before?” Ramsey asked.
“No, man, he’s never come on to me once. I’m not even sure I knew Hank was swung that way.” Cam had never asked.
“So did you ask him what the deal was?”
“Yeah, I didn’t come right out and ask him what the fuck was wrong with him, but I did sort of make it clear that it was weird.
” Cam finally got the truck started. He was starving, so he was going to find a drive-thru someplace and not drive through it because he had a horse trailer attached to the back of his truck.
He’d park and go in. Shit, his chickens were scattered but good.
“Give me the whole conversation the way it happened.” Thought maybe Ramsey was laughing at him, but he couldn’t be one hundred percent sure.
So, Cam recounted the entire conversation, Ramsey making appropriate noises at random intervals. Then Ramsey chuckled.
“What the hell are you laughing at? This is not funny.”
“Sure it is, man. It’s hilarious.”
“So did this happen to you when you hooked up and started thinking about settling down?” Maybe that was why Ramsey was so amused.
“Yes, it actually did.” Ramsey sighed. “Let me tell you a story.”
He put his phone in the clip on the dashboard and then got moving. “Lay it on me, brother.”
“So right after we got engaged, I went on the road. It was a big roping event, not a rodeo, but still it was a bunch of guys had been on tour with for years, and it was in Fort Worth, so there were lots of buckle bunnies. You know what I mean?”
“I get you.” The girls had loved Ramsey; he was a good-looking guy, popular, charming, and a hell of a roper.
“There was this barrel racer who showed up for the first day of events, and she heard through the grapevine that I was engaged. Next thing you know, she’s all over me.
She’s never had the time of day for me, she never thought I was worth even sniffing.
But she hears that I’m fixing to get myself off the market, and she loses her shit.
Some folks think someone who’s taken is way more attractive than someone who isn’t. And I bet your Hank is that way.”
“Weird, man. And of course I told him I was with Mitch and that Mitch had kids, and that got even weirder.” The look on Hank’s face still baffled him.
“No shit? What did he say?”
“He said he didn’t mess with guys with kids, that it was just wrong to do it.”
Now Ramsey blew out a hard breath. “Oh man, that is internalized homophobia.”
“What?”
“What Hank means by that is that he thinks what he does with men is wrong and therefore if you involve men and kids, it’s going to scar those kids for life or something.”
“How the hell do you know this?” How did he not know it? Cam hadn’t really thought about having kids, but he certainly didn’t think getting involved with the guy with kids was a bad idea.
Love was love, and they were hopefully showing those kids a healthy iteration of it.
And Jesus Christ, he just admitted that he loved Mitch? That he was in love with the guy?
“Because I knew a lot of guys just like that on the circuit, man. You’re a little bit different—you’ve always known you were gay, but some of these guys are only gay on the road?”
“I don’t even know what to say to that. I mean, maybe you’re right. But then again, maybe Hank is just afraid of kids.”
“Maybe so. I would have said you were, too. I mean not the ones in the family, but kids who were not your brother’s and sister’s kids.”
“Yeah, it was a little strange to begin with. I’m still learning what I’m allowed to tell them and what I’m not.”
“That can take some time.” Ramsey made this funny little sound. “Not that I’ve had to blend a family or anything, but I’ve seen it with some friends. Mitch will get a little wigged-out sometimes, I bet, when you tell the kids something. So I would make sure I talk to him first.”
“That’s my plan. Sometimes I bet I’ve overstepped already, but he’s never bitched at me about it.”
“He’s a good guy. So when are you heading home?”
“I’m in the truck right now.” Cam pulled out of the fairgrounds onto the main road. “I need to stop and get me something to eat, but then I’ll probably just stay on the road until I get there.”
“Didn’t make the short go, huh?”
“Shit. I broke the barrier, man. I sucked.”
“Well, don’t suck driving home. Be careful, okay?”
“I will, I promise. I gotta go man. I’m gonna call Mitch.”
“Make sure you get some food. I love you, bro.”
“I love you, too.”
“See you at Thanksgiving.”
“Yeah, I’ll see you then.”
They hung up, and he hit the GPS, looking for the nearest fast-food place that had a parking lot big enough for a trailer. There was a truck stop not too far down the road with a Subway that would work well enough for him. He could grab some gas while he was at it.
He called Mitch. He wanted to let his lover know he was on his way home.