Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
Dawson was about to bust with pride when he and Seamus walked into the banquet room where they were going to have dinner tonight. Seamus crutched, and he walked, but that was all right. He knew he was on the arm of the most handsome man in the entire fucking world.
Not only that, but everybody who’d met Seamus tonight had liked him. The thing Sterling had said to him when the man met him down at the arena floor on his way out to the locker room was, “He’s a good one. You should keep him.”
Sterling liked him, and that said enormous amounts of good things.
The guys all came over to meet him, and Dawson had to tell them to let Seamus sit down before they all glad-handed him.
“C’mon now, fellers, he’s been up and down a lot today, and he’s broken.”
Seamus chuckled. “Only in one place. Seriously, I’m not doing too bad, actually. It is kind of hard to shake hands with crutches.”
“Come on, honey. Let’s get you sitting down, and then I can introduce everybody ready-like.”
“Sitting, I can do. Dancing is where the problem is.” Seamus winked, that self-deprecating humor so evident, and everyone cracked up.
Once Seamus sat down, Dawson got on the introductions. “All right, you know Sterling, this is his man, Colby. And here we got Michael Boe, our entertainer. He has too much charisma for his own good.”
Seamus smiled over at Mike. “I understand that on a deep personal level. I get that a lot. We entertainers have to stick together.”
That would be a nightmare and a half. Mike wasn’t near as easy-going as his Seamus.
“This is Davi Souza and his wife Maria, Deuce Porter, and Ranger Johnson. They’re the best team a man could ask for.”
Seamus nodded to every single one in turn. “I’m very pleased to meet you all. This is Nick and Chris.”
Both the guys waved.
“They’re my dearest friends, and I also got the honor to have them on the payroll, but here they’re just very good friends.” He held up one hand. “Fair warning though, please don’t let Nick tell you anything about food. If he starts, just have Christopher whap him really hard.”
Nick rolled his eyes. “I’m not that bad. I just worry.”
Christopher chuckled. “He’s kind of that bad. You can call Mr. Pharris or Mr. Walsh and ask them. They’ll tell you.”
They settled around the big table, ordering drinks and appetizers, most of them chatting easily.
It made Dawson pleased that Seamus was more than willing to talk to Sterling and his guy, no problem, but he didn’t force conversation on anybody.
It was almost as if Deuce and Ranger were nervous to look Seamus in the eye.
Dawson drifted over to them, but he didn’t make small talk or walk them through whatever was going on. It didn’t matter to him one way or the other.
“You two doing okay?”
Deuce jumped, then looked guilty. “I’ve seen all of his movies,” he whispered, “This is freaking me out a little bit.”
“Don’t get freaked out. He’s just a guy. A really hot one,” Dawson teased, “but just a guy.”
Ranger hooted “If you say so. I mean, and then there’s his mom, man. She’s super famous too.”
“So’s his dad in Australia, just for shits and giggles.”
“So he’s totally a nepo baby, like you,” Ranger told Deuce.
Deuce Porter had one of the most famous cowboy dads in the history of rodeo, and he also happened to be one of the founders of the league Dawson worked for.
“Well, that gives us something in common anyway. Maybe I can talk to him and not be a total dick.”
“Don’t be nervous. You should be more nervous around Sterling. He’s on the warpath tonight.” Sterling had taken him aside and told him Greg had still been up there schmoozing even after his dad had left, and that worried him a bit.
Sterling had gotten all het up because he really didn’t like the CEO and majority owner of the league, and by extension, his son.
“Nah, Sterling, I can just get a beer. I know what brand he likes the most.” Ranger waved a hand in the air. “But we’ll try not to be nervous around your man.”
“Cool. I don’t want him to feel self-conscious either, you know? He’s trying real hard to not be freaked out himself. He’s a big bullriding fan.”
“Yeah? That’s cool.” Deuce blinked at him, looking real surprised, then glanced over at Shay again, who was laughing at something Davi had said, the big asshole the easiest going of all of them.
It was a damn good thing, too. Maria was pregnant with twins, and the man was already looking forward to filling his ranch house with more little feet.
“His dad took him all the time in Australia. One of his dad’s favorites is Parker Williams.”
“Parker is one of everyone’s favorites,” Deuce pointed out.
Ranger nodded. “It’s those weird, big jug ears of his.”
And when he glanced over, Seamus was smiling at him even though he was still talking to Sterling’s husband, Colby.
Dawson grabbed himself a beer off the drinks table and came wandering over, leaving the younger kids to figure out whether they were going to talk to anybody or not.
“Hey. How’s it going?” He said when Sterling and his man walked off.
“I’m good. These little shrimp things are really tasty.”
“They are, huh? And Nick can’t bitch at you because they’re low carb and no bacon.”
“I do kind of miss the bacon.”
“I hear you.” Dawson thought personally that shrimps needed not just bacon but jalapeno, but that was okay. He could live with the way they were done. They were sort of Thai style, he thought, and they had the sweet chili glaze on them, and that was yummy.
“So, what, is everybody just circulating around and then we sit down to dinner?”
“Pretty much, yeah, I would imagine since Sterling is here, he’s going to make some kind of speech, but that’s okay, we’ll live through it.” Dawson rolled his eyes because Lord knew that was a perfectly normal experience.
“Wait, isn’t it your job to make the speech? Aren’t you the old man now?”
Seamus’s bright blue eyes gleamed with humor, and he wanted to reach out and pinch one of Seamus’s nipples or something to punish him for the teasing.
“I see you contemplating violence,” Seamus went on.
“That’s me. I get up and choose violence every day.”
“Is he just now telling you that?” Michael stepped up next to them, holding a beer, grinning.
“No, he repeats it every time he wants to beat me for something I’ve said to him.” Seamus winked, in an exaggerated way, to prove he was joking.
“I have other ways of punishing you, honey.” He nudged Michael with an elbow. “Seamus is a terrible tease.”
“I get it from my dad. Not that my mom doesn’t have a sense of humor, just not one that most earthlings understand.”
Mike snorted, “I have been reliably informed that I’m in the same position.”
Seamus shook his head. “Nah man, those people love you out there, and I got to tell you, you keep the energy up. Mad props, seriously. I don’t think I could do what you do.”
Mike kind of puffed up, standing taller. “Thanks. I appreciate that.”
“It’s true. The audience, man, they keep you on your toes. I personally like a script.”
“Yeah. Improv is my big strength in a show. I used to think I’d want to do what you do, but really, I’m kind of my own boss.”
“Yeah, it must be cool not to have a director telling you, ‘I want you to stand here and fall off the stage right here.’”
Dawes respected the fuck out of how Seamus was this cheery, dear guy talking to people and smiling. He even shot Deuce and Ranger a nod, met their eyes, gave them a smile. He was fairly sure Deuce Porter creamed his damn jeans.
He nudged Seamus’s good leg with his boot. “That is some hero worship right there.”
“That’s because they don’t know me.”
“Then it would be worse.”
“All right, folks.” Sterling moved to the front of the room. “I just wanted to say how proud I am of this crew and thank all y’all for coming to supper tonight to hang out and share your time. Come on and sit and get your grub.”
Oh, nice. Short and sweet.
“And I was expecting a monologue,” Seamus whispered in his ear, “You cheated me.”
“Be grateful,” he whispered back. “It can get maudlin and long-winded.”
“Ah, I see, and there’s no editing floor is here, is there, darl?”
“Nope.”
The food started coming in, and everyone settled into their places. It was a great idea—piles of pasta, proteins, and veggies started appearing, anything that somebody could want.
And they could just take all they needed, pile their plates up.
Seamus, of course, ended up with a pile of chicken breast, and a mound of broccoli enough to choke a horse.
Dawes took steak and pasta because he was fucking hungry.
Deuce dared to meet Seamus’s eyes. “You eat like a bullrider,” he managed. “How on earth do you manage to keep—” Deuce’s hand waved up and down. “—all that muscle? You eat like a bird.”
Seamus grinned, turning the weight of that charm on Deuce. “Well, mostly it’s him.” He pointed to Nick, offered the man a quick smile, and Nick flipped him off, which made the whole table laugh. “He rides my ass twenty-four-seven about what I’m eating and where I’m working out and what I’m doing.”
Nick nodded. “I detect no lies.”
“There’s that, but the bigger part is genetics.” Seamus wrinkled his nose, and Dawson could see Deuce fall in love.
Sweet, but pointless. Seamus was taken.
“I have to admit, I’m built like my dad, and while he’s not having to be stacked anymore, he and I are built very much the same.”
“Yeah, my dad and I are, too. I have to eat a lot of pasta.” Everybody teased Deuce because Ace Porter had been an all-around roughstock rider, one of the people who had started the league, but—Ace was tiny. One of those bullriders who could eat anything and stay itty bitty.
It was one of the biggest arguments Dawson had ever seen when Deuce decided to tell his father he was putting in with the bull fighters.
Dawson couldn’t blame Ace at all. Nobody wanted their kid to stand in front of a bull and offer to get hit. It was bad enough that someone wanted to ride them.