Chapter 27
CHAPTER 27
CASH
C ash would never admit it to Wilder, but he didn’t sleep well that night. He kept dreaming that Wilder was gone, and every time he woke, he had to reassure himself that Wilder was still there beside him. He didn’t think Wilder would go back on his word, but he had a habit of running when something spooked him. Cash couldn’t deny that he was afraid Wilder would get scared again and make a break for it while Cash was asleep.
But when he woke for the final time, when the early morning light peeked through the gap between the curtains, Wilder was still right there. In fact, he was all but on top of Cash. They shared the same pillow. Wilder had an arm and leg thrown across him, his weight shifted more on Cash than the mattress. And he wasn’t complaining one damn bit.
The day would be a rough one. He’d have to take Lain’s truck to him. There was a chance Mary-Beth and the babies wouldn’t be discharged today, which meant Wilder’s talk with Lain might have to wait. Being in limbo for the next couple of days while they waited for a chance to clear the air had the potential to be… long .
But right now he had a mostly naked Wilder on top of him, and he intended to take advantage of that. Sliding his palms down Wilder’s bare back, he slipped them under the waistband of his boxer briefs and pulled, shifting his weight the rest of the way onto Cash. Wilder groaned as he went, spreading his legs to straddle Cash’s hips.
“You’re feeling me up,” Wilder rasped.
“I am.”
Wilder’s body flexed, dragging their morning wood together. Cash felt like he had molasses in his limbs, making everything languid and sticky. Wilder raised his head, sloppily finding his mouth and slipping his tongue inside as they rocked together. Cash tugged their boxers down just far enough to free their lengths and took them in hand, delighting in Wilder’s sleepy moan. Cash wanted to wake up to that sound every morning for the rest of his life.
“I love you,” he said, his free hand threading into Wilder’s hair.
A smile bloomed on Wilder’s face. “Say that again.”
Cash laughed breathlessly. “I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you. I’ll say it everyday for the rest of our lives.”
“Good, because I want to hear it. Every single day.” Wilder’s ocean blue eyes rolled back. “Oh God, I’m close.”
“Good. Kiss me.”
Wilder crushed their mouths together, his quick breaths fanning across Cash’s cheek. He tore away as he came, pressing his forehead against Cash’s as he rutted through the aftershocks. He looked beautiful like this, his face and neck flushed red and his eyes glazed and heavy-lidded with sated lust. The sight was enough to drive Cash over the edge, and his spend joined Wilder’s on their stomachs, leaving them panting and grinning.
Wilder met his eyes with such a soft look that it drove the breath from his lungs. “I love you, too.”
“I meant what I said last night, by the way,” Cash blurted.
Wilder blinked at him. “Which part?”
“All of it. But especially the part where we get our own place and start building a life. I want that. It doesn’t have to be a camper, and we don’t have to have animals and a garden if you’d rather do something different.”
“I like animals,” Wilder ventured bashfully. “And gardens. I’m thinking I might steal Blaze, if I have to leave the ranch.”
Cash snorted out a laugh. “Fair enough. I don’t think he’d let anyone else ride him, anyway. But what if Lain doesn’t ask you to leave?”
“Then…” Wilder’s brow furrowed. He looked a little lost. “I guess we stay? It would be easier to finish out my parole there.”
“Move in with me.”
Wilder looked scandalized. “Share the foreman’s quarters? What will the other hands think?”
“I don’t give a shit what they think. I want to fall asleep with you every night and wake up just like this.”
Wilder smiled, settling against him like he had no intention of moving, so Cash assumed that was the right thing to say.
“What’s the plan for today?” Wilder asked.
Cash let his fingers trail up and down Wilder’s warm back as he sketched out a plan in his mind. “I need to take Lain’s truck to the hospital. It’s got the babies’ car seats in it, so they’ll need it when they’re discharged—which probably won’t be today. Think you could follow me in my truck to bring me back home? You don’t have to go in and see him if you don’t want.”
“Sure, yeah.”
“And then… I’d like to take you back to the ranch and move your stuff.”
Wilder rested his chin on his hands, palms flat on Cash’s chest. “What if he makes us leave, and we moved everything for nothing?”
“Not for nothing. We’ll just have to move out of my room instead of both rooms.”
Cash really, truly, didn’t think Lain would fire Wilder for finally speaking his mind about the events of eight years ago, but if Wilder needed to have contingency plans for it, Cash wouldn’t begrudge him that. He hadn’t had a lot of good in his life. It was understandable that he would catastrophize and prepare for the worst.
Wilder looked contemplative. “Okay. Sure. Let’s do it.”
The urge to pinch himself grew stronger as the day went on. They checked out of the motel room, and Wilder tossed his duffel in the backseat of the truck. As they pulled out into the street, he reached over and threaded his fingers through Cash’s.
They were side by side for the rest of the day, and as the day went on, Cash started to relax. Wilder helped him unhitch the cattle trailer in the open-sided barn where they usually kept it, then rode with him to the parking spot for the work trucks and climbed behind the wheel of Cash’s personal truck. The only time they separated all day was when Cash had to drive Lain’s truck to the hospital. Wilder waited for him in the parking lot while he took the keys inside.
Mary-Beth was napping, so Lain met him in the hallway with a wan smile.
“How’s she doing?” Cash asked.
“She’s a trooper. We’ve got the babies in there with us now. Listen, I’ve got a favor to ask.”
Cash nodded wordlessly.
“Can you take Annalise home and keep an eye on her? She’s been here since last night, and it looks like we’ll be here another day. She just doesn’t need to sit here with us the whole time. She’ll go stir crazy.”
“Oh.” That wasn’t exactly on his agenda for the day, but he doubted Wilder would mind. “Yeah, we can do that.”
Lain’s head tilted. “We?”
Shit. “Um. I’ve actually got Wilder with me. He’s waiting downstairs to drive me back home.”
Lain winced. “He didn’t want to come in,” he guessed.
“No, not especially.”
“I can’t say I blame him.”
“You two really need to talk.”
He sighed heavily. “I know. Mary-Beth’s been telling me the same thing.”
“There are a lot of things going unsaid between you two.”
“I know.” Lain drew himself up. “Once I get Mary-Beth and the boys home, we’ll talk. I’ll make sure of it.”
At this point, Cash didn’t think Wilder would accept anything else. They had a plan, and Wilder seemed keen to stick to it.
“Good. Is Annalise ready?”
“Yeah, let me get her.”
When Cash walked out of the hospital with a bouncy Annalise clinging to his hand, her blanket draped over his free arm and her dead tablet in hand, Wilder emerged from the truck with a careful smile.
“You picked up a stray,” he called as they approached.
Annalise laughed. “I’m not a stray!”
“How’re you doing, wild thing?”
“Good! I got to meet my brothers. Then it got kind of boring.”
Wilder snorted. “Are you tired? Hungry?”
“Not tired. I slept in the room. Can we get ice cream?”
“I don’t see why not. Hop in the back.” When they got her buckled in and closed the door, Wilder turned to Cash. “Guess we’ve got to pencil a little babysitting into our day?”
“I hope that’s okay. I couldn’t tell them no. She’s been stuck in that hospital room since last night.”
“No, it’s fine.” Judging by his easy smile, he meant it, and Cash relaxed. “She’s one of the few who actually likes me.”
“Hey now,” Cash said, pressing him lightly against the truck. They were just out of sight of the backseat, unless Annalise unbuckled herself and leaned way over to look at them through the tinted window. “All the best people like you.”
“Absolutely,” Wilder breathed, giving him a quick peck on the lips. “Ice cream?”
“There’s a place downtown. Lots of crazy toppings. She’ll love it.”
“Great. Then maybe we can put her to work helping move my stuff.” Wilder waggled his eyebrows.
Cash grinned. “You’re okay with her knowing about us?”
“I’m ready to scream it from the rooftops.”
Cash couldn’t resist tasting his bright smile.
The ice cream shop wasn’t crowded, given that it was before lunch and too early for ice cream for most people. Wilder copied Annalise’s monstrous concoction, complete with chocolate syrup, sprinkles, crumbled Oreos, gummy bears, and a single cherry on top. The gummy bears, he complained, got hard when they got cold, so he wound up picking them off and letting Annalise add them to her own cup. Cash, on the other hand, got a very simple vanilla with mini peanut butter cups.
When they got home, all the ranch hands were out and about. The horse barn’s big doors were flung open, and scattered leaves blew across the brown grass. Cash’s eyes snagged on Billy, who was hauling some hay squares to the round feeder. He would have to address Billy’s lie to Clyde. He could think of only one reason why he would have done it—because he’d wanted to give Wilder enough of a head start to make sure he stayed gone.
He glanced over at Wilder, who was also looking pensively at the younger man.
“We’ll deal with that later,” Cash said, reaching over and taking Wilder’s hand. “Let’s park the truck and start moving your stuff.”
“Moving his stuff?” Annalise asked. “Is he going somewhere?”
“He’s moving into my room,” Cash said.
Annalise tilted her head. “What for?”
“Because we… want to live together, the way your Momma and Daddy do,” Cash said.
“Ohhh,” Annalise said cheerfully. “Do you kiss, too? I think it’s gross when Momma and Daddy kiss, but every time I say so when they do it, they just do it again and laugh about it.”
Wilder chuckled. “We do kiss sometimes, but we’ll try not to gross you out.”
“Okay, good.”
“Want to help us move some stuff?” Cash asked. “He doesn’t have much. And then we’ll take you into the big house and let you chill out for the rest of the day, if you want. You had a real big night.”
“I don’t want to chill out. Can I ride Persimmon? And we need to check on the birds, too!”
“We can do all of that, yes,” Wilder agreed.
“Okay. I’ll help you move, then. You can give me the heavy stuff. I’m really strong! Daddy says I’ll be able to beat him at arm wrestling soon.”
She continued to chatter while Cash parked the truck and led them across the yard to the bunkhouse. He carried Wilder’s duffel for him, and it gave him a little thrill to follow Wilder back into the room he’d run away from just last night. His phone still sat on the bedside table, and Cash picked it up.
“You didn’t take this with you.”
Wilder winced. “No. I was in kind of a hurry.”
Cash smiled and handed it over. “Check your voicemail.”
Nonplussed, Wilder took the phone, tapped the screen, and brought it to his ear. A moment later, he softened, looking at Cash with such warmth that he felt it all the way to his bones.
“I wish I’d heard that last night.”
“I’m glad I got the chance to say the actual words to your face first.” Cash glanced over at Annalise, who was trying to pick up Wilder’s duffel. “But I do intend to love you real good later, if you get me.”
“Oh, I get you,” Wilder said, drifting closer. Over his shoulder, he said, “Sorry, wild thing, I lied. Look away. Uncle Wilder’s about to kiss Cash.”
“Groooss!” she howled cheerfully, hauling the duffel out the door.
It didn’t take long to carry all of Wilder’s stuff to Cash’s room. Most of the clothes he hadn’t packed in his duffel stacked nicely in his hamper. Cash put his toiletries in a cardboard box he assembled from a stack of flat ones in the Blackwoods’ house barn. Wilder draped his phone charger around his neck, and together they carted his things out in one big trip.
There was plenty of room in Cash’s closet for Wilder’s jeans and two coats. Cash made room for him in the dresser, feeling a thrill when Wilder ceremoniously placed a stack of underwear in the top right drawer. Socks and shirts followed, and when he closed the last drawer, he leaned his hip against the dresser and shot Cash a molten look.
“All right, Mister Arden. We officially live together.” His gaze was like melted caramel, and Cash lamented the fact that Annalise was still their responsibility. He wanted nothing more than to ravish his partner right now.
Partner. God, it had a nice ring to it.
Annalise broke the tension. “Can I ride Persimmon now?”
Wilder took a breath and cast her a smile. “Absolutely. Come on, we’ll saddle her up and let y’all play a while.”