Chapter 6
Seth
I lay awake for a long time after Austin’s breathing smoothed out into sleep. I was playing with fire and I knew it, but couldn’t stop. What was I supposed to do? Let Austin freeze to death? Make him squeeze onto my inadequate couch?
Maybe not take him into your bed, smelling fresh from a shower, and let him trauma-dump on you?
Except he’d clearly needed to tell someone.
I hadn’t had to twist his arm much at all.
Anger coursed through my blood over his father.
I wanted to go find the asshole and punch his face in.
Probably not feasible, since I wasn’t a fighter.
Probably not smart either, especially since the guy was a cop, but he shouldn’t be allowed to get away with stealing his son’s money and hurting him.
I breathed through my nose and forced my fists to relax. The man was three states back and out of Austin’s life. Maybe one day, we’d get his money back, but for now, the only logical thing was looking forward.
Which meant I was hoping for a few days working right next to the first guy to really make me care since Miguel.
They were nothing alike. Well, dark hair and wiry build, but Miguel had been all fire and sass and sensuality. He knew his appeal and used it. Not in a bad way, but nothing like the wide-eyed innocence of Austin.
And for all his confidence, Miguel had still ended in disaster. I needed to keep my distance from Austin. He was way too young for me anyhow.
I didn’t let myself think about the irony of keep my distance as Austin snored softly in my bed, his thigh inches from my knee. I could do this. Keep it simple. Help a guy out and send him on his way better than I found him. Some tiny penance for what happened last time.
Eventually, I drifted off. I’d wondered if Austin might have nightmares, but if he had, they were silent ones. My alarm going off at six woke me from a deep sleep.
“Whaaa?” Austin flailed, whacking my shoulder with the back of his hand as he bolted upright. He sat blinking, blue eyes wide and bleary, his short hair sticking up at the back from sleeping on it wet.
“Rise and shine, kiddo. Horses don’t like to wait.” I’d decided, while failing to sleep, that calling him a kid would be a good reminder, even if it pissed him off. Maybe even better if it pissed him off.
“I’m up.” Austin rubbed the back of his hand where he’d connected with my shoulder. “Sorry.”
“No worries.” I rolled out of bed and stretched, aware of his eyes on me. “We’ll feed and water, then go up to the main house for breakfast and talk to Mr. Bowen.”
“You think he’ll let me work for my keep? I kind of broke in and stole those carrots.”
“Kendrick’s not a man to get mad at someone for saving their life.” Although the not-asking part wouldn’t impress him.
Austin nodded slowly, chewing on his lower lip. I thought better of holding out a hand to haul him off the bed. Touching Austin would be a bad idea. “Come on. Let me loan you some clothes. You can bring your dirty ones up to the house to wash.”
“I can’t…”
“I’ll stick them in with a load of mine later. We all use the laundry up there.” I pulled my hamper out of the closet and opened the lid. “Go use the john and toss your dirty things in here.”
“Yessir.” Austin scrambled up and shook himself, scrubbing at his hair with his fingers. The borrowed sweatpants sagged low around his hips and I caught a flash of pale skin as his shirt flapped when he hurried out.
I turned away and pulled open a drawer, checking my spare clothes.
He was smaller than me, and would have to stick to the sweatpants, but T-shirts were easy.
I added a henley too, with the cold deepening outside.
Socks. I didn’t have any brand new, but he couldn’t be too picky.
I tugged the bedcovers straight and laid the clothes on the foot of the bed.
Austin hustled back in, his hair dampened and slicked down. I almost gave him a hard time over risking frostbite just to look better, but the color across his cheekbones and the way he dropped his gaze to the floor suggested he wasn’t in a mood for teasing.
“Pick out what you want.” I waved at the assortment and tucked my own clothes under my arm. “Dress warm in layers. I’ll be out in a minute.” The bathroom wasn’t roomy for getting dressed, but I wasn’t about to strip to my shorts in front of Austin.
Outside, the wind had developed a nasty bite, blowing the fresh snow around, but we hadn’t got any additional white stuff. I showed Austin the feeding chart on the wall and got him started. Since he’d cleaned buckets last night, we only needed to top them up.
Colby arrived a few minutes later with the dogs behind him. He stopped in the doorway, staring at Austin. Austin ducked his head and scurried back to the feed room, leaving me to say, “Austin’s a friend. He’s gonna hang out for the holiday and lend a hand.”
“Friend, huh?” Colby grinned at me. “Go you.”
Colby was straight but not narrow, as he liked to remind me. Still, I told him, “Eyes off the teenager.”
“Teenager?”
“I’m eighteen,” Austin said, coming back with a fresh bucket of sweet feed and a scoop. “Seth just likes to pretend he’s ancient.”
That stung, since I was holding back for his sake. “Colby, Austin. Austin, Colby. You met our best cattle dog Patch and the brown one’s Ramble. Let’s get these horses fed.”
“I’ll scrub water buckets,” Colby offered.
“Already done.” I nodded at Austin.
“Yeah? He works fast.” Colby grinned at me, unrepentant. “I’ll feed the dogs and cats, and take care of Ebony, then.” He strode off toward the box stall where Kendrick’s pet cow was waiting for her calf.
“Ebony?” Austin asked.
“The heavy in the box stall. She’s due about now. She’s a family pet, the last calf Kendrick’s wife bottle fed before she passed.”
“Oh. I wondered why you’d brought a cow inside.”
“Pure sentiment. Kendrick will tell you it’s just practical.
She’s a good producer, big calves, lots of milk to feed them.
We’ve got three of her heifers in the herd now, but she came up empty last year.
The bull broke a fence and got her in February.
Kendrick pretends Ebony’s not special but secretly, yeah, his wife Lori named her, and Kendrick keeps her close. ”
“That’s nice.”
“Huh?”
“That he loved his wife like that, all his life. When my mom left, Dad threw away everything, all her pictures. Like she never existed.” Austin shrugged. “Difference between dying and escaping, right?”
And cheating, maybe, since he said his mom ran off with a guy. I figured Austin didn’t want to hear that, and I wasn’t going to lay blame. More power to her.
We got everyone fed, then headed up to the house to eat.
The dogs opted to stay behind and sniff their way around the newly white farmyard.
In the summertime, one of us would’ve been out on the four-wheelers already for a quick first pass along the pastures, getting our eyes on the cattle before breakfast. In November, the short days meant we got to sleep in and still climbed the snowy front steps in near-darkness.
The house wrapped us in savory aromas as we stepped inside, cinnamon, sausages, and coffee.
Austin inhaled and closed his eyes for a second.
Colby kicked off his snowy boots, tossed his coat on a hook, and headed on back.
I did the same, but Austin hesitated. “Is it okay if I keep my coat?” He had his hands dug deep in the pockets.
I figured that everything he owned that wasn’t in his truck was probably stuffed in those pockets. He’d been kicked out once without time to grab anything. “Sure. If you get too hot, stick it on the back of your chair.”
Kendrick looked up from his coffee as we reached the kitchen and his gaze sharpened. “Seth. And Austin. I didn’t expect to see you here.”
Austin ducked his head. “Sorry, sir.”
I put my two cents in. “Austin’s truck wouldn’t start, so he’s stuck for a couple of days. I thought, with you heading to New Mexico, and Tiffany and Big John in San Francisco, a pair of extra willing hands couldn’t hurt.” I added, “I’ll pay him out of my own wages.”
“No, you won’t.” Kendrick looked Austin up and down, then frowned at me. “I don’t have time to follow up on references, barely time to get his paperwork filled out. You’re not paying him. My liability wouldn’t like that. But if we do this, you’re vouching for him.”
I swallowed, because that made me responsible.
I was allergic to being responsible for other people.
But I remembered the shaky thread of Austin’s voice in the dark saying, “As I got older, he got meaner,” and “I ran.” Maybe he was playing me, but I didn’t want to be the guy who walked away from him when he needed me. “I will.”
“Right.” Kendrick pointed at the table. “Davis put those instant cinnamon rolls in the oven, and made bacon and sausages.” Davis waved to Austin from the end of the table. “Sit, eat, I’ll go quick write up some paperwork.”
“I don’t mean to be a bother,” Austin said. “I’ll work for food and a place to sleep. No need to make it official.”
“My sister-in-law is my insurance broker, and she would kill me.” Kendrick stuffed his last bite of roll into his mouth and stood. “You have your social and driver’s license?”
“Yessir.” Austin dug his wallet from deep in his pocket and held the two cards out.
“Sit. Wait.” Maybe Kendrick saw the weight of worry in Austin, because his tone gentled as he took the cards. “Get some breakfast into you. We have too much, with Tiffany and John away. I’ll be back in ten minutes. How much tax withholding d’you want?”
“What’s the least I can get?”
“I’ll do the minimum.” Kendric strode out.
Austin turned worried blue eyes on me. “I didn’t mean to make extra work.”
“Sit down and eat,” I told him. Without meaning to, I stretched a hand near the small of his back, but this time I managed not to touch him without asking, pulling out his chair instead. “I’ll make sure you earn your keep.”