Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Seamus figured he was just going to lose his mind if he didn’t get to touch Dawson soon.
He pretty much had the lay of the land now, and he figured Dawson felt the same way he did. There was an attraction between them and maybe it needed to be explored, but the man hadn’t made a move.
Now to be fair, it was awful hard to make a move on a guy like Seamus because he was always surrounded by people.
If Nick wasn’t there, and Christopher wasn’t there, then Jess was.
If they weren’t there, then Coke, Dillon, and Nate were.
And if none of them were, then he and Dawson were sitting in the kitchen with Tracey, who was cooking.
So, he pondered his move. Should he invite Dawson out to dinner or something?
But then that was in public, even if they went to one of the small-town restaurants right around where they were on the ranch.
That always meant there was a chance of Seamus getting recognized, and that put a damper on amorousness most of the time.
So, that meant that Christopher would want to go with him at least to sit outside the restaurant, and that put a kibosh on things, too.
He could ask the man for one-on-one instruction, which would get rid of the need for any kind of public display or any kind of bodyguard. But that was work.
So he really had to ponder this. What was his move going to be?
“You think any harder, smoke is gonna come out of your ears,” Nick told him.
Seamus glanced up from where he was sitting on the couch in their little cabin and shrugged. “Maybe. I need some advice.”
“Oh, you know I always love giving you advice, even if it’s bad.”
“Ha bloody ha.” Seamus sighed, rolling his head on his neck. “I want to get with Dawson.”
“Yes, well, tell me something I don’t know.”
“You’re a giant pain in my ass?”
Nick rolled his eyes. “Now I know that, dear one. So, what’s the problem? I mean, it’s obvious he’s into you.”
“But I’m never ever going to get to spend any time alone with the man. There are always people everywhere.”
Nick plopped down beside him. “Hmm… You do have a point. Why don’t you invite him to Santa Fe?
Topher and I could come, take the other room at the inn.
There’s the kitchen if we want to eat in.
You could wear sunglasses and really loose clothes and wander around the plaza—no one would know who you were.
We’d just be four guys out in Santa Gay. ”
He chewed on his bottom lip. “Yeah, that’s not half bad. I could just see if he wants to go…” He started working through this plan in his head. “Although that’s weird. I haven’t had a date with you yet, but do you want to come share a bed with me? No, I can’t. That’s skeezy.”
Nick’s lips twisted. “Well, I guess we could all get rooms at a hotel… Or shit man, doesn’t he have his own place here? He’s surely not rooming with anybody. There’s nobody else here.”
He shook his head. “No. We’re here on our own. Just a skeleton crew working with us.”
“Okay, so get a pizza or something and take it over to him—”
His eyes went wide. “Am I allowed to have a pizza? That might be more exciting than sex.”
Nick popped him on the arm. “Oh shut up. You can have a cauliflower—”
“Don’t even say the words cauliflower and crust in the same sentence, or I will put you over my knee and make you cry like a baby. And then Christopher would get all jealous and then where would we be?”
He wanted a pizza more than he wanted almost anything except for fish and chips, a giant chocolate croissant, and a hamburger with a bun, bacon, cheese, and avocado.
Oh god, he was hungry.
“If you got a pizza now, it’d just make you barf.”
“I could probably handle that.”
Nick closed his eyes for a second. “So take something else. A beer and a deck of cards! That’s fun. Cards. You could play cards.”
“Tiddlywinks?”
“Or strip poker—that’s a thing. You don’t have to start with strip poker. You could ease into it. Start with five-card stud and then move into strip poker. You could start, and then you could go, “I’m so hot,” and tear off your shirt, pat yourself with it dramatically.”
Seamus stared at Nick. “Dramatically. Thank God you’re not a fucking script writer.”
Nick clapped his hands on his cheeks, Macauley McCulkin-esque and said, “Oh, you wound me, dude. You came asking advice, and I gave you advice—good stuff too. Beer, cards, strip poker; that ends up with nakedness and booze. Isn’t that how sex happens?”
“No wonder you and Topher have troubles.”
“Shut up, asshole.” Nick scowled at him, and he thought he’d hit a bit of a nerve there.
“Okay. Okay, card games and beer or relatively healthy food with no cauliflower in it.”
“On my approval.”
Now it was Seamus’s turn to scowl. “I promise not to get anything that will make me puke. So not romantic.” He wanted a little leeway here.
“Popcorn is good.” Nick grinned at him. “You can make turkey lettuce wraps. That’s romantic.”
“Oh, Jesus Christ. I’m going to take pretzels and beer. This is a cowboy.” He needed to get his shit together. He was putting altogether too much thought to this.
“Do you even know that he swings your way?”
He shook his head. “Well, he thinks I’m hot.”
“Everybody thinks you’re hot, Shay.” Nick’s eyes were wide. “That doesn’t mean he’s gay.”
“So I don’t know for sure, but he doesn’t have a problem with swinging any way because you’ve got Coke and Mr. Dillon.”
“Yes, but then there’s Nate and Miss Tracey. If you’re going with that logic, then he could be anything but bi. And we don’t know if Nate or Coke or Dillon or Tracey are bi because it’s really not appropriate to ask.”
“Well, then I’ll take chips—”
Nick glared at him.
“Fine. Pretzels and beer. I’ll just sort of make very, very casual advances. If he responds, yay. If he doesn’t, then I’ll know that they’re not welcome, and we can still just be two guys having beer and pretzels and playing games. Clothed poker.” That should work, right?
“Don’t forget to take your shirt off at some point.” Nick grinned at him. “Even straight guys think that you have a great belly.”
“That’s because I have an amazing eight-pack. But that’s not the point. That’s not the point at all.”
Nick blinked. “It’s not?”
“No, the point is I want him to be into me like I’m into him, and if he’s not, then I want to know so that I can stop being into him and go be into somebody else.”
“Is that how it works with you?” Nick asked, and Seamus shook his head no.
“But a guy can try, can’t he? You know, imagine the world you want or something like that. Wasn’t that the point of one of those workshops we took in Sedona?”
“I thought the point of that was the instructor getting laid.” Nick winked. “Okay, so you have a plan, and I will keep my fingers crossed that he’s so into you he blows your mind.”
“Oh, God, me too.” And there was no time like the present. He grabbed his phone, texting Dawson.
Hey, you busy?
There was a pause, and then three dots.
No why.
was wondering if you’d like to play cards? I’m just hanging here. Got some pretzels!
God, that was lame.
This time the pause was longer, and the three dots just kept going.
How fucking useless was he?
He slammed his phone down on the couch and rolled his eyes. He didn’t need this shit. “I think I’m gonna go take a shower.”
“What? Why?” Nick reached for his phone. “What did you do? What did he say?”
“I think I just hadn’t read this situation right. I’m going to go take a shower, maybe a long hot bath, and listen to an audiobook.”
A kinky one that would get him into trouble if anybody found out.
Or maybe one on his honing his craft.
He didn’t know.
All he did know is he had a headache, and he was embarrassed now.
“Well, honey, don’t be like— Oh, he answered.”
“What did he say?” He wasn’t sure he wanted to know
“Come on over. I have beer.”
He grinned at Nick. “That’s good, right?”
“It’s not bad, that’s for sure.” Nick handed him back his phone. “Do you need some condoms?”
“Uh. Yes.” He didn’t have any, and now was not the time to panic about that. He didn’t know whether Dawson would have any in his place either, but just in case things got really heated, they would need them, wouldn’t they?
“I just so happen to have some in my Dopp kit. You’ll have to give me a minute.”
“Okay, but just a minute. I can use that to gather up pretzels.” And maybe if Nick wasn’t there watching, he could sneak a few things into the bag that weren’t so healthy. There were a few hidden snacks in the place.
Oh, and it was super uncool to leave Dawson hanging, so he texted back,
On my way in a few.
God, he was really going to do this.
He was gonna go to Dawson’s cabin and try to get busy. Kind of wild, but he was super attracted to this man, more than he had been anyone in a long time.
So he had to try.
Besides, he was smart and talented. He could fake this if he had to. Of course, right?
He had this thing down. He would go. He would be suave, a little.
Debonair, not so much, but a dude, a happy, needy dude who was hoping to hook up with another horny, needy dude.
It was not the dumbest idea in the history of ideas, and he could also do the thing where, if Dawson wasn’t interested, they could just drink beer and eat pretzels and play cards.
“Shay, you’re still just standing there. Grab your pretzels and go have fun. That’s all this has to be—just fun, no pressure, right? No pressure.”
Christopher wandered in, rolling his eyes. “Oh, for fuck’s sake, Shay. If you’re going to get all het up about this, I’ll go hire you a cowboy to fuck. Trust me, we don’t even have to pay. We’ll just find a little fan boy and you can get your freak on.”
Nick stared. “Stop it. Don’t be mean. He likes this guy.”
“Oh, right!” Christopher glared. “We’ve run to Santa Fe because he’s so mean and such a bad man, and now I’m supposed to be all nice because he likes this guy?”
Seamus took the pretzels from Nick and simply walked out.