Twenty
Keith
“You took care of me, now let me take care of you.” I grabbed a clean towel and dried him off before wrapping it around him. He stood in the bathroom and watched while I did the same to myself. “Did you need anything before bed?”
“I have everything I need,” he whispered while staring straight at me.
The feelings brewing up in me were strange.
Not that I hadn’t felt them before, but I barely knew Bart.
When I saw him that first day at the hardware store, I loved how flustered and awkward he was but now it was more than that.
The sex had been great, but could my feelings change because I let someone take control over me?
Possibly. But deep down I knew it went beyond that.
“I know it’s early but I’m ready for bed,” I said and led him to the bedroom.
He stood and watched while I turned down the blankets and smoothed the sheets we hadn’t taken the time to use earlier.
He lay down still covered by the towel before wiggling around enough to remove it and toss it at me. “God you’re gorgeous.”
He leaned back against the pillow with his top leg crossed over his bottom one making his ass stick out a little more but mostly hiding the dick that I definitely wanted more of.
After dropping my towel, I climbed into bed next to him and he immediately wrapped around me.
“I could get used to this,” I said before kissing the top of his head.
“Mmmm,” he hummed and settled in a little more as the day caught up to me and I drifted off to sleep.
Just as the sun broke across the horizon my eyes popped open.
Same as every day of my life without fail.
Farming was in my blood no matter how I tried to ignore or deny it.
I was descended from a long line of farmers that went back almost as far as this country was old, but none of them lived nearby.
No, they were all at the other end of the state growing citrus, peaches, and apricots and I could honestly say I did not miss it one bit.
“Good morning,” Bart said as he stretched his legs so hard his toes curled.
“Good morning.” Relief flooded through me. I’d worried he’d wake up and want to get the hell out of here, but so far that didn’t seem to be the case.
“What are you doing today?” he asked and turned to face me.
“Well, today I need to go buy groceries. I had a horse scheduled for later, but they need to wait a week for payday. I offered to just do it then they could pay me then, but most folks don’t like to be owing anyone.”
“Yeah, people here are different than they are in the city,” he said.
“Do you like it here?” I asked. I knew the answer because we’d talked about it.
“I do. More than I thought I would. You said you lived in Woodland, but Asa said you grew up here.”
“I did, well both are true. My family had a small orchard on the north side of town. I wanted to learn something other than how to grow fruit trees, so I went to school in Sacramento for welding. For a few years it was very busy, like I said I worked on some of the big projects there, but then I had a hard time finding work. Asa called and told me about the old trimmer he used talking about retiring. He was in his seventies so it was more than time, but I know he wouldn’t have stopped if he didn’t have to. ”
“Asa always seems to know what to do. I bet he knew exactly what you’d be good at.” His lips lifted in a soft smile as he pinched my lip with his thumb.
“That he does. I took a chance and it turned out he was right. Welding wasn’t my dream, but being a farrier and a hoof trimmer apparently was. My dad was so pissed that I’d paid the money and gone to school. And I knew the big money would be in Sacramento, but well—”
“Once a country boy always a country boy.”
“Yeah. It was just so different, and not all in good ways.”
“When I was growing up, I thought Auburn was huge and perfect, and I couldn’t imagine ever living anywhere else.
When Asa asked me to come here, it felt like a lifeline.
I’d never considered leaving before, but as soon as I read that letter, that’s all I could think of. I had nothing there except my family.”
“Having family is a big deal. It had to be hard to leave them.”
“Where’s your family?” he asked surprising me.
“Well.” I hesitated and cleared my voice. “They live by Fresno now. My dad wanted to expand his operations and go into the commercial business. Now he’s one of the bigger growers in the state.”
“Wow, that’s amazing.”
“Yeah, it’s what he was always working for.” I tried to keep the bitterness out of my voice but obviously failed.
“You didn’t want to work in the family business,” he said like it was so obvious.
“No. Not one little bit. I prefer working with animals to plants.”
“You’re really good with the girls. I can tell they trust you. Asa had a vet out to look at one of them. She had a huge abscess on her leg. It was very obvious how much pain she was in, but she didn’t trust him. I had no clue a cow had so many opinions.”
“Did she finally let him take care of it?”
“Yes. But only with Asa standing right next to her the whole time petting her and reassuring her. They trust him.”
“Animals all know who the good guys are, and they know who not to trust. Those cows trusted you right away.”
“They’re great. I mean when they’re not shitting or peeing on me. Believe me they do both.”
“You realize which end I work at? They take any opportunity they get. I swear they all hang out later and laugh at what they’ve done to us.”
“It’s not at all what I thought it would be. It’s so much more,” he whispered.
“That’s how I felt about last night,” I murmured.