Aubrey #2
My lips flattened. Hoyt tossed the toaster pastries at his brother. I watched the throw go wide and the last package of sustenance fly out the window. The look Jesse gave Hoyt could have peeled the rust off the horse trailer jangling along behind us.
“Great. Now we’ll starve,” Jesse huffed as we rolled around a sharp bend that ended like right now. We hit the brakes in front of a splendid log cabin home with barns and horses everywhere one glanced. So many horses!
“I’ll buy more snacks for the ride home tomorrow. I promise no one will starve as long as Aubrey is in charge of food and—”
“This ain’t an auction barn,” Hoyt barked, fatigue showing through as he rolled his left shoulder while glowering at his brother. “What the fuck is going on here?”
“I’m kidnapping you. Yep, that’s right. I’ve driven you and your boyfriend to Oklahoma where we’re going to set up shop as horse poets.
” I couldn’t help it. I had to giggle. Hoyt, who I now knew had a twelve-hour threshold of car travel, was not as amused as I was.
“Aubrey here will be reading poems as we clean hooves and trim tails.”
“You’re not the least bit funny,” Hoyt mumbled then unbuckled his seat belt to exit the truck.
He hit the ground with a thud. I watched as he stretched back slightly to unkink his spine, then turned left and right, his gaze moving along the handsome layout before settling on a fenced-in paddock to our left.
I scurried over empty water bottles, Pop Tart wrappers, and several CD cases, to stand at his side as he began to walk slowly to the white fence as if pulled by some magical force. “Where the hell are we?”
“Look!” I shouted then glanced at Jesse joining us at the fence. “A red horse. Hoyt, call to it!”
I heard the crunch of boots on gravel behind us but couldn’t take my eyes off my boyfriend.
He climbed over the fence quick as a cat, his gaze locked on the red roan grazing with several other horses.
The winds shifted. The red roan’s head jerked up from the lush green grass, nostrils flared, eyes scanning the pasture until he saw Hoyt standing at the fence.
Adobe whinnied in joy, tossing his beautiful dark cinnamon mane then charging at Hoyt with such speed the other horses started.
Tears trickled down my cheeks. Hoyt looked back at us, and the man who now stood beside me, eyes welling.
“What the hell have you two done?” Hoyt asked thickly.
We didn’t have time to reply properly because Adobe arrived then, nudging Hoyt’s belly, nickering softly as his best friend draped his arms over the horse’s neck.
Hoyt wept openly into Adobe’s dusty mane.
I cried, oh how I cried. Jesse was silent, smiling, his eyes damp, and the stranger beside me, who must be Ken Langdon, grinned widely.
It took Hoyt several minutes to gather himself.
We gently introduced ourselves to the man who had eagerly sold Adobe back to us, whispering to allow horse and cowboy to re-bond.
Given how both animal and man were loving on each other that bond had never wavered.
Ken was a personable fellow, a retired rider, and a horse enthusiast.
A gruff cough pulled us away from our talk with Ken. Hoyt stood at the fence, Adobe pressed tight to his back, his face streaked with the tracks of his joyful tears.
“I swear…you two,” Hoyt coughed out, unwilling to leave his horse. The horse seemed to be happy to be glued to his friend as well.
“Yeah, we’re shitters.” Jesse chuckled. “Your boyfriend set this all up. Well, he gave me the info about Ken here.” Jesse jerked a thumb at the older man in the brown Stetson.
“And I looked him up to see if he was willing to sell your horse back to us. He was. So we were in cahoots. Happy birthday.”
“I just…” Hoyt drew in a shaky breath. “This is too much. He’s a good horse, costs a lot. You two shouldn’t have done this.”
“Yeah, I think we should have,” Jesse said as I started crying again. My glasses were speckled with tears, my nose was now stuffy, and my soul sang. Seeing Hoyt this happy, this moved…well, it was everything.
I climbed up on the fence; cheeks damp and held out a hand. Adobe and Hoyt moved closer. My love took my hand, kissed my palm, and then placed my hand on the thin white stripe on Adobe’s red nose.
“You shouldn’t have spent so much on me,” Hoyt whispered as his horse got to know my scent and my touch.
“Gee-Gee said to spend my inheritance on things that will bring me happiness and peace. Nothing short of falling in love with you has given me so much joy. You two belong together.”
“So do we.” Hoyt wanted to say more but there were people here, and Ken was saying something to Jesse about papers.
“I love you,” I whispered.
“Hear that, Adobe, you won him over,” Hoyt teased then, with great effort I could tell, climbed back over the fence to shake hands with Ken before he hugged his brother.
Then, Hoyt turned to me. I smiled up at him.
“I love you so damned much.” He pulled me into his chest to kiss me soundly before tucking me close to his side, turning to look at Ken.
The older cowboy seemed nonplussed but I suspected he was curious.
“This is my boyfriend, Aubrey. And we’re in love. ”
“Congratulations. So you want to sign those papers so you can take your horse home tomorrow?” Ken asked as if seeing his old bull riding buddy kissing a man was nothing out of the ordinary.
“Yeah, I…yeah I do.” Hoyt then reached out to yank Jesse into a three-way hug. Then because it seemed Adobe was a diva, the horse shoved his long nose under my arm. So we had a four-way hug, which was even better.
The hotel we’d reserved was a charming little roadside thing with about ten units, a working fridge, and a large bed. It was clean with a western motif and sat about fifteen minutes from Ken’s ranch.
Hoyt had switched from tears to sheer joy to becoming quite handsy.
The moment we said goodnight to Jesse at our doors then slipped inside he was all over me.
Not that I was complaining because his hands gliding up under my tee to rub calloused fingertips over my nipples made me hard as a nail.
He toed off his boots, his hands always on my hips even as I kicked off my own shoes.
“I love you,” he whispered as he nibbled on my neck, removing my meaty bull rider shirt with a yank that pulled my glasses off as well as the shirt.
I squeaked. He caught my specs then placed them carefully on the desk in the corner.
Then, because he could, he lifted me from the thin carpet as if I were light as air.
“I love you so much. I just…” He carried me to the bed, laid me out like a delicate rose, and then moved over me with care.
“I just…what you did for me. Adobe means…he means so much to me. It killed me selling him.”