14. Clark
Clark
“Word around town is that you’ve been calling me Grumpy Jake,” Jake said as he showed us how to hoist an injured rider onto a horse.
I pressed my lips together, not sure what to say.
“I’m not grumpy. I’m quiet.”
Quietly grumpy, maybe.
Also, it meant Beau had been blabbing.
I fidgeted with the doohickey on the horse’s saddle for a few seconds, and Jake nudged me with his elbow. “Beau is a good guy. I know you’re just here for a little bit, but if you could please not treat my friend like a throwaway, I’d appreciate it.”
I think I preferred Grumpy Jake to Serious Jake.
“I would never do that,” I said quietly, making sure we were still out of earshot of the other parents.
One of the steers made its way through a hole in the fence, and the result was pandemonium. Cows were all up and down the main drive, and we got to see what a real roundup looked like.
All hands were on deck, including Stevie, who looked like she was having the time of her life.
Watching Beau help drive the cattle back into their corral was something to see.
River made fun of my slack jaw, but I ignored him because he was equally taken by Miguel on his horse, hair loose and flying behind him.
Anyway, it wasn’t my fault that Beau was a god in the saddle. I sent him a text while they finished corralling the cattle into a safe spot.
Me: You’re pretty sexy on that horse.
Me: And I’ll be all alone in my cabin tonight.
Beau: I’m not supposed to be texting and riding at the same time.
Me: Oops.
Beau: I’ll be there as soon as I can.
The fence repair, unfortunately, took forever. By the time Beau showed up at my cabin, I was a cat in heat, and he was looking like he could barely stand.
We took a quick shower together. Well, quick-ish. Even though he was exhausted, and even though I said that we could just hang out, he ate me out like he’d been thinking about it all day. And, because turnabout is fair play, I wanted to see how much of him I could really take in a blow job.
The answer: maybe half.
Beau took me to bed, and we made out for a bit, then chatted for a bit, and it was … fuck, it was perfect. Beau was surprised that River had gone over to Miguel’s again.
“Should we be worried that they’re getting too serious?”
“I don’t know that we have any control over that,” I said, not quite sure if I was talking about my son or me.
“Mm,” Beau murmured, exhaustion pulling him down.
We got into our position—him on his back, me wrapped around his middle—and he fell off in about thirty seconds.
I spent the better part of the next hour just looking at him.
Probably not the thing I was supposed to do when I was trying to keep it casual.
Thankfully, I managed to go to sleep without waking him up and asking if he felt the same. As my son would say, cringe.
Morning arrived far too quickly, but I made the best of it by grabbing the small bottle of lube from my Dopp kit and waking up Beau with a hand job.
He reciprocated, laying those luscious kisses along my neck as he did.
I could’ve stayed in bed with him all day, but today was what Beau jokingly called the trial ride because it was a prerequisite for the overnight.
According to Colt—Snow Creek’s fishing and trail expert—with all the younger kids in this group, he first wanted to assess how we managed on rocky terrain without getting stuck miles out on the range.
It was a good strategy, mostly because it gave me the chance to verify whether an overnight was in my wheelhouse at all.
So far, the day had been beautiful. Beau was hanging back with me as I rode Betty.
Miguel and River were in the lead with Colt, and Connor and Cynthia’s family was in the middle.
The rocky terrain was manageable, and Betty and I had come to an understanding.
By the time we stopped for lunch, my ass was sore, my lower back was calling me old, and I was grateful for the full night of sleep I had. Even so, I couldn’t help but think about tonight and what it held in store for me and Beau.