Stable Hill

by Jodi Payne

  “Stay here and keep my job.” Russ repeated it like he needed to make sure it was real.

  “But better than before, because it will be your farm too. Your home.”

  “Home.” Russ rested against him, head on his chest.

  “Yes. Our home. All three of us, Rose, the girls, the horses… all of it.”

  Jeffrey’s voice was soft as it floated over his shoulder. “Stay, Russ.”

  “Please.” He stepped back so Russ could look into his eyes, so his lover could look deep inside him, to see that he was sincere. “Please stay.”

  Russ swallowed hard, hopeful eyes searching his. “I will. I’ll stay.”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  NEVER, EVER.

  Not once. Not one single time in Russ’s whole life had he celebrated Valentine’s Day.

  It was a ridiculous holiday, when you were supposed to buy presents and flowers for your sweetheart and act like you loved them more on that day than every other day of the year.

  His truck bounced along the curvy driveway up to the house, and he just shook his head. The whole idea was stupid. There was no way he could love his men any more than he already did. He wasn’t even sure he could pretend it was true.

  But those girls? Those girls he loved more every single day. Every time Emily kissed his cheek, took off with Brian and left him worrying. Every time Zoe and Riley asked him to play guitar for them and they sang along. Every time Sophie hauled her ass back up on Angel after a fall? He fell a little more in love.

  So this Valentine’s Day? Damn right he was celebrating.

  He pulled up next to Jeff’s fancy car and parked so close Jeff was going to have to climb over the passenger seat in the morning to get in. Now that was love, right? He had a little chuckle, hauled the chocolate and the flowers off the seat next to him, and headed inside.

  “Oh, it smells good in here, y’all!” The girls insisted on lasagna, having branded it the dish that made him and Jeff fall in love with Oscar. Didn’t matter whether it was actually true or not. It made the girls smile, so he was all about it.

  “You got the stuff?” Oscar popped up off the couch and hurried to help him.

  “Yep. I got the pretty things and the yummy things. For the girls and for Miss Rose too.”

  And a new little box of rubber things for us.

  There were a lot of Cupid’s arrows in this relationship after all.

  Oscar took the flowers to put in water, and he put the chocolate on the sideboard.

  “How close are we to dinner?” Russ was hungry.

  “My goodness, Russell, you are an impatient young man.” Rose called from the kitchen, teasing. She liked to tease him, and he’d nod and “yes, ma’am” her because she liked that too. It made her smile.

  “It takes a lot of energy to keep up—”

  Oscar shot him a look.

  “With the horses.” He stuck his tongue out at Oscar, who gave him a thumbs-up.

  “Dinner is, in fact, almost ready, Russell dear.”

  “I’ll get the girls to come set the table.” Oscar started toward the stairs.

  “Let me?”

  “Sure.”

  Russ gave Oscar a quick kiss, too quick to be enough for either of them, and headed up.

  He poked his head into his old room, which Rose was using until her cottage renovations were done, sometime in the spring. The room that had been Oscar’s mother’s now belonged to the twins and had enough room for bunkbeds and their dressers. When Rose moved out, Emily was going to move into that little room since she’d be off to college in the fall, and the twins would each have their own room for the first time in their ten years.

  Sophie was well settled into her room at the back of the house, which had a view of the stables and a couple of the turnout pastures too. He’d promised he’d build her a window seat by one of the windows so she could read and enjoy the view at the same time. She wanted to help on the farm more, but he hadn’t offered an opinion on her plan to ask Oscar if she could be homeschooled. That was Oscar’s bailiwick.

  Emily’s door was ajar, and he knocked on it softly. “Dinner, Em.”

  “Thanks, Russ.”

  “Thanks, Mr. White.”

  Russ cringed. Mr. White? He understood polite and all, but he’d told Brian at least a handful of times to call him Russ. Hadn’t happened yet.

  “Dinner?” The twins popped out of their room, all smiles.

  “Miss Rose said to come get you.”

  “Yay!” The girls chased one another down the stairs.

  He knocked on Sophie’s door last.

  “Uh-huh. I’m coming.”

  He waited a few seconds and knocked again.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “This is why God made bookmarks, Sophie.”

  Sophie rolled her eyes at him and made a show of sticking her bookmark into her book.

  “Oh, very nice.”

  Sophie trotted past him toward the stairs. “Don’t you have better things to do than stand there?”

  He grinned at her and followed. “Not really.”

  There was quite a ruckus downstairs between setting the table and handing out the flowers and candy. He could hardly believe how much bigger the house felt with more people in it. It didn’t make sense. But he looked around, poking his nose into the living room before heading through the dining room toward the kitchen. Jonas built this house to be full, and though the old man’s family may not have ever been as big as Jonas had wanted, it was full to bursting now. He hoped Jonas would be proud to have them all there.

  Zoe ran over and hugged him. “Thank you. Happy Valentine’s Day!”

  “Happy Valentine’s Day to you, squirt.”

  “Oz says you’re the one who found the daisies?” Sophie smiled at him.

  Russ let himself be proud. “I remembered you said they were your favorite.”

  “Thank you. I’m glad you’re our new dad, Russ. One of them.”

  New dad. He sure hadn’t seen that coming, not one bit. He’d never in a thousand Sundays have believed he’d be somebody’s daddy one day. Not even a stepfather. “Me too, Soph. I mean that. Happy Valentine’s Day.”

  “Happy Valentine’s Day.” Sophie hugged him and hurried over to help Riley finish setting the table.

  He wandered into the kitchen, or tried to. It was busy, with Jeffrey helping Rose put food into serving dishes and Oscar and Emily shuttling food out to the table. He’d gotten so used to living alone, he hadn’t even noticed he was lonely. Jeff and Oscar filled places in his soul he hadn’t realized were so hollow. Standing here watching them, listening to the girls, he had everything he wanted. More than he had ever hoped for.

  He was grateful, dammit, and like Jonas taught him, he was going to live up to the privilege. No, he didn’t bring in a paycheck, but he knew his worth. He kept Stable Hill running. It was his farm now, and he loved every damn minute of work he put into it. He was living the dream.

  Rose handed him a pair of floral oven mitts. “Russell, be a dear and take that lasagna pan out, would you? And ask those girls to have a seat.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” He picked up the dish and carried it out to a hot plate in the center of the table. Emily was setting out garlic bread next to a big salad. There was also some sautéed shrimp and a bowl of zucchini and yellow squash. Oscar followed him with two bottles of wine, and Jeffrey set out glasses.

  “Hey, y’all. Miss Rose says to have a seat, please.” That was all it took. Everyone listened when Rose gave an order, even Jeffrey and Oscar, who sat too.

  “Is that everything, Miss Rose?”

  “Yes, dear. Sit, sit.”

  He would—right after she did. He held her chair for her at one end of the table.

  “Thank you, dear.” Rose sat, and then he squeezed in beside the twins on one of the benches.

  “Roses and thorns?”

  Riley laughed. “Oz! It’s Valentine’s Day! The only thorns are on the roses.”

  VALEN
TINE’S DAY dinner turned out to be a nice new family tradition.

  The tradition was going to come with some extra hard workouts at the gym, but Jeffrey felt like it was worth it.

  Now they were all stuffed to the gills, Russ and Brian cleared the table, Oz started doing dishes, and because he’d helped Rose with dinner, Jeffrey got to hand out the heart-shaped cupcakes he’d picked up on his way home to the women of the house, including Rose.

  Rose was particularly grateful, but it wasn’t really the cupcake she appreciated most, he knew; it was the thought. Little things weren’t little to her, he’d learned, and Oz had impressed upon him and Russ that taking care of Rose, lightening her load and giving her some well-deserved time to relax, had to be a high priority.

  They’d only been living at the farm for a month. At his suggestion, they were holding off on putting the new house on the market until spring. That meant they got to celebrate the winter holidays in the other house one more time. The short time they’d spent at the farm so far had been fairly intense. He’d had to drive all over creation for a living before the move, and with his flexible schedule, he wasn’t finding the adjustment so terrible, but going from living alone to living in a full house, while it was great, was taking him some time to get used to. They’d had a lot of other things to work out between them with the move too, like the girls’ schooling, and Oz’s commute, but this was a case where extra hands, and extra minds, really did make a difference. So far they’d found solutions. Some of them were temporary fixes, but he didn’t doubt they’d figure everything out with time.

  The last month had been intense in other ways that went beyond logistics as well. The triad arrangement suited him, he’d known that for some time, but his last one hadn’t felt like this. He was an equal voice with Russ and Oz, an equal partner and lover, and he loved them equally. The way he loved Russ didn’t feel the same as the way he loved Oscar, but it was love all the same, real and deep and essential. They’d talked about it a couple of times, and they all seemed to be having the same experience. The individual relationships were strong, but the three of them together were stronger.

  He knew Russ still struggled a little with the weight and responsibility of family, but Jeffrey had taken to it like a house on fire. Rose felt like a mom to him from the first time they met. He hadn’t been brown-nosing at all that evening in the kitchen, singing the U of M fight song. He’d genuinely enjoyed her company. The girls, the twins especially, had found a way right into his heart. Zoe and Riley reminded him that life was fun. That clothes could be washed, music was made for dancing, and there was no law that said you couldn’t eat peanut butter from the jar with a spoon.

  The girls had taught him—already, even in their short time together—not to take himself so seriously.

  That didn’t mean, however, that he approved of the pretzels he kept finding on the leather seats in his car.

  “Pink or purple?”

  “I’m sorry, Riley. What was that?”

  Rose winked at him, like she’d known all along he’d gotten lost in his head.

  “Uh. Purple?”

  “Perfect! That one has glitter in it! Be right back!”

  He looked at Rose, whose knowing grin was wider than the Grand Canyon. “What did I just agree to?”

  “Sounds like you chose the sparkly purple nail polish.”

  Oh, hell. “Really? What are you getting?”

  “A lovely marine blue that I gave Zoe for her birthday.”

  He narrowed his eyes at her. “Oh, you are shrewd.”

  “You’ll learn.”

  “Come on, Oz! Russ! Come sit!” Zoe was wrangling his men, dragging them from their duties in the kitchen and out to the couch in the living room.

  “You’d best go sit, dear. Before Zoe—”

  “Jeff!” Zoe rolled her eyes at him. “You’re supposed to be sitting!”

  He hurried to the couch to the sound of Rose’s delighted laughter.

  “On it.” He grinned and made a nuisance of himself, wiggling his butt right in between Russ and Oscar.

  “Brat.” Oscar poked him in the arm.

  “Hey!”

  “What’s the matter, babe? Did Oscar wrinkle your shirt?”

  “Shut up.”

  “Jeffrey! We don’t tell people to shut up.” Zoe gave him a stern look.

  “I’m sorry.” He could feel Oscar and Russ holding in their laughter on either side of him.

  “I’m back!” Riley set down a handful of nail polishes on the coffee table, then picked the sparkly purple one back up to give it a shake.

  “Sophie!”

  “Right here, Ri.” Sophie sat in front of Russ and picked up a very dark color.

  “Did you pick something Angel will like?” Russ grinned at her.

  “Midnight blue. It’s iridescent.”

  “That’ll do.”

  “Sit still, Jeffrey. Last time you were too wiggly.” Riley took his hand.

  “Got it.”

  “Yes. Don’t be wiggly, Jeffrey,” Oscar admonished him seriously.

  “I see you’re getting your signature pink?”

  “What else?” Oscar smiled at him and leaned a little into his shoulder.

  He could totally sell a house tomorrow wearing purple glittery nail polish. Right?

  Right.

  Epilogue

  “LOOKING GOOD out here.”

  “Yeah? Thanks. It’s been fun putting it together.”

  Bringing back his mother’s vegetable garden had been one of the many things Oscar had been looking forward to once he’d decided to move out here. Once spring had finally sprung, he’d gotten in there with Russ and Jeffrey, and the three of them had hacked and tilled it under with manure. Yesterday he and Russ had replaced a couple of posts and put up new screening to keep the critters out, while Jeffrey was at the old house with a crew of stagers, getting it ready for sale. Today he’d built the trellis. Next weekend if it was warm enough, he’d start planting.

  He looked at Jeffrey. “How did the open house go?”

  “Fantastic. I’m fairly certain I’ll have offers for review by the end of the week. Maybe even as soon as tomorrow.”

  Whoa. He stared at Jeffrey. “Are you serious?”

  “It’s a desirable neighborhood. The house has been well-maintained. The schools are good…. I expect you’ll get over asking.”

  Jeffrey had gotten out of his lease pretty quickly once they’d convinced him to move out to the farm. It hadn’t taken much. Russ reminded Jeffrey that he’d been in the house wearing a suit numerous times without getting covered in horse shit, Oscar handed their lover a glass of wine, and that was pretty much all it took.

  “Where’s Russ?” Jeffrey squinted toward the barn like he already knew the answer.

  “Out riding with Sophie.”

  “And the girls?”

  Oscar grinned. He loved how interested Jeffrey had become in the girls. He was like a little sheep dog. “They are visiting Rose at the cottage, and Emily said something about showing Brian the tractor barn.”

  “Showing him the tractor barn, huh? Is that what they’re calling it these days?”

  “I don’t know. Why don’t you go see?” Oscar grinned at him.

  Jeffrey laughed. “Hell, no. That’s your job, Dad.”

  “If I don’t see them in a half an hour or so, I’ll storm in there.” Oscar really hoped they showed their faces soon. He and Emily had finally finished their very uncomfortable and embarrassing discussion about birth control—during which he’d had to pretend to be neither uncomfortable nor embarrassed—and discussed that she should respect her body and come talk to him anytime. That was really all he wanted to know. This Dad gig was wonderful except when it came to that kind of stuff. But he figured since he’d now done it with Em, Soph would be easier, and he’d be a pro by the time Riley and Zoe stepped up to the plate.

  “You have a dinner plan?”

  “Grilling burgers.” He looked at his w
atch. “I should probably fire up the grill soon, huh?”

  “You want me to make the burgers?”

  “Sounds great. Let me just put the tools away, and I’ll be right up to the house.”

  Jeffrey leaned in and kissed him, and he returned it with interest. One of the best things about moving in together was the casual touches, the affection. Not everything had to be planned anymore.

  Though some things still were. There were a lot of women in the house now.

  “You look happy.”

  Oscar smiled. “I am happy.” He had everyone he cared about under one roof, his financial issues were far less daunting, and he hadn’t slept this well in ages.

  “See you up there, babe.” Jeffrey headed back to the house.

  Of course there were things to work out. The girls would be going to private school next year because the public school out here was regional and humongous, and they wouldn’t get a bus in any case. Also important was that the school they’d chosen would be a bit more understanding of their family situation. So there was school transportation, rules the three of them had had to discuss about parenting, tuition to pay, and other things. They’d already run into issues here and there, but they were staying patient and working it out.

  If we all stay honest….

  It had been his instinct from the beginning. The first time he went to Jeffrey’s apartment, he made sure Russ knew he was going and understood why, and it had worked for them ever since. Stay honest, deal with things as they come up. It was an idealistic goal, maybe, but they were all trying.

  He put his tools away and ran into Russ and Sophie on the way up to the house. “Oz!” Sophie came running over and hugged him. She smelled like a barn, and he loved it.

  “Hey, how was the ride?”

  “It was so much fun. Russ jumped the brook on Angel.”