“Jerry,” David corrected, smiling at her. “You can call him Jerry. And thank you. We’re so very proud of him.”
“It’s a funny thing, isn’t it, David?” Mrs. Hill shook her head, her face holding a sad smile. “We put our hearts and souls into making sure they’re happy and healthy, and then when they make a mistake, it seems the only thing we can do is blame ourselves for having missed something, somewhere.”
“Is there any chance you’ll stay and try to work it out?” David hoped he wasn’t overstepping.
“No,” she said, shaking her head slowly. “I doubt he’ll change. If anything, he seems to be getting more controlling and more difficult to live with. It just took this to make me realize that Anne deserves better.”
David nodded, understanding completely. “More tea?” he asked, reaching for the carafe of hot water.
She shook her head. “No, thank you.” Mrs. Hill turned to look at David. “May I use your bathroom?”
“Of course,” David said, standing and escorting her back into the house. He told her that he would be down at the corral, but that she should feel free to tour the house or come and join him or sit at the picnic table.
David walked back out to the veranda, seeing that Jerry had finally left his studio and was leaning against the corral fence. As David approached his husband, he could hear Jerry telling William what a wonderful job he was doing and how Anne seemed like a natural rider.
“Mrs. Hill is just using the bathroom at the moment,” David explained. “She should be out in a bit.”
“Sounds good,” Jerry said, leaning in to kiss his husband’s forehead. “Should I be getting the meat ready?”
“If you’d like,” David said, his eyes fixed on William and Anne. He laughed when he noticed Billie still at William’s side, sitting patiently and waiting for some attention. “I started the barbecue just before our guests arrived, so… whenever.” David heard the screen door shut and turned in time to see Mrs. Hill return to the picnic table. “Come on. I’ll introduce you two, and then we can all chat while you cook the meat and I get the table ready.”
As they made their way to the picnic table, Jerry noticed Cory and Tara come out onto the veranda. He waved them over, and after Jerry’d been officially introduced to Mrs. Hill, David and Jerry excused themselves to get dinner started while Cory and Tara stayed to visit with Anne’s mother.
Once inside the safety of their home, David turned to Jerry. “She told me that she’s thinking of leaving Mr. Hill.”
“Can’t say I’m surprised to hear that,” Jerry said as he took the meat and laid it out on a platter, then covered the whole thing with plastic wrap. “She seemed awfully nervous around him, even when we saw them at their house.”
“I know, but it’s still so sad.” David was preparing his usual platter of fixings at the counter. “I just hope Anne doesn’t blame herself for it.”
“I’m sure she’ll have plenty of people to see her through it,” Jerry predicted. “And maybe she might even be a little glad for the chance for a little more freedom.”
“Yeah, maybe you’re right,” David said as he picked up his platter and waited for Jerry before heading back outside.
“No maybe about it, baby,” Jerry said, goosing his husband’s ass.
David laughed and the two of them returned to the picnic table to join in the discussion that Cory and Tara were having with Mrs. Hill. It seemed that the two young adults had taken it upon themselves to explain everything there was to know about horses. Much to her credit, Mrs. Hill just sat there and smiled. David wondered what she was actually thinking about.
Once the meat was grilled to Jerry’s exacting standards, and William and Anne had returned from washing their hands, the small gathering of seven people ate and talked and laughed, Jerry being his usual extroverted self and entertaining everyone with stories that embarrassed his two sons. David stared out at the smiling faces. Anne was leaning against William, laughing at some of the stories that Jerry told, her face so full of love and admiration for William that David wished they would stay that way forever. William was blushing every shade of red as Jerry ignored his protests and told one story after another. Cory and Tara were in there, as well, telling stories about William or Jerry or David. And Mrs. Hill was actually laughing, and David assumed that she had managed to forget about her troubles for the evening, throwing in a few of her own embarrassing stories about Anne.
Desserts were consumed, coffee and tea served, and before the evening ended all too soon for David, William had asked Mrs. Hill if she and Anne could return on Monday or someday next week to continue Anne’s riding lessons. Mrs. Hill had readily agreed, and Anne voted for Monday. David glanced briefly at Jerry. So much for a quiet evening. David just smiled. He didn’t have a problem sacrificing another night so that William could keep proving himself. He’d already regained his fathers’ trust, so David was not about to deny him anything. And neither, did it appear, would Mrs. Hill.
They said goodbye to their guests, Anne giving David and Jerry a quick hug, Mrs. Hill shaking both of their hands while confirming that she would be dropping Anne off at their house again on Monday around four in the afternoon. Cory and Tara cleared off the picnic table while Jerry cleaned the grill for tomorrow’s dinner with his husband’s parents, and David straightened the kitchen and loaded the dishwasher. William returned Mountain Lion to the barn and then helped the rest of his family with whatever was left to do.
When all the cleaning was done and the doors locked, Jerry and David and their growing family retired to the living room to relax and watch some television, none of them too interested in the latest series, but chatting instead about Cory and Tara’s imminent return to Ontario and possible plans for Jerry, David, and William to visit them at Christmas.
And by ten o’clock, they all found themselves yawning and preparing for another busy day tomorrow.
Chapter 16
ANOTHER night of barbecue, David thought as he spent most of the afternoon slicing and dicing for yet another platter. He was glad that the weather was still nice enough to enjoy an evening outside, but he was also glad that they could go back to regular cooking and eating inside the kitchen. Summers on the ranch always seemed to involve so much more work in order to barbecue outside. And what made it even more questionable was that he wasn’t even sure his mother would stay outside.
When David had been much younger, and his father had decided that they would buy one of those silver Airstream vehicles, the entire family had been so excited, except for David’s mother. He could still hear the calm and rational discussions between his father and his mother, late at night when they thought he was asleep, that would always end with Marie simply refusing to go.
Somehow, however, Niels must have coaxed his wife into going because that very summer, the entire family took the brand new Airstream on its maiden voyage to the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. David and his sisters had been beside themselves with excitement, but Marie had usually stayed inside the Airstream, even for meals. She would venture out every now and again to take pictures for the family albums or shoot those grainy movies that she would play for friends and family when they would come to visit. But mostly, David remembered wondering why she’d bothered to come at all. She didn’t go in the water, and she didn’t sit around the fire and roast marshmallows. David had often wondered, just after he’d moved to the ranch to live with Jerry and William, how his own father had ever had enough energy to spend almost all of his waking hours playing with three excited children.
As he prepared the platters of cheeses and crackers and tomato slices and julienne peppers and all of the other fixings that came with barbecuing, David wondered if she’d changed at all. It wasn’t completely out of the realm of possibility, he supposed. After all, she seemed to have changed her mind about him and his family, even referring to them as your family, your husband, your son. But even if she did spend most of the evening indoors, David was glad that she
was making the effort.
The only other thing he had to wonder about was the drinking. While David and Jerry kept a fairly well-stocked bar, they never really had cause to use it. Neither David nor Jerry was a drinker by any means, besides the few beers a week that they would share late at night. And William and Cory had never proved to be prone to drinking to excess. There had been that one night, just shortly after Cory’s graduation, when Jerry had found Cory passed out near the corral. But that had proven to be a very bad reaction to a fight he’d had with Tara. David still wondered sometimes where Cory had found the alcohol to get himself so tanked; nothing had gone missing from the liquor cabinet at the ranch.
As he stowed the platters in the fridge, David shook his head at the memory. Cory had been so devastated that Tara didn’t love him anymore. It was probably the reason that Cory was going to such lengths to make sure William didn’t give up hope when it came to his future with Anne.
David cleaned up the kitchen, double-checked that all of the meat was defrosting, and then headed out to the barn to help Jerry with any final chores and preparations, looking up at the afternoon sky and hoping those clouds off in the distance didn’t mean rain. Of course, if they did, it would mean he didn’t need to worry about his mother hiding indoors all night, since they’d all be in there with her.
“Hey, handsome,” David said as he came up behind Jerry and wrapped his arms around the broad back, his hands moving slowly up to his husband’s impressive chest. “Wanna fool around?”
“Can’t. Husband might come out and catch me.”
David felt the rumble in Jerry’s belly, the one that meant he was trying not to laugh. “Don’t worry about him. I hear he’s a real pain in the ass.”
Jerry turned at the words and put his hands on David’s face, caressing his cheeks. “But he’s mine, all mine.” Jerry leaned down and pushed his lips against David’s, his fingers teasing the sensitive ears. “Hi, baby,” Jerry whispered as he pulled their lips apart. “I was just coming in to see if I could help you with anything.”
“All done,” David said, pushing his hands into Jerry’s back pockets. “I just came out to see if you needed any help.” He laughed and brought a hand up to undo the buttons of Jerry’s work shirt. “Have I told you how much sexier the gray hairs make you look?”
Jerry laughed and took hold of David’s hands. “As long as you’re happy, David, I’ll make them whatever color you want. Even shave them.”
“You know what will happen if you do that, don’t you, cowboy?” It had become a little inside joke between the two of them. Jerry knew how much David loved the feel of Jerry’s hairy chest and belly, and would never do anything as stupid as shave, but he liked to tease David with the possibility.
Jerry untucked his work shirt completely and moaned when he felt David’s arms wrap around him, underneath the shirt. “You’re gonna get me all excited,” Jerry whispered, dipping his head to kiss a sensitive ear.
“We could go up to the loft,” David said, his body shivering from Jerry’s attention to his ear.
“Thought you’d never ask,” Jerry said, laughing, then pulled his husband by the hand toward the ladder.
David stopped suddenly, turning to look out the barn doors. “What time is it?”
Jerry looked at his watch. “Half past four. Why?”
“Shit,” David muttered under his breath. “It’s probably my parents already. Dad said something about showing Mom around the property before dinner.”
David started buttoning Jerry’s shirt and then walked beside him to the barn doors, waving as soon as he recognized his father’s black Lexus.
“I was hoping to be changed and better dressed,” Jerry whispered as he walked beside his husband to greet his in-laws, checking his hands and wiping them on his jeans.
“I never dreamed he meant coming this early for the tour,” David said, smiling and trying not to make it look strained or affected. After another six or seven strides, they were standing in front of Niels and Marie Van den Boesch. “Hi, Dad,” he said as he embraced his father. “Mom,” he said, hugging his mother, careful of the cast still on her left arm. “Mom, this is Jerry McKenzie. Jerry, this is Marie Van den Boesch.”
“Mrs. Van den Boesch,” Jerry offered a hand. “It’s a pleasure.”
David watched as his mother, dressed in a very plain beige blouse and tan slacks, shook hands with his husband. David had tried to arrange a meeting between the two of them before she’d been discharged from the hospital, but it couldn’t be arranged. And when his father told him that she was being discharged a little earlier than expected because she’d been checking her blood sugar and actually taking her insulin, David didn’t want to push anything on her until she was ready.
“Jerry,” she said, looking him in the eyes. “It’s so nice to finally meet you. Niels has told me so much about you. And your beautiful ranch.”
“Wait until you see the inside,” Niels said as he shook hands with Jerry. “Jerry did most of the work himself. Truly inspiring craftsmanship, Marie.” David smiled, wondering if his father was going to be a champion for Jerry all evening. “If you two need to get cleaned up, or finish any last-minute details, I’ll give your mother the tour and then I’ll show her around inside.”
David saw Jerry nod. “Please,” he said, smiling, “make yourselves at home.” Jerry headed for the house and David, who didn’t need to change, followed his parents to the barn.
“William is inside,” he explained to his parents as they walked. “And Cory and Tara will be home in about ten or fifteen minutes.”
“And Billie?” Niels asked as they entered the barn.
“Where else?” David laughed and pointed his thumb over his shoulder. “With William.”
“Such a lovely boy,” Marie said as she walked over to King’s stall. “This is King?” she asked, looking back at David, who nodded. “It’s uncanny. Almost identical to your grandfather’s King.”
“I know,” David said, stepping up to stand beside his mother. “I noticed it the first time I saw him.”
“Remember when he was four or five years old,” Marie asked, looking at Niels, “and we visited Momma and Papa on the farm?” Marie was smiling, broadly, and David couldn’t help but smile as well. It had been a long time since he’d heard her tell stories about the farm. She turned to look at him. “We would let you walk around, and you got a little too far away from us and went into the barn.” David couldn’t believe his mother was actually laughing. “We heard yelling all of a sudden and ran to see what was wrong.” David looked over at his father, who was just smiling, shaking his head at the memory. “You’d gotten too close to the stall, and King had nudged you looking for a treat. When we found you, you were on your bum, your little finger shaking at King, telling him what a bad boy he’d been for knocking you over.”
“Should have known right then that you’d be a teacher,” Niels said, putting his arm around David’s shoulders. “Always so concerned about making sure everybody followed the rules.”
“I don’t remember that,” David said, looking at his mother. “I do remember when I tried to saddle him myself.” David started laughing, Marie and Niels just shaking their heads. “Grandpa kept promising me he’d show me how, and I just got tired of waiting. What was I? Eight or nine? Put the saddle on without the blanket or knowing how to fasten the straps. And poor King, he didn’t put up a fuss or anything. Just let me get on and stood there while the saddle slipped sideways and I broke my collarbone.”
“Opa was so mad at you,” Marie said to her son. “Kept yelling at me in German to be more strict with you.” David noticed his mother’s face grow a little more solemn. “But I didn’t have the heart. You were so upset at yourself for having disappointed your Opa.”
“Just like William.” Niels took his wife’s hand and led them to the next stall. “Marie? You remember me telling you about that time when William was not doing his homework, wanting to spend more and more time with
Mountain Lion?” David saw Marie nod, then reach out her hand to stroke the white patch on Biscuit’s nose.
“William spent almost an entire week doing extra chores to make it up to Jerry, even though neither of us had asked him to.” David stroked Biscuit’s nose. “Poor little boy was mortified when Jerry said he’d expected better from him.” David leaned against the stall and reached down for an apple, offering it to his mother. To his surprise, she took it and fed it to Biscuit. “I think that’s when I realized just how sensitive William was, and still is, actually.” David backed up a few steps. “And this,” he said as he patted Mountain Lion’s nose, “is Mountain Lion.”
“Interesting name,” Marie observed. “Loewenberger.”
David looked at his mother when she pronounced the surname with a perfect German accent. He’d long thought that his mother would have lost all of her German by now. “William named it after me,” David admitted, his cheeks heating a little.
“Before you were born,” Marie stated softly, her good hand combing through Mountain Lion’s thick caramel mane, “Oma and Opa lost one of their horses. She was my favorite of all the horses. I’d gotten to name her. I was ten or eleven, I think.” David saw his mother shake her head and then reach out to pet the pony’s nose. “I didn’t have to think very hard. I named her Laura, after—”
“Oma,” David whispered, staring at his mother intently. “What happened?”
“She was a very smart horse,” Marie said, leaning against her husband. “I guess Papa hadn’t roped off her stall properly one night, and Laura got out and was running around the corral in the dark and did something to one of her hind legs.” Marie shook her head, not wanting to complete the story, David guessed.
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