Texas Gift

by RJ Scott

  Riley slid down, awkwardly and slowly, and then lay back. Since the operation it wasn’t that Riley had an issue with getting hard, his mental block was coming, tensing, and stretching his neck. When he’d first come home he’d slept in a recliner chair that Jack and Robbie had dragged in, and wore his cervical collar, and at least he was now sleeping in the same bed as Jack.

  Jack climbed onto the bed and straddled Riley who frowned up at him.

  “I’d be more comfortable on my knees.” Riley gestured at the floor.

  “That won’t work,” Jack said.

  Riley looked puzzled, “I don’t want to—”

  “Shhh.”

  He rocked against Riley, their cocks aligned just right, and then he circled both and gave them an experimental stroke together.

  “No, Jack.”

  “The doc said this was fine. Relax.”

  “He didn’t specifically—”

  Riley stopped talking as Jack leaned over and sucked on his nipples, still lazily slipping his hand up and down their joined cocks. He loved tasting Riley, knew that his nipples were hardwired to his cock, in fact he knew a lot about Riley and his fears and what turned him on and what made him smile.

  “I love you,” he murmured against Riley’s breastbone before he moved onto Riley’s other nipple. Riley was rigid beneath him, until Jack tugged with his teeth and, almost unbidden, Riley’s hands moved up to bury into Jack’s hair.

  There.

  From that point on, Riley was lost. Jack could play this man like a fiddle, knew exactly where to kiss, and suck and bite, and he was still moving his hand. He sat back; Riley’s eyes were shut but Jack needed them open, needed to see the lines on his body relax a little more. He released his hold on their cocks and then scooted up

  “Feel,” he ordered, taking Riley’s hand and pressing it to his ass. It was all kinds of awkward in this position for him, but he made sure Riley didn’t have to reach too far.

  He knew when Riley felt that Jack had prepped himself, he let out a soft and low moan, and a single drawn-out Jaaaackkk.

  “Push your fingers inside me.” Jack had deliberately left lube within reach, and he had it in his hands. With Riley lost in exploration, Jack squirted out enough to make sure Riley’s cock was good and covered. Then, in a smooth move, before Riley could even realize or protest, Jack moved back, knocking Riley’s fingers out of the way, gripping his cock, and angling so he could slide himself on. The initial barrier, the discomfort lasted a moment as Jack relaxed and then Riley was inside, his expression one of bliss, his eyes shut again.

  Jack rocked, his hands on Riley’s chest, pressing down to stop Riley moving. “Open your eyes,” Jack ordered. “Please,” he added, when Riley didn’t immediately do what he was told.

  Riley’s eyes opened, the hazel dark, and he was half smiling. “Hold me down,” he murmured. “Don’t let me arch up.”

  Jack was so with that plan, and he shifted his weight forward a little, Riley’s cock angled and rubbing Jack’s prostate. He was so close at just having Riley inside him, after so long, let alone the fact that the angle…

  “Jeez,” he muttered, the only coherent sound he could muster.

  “Jack, god…” Riley moved and Jack pressed down, and Riley whined at that, “more.”

  Jack rotated his hips, pressed hard, pulled until there was so little of Riley inside, and then pushed back. Riley was so close, Jack could tell. He rocked some more, kept hold of Riley, and when Riley came he did it soundlessly, his mouth falling open, his eyes closing. Jack finished himself off in two quick tugs, already on edge, and eased off as best he could, finding a washcloth, expecting Riley to be angry with him.

  But no. Cleaned up, Riley held out a hand and pulled Jack down next to him.

  “You always get it,” Riley said. “Doesn’t matter how much I push, you never give up.”

  Jack smiled at him, then kissed him.

  Then he thought teasing might be in order. “Not when sex is on the table anyway!”

  They didn’t move for a while, just content to be in each other’s arms. Jack loved their family, but sometimes it was nice for him and Riley to just be them.

  Of course the peace didn’t last, the first knock was Liam talking about a fencing issue which Jack answered. The second knock was Vaughn apologizing for Liam interrupting them. Jack didn’t like to comment on the irony of that.

  Then Riley’s office called and while it wasn’t urgent, it had both men up and out of bed.

  “It was nice while it lasted,” Riley said as he belted his jeans. Jack kissed away the pout, and the kiss lasted a hell of a long time.

  The entire world could knock for them, or ring them, but nothing would make them stop kissing.

  Chapter 5

  July was a bitch. With it came the kind of heat that sucked you dry and left you crabby. A hurricane was heading for the south coast of Texas and causing the weather do some crazy shit; humidity alternating with storms. The main storm wouldn’t reach them this far inland,; but even this distance from the center of the hurricane there was unpredictability about what each hour would bring. Riley had been tracking it on his PC, concerned about friends in Laredo, but so far everything was okay for them.

  “You nearly done here?” Jack asked as Josh shoveled the last of the manure into the wheelbarrow and wiped the sweat off his face with his gloved hand.

  “About done.” He leaned the rake against the wall and stepped back to admire his work. “It’s like riding a bike,” he said, with a wide grin.

  For some reason Josh had turned up this morning in old jeans, and a ragged T with his old Stetson and demanded to help Jack in the stables. They’d worked mostly in silence clearing out the barns, and Jack had given Josh his space. Still, he’d taken him at his word that this was what he was there for, but he knew his brother well, and something was eating at Josh.

  Jack tossed him a water bottle and waited, as he had done for the two hours since Josh had gotten there.

  “So, there was something I wanted to talk to you about,” Josh began, sitting on a crate by the open door in the shade.

  Here it comes. I won’t worry until I’ve heard everything.

  “Yeah?” Jack asked. “Everything okay? With Anna? The kids?”

  “Anna’s good, Lea and Sarah as well…look… It’s Logan I wanted to talk to you about.”

  Jack took a seat on the other crate and waited for Josh to explain. Logan had gone through some bad years, teenage stuff, some more serious than the rest, but he was in year three of pre-law up north and it seemed to Jack whenever he saw him that the kid was doing good.

  “What about him?”

  “He’s been working at a law firm in the city, intern work experience type thing, but he’s coming home, you know, for Hayley’s birthday.”

  “I expected he would.” The whole family would be there but it wasn’t only Hayley’s birthday. She was leaving for college soon, so it was a goodbye. Something Riley wasn’t handling too well, particularly as he’d finished his therapy and felt as if he’d lost all of the last months to being ill. Didn’t matter that Hayley had spent a long time with her Dad, reading and talking geology. She’d been the best medicine for Riley and had taken to doing the daily walks with him over to the school and back.

  Josh stared at the bottle in his hands. “Logan’s not happy, Jack.”

  “In what way?”

  “His courses are going well, he’s near the top of every class, he has friends, but every chat we have he doesn’t seem to be quite right.”

  “You want me to talk to him?”

  Josh looked up at him then, and then shook his head. “It’s Hayley.”

  “Hayley? Our Hayley?”

  “I think he wants to give everything up to come home because of her.”

  Jack waited a moment before answering. Josh wasn't confrontational, but it sure seemed as though he was apportioning blame somewhere.

  “What makes you think that?”

>   Logan keeps asking about Hayley, wanting to find just the right present for her birthday, and then as an afterthought he’s all I hate the city, I want to come home. You tell me there isn’t a correlation there, Jack.”

  Jack took a long, slow drink of water. “Okay,” he began calmly, feeling that otherwise he might do a Riley and get protective of his daughter in a loud and physical way. This was his brother sitting opposite him and he was going to stay centered and not get defensive. “Have you thought that maybe Logan is not a city type?”

  “He’s in New York, you can’t get a better place to be a lawyer. He has this chance and he’s stupid not to use it.”

  “He’s always said he wanted to work with you.”

  “In a backwater place like Selkirk and Unwin? Come on Jack, we want better for our kids.”

  Josh’s expression spoke volumes; he was frustrated, and sad, and hopeful, all rolled into one, as in the Christmas he’d wanted a new bike and the one he got was secondhand. He’d been disappointed, and sad, but then he saw the possibilities and that was it, the bike was his.

  Maybe he was different to Josh here, maybe having Max as a son, with all his needs and his quirky outlook on life had altered the way he looked at things. He wanted the best for his and Riley’s kids, but he also wanted them to be happy.

  That was it.

  Happy.

  Maybe this was the direction he should take with this conversation.

  Jack cleared his throat. “I’m happy with my life, with the hard work, and the ranch, and my family. Are you happy?”

  Josh blinked at him as if he couldn’t wrap his head around the question his brother had asked. “Of course, I’m happy. Anna and the kids, my work, my place in the world, of course I’m happy.”

  “Would you be happier in New York at some fancy law firm?”

  Josh looked shocked. “Not me, no, but Logan is different, you see that, right?”

  “Not at all. I actually think Logan is just like his dad. He wants what he wants, and he’ll get it whatever stands in his way.”

  Josh stood immediately and bristled. “Jesus, Jack, if this is some shit about how I left the ranch after dad died, and left you and Beth then I’m done talking to you.”

  Jack stood as well. “No, it isn’t, if I look back at that time, I didn’t resent you, and neither did Beth. We envied you, going off to college, learning what you needed, but I never resented it. I wanted to be here with the horses, this was my thing, hard work and pain, no money, and stress. I’ve always wanted it, because it means something to me.”

  “Then what is it you’re saying?” Josh was toe-to-toe with him now, but he wasn’t angry, he had a wild desperation in his eyes, as if he needed something to make everything right.

  “That maybe when he comes home, you listen to what he says, and if it’s a girl, or that he hates the city, or he wants to run off to join the circus, you listen to what makes him happy and everything will work out.”

  Josh stepped back and kicked at the crate which creaked with the force. “What’s he going to do here, huh? Work with me?”

  “Why not? You could start your own firm, Campbell and Campbell, father and son, and you know that if Lea or Sarah want to follow you into law, maybe they’d be happier here than in the city.”

  “But…what if it is Hayley? What if he makes decisions based on a girl? At his age? And not just any girl, but Hayley.”

  Jack valued his daughter, and if the implication was that she wasn’t good enough for Logan then he would have punched his brother into the ground. But it wasn’t. Not at all.

  He had just one more thing to say on this. “You were twenty-two when you married Anna. You knew what love was then, right? You were happy, and you made decisions for your family that made sense. Let Logan do that for himself; find his own way.

  Silence, Josh staring at the ground, but Jack waited. He’d learned that Josh was a thinker just as much as he was. Finally, Josh looked up.

  “I love Hayley,” he said. It was his way of apologizing, or making things clear, or some such nonsense that Jack didn’t fully understand. He pulled Josh into a hug and they did the whole back patting thing, before separating.

  “Are we done here?” Jack asked.

  “Yeah, guess we are.”

  The noise of a truck outside the barn caught their attention, and both boys stepped forward when Neil Kendrick, their mom’s husband, climbed down from the cab. The truck was stenciled with the name of his veterinary practice and he’d parked it skewed across the drive.

  “Jack, I need your help,” he said as soon as his boots hit dirt.

  Fear had Jack darting forward, Josh on his tail. “Is it mom? What’s wrong?” Jack imagined the worst, an accident, illness, but Neil stopped him in his tracks. He looked around himself as if he hadn't realized he’d arrived in such a dramatic way.

  “I’m sorry, it’s okay, nothing. Donna is fine.”

  Jack pressed a hand to his chest where his heart was beating way too fast and noticed Josh did something similar. Then another thought hit Jack.

  “Is it you? Are you okay?” God, could he sound any more panicked?

  “It’s not me, look, I don’t know where to start, but I think I need your help.”

  “What do you need me to do?” Jack asked, when it was obvious Neil was talking to him and not Josh.

  “I have a friend, from veterinary school, Alec McGuire, he’s working down in Liberty and he’s in trouble. We need men, and horses, they’re desperately trying to evacuate the animals with enormous difficulty because of the water, the hurricane and the flooding. He’s right on the floodplain, outside of the Trinity National Wildlife Refuge. There are horses stuck, and livestock, and he wasn’t asking, but I’m going down to help, and then I thought, some of those horses won’t move, and Alec tells me there’s some places under four feet of water.”

  Jack moved right into Neil’s space, fully understanding what he was saying.

  “It’s okay,” he said and gripped Neil’s upper arms to get him to focus.

  “Can you help?” Neil asked.

  Jack wouldn’t leave animals to suffer if he could help. “Give me ten to get some stuff together, I’ll come with you,” he said.

  He walked in on Riley doing some familiar exercises to strengthen his neck muscles. It might have been five months since the operation, but he was careful to follow to the letter everything the doctor and the Physical Therapist said to him.

  “Hi,” Riley said, as he caught sight of Jack in the mirror.

  Jack hugged him from behind and kissed his cheek. “I have this thing,” he said.

  “I know.” Riley smiled. “It’s a very fine thing.”

  “No, wait,” he launched into the reason he was here before Riley could say anything else, “Neil has a friend down in Houston.”

  Riley turned in Jack’s arms, awkwardly. “Shit, is he okay? Is he flooded out?”

  “He’s a veterinarian,” Jack said, and no, that didn’t answer Riley’s question. “He’s okay, but he has these ranches he services and they’re struggling with the horses, some of them are trapped, livestock too.”

  Compassion flooded Riley’s face. “What will they do?”

  “Neil had this idea of him and me going down there to help, take some horses.”

  Riley half smiled. “That is a good idea, when do you leave?”

  “Thing is Ri, I’d be leaving you alone, still not entirely fixed, and with the kids.”

  “And Carol,” Riley reminded him, “And your mom, and my parents, and cousins, and anyone else I can get in if I need help. Right?”

  “But still, I don’t know if I should be going.” He needed for Riley to make the decision.

  “It’s a good idea. Go, do your cowboy thing. Come home safe.”

  Jack cradled Riley’s face. It was difficult to forget how, post-surgery, there had been so much bruising and swelling. He looked so normal. “I love you,” he said with as much feeling as he could so
that Riley knew he meant it.

  “I love you too.” Jack kissed him, and Riley gripped his shirt so they could kiss one last time, and then he stepped away.

  “Pack some stuff.” He waved. “I’ll tell the kids.”

  When Jack arrived in the kitchen with a duffle full of jeans, T-shirts and underwear, he found a small procession of children waiting for him, Hayley at the head, holding Max’s hand.

  He got hugs from everyone, including Max, and finally he was at the door with Riley.

  “Looks like you’ll have company.” Riley gestured out of the open door. Jack looked past him. Neil was there with the truck, and in the same area, Robbie, Vaughn and Liam, all with similar duffels. Robbie and Vaughn were hooking up trailers to the ranch trucks, Liam leading in the first of the ranch quarter horses, workers every one of them.

  Chapter 6

  They made it to just outside Liberty in five hours, stopping at one of the roads with a view of the river and every man climbed out. Water, and somewhere in there, the river bed, but it had broken its banks and swallowed the land. None of them had seen anything like it. Robbie summed it up the best.

  “Fuck.”

  “Rowdy McGuire’s place, my friend Alec is his son.” Neil pointed to the left of the main flooding. “Seventy-five head, ten horses, and a house on the edge of the property with some stranded.”

  Jack got back in the truck. “Then let’s go.”

  Arriving at the McGuire holding was a lesson in how quickly things could turn to shit. The main house itself was dry, built on a slight rise, but the yard and pens were all under at least a few inches of water.

  “The water table is fucked.” Robbie crouched down to feel the earth beneath the low water. “The earth is sodden, nothing is draining away.”

  “And we’re on a hill here,” someone interrupted. “Rowdy McGuire,” he added, and shook hands with Jack and his team. “Think how bad it is on lower ground there.” He gazed past Jack to the fields beyond, his lined face a picture of misery. “Two of my guys are down with injuries; I lost three of my workhorses. There’s no one to call on, we’re overwhelmed.”