Cowboy Way

by Cindy Sutherland

  Ryan walked back over to the bed after pulling on a pair of boxers and climbed into his boyfriend’s lap, leaning in to kiss him hard, grinding his ass down onto Jake’s lap, bringing him to instant hardness. “That? That was just a meeting of the mutual admiration society.” He kissed his way down Jake’s neck, giving him a small nip to the collarbone that went straight to his dick. Then he stood back up, smirking at the brunet’s slight pout.

  He walked over to the door, looking back over his shoulder, and winked. He grabbed his robe off the back of the door and was gone, leaving a horny Jake shaking his head in wonder at his boyfriend, who somehow managed to be sexy and innocent, all at the same time.

  He was kind of worried, though. Ryan’s heart could be so easily broken today. And he also knew that he would have to watch his own temper. Ryan needed him to support him, not punch out the first family member who was ignorant enough to say something rude. He smiled when he thought of Jim and knew that he wasn’t the only one who would be looking after his love today.

  He got up and started gathering stuff for his shower. He was surprised that he wasn’t more nervous about meeting everyone. But he was just so happy to be here, already feeling like part of the family, and besides, how many Andrewses could there be?

  Chapter 23

  Jake walked quickly through the streets of Old Town, looking for Ryan. He had spent the last two hours looking everywhere for his boyfriend, trying to figure out what to say when he found him. And everything had looked so promising this morning.

  After they had showered and went down to the kitchen, they were greeted with the most delicious breakfast he had been treated to since his grandmother had passed away. He and Ryan helped clean up before being shooed out the door by Ida. They went out to the barn to offer their services, but Jim had everything under control, and there wasn’t much to do, anyway, so they headed for a walk in the crisp fall air. Ryan took him down to the Andrews’s pond, telling him stories about swimming there, and Jake could picture it all in his head. The wicked smile on his face had Ryan wondering.

  “What?”

  “Did you ever go skinny-dipping here?”

  Ryan blushed. “Yeah, once.”

  Jake could feel Ryan tense up, so he wrapped his arms around Ryan’s waist from behind and put his chin on his shoulder. “With who?”

  “No one, I was alone.”

  “Why?”

  Ryan sighed and held on tight to Jake’s arms. “I had just figured out that I liked Mike. I came down here to be alone, only, once I got here? I realized that I didn’t want to be alone. I wanted to be here with him. I felt lost, restless, so I went for a swim.” He looked back at Jake and saw the understanding in his eyes. He grinned a little.

  “I know, not the smartest thing to do in the middle of the night, going swimming alone.”

  Jake’s mind grabbed onto the image of Ryan, naked and wet, moonlight reflecting off his pale skin, causing a hungry growl in his throat. He turned Ryan in his arms before leaning in to assault his mouth and then running a torturous line of hard kisses and little bites across his jaw and down his neck.

  When Ryan was trembling in his arms, Jake pulled back so he could see his face.

  “It’s a real shame no one was here to appreciate the sight you must have made.” He slid his hands under the hem of Ryan’s shirt, whimpering a little at the feel of soft, warm skin under his palms. He kissed the tender spot behind Ryan’s ear, causing him to shiver. “What do you say we make a point to come back here when it’s warmer?”

  Jake’s breath was hot against Ryan’s ear, and he grabbed Jake’s shoulders, pulling him closer. “It’s a deal.” He hummed the words against his boyfriend’s neck, the thought of pressing up against Jake, warm and wet, making him half hard.

  They stood there holding each other for a while, sharing little kisses that were more about love and comfort than desire.

  The sound of vehicles turning into the yard caught their attention, and they turned to see who was there.

  The worry in Ryan broke for a moment when he caught sight of Paul and his wife, Carly, getting out of their truck. Paul caught sight of Ryan and headed his way. Ryan smiled at Jake before breaking away to run and throw himself at Paul, giving him a huge bear hug, almost knocking him over.

  “God, Paul, it’s good to see you. Gram told me you had finished your tour. Glad you’re home safe.

  The older man’s eyes twinkled. “You too, Ryan!”

  Ryan turned to the pretty blonde who had appeared at Paul’s side. He leaned in to give her a hug and kissed her on the cheek. “You look gorgeous, Carly. I missed you.”

  She squeezed him tight for a second before patting his cheek. “I missed you too, handsome, glad you finally made it home.”

  Jake stood there uncertainly for a second, until Ryan turned and grabbed his hand, pulling him up beside him and sliding his arm around his waist.

  “Paul, Carly, this is my boyfriend, Jake Evans.”

  They both smiled at the obvious pride in Ryan’s voice and the blush that the pride caused in the tall brunet. Paul stuck his hand out.

  “Good to meet you, Jake!”

  Jake shook his hand and then Carly’s. “Nice to meet you too, both of you!”

  Ryan looked around. “Where’s Jeff?”

  Carly grinned ruefully. “He’s coming in his own car. It’s not cool to ride with his folks anymore.”

  “Cool, it will be good to see him.”

  They all headed back into the house and sat down to coffee. But once Paul and Carly arrived, it was like they broke the seal, and car after car of people arrived. Jake knew there was no way in hell he was gonna remember everyone’s name, but he was trying his damnedest.

  For the most part, everyone seemed to be happy to see Ryan, although Jake had seen a lot more curiosity than friendliness in some people’s eyes. It made him want to keep a closer eye on Ryan, just in case. He was introduced to Brent and Marnie, friends of Ryan’s from school, who had obviously missed him. He was happy to see them so glad to see Ryan again. He was sure they had never believed the things Mike had said about Ryan and knew he was gonna like them a lot.

  The house smelled amazing, more food cooking than he had ever seen, and Jake found himself very popular with the under-ten set. He and Ryan were knee-deep in children, being chased by quick little boys and bossed by little girls he had just met. He was pressed willingly into service moving tables and chairs, setting out dishes and silverware, peeling potatoes, and whatever else was asked of him. Soon supper was simmering away, and everyone had moved outside to pick teams for a game of touch football that rivaled the NFL for competitiveness. Girls and boys schemed, cheated, and squealed their way through the yard, neither side giving an inch.

  Jake watched Ryan catch the ball, and seeing as how they ended up on opposing teams, he felt duty-bound to tackle his boyfriend. He watched and waited, pretending to be distracted by some quarreling cousins until Ryan was in range, then turning and quickly grabbing him around the waist and tossing him lightly to the ground.

  “Oof! Hey, you big lug, get off.” Ryan was pretending to be annoyed, but he never could be when he was covered in Jake.

  “Sorry, babe, but all’s fair in love and war.”

  “Yeah? And which is this?” Ryan’s words were quiet, meant just for Jake.

  “Both!” And without thinking, he leaned in to kiss those perfect lips. They forgot everyone around them, losing themselves in their love.

  “Hey, dudes! There’s no kissing in football!”

  Brent’s indignant voice jolted them apart, blushing. Ryan hid his face in Jake’s shoulder, but when Jake looked around, all he saw were smiling faces and giggling children. He pushed himself up and pulled Ryan with him. He kissed him on the forehead and quickly grabbed the football from his hands before taking off at a dead run for Ryan’s team’s goal line, his boyfriend taking off after him, two seconds too late to catch him.

  Jake found himself under a pile o
f Andrewses, celebrating his goal, and he had never felt so part of a family in his whole life. Ryan just stood there, grinning at him, not in the least bit upset at losing the game.

  “Alright, everyone, off! I’d like to have my boyfriend in one piece, if you don’t mind.”

  He started pulling children off the top of the pile and finally managed to pull Jake to his feet. He wrapped both arms around him, hugging him tightly for a minute before letting go.

  “Want a beer?”

  “Sounds good!”

  Ryan turned and was halfway up the porch steps when he noticed a tall, dark-haired boy of about seventeen, standing in the doorway. He smiled and held out his hand.

  “Hey, Jeff, how the heck are you?”

  Jeff ignored the hand. “What are you doing here?” His voice was icy.

  Ryan stumbled back a bit, shocked by the anger he could feel rolling off his cousin. No one else seemed to notice, at first.

  “I… I came home, for Thanksgiving.”

  “Why, haven’t you caused us enough problems already?” He was shouting now, and Ryan paled and shook. Jake had been frozen in place but started moving forward to get to Ryan.

  “Wha…? What?” Ryan was stuttering.

  “Do you have any idea what you did? How life has been for me? School is a fucking nightmare, Ryan. Everyone knows what you did, and you know what, I used to love being your cousin, but now? Being your cousin is the worst fucking thing that ever happened to me.”

  “Jeff!” Carly’s voice rang out, full of anger and disappointment.

  Ryan looked stricken, all the color gone from his face, shaking so hard he could barely stand. Jake reached out and touched his arm.

  “Ryan, baby, look….” Ryan turned to him for one second, then pushed him away and ran. Jake took after him, but like Ryan had been earlier, he was two seconds too late. Ryan jumped into the truck and drove off, leaving Jake terrified and angrier than he had ever been in his life.

  He turned and stalked back to Jeff, who suddenly looked scared.

  “If you bothered to know your cousin at all, you would know that Ryan could never, ever do anything like that to anyone.” He was talking quietly, but his voice almost echoed. “Ryan is the most gentle, loving, kindhearted person I have ever met. The person who is the victim in all this is Ryan. Some scared, stupid, closeted kid lied to everyone so he didn’t have to admit that he was maybe gay too. He threw Ryan to the wolves so that he could save himself.”

  Jake could hardly breathe, his chest hurt so bad. “And the sad part is, when you realize that, and apologize to him, and trust me, you will apologize, he’ll forgive you, because he loves you.” He turned to go but turned back. “Just remember this, though. He’ll forgive you, but I’m not sure I ever will.” And it made him feel just a little better when Jeff flinched.

  He turned and walked up to Brent and Marnie, who had been standing there in shock.

  “Brent, could you give me a ride? I need to go find him.” Brent nodded, and from behind him he heard Jim’s voice.

  “We’re going too.” Jake turned and saw him standing there with Paul.

  Jake nodded. They all got silently into Brent’s car and headed off in the direction Ryan had gone.

  Jake was in the front passenger seat, and Paul was sitting behind Brent, who was driving.

  “Jake, I….” Paul trailed off. He honestly didn’t know what to say.

  “It’s not your fault, Paul. And part of me knows that it’s not totally Jeff’s fault, either. Kids can be cruel, especially when they’re armed with lies and innuendo. I’m sure it hasn’t been easy for him. But it’s been killing Ryan.”

  He turned back to look out the window, desperately searching for some sign of Ryan’s truck and almost scared of where it might be.

  “We just need to find him.”

  The past two hours had been horrible. They split up, Brent and Marnie with him, while Jim and Paul went in another direction.

  They were heading into the seedier part of town now, and Jake spotted a familiar-looking truck parked out back of a place called Chainsaw’s. It didn’t look like a nice place.

  He pointed it out to Brent, who shook his head in dismay. “That is the nastiest bar in town.” They all headed for the door, but when they got closer, they could hear the sounds of a scuffle coming from behind the bar. They went to see what was going on.

  As they rounded the corner, they could see an obviously drunken Ryan, on his knees, being held down by some drunken idiot who wouldn’t let him go.

  Ryan was crying and begging the guy to let go, and Jake had seen just about enough. He started toward them when he was passed by a furious-looking Brent. He was followed by half a dozen people who had wandered out of the bar to see what was going on.

  “You stupid motherfucker, you are not doing this to him again.”

  As it dawned on Jake who the guy was, he was overcome with rage. He walked over, grabbed the hand that was holding Ryan down, and squeezed.

  The guy screamed and turned to Jake, only to have Jake’s fist connect with his jaw, and he went down. Jake stood there for a second, shaking with an anger he had never felt before, ready to kick the shit out of him, when he heard Ryan whimper.

  The anger melted away immediately, and he turned to pull Ryan up into his arms. Ryan was still crying, but his arms went around Jake, and he buried his face in Jake’s neck, shaking and still scared.

  One of the people in the bar just happened to be an off-duty cop, and he had seen everything. It was a good thing he hadn’t had anything to drink yet, because he was sure he saw paperwork in his future.

  Mike was getting up again, but Jake just ignored him, holding onto Ryan, whispering love in his ear. Mike wasn’t done yet, though. He had picked up a beer bottle and was almost on top of Jake when he took another fist to the face, this one from Brent, and the cop moved to intervene because he was sure that the guy was about to get his face beat in.

  He pulled out his cell, called the station, and directed everyone to move back. Mike was out cold on the ground, so the cop turned him on his side and made sure he still had a pulse before standing up and waiting for his buddies to arrive.

  Jim and Paul had seen the commotion and come to check it out. When Jim saw the man on the ground, he looked almost ready to kill him, but Paul held him back.

  “Ryan needs you, so don’t.”

  Jim walked over to Ryan and Jake.

  “Ryan, son, are you okay?” Ryan nodded but didn’t look at him. He just tightened his hold on Jake.

  Jim walked over to the cop. “Can we take him home? I don’t think he’s gonna be much use for answering questions until he sobers up a bit.”

  “I don’t know, sir.”

  Jim cut him off. “I’m his father. I’ll make sure he’s at the station bright and early. The chief will understand.”

  The cop rubbed his face and finally nodded.

  Jim turned to Jake, who dug the keys to his truck out of Ryan’s jeans and passed them over.

  “Could you drive, please?”

  Jim nodded, and they all headed for the truck.

  “Jim, I’m gonna ride back with Brent and Marnie, okay?”

  Ryan’s father nodded at Paul, and the other three headed for Brent’s car.

  Jim got in the driver’s side, and Jake pulled away from Ryan so they could get in the truck. Ryan didn’t want to let go.

  Jake whispered in his ear. “Come on, baby, let’s go home. Your mom’s waiting; she’s worried about you. And your Gramma is ready to come looking for you. Let’s go show them you’re okay.”

  “Jake, I wanna go home. To our home, please?”

  Something in Jake’s heart clenched at that, but he knew running away wasn’t going to help Ryan.

  “Not tonight, it’s too late. Tonight we’re gonna go back to your Gram’s and go to bed. If you still want to go tomorrow, I’ll take you, I promise. Now, will you get in the truck for me?”

  Ryan looked up at him wi
th those big dark eyes, trusting him to take care of him, before nodding and letting go long enough to get into the truck, with Jake’s help.

  Jake took one last look at the creep lying on the ground, knowing that tomorrow, the guy’s whole world was gonna change. Once it got around what he had tried to do to Ryan, people were gonna start to wonder about the last time. And hopefully, it was going to be the beginning of the end of Ryan’s pain.

  Jake climbed in the truck after Ryan, buckling both their seat belts and putting his arm around his love. Ryan tucked his head under Jake’s chin and held his free hand with both of his hands against his chest, falling into an alcohol-induced sleep before they hit the end of the street.

  Chapter 24

  Ryan woke up to pain. His head hurt more than he could ever remember it hurting before, and he had drunk a lot after the first incident with Mike.

  Mike, oh God, he had seen Mike. Something had happened. What had happened?

  Jake, where was Jake? He stretched out a hand to either side and found himself alone in bed. He wasn’t surprised. Jake would probably never want to see him again.

  He turned on his side and felt tears start to form. He should never have come back here. Everything was fine in Wyoming, and he should have stayed there.

  The door opened and someone came into the room. He could smell perfume and knew it was his mother.

  “Ryan, baby?” She wasn’t sure he was awake yet. Then she noticed his shoulders shaking and crossed the room in a few quick steps, kneeling beside the bed so she could look in his face.

  “Ryan, what’s the matter?” He could hear the fear in her voice, and he wanted to comfort her, but he couldn’t. It hurt too much. He couldn’t stop the tears rolling down his face. He just shook his head, and she stroked his hair and whispered to him.

  “It’s okay, baby, I love you, everything is gonna be okay.”

  But it wasn’t. Nothing was going to be okay, ever again. He couldn’t do it again, going back to running, feeling lost, being alone. He couldn’t help it, he just sobbed harder.