Mac smiled as his eyes filled with tears. “Thank you, for that. The shame I feel, it may not be over things I did, but it’s there, jus’ the same. Wayne too. Our people, they weren’t all bad, no, but enough of ‘em were that we will feel it all our lives. His kids, maybe with this, won’t have that on ‘em.”
Andrea smiled to Wayne and Shan, asking, “Kids? Aw, how many?”
“Three,” Shan boasted. “They are the best of both of us.”
Linnie cackled at that and commented, “That’s about all we can hope for ‘em. Too many these days got the worst of both.”
The waitress had held off offering drinks while they were obviously in the depths of conversation, but she took their orders and brought drinks before anything else of importance was spoken about.
Wayne was the one to broach, “There are…houses still there. We’ve always hated them, since we were old enough to understand what they were. Our daddy never let us near them. Since he died recently, we’ve had long conversations over what to do with them, and Leo was the first to suggest that we try to find some of the family of those that lived there. Ask them what to do with them. I guess you’re our first.”
Andrea stated plainly, “I’d like to see them.”
“I can’t see nothin’, but she can be my eyes. We’ve lived through enough of our own messes, like this here diabetes, but can’t run away from the past, either. You go, Drea, see for yourself where your kin lived.”
Shan brought up the next difficult part of the conversation. “Mac wants to give back the property, as we’ve said. There is only one problem with that, and that is his father left him a crushing debt. Until he pays that off, he won’t be able to sign it over to you all.”
Andrea smiled at her, then turned to Mac and said, “We don’t want it. Mama and I talked it over and asked my brothers and sister. Uncle Dexter, I don’t think he even wanted it as much as he wanted the acknowledgement. We can’t speak for the other families, of course, but as for the four acres that were to go to our grandparents, keep them and do good with them.”
Mac was blown away. “Ya can’t. I mean, they’re yours! Or they will be.”
Linnie sipped her tea then pointed her next question at Leo. “You said you are his partner? I’m guessin’ that don’t mean you two are in business together.”
“No, ma’am. Well, we are business partners too, in a way. I’ve just invested in his place, trying to get him back on his feet with it. But, to your question, he’s my boyfriend, yes, ma’am.”
Her cackling was contagious, and Wayne leaned over to her, conspiring, “My brother is very cute too.”
“I’ll bet. Well, I can’t see a lot better comeuppance than having a gay son and both his boys liking black folk.”
Leo leaned over to her next, confiding, “It gets better than that, ma’am. See, Mac, here, has decided to turn the ranch into a gay dude ranch. There will be gays of every color prancing around the place.”
“Oh, honey, that’s about the funniest thing I ever heard!” Her laughter set the tone for the rest of the meal, everyone much more light-hearted, and Mac kissed her cheek as they were set to leave.
“Ma’am, it was a right privilege to meet you.”
“I know you are ashamed o’ some of your folk, son, but not all o’ ‘em were bad. We wouldn’t be here if they was, now would we? At least one o’ ‘em wanted my folk to have a piece of the place they worked. Be proud o’ that, hmm?”
“Yes. Yes, ma’am.”
When they left, after making arrangements for a visit from the family to the ranch to see the houses, Mac got in the car, sighing heavily. “That was wonderful. They are such good people.”
Shan agreed, “Linnie reminded me of my grandmother. Oh, did she give my mother fits, but she and I had the best relationship. I plan to give my own kids the fits and spoil my grandkids so much!”
The next month saw more work, and Wayne and Shan leaving to get back to their jobs and kids. It was sad to say they barely noticed, but when they were done, Leo was proud to show him the ad for the air B&B app, along with additions to other sites having to do with vacations and travel. What he was prouder of, however, were the bookings that had come fifteen minutes after he started.
With Shan working from home, she found three more descendants of the slaves that lived on the Blaylock ranch. Not all were as forgiving as Linnie and Andrea were, some threatening lawsuits, though Shan’s lawyer said they had no real claim.
Two wanted their acreage and were patient enough to wait until Mac could pay off the debt so he could give them deeds.
Andrea spoke to some of them herself, and Mac got a call, asking if they, as a group, could come and see the houses, and they, as a group, could decide their fate. Leo held his hand as he heard the conversation on speaker on Mac’s phone.
He didn’t push Mac in either direction, probably because it wasn’t needed. Mac agreed to it without hesitation, and they planned it for the following week.
Wayne and Shan would come to stand with Mac, leaving the kids at home in case things grew tense or worse. Some of the families were angry, and Mac knew they had every reason to be.
Leo held him when the call was over, taking his pain as much as he could. “This is one more hurdle, baby. There are going to be a lot of them, and you’ve jumped them all so far. You’ll be great.”
“I don’t care about being great or jumping. I want to go back in time and punch Wyatt right in the face.”
Leo’s casual chuckle was needed. “Boy, me too. If only we could, but like Linnie said, there’s no telling that would help anything. Something bad could have happened if they’d gotten the land. Maybe they would have flourished, but Texas wasn’t completely immune from the ravages of the civil rights era. They could have won one battle only to lose a bigger war. We’ll never know, and that is for the best.”
“I know. I know all I can do is be a good person and hope that I have more of Jeb in me than Wyatt.”
After kissing his cheek, Leo said, “Hold on a minute, baby.”
Leo left the comfort of the couch, jogging from the room as Mac watched, curious. When he returned, he held a small box and sat with it on his lap, taking the lid off and taking something from it.
It was a picture, a thick picture, as the older ones were, and it had a father and son, the son in a confederate army uniform. “Is this Wyatt?”
“Who cares about him? Look at the older man. That’s Jeb.”
Scanning the face of the man who’d made his way across the country to homestead the land they were on, to see his eyes staring back at him…it was overwhelming. “Wow. I didn’t know there were pictures of him.”
“I think this is the only one, at least that we’ve found so far. There’s only one more box to sort through, and it’s out there in the shed waiting for me. People didn’t take a lot of pictures, even around the time of the civil war, but the soldiers, there were plenty of them. What I found to be remarkable is that you look a lot like Jeb.”
Mac hadn’t noticed it, mostly because Jeb was not only older, but had long hair and a beard, but around the eyes, the nose, his build, it was there. “That’s what I’ll look like?”
“Yeah, around eighty. I told you, men aged faster back then.”
Mac chuckled and asked, “Will you still want to fuck me when I look like this?”
Leo winked at him. “Yeah. Maybe even more.”
Chapter Sixteen
Mac ran in from the living room, scaring two of the queens that had come for the weekend the night before, and Leo laughed as he watched Mac bouncing with excitement. “I got good new!”
“I can tell! What is it?”
“Thomson, down the road about twenty miles or so, well, he overgrazed his place and wanted to rent out my pastures for as many head as I can take. I just made a deal for a thousand head.”
Leo couldn’t be happier for him and hugged him tight while he squealed along with Mac. “That’s fucking fantastic!”
&
nbsp; Mac hurried, “Well, it ain’t a done deal. He can’t spare the few hands he’s got, so he wanted to make sure I had some. I don’t. I called Teddy, but he’s up north o’ Dallas on a place already, and the others got their own jobs. So…I’m wondering if you wanna go dancin’.”
Leo shook his head, sure he missed something along that rush of information. “You said it wasn’t a done deal. Why are we celebrating already?”
“You have a problem mixin’ business with pleasure?”
“Huh?”
“Jus’ get dressed in your fanciest clothes. Then help me find some fancy clothes. I know jus’ the place to go.”
They left just before dark, but Mac wouldn’t tell him where they were going. The only thing he could surmise from the direction of their travel was they were headed to Houston.
“Business with pleasure…dressed up…you need ranch hands…”
“Keep guessin’.”
“Is there a rodeo in town? And if so, why would I need to dress up for it?”
Mac laughed heartily. He seemed so much more relaxed. Leo had something to spring on him that would take that smile, he thought. Leo decided it wasn’t the night for it, but it lay heavy on him, the thought of leaving the man.
There had been such a change over him in the short time Leo had known him. He’d watched Mac grow from a stunted, wary man who had grown up in the shadow of a tyrant to a man who seemed to be able to take on the world. Not to fight it, but to embrace it and make it better.
The only problem was, Leo feared that he would never give himself the credit. Mac would think it was Leo who’d done it, and if Leo wasn’t there, he’d lose that growth and shrink back down to the beaten soul he’d been. Leo knew better, knew that wasn’t true, but it wasn’t him that needed to know it. It was Mac.
Leo planned to stay until the descendants came to the ranch, then he’d go for a few months, giving Mac his wings. The thought of it killed him, made him want to forget it, but that was his selfish wish to never again be parted from the man he’d fallen so desperately in love with.
The road took them to a huge gay bar on the east side of Houston, near Pasadena. They passed San Jacinto community college, and Leo remarked, “Houston, San Jacinto, so many names and references to the war. Texas is proud of it, at least here and in San Antonio.”
“We are, I guess. It was always such a part of our history that I never paid much mind to it before. Knowing Jeb was there, fighting in the same battles as Sam Houston, well…makes me proud. I don’t know if I could do it.”
“Sure, you could,” Leo mused as he stared out of the window at the men lining up to get into the club. “If you could face these queens, you could face down any army.”
Playfully smacking his arm, he chided, “Be nice. These are our people. Let’s go have some fun. We sure earned it.”
For the first time since they’d met, Mac took the lead, no longer the submissive that couldn’t jump unless someone told him how high to go. He took Leo’s hand, getting into line with the others, and he kissed him deeply, right there in public.
They showed their IDs and paid the cover, going into the loud and colorful nightclub. Mac was tugging him onto the dancefloor before they could so much as order a drink, and the moment they found a free space, he was pulled to Mac and they started swaying, Mac’s hips doing most of the moving while he smiled at Leo with a grin that showed every one of his teeth.
“I get the pleasure part,” Leo yelled above the noise, “but I don’t get the business!”
Mac didn’t try to talk over the fray, he just kept dancing, so Leo went with it, kissing on him, untucking Mac’s shirt so he could place his hands on Mac’s skin, gripping his back muscles as the kiss intensified.
They danced the first two songs, and as they did, Leo was held close, no matter the tempo. When he did open his eyes, he saw a lot of cowboys, or at least men dressed like they were. When they found a tall table to sit at and order a drink, Leo mentioned it. “How’d you find this place? Follow a trail of boot prints?”
Mac laughed and surprised him. “You know how I tol’ ya ‘bout the rodeos and how much I scored?”
“Faintly, but I tried to forget that.”
“Funny. Well, after a rodeos near our place, I came here to have some fun, and saw about ten of the boys that had been at the rodeo, in corners, making out with other guys, dancing around without their shirts on! I nearly died when I saw it. Then, I talked to one o’ ‘em, he tol’ me ‘bout how much he scored at the rodeos, and that’s how I knew I could. After that, rarely had ta come here if there was a rodeo around.”
Leo laughed loudly for that, clapping his hands as well. “That’s wonderful! I must ask, though, what brings us here tonight?”
“You’ll see soon ‘nough. Now, kiss me.”
Again, he couldn’t get over the change in Mac as he leaned over the small table, pecked his lips and sat back on the stool.
“That’s all I git?”
“Yup! Until you tell me what’s going on.”
Mac didn’t look chafed a bit, and stood up, went around the table and leaned in, like he was going to kiss Leo, but moved at the last second to speak in his ear. “I gotta piss. Be right back.”
Watching him walk away, that bowlegged gait, hips moving just right, straight and head up, Leo’s heart skipped a few beats. He was amazing, more confident than he’d been, and it showed in his walk, his words, the way he met people’s eyes right on and didn’t duck his head half as much.
Leo waited more than ten minutes before he grew worried, slammed the rest of his scotch and grabbed Mac’s beer to take along with him. He went hunting for him, and when he found Mac, in a quieter corner of the club, far too close to a guy, Leo felt himself rage.
He stormed over, but kept himself from acting like a jealous teenager, barely. He stepped beside Mac, hearing the tail end of his phone number, the guy he was with punching the number into his contacts.
“Babe?”
Mac spun to the side and instead of looking sheepishly guilty, he grinned. “Hey! Sorry I was so long, but I had to talk to Mike.”
The man was setting his phone into his back pocket and he nodded to Leo. “Howdy.”
“Howdy?”
“Leo, this is Mike. He’s gonna be a hand for us.”
The thoughts he’d had spun and got lost in the mist that became his brain. “Hand?”
Mike told Mac, “I gotta git back ta muh boyfriend.”
“Great, see you Tuesday.”
Leo stepped where Mike had just left and leaned on the wall, the reality of what was going on hitting him like a sledge hammer. “You came here to recruit ranch hands.”
Mac set his hands on either side of Leo’s head smirking hard. “Ya thought I was cheatin’?”
He felt an inch tall, but it only affirmed how very much he needed this man in his life. “So? I’m a jealous fool, okay? And why not? I have something great, and I’ll be damned if I let someone steal him.”
Mac moved in, pinning him to the wall with his body, and they shared a kiss that curled his toes in his leather oxfords. Mac’s slow, seductive tongue, his jaw’s movement, their chests pressed so close that their heartbeats were indistinguishable from one another.
He wanted to marry this man, he knew it before, but that moment between them confirmed it. His jealousy, his desire to be the only man who Mac ever had in his bed again, watching him grow more, sharing everything with him. He couldn’t take another minute not being committed in every way to him.
The kiss ended but Mac pressed his forehead to Leo’s, his eyes closed, and it was Mac, his newly strong baby that said, “Is this where we talk ‘bout after?”
The big talk they needed to have. The one where Leo would tell him that he’d leave, and they’d spend the time apart they needed to make one hundred percent certain that they were meant to be, that talk. “No. Not now. Let’s enjoy the night.”
Mac didn’t let it sit like a cloud over him, as Leo had
feared. They danced, drank and made out like stupid horny kids on the dancefloor.
He asked Mac how he knew which of the men in the club to ask, after the third one he’d spoken to about coming on board the ranch. “It’s easy. The first two, it was their boots. They weren’t shiny and new. Worn heels, scuffed…the last one was the shirt and pants. A circle worn in the front pocket of his shirt, telling me he chewed, and a lot, and the seams were worn between his legs, but he was skinny and bowlegged. Means he rides a lot, horses and ATVs.”
“You could be a detective.”
“If the only people I was lookin’ for was men who ride and rope for a livin’, sure.”
Before they headed home, they’d spoken to twelve men, all of whom swore they’d love to work on the ranch. Mac, however, predicted four would show and that was all they needed.
“Why four?”
Mac drove onto the main road home, reasoning, “Who wants to be associated with a gay ranch? Only those who have the reputation of it already.”
They made love slow and easy that night, Mac rolling over him to ride his dick, taking control again. Leo thought he’d feel out of sorts with a man that wasn’t completely submissive. He’d been dominant nearly all his life and loved the role. It was different, though, seeing a man change, grow, find his way. The steps he was taking to claim his life as well as his ranch were extraordinary.
So, as Mac gazed down at him, his pupils completely blocking the blue of his eyes, his parts lips letting out the deep grunts, Leo knew that was the new Mac, the real one that had been hiding under the other, submissive man.
Leo tasted the salt of his sweat as he kissed his chest after, hungering for him again. There was no more stalling, though. The day was about to break, and though they hadn’t slept, work was going to be calling.
“Mac…”
“Yeah, I figured it was time.”
Leo didn’t want this, could take thinking about it, but he had to. “After the people come, to see the houses, I’m going home for a while. That’s either to get my affairs in order there, so I can move here, or it’s to live there for a while longer. Either way, it’s for the best.”
Remember the Alamo (Legacy Book 1) Page 16