Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

Nate stopped by the office on the way out. Dropping in on Jay was a daily occurrence. Every day at six, he would wander by with questions. Since Jay had set up the office, the walls had filled with photos—of the horses, the landscape around Crooked Tree, the cabins, the hands who reported to Nate. There were informal shots of him and Gabe from last week's debacle at the Nine with the rotting fence posts. Somehow this room, in the two weeks Jay had been here, had become the nerve center for this mythical plan he was working on.

Nothing had changed yet that affected the ranch directly. There was still no new website, although Jay promised something by the end of February. Given they opened soon, they would lose out on whoever booked through the site—although to be fair, no one booked through the existing site. So there was no real loss.

"Hey." Nate announced himself at the door.

Jay glanced up at him, and not for the first time, Nate thought he looked adorably rumpled. His hair was messy from the way he constantly ran his hands through it as he worked and his glasses were askew on his head, probably from all the hair pulling. He looked adorably cute—and that wasn't a thought that crossed Nate's mind often. Jay stared back down at the sheets in front of him, then, with an almost immediate second glance, he looked right at Nate. He frowned and checked Nate from head to foot. "Did I miss the invite?"

"I have a meeting," Nate said quickly. He wasn't going into the whys and wherefores of what he was doing tonight.

"Looking good, Cowboy," Jay teased.

Nate ignored the comment. "So tell me what's happened today."

They'd taken the whole telling-the-truth thing to the point where every single day Jay summarized what had happened with the ongoing projects.

"Luke was in earlier. I talked to him about some photography, and he drew this for me." Jay turned the paper around so Nate could see it, but Nate had to walk to the table to peer at the half-page drawing. He smiled as he looked at a simple pencil sketch of Juno. In a few strokes with some shading, Luke had pulled together the broad nose and intelligent eyes of Nate's horse. Nate swelled a little with pride—Gabe was a genius with numbers, and Luke could take whatever he looked at and condense it into a simple pencil drawing. Nate couldn't be prouder of his little brothers.

"He's very good," Jay said softly.

"That he is." Nate gently touched the edge of the paper. "What made him draw this?"

"I asked him about a logo for the ranch, and he was talking and sketching at the same time. A simple outline of the head of your horse would make a good eye-catching logo. He's going to work on it some."

"He's talking about studying business at college, coming back to Crooked Tree to run the ranch."

Jay leaned back in his chair and twirled a pen in his hands. "Taking my job, you mean," he said with a smile.

Crap. Nate hadn't meant it that way. He'd meant to start a conversation about Luke's art versus business and marketing. He could feel the familiar embarrassment rise in him, along with his damn cock, which was permanently interested around Jay. In two weeks Jay had never indicated anything about his sexuality—or indeed anything about what he wanted while he was here at Crooked Tree. Both things left Nate feeling antsy. One minute he could swear Jay's searching gaze held interest, the next they were back to colleagues at the ranch. It didn't help that the scent of Jay filled this room—a mix of aromas both natural and manufactured: aftershave, deodorant, the wood of the walls, and the smell of ink. Nate wondered if Jay tasted as good as this room smelled.

"Earth to Nate?" Jay said with laughter in his voice.

Nate snapped out of his reverie. "Sorry, bad day. Did you get to talk to Henry?"

Jay had asked to talk to the hands and any other staff, of which there weren't many as it was off-season. In a couple of days, the quiet ranch would become something else—the week before opening was always hectic and time-consuming. Nate himself had repairs to do in the barns and was working with Gabe on scheduling and figuring out when to bring down the horses, hence he felt tired. It wasn't the physical that did him in, but the mental of sitting and attempting to get his head around the color-coded chart Gabe had created.

The smile left Jay's face. "Henry wasn't around, so not yet."

"I told him you wanted to see him." Nate was confused not only at the fact that Henry hadn't been by to talk to Jay, but also that Jay's expression had changed from happy and relaxed to tense in a few seconds.

"I did some more calls today," Jay began carefully.

"The ones to the people who'd stayed here?"

"Those ones. The usual. They loved the accommodation, although the comments about interiors looking tired still concern me. Everyone scored the horses, and you and Gabe, ten out of ten. One woman I spoke to said you both deserved elevens and did I know if either of you were single." Jay looked down at a notebook. "A Marjorie Aston? Know her?"

Nate snorted a laugh. "Know her? I still have bruises on my ass."

Jay lifted a single eyebrow in question.

"Hell, not like that. She kept pinching my ass, and her husband was damn well watching. She propositioned me and Gabe. Turns out they liked threesomes and would we join them for a foursome. Husband was hot, but she scared me."

That damn eyebrow didn't drop, and Nate belatedly realized what he had said. Not that it bothered him, but he suspected Jay was interested in him and blatantly saying he found men hot to Jay's face left Nate very exposed.

Jay stood from his chair and walked around his desk to lean on it opposite Nate.

"I knew it. Ashley told me she'd ask Gabe, but I knew it anyway. Didn't use to think cowboys could be anything but hetero. Are you gay? Or bi?"

Nate looked down at the highly polished boots he kept for best. If he said he was gay, was Jay going to stalk the rest of the way over to him? "You first," he said softly.

"Oh, gay," Jay admitted with a smile. "All the way gay."

"Gay," Nate offered in return.

Jay nodded. "So the gay porn with the cowboys I've seen on the Net wasn't a lie." He stepped away from the desk and Nate tensed. Was this it? Was this where Jay told him that he wanted to fuck, and Nate had to find a way to turn him down because he never mixed business with pleasure? Would Jay listen? Would Nate actually listen to himself? Jay was damn sexy and pretty and all smooth and polished, and Nate longed to get his hands on him. Jay came to a stop in front of Nate, and no more than two or three feet separated them. This was it. This was do or die.

Jay leaned in and whispered, "So, between you and me, can you tell me where the nearest gay bar is?"

Nate reared back. That wasn't what he'd been expecting. "Uhm," he began, "through town, Carter's. It's a biker bar for want of another description. You can't miss it."

Jay rocked on the soles of his feet. "Mmm, bikers," he said with heat.

Nate left before he made a fool of himself, his stupid brain imagining all kinds of things that weren't going to happen. Just because they were both gay didn't mean they had to assume the position and fuck each other into the floor. Not that Nate wanted to do that. No fucking. On the floor. Or in the office. None .

As he left Jay's office and stalked up the hill to home, his freaking erection caught in a twist of underwear and denim and he rearranged it forcefully. Nope. Fucking Jay was a big no-no. A definite no. If only his damn cock would get the message.

Gabe met him, coming down the hill with Luke trailing behind.

"Thought we were meeting at Marcus's," Gabe said.

"We were," Nate snapped. "I changed the plans. You were late, so I came to find you."

Luke jogged to catch Gabe, and the three walked back down past Marcus's house, Jay's office, and the restaurant, to the parking area for ranch vehicles. Nate threw the keys to Gabe.

"Designated driver," he snapped.

Gabe gave him the raised-eyebrow look that Jay seemed to have perfected as well. "You don't drink on weeknights."

"I have to sit through a parent-teacher conference, I need a beer." Too late Nate realized what he'd said. Damn it, he was fucking everything up tonight.

"You don't have to go," Luke snapped. "Gabe can be the parent tonight if you like." His little brother yanked open the door and clambered inside, then slammed it shut behind him.

"Not cool, bro," Gabe drawled.

"Fuck it," Nate kicked the tire then knocked on the window where Luke sat. For a few seconds, Luke ignored the tapping, but in the end he gave in and opened the door again.

"What the hell, Nate?" Luke's voice showed he wasn't pissed so much as hurt. Nate never resented being the parent figure, and he didn't know why it had happened today that he thought to say something that would hurt Luke.

"I'm sorry," Nate said. He opened the door and pulled Luke out of the car into a hug. "I wouldn't miss this for the world. I'm just in a bad mood."

"Okay." Nate's shoulder muffled Luke's answer. Luke always was quick to forgive Nate for any lack in parenting skills. "Did you see what I drew for Jay?"

"Juno… and it was beautiful. Proves to me you could make a living from art."

Luke shrugged, then pulled back. "See what the teachers say tonight."

They climbed into the car, and Nate took the keys back. He didn't want a beer, really; he wanted the heat of a confrontation with Gabe. Instead, he got nothing but an upset with his baby brother. Damn hormones.

He slowed to let Kirsten walk in front of the car. She was a weird kid. Sullen, head-to-toe in black, and with long hair hanging around her face, she cut an odd picture about the ranch. Added to that, she never said a word to anyone.

"I can't see how Ashley and Kirsten are related," Gabe said in a low voice. "They're so different."

"She's a teenager," Nate commented as he waved at her and received nothing in return. "They're all at odds with the world."

"I'm not," Luke piped up. Nate glanced in the mirror to see Luke staring out at Kirsten. Luke continued, "I worry about her, though. She's starting school next week, and they're going eat her alive."

"It's up to you to look out for her," Nate said needlessly. Luke was one of the good guys. "But you already planned to do that, didn't you?"

Luke nodded, and as they pulled off the ranch heading for the high school, he said, "I'll see what I can do about getting her to try and fit in more."

Gabe and Nate exchanged looks. All Kirsten talked about was leaving on the next bus out of town and back to New York. Ashley was skittish. Jay was buried in work. Josh was the only one who showed any life in him.

"Good luck with that," Gabe said dryly. "The Sullivan women are tightly closed up. I try talking to Ashley, and she shuts me down every time."

Nate glanced over at Gabe, who was focusing on something on his phone. "You like her?"

Gabe shrugged—the universal Todd way of not wanting to talk. "She has a way of getting under my skin," he admitted. "All that hair, and her beautiful eyes. She had awful bruises when she got here, and she seems scared of something or someone, maybe an ex?"

"And you want to protect her," Nate summarized.

"Nah, big brother wants to get handsy and heavy with her," Luke said dryly from the backseat.

"Fuck you, asshole," Gabe said without heat.

The two of them bickered, and that allowed Nate to settle his thoughts about Jay. Sexy and attractive the guy might be, but if he was like Nate and wanted to keep business and pleasure separate, then Nate could do that. He would offer to take Jay to Carter's and not entertain any more notions in his goddamn head about a short-term affair while Jay was here.

That settled, he turned from the main road into the school parking lot and pulled up alongside a truck he recognized as belonging to one of his hands with a kid in Luke's class.

Engine off, all three climbed out of the Jeep and made their way inside.

The high school wasn't the biggest, but it was a good school, and Gabe and Luke had both done well here. Luckily there were no teachers here from Nate's less-than-impressive time. He'd skipped most days for one reason or other and spent the rest of the time rebelling as a way of hiding that he couldn't make heads or tails of half of what he was reading. Less than half, if he was entirely honest. He couldn't help feeling a certain amount of nerves every time he entered the damn school.

They shuffled around and spoke to as many teachers as they could, until finally they only had the art teacher left. The queue wasn't long—seemed like not many students took art. The teacher rose as soon as they approached.

"Luke," she said warmly. She held out a hand to Gabe, then to Nate. "I'm Mrs. Reuben, Luke's art teacher for this semester. You must be Gabe and Nate. I've heard a lot about you and recognize you from Luke's drawings."

She gestured for them to sit, then pulled out two large sketch pads that Nate recognized from the stationery run they'd made when school began. Mrs. Reuben flicked to a page, turned it around so Nate could see it.

In stunning and intricate detail, Luke had captured his brothers leaning against a paddock fence. Each with one foot on the bottom rail, dressed in jeans and jackets with their hats on their heads, they looked like two cowboys shooting the breeze. Luke had colored them with gentle tones and left the background stark in blacks and grays.

"That's amazing," Gabe said. "Jeez, you really did get all the artistic genes from Mom."

Nate hugged Luke from the side, then settled back for the report. This was one he always liked to hear. Mrs. Reuben spoke for ages about potential and further coursework, and had Luke thought about college for Fine Art? Luke took it all in his stride. Nate was a little jealous—Luke had everything spread out in front of him, a whole future he could shape for himself. Not that Nate resented the hand he'd been given in life. He was happy and loved what he did. He didn't want more or need more?—

Until Jay and his come-to-bed eyes had walked into his life.

"So, if he were to apply, I would support him in the work he needs to do to create the correct portfolio for them to see."

Nate blinked at Mrs. Reuben, and nodded as if he had been listening all the way along and not distracted by imagining Luke's future life and recalling memories of Jay's eyes.

Damn fool, you're losing it here.

They said their goodbyes and ended up back at the school parking lot. Luke stopped by the car door and scuffed his feet.

"I could do that?" he asked softly. "I could go to college and study art?"

Gabe by this time had clambered into the passenger side of the Jeep, so it was Nate who heard what Luke said. The words dripped with the incredulous knowledge of what he could do.

With a brief brotherly hug, Nate climbed into the driver's seat. "Luke, you can do anything you want."