5. Rowdy

5

ROWDY

Huck was the first horse I’d ever bought with my own money. The guys over at Rebel Sky Ranch also had a rescue program to go along with their fancy (expensive) breeding program. They’d take in horses from local rescue operations and those horrible auction houses. Their trainers—husband duo Sparrow and Luke—donated their time toward ensuring that the horses were adoptable. They often sold these rescues at cost, and Woody had been buying from them for years.

When it was time to buy a horse, there wasn’t anywhere else I was gonna go.

My Huck was a paint horse that’d been surrendered by his owner due to behavioral issues. When he made his way to Rebel Sky from the local rescue, he was underweight and full of suspicious cuts and injuries. I had wanted to go look up his previous owner and have a word or two, but Woody’d convinced me not to.

Still thought about it, though.

Even after he’d been gelded, Huck had been quite the job for the trainers. Sparrow liked to joke that if he couldn’t calm a horse, his compact husband would bring them around. It was the opposite with Huck, though. He kept biting Luke and ended up giving him a half-moon scar on his hip. Sparrow thought it was pretty damned funny when Huck started responding to his training sessions over Luke’s.

Luke, who I’d recognized from his rodeo days, took it all in stride, nothing but pride shining from his face when Sparrow talked through all the things they’d done to bring Huck up to weight and make him feel safe enough to trust them. I tried not to be jealous of their affectionate relationship, but given the fact that Stevie let it slip that Kess had started going on dates, watching those two was a punch to the gut.

Anyway.

Sparrow and Luke had warned me that Huck could still be a little skittish around strangers, but the second I’d walked into his paddock, I knew we’d be friends for life. Sure, he tried to bite me the first time I tried to rub his nose, but I didn’t hold that against him. I understood more than most that he wasn’t gonna let anyone hurt him ever again. My mask looked different, but I recognized one when I saw it.

It didn’t take long for me to figure out that Huck liked having a job. So, I saved Woody’s gas-guzzling Mule for refilling the feeders on rainy days and used Huck to survey the property. He had reared up the first time he’d seen our animals, and they’d run from him as fast as they could. Soon enough, though, everybody kind of got used to each other, and now they mostly ignored him.

Days like today, I was grateful to have him in my life. Just as I was trying to get really morose, my text notification fired off. I grinned.

Skylar: What’s up, hooker?

Dick.

Me: Kess went on another date last night.

Skylar: How do you know that? Are you spying on him?

Me: No. I was riding Huck along the fence line and saw Kess get into his car. He looked nice. Like he was going into town.

Skylar: Did he stay in town, or did he come back?

Me: He came back.

Skylar: Busted.

Me: Shut up.

My FaceTime notification rang, and I rolled my eyes, even as I accepted it.

“You are pathetic,” Skylar said, brushing out his eyebrows.

“Going out?” I asked as he fussed with the arch.

“Daddy Big Bucks has the night off and wants to take me to his favorite steak place.”

“And you were calling me pathetic?”

Skylar dropped his hand from his face. “Rude.”

He actually did look kind of hurt. “I’m sorry, Sky. I know you have fun with him, and at least you understand the score. Meanwhile, all I have are miles of flirty messages and no idea what to do with myself.”

Sky tilted his head up, delicately patting away some tears.

“Shit, I am so sorry.”

He waved his beautifully manicured hand. “No. I’m upset because I do understand the score, and I still get hurt.” He let out a breath that made him seem a hundred years old. “I’m just really fucking tired of this song.”

My shoulders dropped as Huck came to a stop at the edge of one of our highest elevations. I looked out over the beautiful landscape, knowing exactly how ridiculous it was to be sad in the midst of all this beauty.

“Here,” I said, switching to the back camera. “Take a look at my view, Sky. Maybe it’ll help.”

I slowly swept the camera in a semicircle, giving Sky a panoramic view of the late afternoon Hill Country.

“You know, sometimes I wonder if I should get out of the city,” Skylar said.

I switched the phone back to selfie mode. “You? Out here?” I closed my eyes, trying to picture it. “You’d be like Glinda in the middle of a field of cow pies.”

Skylar chuckled. “I’m Glinda on the outside and Elphaba on the inside.”

He then, casual as you please, riffed a few of his favorite high-flying lines from Wicked . I only recognized the song because he always had that soundtrack on in the background whenever I visited his place. I once asked him if he ever thought of singing as a career, and he’d curled his lip. “ I sing because I like it, Rowdy. If I made it a job, I’d hate it right away. ”

I understood that at a deep level. I had only recently shared with him that I had taken up guitar, but I still hadn’t gathered the courage to ask if he’d sing with me. Maybe when he came out to look at my place.

“You still wanna go with me to that show next week?” I asked, knowing that I sounded needy as hell.

“Sure, hon. I love Spanish guitar. Plus, if you’ve never been, that little bar is cute and super queer friendly. Maybe you’ll find the love of your life there.”

“Riiiight. Because that’s exactly how things work out for me,” I snarked.

I forgot for a moment that we were on FaceTime and looked up to find Sky’s concerned face.

“Things should work out for you, Rowdy. Not only are you fucking gorgeous, you are sweet and real and so kind. It’s just too bad neither of us are each other’s type because anyone who falls in love with you will be the luckiest man in the whole world.”

His sincerity knocked the breath right out of my lungs. It was easy to dismiss some of Skylar’s more over-the-top proclamations, but when he got serious, I paid attention. One of the things we both learned in group was that our value was already fixed and not dependent on what others thought of us. And, weirdly enough, when you knew your own value, it gave you a better chance of finding the right person for you. Or something like that.

We both called bullshit after that particular session and split a bottle of bubbly Moscato, telling each other our secret woes. That night was when I confessed that I hadn’t yet gone all the way with anyone. And that I was in love with my soon-to-be neighbor.

I sort of regretted the honesty after the fact, but even though Sky would gently tease me, he was on my side. Right now, he was reminding me that I brought something to the world. I needed those reminders from time to time and found myself grateful that I had somehow developed a friendship with someone who was willing to do that.

I needed to step up my support game. “Thanks, Sky. I’m not the only one who would make some guy lucky. You are one of the most supportive people I know. Bonus, you give off light like a sparkler, and you deserve to find someone who loves your sparkle.”

He flushed, then sent me a smile. “We are such saps.”

I lifted a shoulder. “It’s not the worst thing to be in the world.”

“See you later, sweetie.”

“See you, Sky.”