Page 65 of Home Hearts Hooves

Normally I’d be at the clinic with Preston during the day, but given the cinema under the stars event, he thought it was good for me to stay and help here and he’d meet me when it starts for our date.

Fuck. I’m really going on a date with Preston Knight. I’m suddenly hot and cold and it feels like my bones want to vibrate right out of my skin, but it’s a good feeling, like when you creep up the slope on a rollercoaster for the first time. Nervous, excited, and terrified all at once.

I’m fairly sure I’ve washed my hair three times because I keep forgetting if I did it. So I rinse it again, then shave before drying off and removing the trash bags I taped around the boot to keep it dry. Now to figure out what to wear. I wrap a towel around my waist and shuffle out to my room. I don’t have a massive selection of clothes to choose from. You don’t really need a lot on the ranch. I’ve got flannel shirts in every color, but is that too casual? I have a suit, but that’s too formal. It’s a movie, and I’d love to wear jeans, but I’ve only got one pair I can get over the boot and it’s in the basket downstairs to be washed. I really didn’t think this through.

Cuddles jumps around the room, burying himself under discarded shirts and pants as I pull out another flannel option, this one a deep red. I throw it on and check my reflection.

“I’d suggest pants, but I can’t say I’d be too disappointed if you wore the towel,” Preston says from my doorway.

I can’t find words. My throat tightens as the air becomes thick and sweat prickles my skin. At the sound of his voice, though, Cuddles has the opposite reaction. He leaps out like a jack-in-the-box from under a pair of my grey sweatpants and prances full speed at him. Preston bends to collect the little guy and brings him up to his cheek, where he gets a good lick or two in, before he settles against him. The scent trick for Conner and the others still only works half the time but having spent so much time at the clinic and with Preston, the little guy has decided there are two men he’s happy to snuggle with without any trickery needed. I shouldn’t mind, but it was nice seeing Preston wearing my shirt. Hmm. I don’t think I got that back.

“You’re early,” I manage to say finally, though my voice is strained, and I wish so desperately that I had a drink of water.

“Not really, we said six didn’t we?”

“It’s six?” I ask turning to check the phone. It’s five after. Crap, how long was I in the shower for? “I was just getting dressed.”

He glances around the room.

“Did you find what you were looking for?”

“Actually, no. The boot kind of limits my options,” I reply as I start to do up the buttons on the red flannel.

“The red looks good, it’s a movie and I assume we’ll be sitting on the ground so comfortable pants, that is if you’re dead set on not wearing the towel,” he replies with a smile that sends a shiver through me and makes my cock take notice.

No. Not now. We’re wearing a towel; there’s no way to hide a boner in a towel. I reason with myself as I rummage through my pants drawer some more.

“Really, anything is fine,” he says, and I turn.

“Easy for you to say that. You look great.”

“Thanks,” he replies, a slight pink rising to his cheeks. I notice now that he’s clean-shaven, too, his skin looks so fresh, and when we last kissed, I could feel the scratch of his stubble, I wonder what it feels like now.

My cock pulses, and I turn away. Fucking teenage hormones, what the fuck, I’m too old to be reacting like this.

“These are just some cargo pants I picked up on the same website I buy the scrubs for work. They’re stretchy, but look like they’re fancier than they are, really. Hey, you have some comfortable sweatpants there, they’ll be perfect.”

“I can’t wear sweatpants.”

“Sure you can.”

I hobble a few steps over and grab the dark grey sweats from the floor. They’re still half-folded from when I tossed them over my shoulder. Sure they were not right, but Preston doesn’t seem to think so.

“They are the easiest to get over the boot,” I reply sheepishly.

“That decides it then. You’re wearing sweats.”

Neither one of us moves at first, then he jolts like coming out of a daze and startles Cuddles, too.

“I should go wait downstairs, so you can finish getting ready,” he says, and then he’s off like a shot.

I stare at the space he occupied for a moment, then pull myself together, get dressed, and make my way down.

“You look amazing,” he says, holding out Cuddles for me to slip inside the sash around my neck.

“Thanks, you do, too,” I reply adjusting the sash a little.

I turn my head to the side a little and chuckle when I spot Gunther snoring with the dog, Houdini cuddled up at his side in the front room. “They look cozy.”

---