Page 28 of Cowboy Dreams

I turned to Sylvester. “Hey, want to go out to eat or should I make something?” I guess living in a hotel meant he hadn’t had to learn to feed himself. If we weren’t in the mood for scrambled eggs and toast, I mostly cooked.

Sylvester shrugged stiffly. “I’m thinking I might skip dinner and go to bed.”

I dropped my voice. “Oh, yeah?” Maybe he was on the same page as my dick.

Sadly, he didn’t smile back. “I’m not going to be much good to you tonight.”

“S’okay,” I said. “I don’t love you just for your dick.” The quality of his silence made me run back through those words. “Likeyou, I mean.” But I’d never been a good liar. “Ah, hell, you gotta know I’m falling for you, city slicker.”

“I…” He paused. “Sorry, I can’t think straight. I tweaked my back somehow, and it’s killing me. I just want to lie down flat for a while.”

Well, I didn’t say those words to hear them back. “Oh no, that sucks.” I opened the door for him. “Come on, let’s get you horizontal. I did that one summer. Most miserable week of my life. You want a warm pack or ice?”

He seemed less tense, maybe relieved I didn’t push him. Maybe just at the prospect of bed. “Heat, I think. I have a microwavable pack in the cabinet of the downstairs bathroom.”

“You gonna be okay with stairs? I could lug a mattress down here.”

Sylvester touched fingertips to my forearm. “You’re a good man, Joe. I should be okay with the stairs. It’s not that bad.”

When I’d microwaved the pack and brought it up to him, dodging the tarps and debris in the hallway, he was stretched facedown on the big bed. He hadn’t bothered to undress at all, just lay there with his face in the pillow. I eased the heating pad onto the small of his back and he groaned like I’d taken his dick in my mouth. “That the right spot?” I asked.

“Perfect. Thank you.”

I moved to the foot of the bed and eased off his shoes and socks, rubbing the arches of his long feet with my thumbs. His feet were way prettier than mine, no matter what weird knobby-toe fetish he had. I switched to a gentle massage of his ankles and calves, nothing he’d have to shift an inch for. His jeans defeated me when I tried to go higher. I tugged a hem lightly. “You want these off too?”

“Mostly I want to not move and let this heat do its thing. Thank you.”

“You got some ibuprofen? Maybe something stronger?”

“Got some in the bathroom cabinet.”

I hadn’t peeked through his things before but now I had the invite. And yeah, I liked to pretend Joe McNeil was one-hundred-percent standup guy, but I had my curiosity, same as lots of folks. He didn’t have much, though. Some PrEP which was outdated. He told me he’d stopped taking it a few years back, offered to go back on it but we were exclusive these days so it made no difference to me. I maybe shoulda been on it myself, given the guys I let pick me up. Probably should. Made no difference now.

I set the bottle down and checked the rest. He had ibuprofen, and a couple of tabs of Vicodin in a prescription vial with a faded label. I brought both bottles to the bedside. “The mild stuff, or the way outdated good stuff?”

He huffed a hint of a chuckle. “How old?”

“Looks like ten years.”

“Oh, yeah. Was my back that time too. I’m not sure I trust it. Give me the ibuprofen. Except I don’t want to move to take it.”

“Hang on.”

I ran down to the kitchen and got a water bottle with a straw attachment. Brought it back and told him, “If you’re good at pills, I can pop one in your mouth, then you suck some water to swallow it.”

“Fuck, I’ll try anything.” He turned his head just enough and opened his mouth.

I popped the first tablet onto his tongue, then held the water for him. Followed it up with two more, but he balked at the fourth one. “How much are you giving me?”

“Four tabs. You don’t want to keep doing that much, but to get ahead of the pain, it’s a good start. Once it hits a bit, we’ll try to get some food in you to cushion it.”

“All right.” He closed his eyes and opened his mouth again. The level of trust in that hit me like a brick.

I carefully got the last tab in him and held the water for him to chase it well. “You let that take effect. I’m going to go make you some broth you can take through a straw, at least.”

“You don’t need to go to this trouble.”

“I’m opening a can, not cooking it up from scratch. You stay put.”

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