Page 4 of Saddle Studs
BENNY
“Seriously? Frankie left Dennis tohim?”
“And a tiny strip of land near the barn,” Boone, my older and oddly smug brother, kindly pointed out.
“To SamFisher?” I emphasized the last name as if that would clear things up and they’d say there was a big mistake.
“To Sam Fisher.” Billie, our sister and sibling-wrangler, cleared her throat. “I spoke with him on the phone. I don’t think he has any intention of selling Dennis or running off with him, but I do think he wants to stay the full ninety days then transfer full ownership back to us.”
I rubbed the bridge of my nose and sighed.
Sam buck-fuckin’-wild Fisher. I thought Robin Hood—the pot-bellied pig out back—would grow wings and take flight before I ever saw Sam again.
“Is this real? Like, is this legal?” Beau asked. He was Boone’s twin, and our masked rodeo star.
He was also asking the important questions. “Yeah,” I said, jumping in. “How did this even happen?”
“Frankie was ranch manager for eleven years before he stepped down. I’m surprised that’s all he had, if I’m beinghonest,” Billie said. She tended to be a little blunter than my brothers and me. She rolled up the sleeves of her blue plaid shirt. “But maybe we should have a lawyer look over everything.”
“Have we not already done that?” Boone asked.
“I had Rachel’s husband’s cousin take a look at it. He has a firm in Philly,” Billie said.
I rubbed a hand over my face. This morning had turned out wilder than a rodeo full of coked-out clowns. I didn’t have the bandwidth to deal with this pile of cow manure right now. I had barns to muck, horses to reshoe, a new video game I wanted to play the hell out of, and—maybe most importantly—I had a date to get ready for tonight.
Dates were difficult to come by in Johnson Springs, Oklahoma. Especially dates with someone who had all the same parts as me. Our small town was surprisingly progressive for being hundreds of miles away from the nearest drag show, but the Grindr grid was as wide open as the field out back. There were the handful of usual profiles I didn’t have much interest in interacting with, and then there were the few that would sprinkle in—either visiting family, traveling for work, or just driving through.
The particular gentleman caller I had connected with fell under the “visiting family” label. He was a hot Latino guy who normally lived in Tampa, but had an uncle who owned the ranch on the other side of town from ours. We had really good chemistry in our messages which was always a good sign. It was also refreshing, being able to connect with another guy like this. I tended to avoid any actual relationships, enjoying a quick pump-and-dump when I could get it and moving on, but this guy surprised me. I found myself waking up and being excited to talk to him, which was… weird. He was supposed to be here for a week—just long enough for me to get my fun in, and then figure out if we wanted to keep chatting even with the distance.
Plus, he had a thick and juicy and uncu?—
“Well? Benny?”
“Huh, what?” My sister rolled her eyes and pushed off the kitchen counter. Bacon grease still sizzled on the pan. The armadillo clock on the wall said it was well past eight. I’d have to rush cleaning the kitchen so I could get to the barns to feed the horses before they all started to riot.
“Are you okay with him staying at the ranch? I know you two have a past.”
“Pfft, of course I’m fine with it,” I said, trying to keep my expression as cool and neutral as possible.
My siblings saw right through it. Boone called me out first. “You can tell us the truth, Benny.”
“Seriously,” Beau added. “He can stay at an Airbnb. Or better yet, he can go kick rocks and leave us the hell alone.”
“You know that all of us here just want to look out for you,” Billie said, walking to where I sat and placing a gentle hand on my shoulder. The warm glow of familial love filled the kitchen, mixing with the golden ambiance provided by the morning sunshine. The melodic sounds of sparrows and robins and cardinals floated in through the open window.
For many, that’d be a relaxing soundtrack—but for me, it was slightly unnerving.
Birds scared the ever-living tits off me.
“I do know that. Thank y’all. I’d say something if it’d really bother me, but I’m over it. It was dumb teenage drama that I barely ever think about. I’ve had worse hangovers that’ve affected me more than Sam has.”
Alright, so maybe that part wasn’t exactly true, but somehow, I managed to slip it past my siblings’ “lying his balls off” radar.
Boone cocked his head to the side. “What ever happened between you two, anyway?” His beard was growing in, his smile worn a little more easily than ever before. It was nice to seethe change in him after Wylie entered his life—like he’d been a plant surviving on the bare minimum amount of water, when suddenly a weeks-long rainstorm quenched his thirst and made him bloom.
Yeah. Had to have been a nice feeling.
I stood up from my seat, and collected the empty plates at the table. “Like I said, we were dumb boys. I was just coming to terms with my sexuality, and he was cementing his. One night we realized our friendship wasn’t really working and decided to stop talking. He was leaving for college anyway, so it was easy.”
