Page 26 of Wellspring
Cade bit back the yelp at Chel’s blunt speech.Sure, he’d definitely rather Erick “handle” him, but Chel didn’t need to be that obvious about it.“I’ve seen how you handle men.Javier is one brave son of a bitch.I’ll definitely take my chances with Erick.”
“I am unsure if that warrants my thanks.”Cade didn’t know how much of the implication Erick understood, though he’d started it, in a way.“Perhaps you should join us if only to evaluate my handling.”
The look Chel shot Cade was as clear as day—if Cade didn’t act on the opening she’d just handed him, she’d beat him.“Another time,” she replied.“I already have plans for the evening.You should have your lesson down by the spring.It will be quieter there than in the bunkhouse, and you should still have at least an hour until it starts to get dark.”
Oh yeah, she was going to beat him bloody if he messed up the opportunity she was creating.Too bad he wasn’t as convinced as she was that Erick would be interested.“What do you say, Erick?Want to walk down to the spring?It’s only about ten minutes from the house.”
“Let me gather what we will need.”
As soon as Erick was in the bunkhouse, Cade turned on Chel.“Could you be any more obvious?The spring at sunset?It’s a good thing he doesn’t understand what you’re trying to do.”
“If I am being obvious, it is because you are too blind to see what is right in front of your face,” Chel replied serenely.“You should thank me for giving you the perfect opportunity to be alone with him.Do not waste it.”
“Chel,” he protested.
“You don’t have to fuck him—or let him fuck you—tonight.I can be reasonable in my expectations.Just promise me you will be open to the possibilities.”
Her words were a punch to the gut, blunt as only she could be, as she would only be when it was just the two of them.But he wanted.Oh, how he wanted what her words conjured up—Erick’s beautiful body over him, riding him hard, or under him, ridden to a lather.He’d take either in a heartbeat, even as his heart yearned for more than just a quick tumble.He shook his head to clear the image away.He was going down to the spring for a reading lesson, nothing more, nothing less.“Fine, but you’re going to owe me so big if you’re wrong.”
She shrugged.“If you wish.But I’m not wrong.”
Erick rejoined them, every inch a Texan in his dungarees and work shirt, hat on his head, boots on his feet.The only thing missing was a gun belt around his waist, but they were only going to the stream in the heart of Wellspring’s territory, and Cade had his pistol if needed.None of that helped lessen his lingering reaction to Chel’s words.Cade only hoped Erick was too preoccupied with the small bundle in his hands to notice.“Let us take advantage of the remaining sunlight.”
“Have fun,” Chel sing-songed as she headed toward Javier’s cabin.
Cade glared at her back before turning to Erick, his expression softening.However annoyed he might be at Chel, Erick wasn’t the cause, and her meddling had the benefit of an hour or more alone with Erick.“This way.”
They walked through the scrub around the ranch house down toward the spring, the one place on the ranch that never completely succumbed to the heat.Even on the worst days, the water was cool and the air fresher than anywhere else on the spread.Miz Roarke’s father had built a hanging swing for his wife, and Cade sat there now.Erick joined him immediately.Even in the warm evening, Cade could feel the heat from Erick’s thigh barely brushing his.He almost scooted closer, Chel’s insistence ringing his ears and dovetailing with the glimmers of hope he’d gained from Erick’s words and actions, but fear held him back.He already had so much more of Erick than he’d imagined possible.Could he really risk losing that?“This is one of my favorite spots on the ranch,” he said.Most of the hands came down to the spring at one time or another, but Cade had never deliberately come down to the spring with someone, not with the idea of seeking privacy, not like a courting couple.“Maybe in the world.What I’ve seen of it, that is.”
“It is most pleasant,” Erick agreed.He glanced down, his cheeks pink.“I have not many supplies,” he apologized.“I brought only a few favorite books with me, but they are in German.Perhaps one day I may go into town.You mentioned Svensen is courting a schoolteacher.She may have some books we could borrow.For today, I have a journal and some pencils.I thought we could begin reviewing your letters.”
“Anything,” Cade said, his voice a little too raw, but he couldn’t fix it now.“My ma had started teaching me my letters before she died, but that was a long time ago.I probably forgot most of what I learned.”
He didn’t think of his parents often—he’d been so young when they died and so loved with the Comanche—but the few memories he had were good ones.How his mother always smelled of lavender, even after days on the road.How his father never had a cross word for anyone, even when everything went to shit and they had no real choice but to leave for Texas.The memories drew him back from the knife’s edge of arousal he’d been walking, and the very real desire to learn what Erick could teach him returned full force.
“You may remember more than you think.”Erick wrote out for a few moments in the journal, then handed it to Cade.“I have made both the capital and lowercase letters.Can you read them out to me?”
Cade took the paper and studied it, trying to remember what he’d learned at his ma’s knee, but most of the lines jumped and blurred together, nothing decipherable.“That’s a C,” he said, pointing to it.“And I know the W.And that’s maybe an S?”
Erick didn’t scoff the way his ignorance deserved.He considered for a moment and then handed a pencil to Cade.“Let us try this.I will tell you the name of each letter, and you copy it out.That may help fix them in your memory.”
With no judgment forthcoming for his struggle, Cade took the pencil and put his faith in Erick’s care.He copied each letter painstakingly as Erick said them aloud.When he was done, he repeated them back to Erick again.“That was easier.”He looked down at his shaky letters.“Although I may need some practice writing them.Yours are a lot neater than mine.”
“That will come with time,” Erick assured him.The promise of more lessons, of more of Erick’s gentle tutoring and his simple assumption that Cadecoulddo this, was as heady as thewokowithe shaman had given him during his coming-of-age quest.He had never been allowed to become addicted to thewokowi, but he could easily become addicted to having Erick treat him like an equal.“I will leave you some paper and pencils so you can practice whenever your duties permit.”He turned to a fresh sheet of paper.“Can you write your name?”
“I never learned how to spell it,” Cade said.“Although I could try.”
“Take your time and sound it out.Your name is not hard,” Erick encouraged.
Easy for you to say, Cade thought, though Erick’s patience gave him the courage to try.He focused on the sheet of letters and what he thought each sounded like and slowly wrote out his name.
“Excellent, though your name has a final E to make the long A sound.Without it you would be a cad, and you are anything but that.”Bringing a smile to Erick’s face was Cade’s new goal in life.“For names, the first letters are capitals and the rest are most often lowercase.Try again that way, please.”
Wanting Erick to smile at him again, Cade worked his way through his name a second time, checking the sheet each time to make sure he had the letter formed correctly.His handwriting was still shaky, but he thought the letters looked a little better than they had the first time.Feeling confident, he tried Erick’s name next:Erik.
“This is where language makes fools of us all.”Erick took the journal and wroteErick.“To be honest, I do not know why there need to be both a C and a K in my name, and in other languages it might be spelled with only one or the other, but so it is.”
Cade rather desperately wanted to kiss Erick for his kindness, his patience—who was he kidding?Because Erick was hot as hell—but Chel’s assurances aside, he couldn’t quite believe a man like Erick Heller would be receptive to his interest.And he’d rather have the quiet comfort of more lessons like this one than take the chance, find out he was wrong, and lose even that.He fought the desire to lean into Erick with the sun setting behind them, to slide his arm around Erick’s waist in the hope Erick would put an arm around his shoulders and draw him closer, would brush their lips together in a kiss as kind and patient as the lesson in letters had been.It would make every dream he’d had since he first dreamed of another boy to love him come true if Erick felt the same.If he didn’t, he would lose not only the dream his spirit quest had promised him, but also the chance at Erick’s friendship and at learning to read.No, he couldn’t take that chance, no matter how he yearned for the man sitting so near.Instead of giving in to his desire, he thanked Erick, copied his name carefully, and said, “What about Chel?”
