Page 5 of Bulls and Their Boy
“Fifteen horses, and a hundred fifty head of cattle left after he sold some and butchered some. He had two hundred head.”
I didn’t care about how many cows were walking around Noah’s place, but that wasn’t what caught my attention from the brief conversation. “Bulldozers, trucks, and…scoops?”
“Yeah! How do you figure we’re getting around in the winter?”
“Don’t they…do that for you?”
I meant the city, like in the city, where I woke up to scraped roads and salt, or sand or whatever crunched under my tires. He simply gaped at me like I had four heads. “Babe…this isn’t the city.”
“Don’t I know that?”
He took my hands into his and calmed enough to purr, “I’ll suck your dick.”
“You have a great mouth babe, and if I had to pay for that blow job, I’d pay a lot.”
He grinned merrily at that, but then I dropped the rest.
“But, sorry, even your mouth isn’t worth a truck or a bulldozer.”
“Ass,” he said, laughing. “Okay, we’ll borrow Noah’s for the first few months, and you’ll see we need some stuff of our own.”
He was so sure of himself, he left me to stand there while he headed to the kitchen for a beer. “Want a cold one?”
I followed him down the hall and stood in the doorway of that out-of-date kitchen, knowing I could make a point just standing there. “Okay, first we have to redo this room. I can’t handle that…putrid pink tile for long, and that wallpaper…”
“Yeah, I know. Let me guess, you want white subway tiles and stucco?”
“Yes,” I answered simply.
He chuckled at that, always leaving the decorating to me, thankfully. If it were up to him, at this point, I suspected we’d have pictures of John Wayne on the walls and cowboy boot lamps.
Then, certain thoughts terrified me, and I went to him as he opened his beer. I grabbed it from him, setting it on the counter before pulling him to me. “This shit…it’ll work out. I’ve heard things about couples doing renovations and they?”
“Baby,” he said, then kissed me softly. “You don’t ever have to worry about us. You want subway tile, you got it. I’ll do some side work and then you don’t have to worry about extra costs. Please, don’t worry. Not about us. We’re solid.”
When I looked into his eyes, I knew it then. He was right. We could get through anything. “Okay. You can have your bulldozer and a tractor or whatever the fuck, and a truck and whatever. I don’t care, as long as you’re happy.”
“You’re so easy,” he teased, then kissed me again before I could call him the dozen or so names that were ready to fly.
We had a quiet night, and like I said, easy. It was us, the way we could just be together, no talking needed, just him in my arms, or me in his, and we would be great. That one thing missing? Well, though we had our fears of things, it was understood that someday we’d get our boy, and he’d complete us. Not that we were lacking in any other way, but we had enough love to give a third. Plenty of love.
Damon rose with the chickens he didn’t have yet but wanted. Goats, chickens, a horse or three, and I think he once mentioned a llama. A fucking llama.
I got up at eleven, stumbling into the kitchen for coffee, and I was pleasantly surprised that, though still ugly, the kitchen was spotless. I think it was our talk, and his insistence to make me as happy as I’d made him, caving so badly as I did on the truck and bulldozer.
He knew I hated messes and dirt. It was my raising in a home with a fussy Italian mother, then army training, organization, cleanliness, it all came natural to me, and it had never left me. Damon teased me relentlessly about it, but never complained, coming home to a clean house.
To see that shining white sink pleased me greatly. I found him out by the stable when my coffee was in the mug and half drunk. He was measuring, the end of the tape measure nailed to the wall while he pulled it in every direction.
“Hey, babe,” I called, and he smiled over at me. “Whatcha doin’?”
“I’m curing erectile dysfunction, what does it look like?”
I mumbled, “You’d cure that just standing there.”
“I heard that, and thank you, my love. This place…it’s perfect.”
He was in his glory, Damon, and I saw a new shine in his eyes. I’d have to thank Noah for the suggestion. Using the barn for the club would save us having to build an entirely new structure.