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Covered in splotches of paint, Xen greeted them with kisses to their cheeks as he pointed to the mural. Memphis was with him, getting off the stool where he’d been sitting. “Howdy fellas.”
Sel shook his hand but his attention was fully on the mural. It was so beautiful, he couldn’t express it.
The skyline of the mountains to the west of them were there, light and dark green covering them, trees, wildflowers and animals in the back including moose, deer and bear.
Up closer, however, were representations of all the different people in the place, including a bunch of suit wearing mafia men with fedora hats on their heads, guns poking out of their pockets.
There were groups of bearded bikers on the other side, and cowboys and cowgirls in the center, all cartoonish, but hilarious.
On the front of the barn, right behind the cowboys and cowgirls, read Cowpokes 2.
Sel pointed to the mafiosos and laughed, “Xen, you pegged us perfectly!”
He was sinking into Memphis’s side. “I warned him he’d be in trouble for that, but he painted it anyway.”
“No, my uncle will love it like it is. Don’t you dare change it.”
Xen bounced and silently clapped, then he stared up to his husband. “Good for you, baby.”
As Roland and Sel walked back through, Sel had a feeling that came over him he hadn’t had before. Everything had been a blur the previous few months, getting with Indio, getting his own house built, watching the resort town rise out of the ground like magic.
It was ready except for a few tweaks, more people manning the shops, it will make a place worthy of the blood, sweat and tears they’d all put into it, even if Sel was a little bit of a latecomer.
“What’s got you so quiet?”
“Roland, this place really is special. I see it now, but I feel like I’m late to the game. My uncle, your partners and you, so many others saw it before it was ever built.”
“We did,” he sighed. “But we didn’t all see it like that. There was a lot of worry and a lot of late nights staring at the computer.”
“You?”
“Yeah. Jace would sit up with me, cheering me on, but I cried quite a few times after he’d gone to bed, worried that no one would really enjoy this place. Now that I see it built? That worry’s gone.”
“If gay men won’t come here, I think we could always make it just a dude ranch for the straights,” Sel teased.
“No! I built this for us.”
“Okay then. You built it, they’ll come.”
“Did you just quote a movie much, much older than you?”
Sel stopped and looked down the road, the town with workers still scurrying around, Binx outside again, supervising the window painter, Pappy pulling him inside the café and Sel smiled. “They’ll come.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Sel took a deep breath into his lungs as he looked down the main street of the town, Roland by his side, Indio holding his shoulders behind him, and Dante coming up alongside him with Blaine.
“Uncle Dante, Roland, Blaine, you all did this. Look!”
“We’re looking,” Blaine said in awe.
The place was buzzing, and every guest cabin, every room in each hotel and the camping spots to the west of the town were all filled. There wasn’t one room to be had in the entire place, and all he saw when people flooded the town were smiles.
Laughter was heard, they watched people pointing at all the buildings, and there were so many selfies being taken that the news of their place would spread like wildfire.
Dante was in awe. “I didn’t know if it would work, but look at that.”
Indio kissed his neck and said, “You helped.”
