Calvin’s Cowboy (29 page)

“Wow.”

The smoked brisket was every bit as amazing as Calvin had said it would be. Sure enough, the all-important pink ring was there. The thinly sliced beef just melted in Brock’s mouth. The ribs were dark and smoky and rich and…the mashed potatoes were like fluffy white clouds. The collard greens were perfect, too. Brock had a hard time deciding which he liked the most. Ultimately he gave up—it was all good.

“I can’t eat another thing.” Brock pushed away his still partially filled plate and loosened his belt.

“Andrew will pack up the rest of our food, and we can take it home. No one ever leaves here without leftovers. It’s a tradition.”

“More brisket and ribs tomorrow. I think I’ve died and gone to heaven.” Brock belched softly.

“And there’s still dessert,” Calvin said.

Brock groaned. “I can’t.”

“And another tradition is that no one ever leaves here without having eaten dessert,” someone said. The speaker came closer. “Tonight it’s pecan, chocolate, and bourbon pie.”

Brock assumed this was Matthew, a fairly easy guess given that the guy was dressed in kitchen whites, blue and white checked pants and a floppy chef’s hat.

“There’s also some peach cobbler from yesterday, isn’t there?” Andrew approached and turned to Matthew, who kissed him on the cheek.

“Sure is, hon.”

Andrew settled against Matthew, laying his head on the broad shoulder of his partner. Even for someone unused to seeing two men being affectionate with each other, Brock could tell the two were very much in love. The look of serene happiness on Andrew’s face as Matthew gave him a one-armed hug almost brought Brock to tears with the absolute rightness of the gesture.

Brock just had to get up and shake Matthew’s hand. “Thank you. This was a revelation. It was, amazing, awesome, as good as, hell, better than…” He realized he still had hold of Matthew’s hand, so dropped it, blushing in embarrassment.

Matthew laughed. “Come here.” Brock was enfolded in a bear hug. “Thank you. I like when folks say they’ve enjoyed eating my food.” Letting him go, Matthew looked Brock up and down. “My, Calvin,” he said to the still-seated Calvin, “you got a tall drink of water here.”

Brock’s blush increased. He wasn’t used to getting compliments, not from other men, at least.

“Hands off, I found him first,” Calvin said.

“No worries. I got all the man I could ever want right here.” He reached for and gave Andrew a squeeze.

“You daft bugger,” Andrew laughed.

“I’ll get your dessert in a minute.” Matthew didn’t wait for a reply before moving on to the next table, exchanging a few words with its occupants.

Brock sat down and looked over at a happily smiling Calvin, the candlelight glinting in his green eyes. They held hands until their dessert arrived. One enormous plate with pie and cobbler, as well as a healthy serving of iced cream. There were two spoons.

“It’s what we do for every new couple who dines with us,” Andrew told them.

Brock, now so comfortable in this special place—where men could openly show their affections to other men—had no hesitation in picking up a spoon, loading it with pie and lifting it to Calvin’s lips.

Calvin looked momentarily surprised, but recovered in time to accept the food.

He reciprocated and fed Brock some cobbler. Again the food was excellent; the ice cream tasted homemade.

After finishing, Brock continued to sit there, just enjoying the feeling of holding Calvin’s hand in public. Without really being aware he’d done so, Brock realized he’d made his decision.

“If you’ve got room in your apartment and your life for a bankrupt cowboy and his son, then…” he swallowed. “Then I’d like to move in permanently.”

“Hoo yeah!” Calvin yelled.

Everyone in the small restaurant looked over at them. Brock started to panic, but then realized he was with Calvin, the man he loved, and this was New York. “It’s okay, y’all,” Brock said to the room. “I just asked this amazin’ man if he’d share his home and his life with me an’ my son.” Brock raised Calvin’s hand to his lips. “An’, as you heard, he said yes.”

The room erupted into applause, everyone came up to them, one-by-one, to offer their congratulations.

Brock felt warm and welcomed by the city, by the occupants of the restaurant, but most of all by Calvin, who smiled from the other side of the table at him.

THE END

ABOUT DREW HUNT

Having read all the decent free fiction on the net Drew could find, he set out to try his hand at writing something himself. Fed up reading about characters who were super-wealthy, impossibly handsome, and incredibly well-endowed, Drew determined to make his characters real and believable.

Drew lives a quiet life in the north of England with his cat. Someday he hopes to meet the kind of man he writes about.

ABOUT JMS BOOKS LLC

Founded in 2010, JMS Books LLC is owned and operated by author J.M. Snyder. We publish a variety of genres, including gay erotic romance, fantasy, young adult, poetry, and nonfiction. We are an invitation-only small press. Short stories and novellas are available as e-books and compiled into single-author print anthologies, while any story over 30k in length is available in both print and e-book formats. Visit us at
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