Mossy Glenn Ranch 3 -Saddles and Memories (22 page)

Andy squatted then sat on the floor between them. “We can. We can do that, and hire someone else for sales, because I’m not going to be running all over the US anymore. I want to be home with you and Salt.”

Ty plumb beamed at Andy, then he turned to Salt with a little less enthusiasm and a hint of reserve. “Do you even like kids? Did you want any?” Before Salt could answer, Ty’s voice dipped lower and for once didn’t crack. “You don’t want to be my dad, right? I have a dad. Just because he died doesn’t mean he’s not still my dad.”

Salt’s heart was going to crumble under the boy’s pain. Ty’s chin quivered and his eyes grew teary. Salt wanted once again to hug him, but was afraid it’d freak Ty out. “I like kids just fine, Ty. I haven’t been around many, but that don’t mean I don’t like them. Just never had much chance, working on ranches and such. As for wanting any?” Salt couldn’t keep back the smile pulling at his lips. “I gotta say, you’re a blessing I never thought to have in my life. I figured, when I first realised I was gay, that kids were out of the question.”

“People adopt—” Ty began, but Salt was already shaking his head.

“That’s true, but cowboys who are in the closet don’t,” Salt pointed out. “And I was in the closet, or else I’d have been out of a job most of my workin’ life. Now, the Mossy Glenn? That’s a ranch that you don’t have to be in the closet to work at. For the first time in my life, I’ve found out what it’s like to be free.” Salt swallowed as he looked at Andy. “To love someone so much you can’t imagine how you’ve lived so long without them.”

Andy took his hand. “Ditto, Salt. You know I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

Salt heard Mrs Jeanine come back in but she didn’t speak and so he ignored her. She had her job to do, and he had a family to prove himself to. “I am plumb tickled to have a chance to know you, Ty. I know I’m not your daddy, but I hope I can be someone you come to trust and rely on. Someone you know loves you and will take care of you.”

Ty sniffled and tipped his head down. “I’d like that.”

“Then we’ll make it happen,” Salt promised, and he’d never meant anything more than he meant that vow he made then.

After that, talking seemed to come easier for him and Ty both. Salt wasn’t surprised to find the boy bright and articulate. He knew, too, that Ty was going to have him wrapped around Ty’s little finger, because the smile the kid gave him—that genuine, happy smile—was going to make it hard for Salt to ever be irritated when Ty did something wrong.

By the end of the visit, Salt was a lot less nervous about helping to raise Ty than he’d been over the past months.

“It’s going to be okay,” Andy promised, as if knowing Salt’s concerns. “This is going to work out and we’re all going to be happy. Well, Brandt won’t, but that’s his tough luck. He’s a fool to give up such an amazing kid.”

“Glad as hell he did,” Salt growled. “He sure doesn’t deserve Ty, or any pity.”

“I don’t pity him. I wish he wasn’t a dick, though. I’d like to have a brother again.” Andy swiped a hand down his face. “Don’t think I can claim Brandt after all he’s done. Maybe he’ll sell his shares to me or Ty…”

Salt didn’t say anything else as they walked to the truck. Whatever Brandt decided to do with the shares was out of his hands, and the company itself would be out from under Brandt’s control.

“I’m glad you’re not tossing the company,” he said a few minutes later when they were on the road. “You put a lot into it.”

“So did Destry.” Andy sighed. “He’d be sad to see what had happened with Brandt and he’d probably beat my ass over letting Ty go live with Brandt, but we’re going to make it all right.”

“We are,” Salt agreed, putting his hand on Andy’s thigh. “We really are.”

Epilogue

It wasn’t nervousness making Salt’s palms sweat. He was plumb excited. Finally, after months of counselling and relationship-building with him, Andy and Ty, they were really going to be a family.

After that first meeting with Ty, things had progressed a little faster, but it’d still seemed like he and Andy had jumped through every hoop in the world so that they could all be a family. Ty had opened up to him more and more with every visit, and Salt was amazed at what a bright, loving young man Ty was.

Giving, too. Ty hadn’t thrown a hissy and insisted on living in the city. In fact, the kid loved visiting the Mossy G, and everyone at the ranch thought the sun rose and set over Ty. With a few years’ experience, Ty’d be every bit the cowboy he wanted to be. With the company growing more successful every month, Ty might even be able to buy his own ranch by the time he finished college.

I’d never have thought I’d have this. Love, a family, a job that suits me down to a T. Man oh man, life don’t get any better.
Salt found himself thinking those very things over and over. But, life really
was
about to get even better.

Soon, very soon, Andy and Ty would be arriving, and staying at the ranch for good. It was going to be their home, and that was more perfect than anything else Salt could have imagined. He loved the Mossy G, and he loved Andy and Ty. He was grateful every day that he hadn’t had to give up his job and go live in the city. Glad, too, that he didn’t have to live in Ashville or somewhere off the Mossy G’s land.

Carlos, Troy and Will had been great about it all. They’d allowed him the time off he’d needed to do what he’d had to so Ty could live with him and Andy. Then there’d been the big thing they’d done—offering them a home on the ranch.

Salt had been allowed to convert the unused bunkhouse into a home for him, Andy and Ty. It’d meant a small cut in his pay, but that was all right. It was less than renting a place. It was also theirs for as long as Salt worked there, and when he retired? He and Andy could still live there. Salt had been deeply moved by his bosses’ generosity.

Then he’d been moved by the kindness of everyone he worked with. The other ranch hands had thrown in their support and helped him get the bunkhouse fixed up. Even Ramsey, who still got on Salt’s nerves. The man had worked there for going on nine months, and Salt was just as suspicious of him today as he’d been at the get-go.

Well, there was nothing he could do about it. Instead he thought of the walls of the house he’d painted a fine, pale blue and the rugs Rocky had thrown down on the floor.

For the first time in ages, Salt had a
home.
He’d spent almost as much time working on it as he had working at his job. Between those two things, and the weekly trips to visit Andy and Ty, Salt was worn out.

But he was so damned happy he could burst from it.

Ty was a good kid, too. Not perfect. He had his evil spawn teen moments, but all in all, he was great. It’d taken him little time at all to warm up to Salt after that first visit. Salt had fallen for the kid in less time than that.

Salt thought they were all pretty solid now. Ty wanted to move, wanted them to be a family, and he wanted away from the city. Most of the things his daddy Destry had used to decorate that apartment with were now in the home Salt, and all of the cowhands, had helped prepare.

Salt could hardly wait to see the house with Andy and Ty actually living in it. On their previous visits, they’d stayed in either the big house or the bunkhouse with the other employees. But now they’d all have a home.

“What time are they coming?” Rocky asked.

Salt nailed the tin down then hung the hammer on his tool belt. “Couple more hours. Andy said he and Ty were going to take the long way, see a few sights. Don’t know what sights, but considering I have to work until five or six—”

Rocky flapped a hand at him. “Any chance they told you that just so they could surprise you?”

Salt went still then he turned slowly on the rooftop, not wanting to go ass over tea kettle off the damn barn. Sure enough, there was Andy’s truck pulling up to the converted bunkhouse.

“Rocky, will you—”

“Go on,” Rocky snorted. “Jen is gonna have your balls.”

Salt glanced at her. “What’d she want ‘em for?” He grinned as she laughed, then he made his way to the edge of the roof where the ladder was.

He climbed down carefully, and when he reached the bottom rung, Andy and Ty were there waiting for him.

Salt barely got turned around before he was being hugged by his two favourite guys. “Welcome home.”

“Home isn’t a place, Salt,” Ty said, smiling so happily at him that it was almost painful to see. “It’s where your heart feels safe, where you know you’re loved.”

Salt nodded, looking into Andy’s eyes. “Yeah. Like I said, welcome home.”

Also available from Total-E-Bound Publishing:

Breaking the Devil

Bailey Bradford

Excerpt

Chapter One

Sometimes Mack wondered what the hell he’d been thinking, to spend his life in Texas when he could have moved on once his father passed away. Maybe before then, even, but it’d have been one hell of a fight.

His father had been a controlling man, claiming his family more as property than as loved ones. Even from the grave, he’d probably have found a way to drag Mack home if he’d ever tried to leave.

Lord, he was getting fanciful.
Too many years in the heat, probably cooked something upstairs
.

Summers in Texas were brutal, cooking a man from the inside out, it seemed. August in particular was a real bitch, with temperatures frequently hitting triple digits.

He should have moved somewhere like Montana, although he’d probably have died from shock when the temperature dipped below freezing. Still, he’d have got out of Texas, seen a little more of the US of A than just his part of the Lonestar State.

Oh well, what’s done is done. I got my life here, and if I don’t like it, ain’t no one to blame but myself.

“Hey, boss, I’m gonna go check the fence along the west pasture, make sure Rancy patched it up right.”

Mack grunted at Fred, one of the newer hands he’d hired—newer being relative as Fred had been there for about two years now. He waved Fred off and was left alone again with his thoughts, which was never a good thing. Mack snorted at his melancholy mood and strode from his porch across the dusty yard.

He knew where he wanted to go—the same place he kept finding himself drawn to again and again here lately. There wasn’t a reason for him not to. He had a few minutes, and the hands were all out working. He could indulge himself in a few minutes of observation.

Mack stopped at the corral under the hot Texas sun, sweat trickling down his back to pool at the waistband of his jeans from the short walk he’d taken. Another few hours and he’d be soaked and smelling as rank as one of his bulls.

Well, he wasn’t the only one, and a hard day’s work should leave a man sweaty and in need of a good scrubbing. Preferably with someone else doing the scrubbing for him, but that wasn’t going to happen.
No use thinking on what it’d be like if it did.

Mack redirected his train of thought to something useful, like what he’d come out here to look at. He cocked his hip and propped one booted foot on the lowest wooden rail, his arms resting on the top one as he watched the beast inside the corral snort and paw at the ground.

Inside the corral stood the meanest, foulest stallion he’d ever seen—and also the most magnificent. A huge horse, too, his size matching his nasty disposition. Mack wondered half the time why he’d ever bothered buying the damn critter. The other half of the time he admitted it was because he didn’t like anything that was easy, not in most cases, at least. While he didn’t want a horse that was going to stomp him to death, he did like a challenge.

As the sun shone onto the horse’s coat, Mack couldn’t help but notice how that deep, dark colour reminded him of things better left forgotten. Of one man, specifically, that he wished he could forget. He’d had rich auburn hair and a temperament not dissimilar to that of the pissed-off horse now before Mack. Years ago, that temper the red-haired man had wielded had flamed hot and burned into a passion so fierce it’d left scars behind.

Shaking his head, Mack pushed back the memories of Justin. There was no use in dragging back up all that pain and longing. He’d already wasted way too much time on what-ifs and maybes. He should have learnt his lesson many times over, but one thing he had in common with that ornery red horse—he was pretty damned stubborn too. Just not stubborn enough to keep those memories buried where they belonged.

The heat must have melted his resolve because Justin kept popping up in his thoughts. It was a waste of time, because Justin was long freakin’ gone, and Mack figured that he had never meant more to the man than a fast fuck, a way to get off.

Hell, he didn’t just figure it, he
knew
it. Hadn’t Justin told him so himself? Yeah, he’d broken something inside Mack all those years ago.

Sometime since, Mack had heard that Justin had joined up in the military—the Marines, specifically. He was supposed to have all sorts of medals and such. Used to be every now and then when Mack was in town, he would overhear Justin’s daddy talking about his son’s accomplishments, but Mack’s pride kept him from making any inquiries.

If he’d had enough pride, Mack figured he wouldn’t have even given enough of a shit to listen to the gossip. But those talons of need Justin had dug into him long ago had never been completely disengaged.