Page 13 of Rust and Stardust

I grumbled in response to that, but it seemed to be enough for Mabel. She took a seat at the other end of the table and began our usual pre-meal prayer. But the last thing I was worried about was religion.

Not only had my father signed me up for a competition I wanted nothing to do with, but now Mabel was making sure that Amber May knew I was going to be there. I’d have no choice but to interact with her now that she was a judge in the competition. Then, to top it all off, the man I’d just jerked off to this afternoon in a moment ofweakness was going to be scoping out the entire place for good food, which meant he was inevitably going to end up at my stall. And lastly, if I didn’t bring my best recipe to the fair and win the competition, nobody in Sagebrush, especially my father, would ever forgive me.

Why did everything have to be so fucking complicated?

Oh, and that meant tomorrow morning I was gonna have to slaughter a steer to make sure I had the best beef possible for the competition. And Ihateddoing my own butchering.

Chapter 6

Lucas

“You’re going out to Beau Turner’s place?!” Logan asked, clearly disturbed by such a prospect. “What on earth convinced you to do that?”

“For starters, he’s the most decorated barbecue champion in these parts,” I replied, shaking my head. I was tired of always having to explain myself. “And secondly, I’m pretty sure he’s into me.”

“Beau Turner? Football star and popular boy wonder? He’s not into guys. I can assure you of that. In fact, I’m fairly certain he beat up kids in high school for being suspected of queerness.”

I lifted an eyebrow in his direction. “Really? He doesn’t seem the type.”

“I… I don’t know!” Logan threw his arms up in the air. “I just assumed that’s what all the popular kids did! I was too busy trying to fly under the radar and not end up dead on the side of the road. But I do remember him being into girls. That I’m certain of.”

“Maybe he’s changed since high school.”

“Yeah, and maybe I grew a second dick overnight.” Logan pulled the front of his pants forward, glancing down below the waistband. “Huh. Nope. Doesn’t seem like it.”

“I’m telling you, he’s into me.”

“What does that matter? We’re not here for dick. We’re here for recipes and we need to get them fast!”

I reached over, putting a hand on Logan’s shoulder. “That,” I said slowly. “Is what I’m doing.”

Logan just stared at me. “Care to fill me in how any of that is related?”

“If Beau is into me,” I explained. “Then I can get close to him. The closer I get, the more he’ll trust me. The more he trusts me, the better chance I have of getting a couple good recipes off him. Maybe all five if I’m lucky. And being close to him gets me close to the other competitors too.” I shook my head. “I just wish he was competing this year. It would make things easier.”

“He is.”

“What? He told me he wasn’t at the diner yesterday.”

Logan pulled out his phone, flipping to the fair’s webpage. “Says right here he is.”

And sure enough, there in big bold letters it read “Returning Barbecue Champion: Beau Turner”.

“Well, I’ll be damned.”

“Seems he’s not as honest as you thought.”

“Or he was just being coy.”

Logan shook his head with a sigh. “I wished I lived in the fantasy world you lived in. Things sound nice there. Tell me, do you think every hot cowboy you meet is infatuated with you?”

I gave Logan a playful push, grabbing the rental car keys from the dresser. “Fine. I’ll prove it to you.” I walked over to the bedroom door, grabbing the ancient handle. “I’m gonna come back at the end of the weekend with five recipes, some good dick, and a promotion waiting for me back home.” I pulled the door open, never taking my eyes off him. “And if you’re lucky and you apologize nicely, I might even tell our piece of shit boss you helped.”

I didn’t wait to hear what his reply was as I pulled the door shut behind me and headed downstairs. My thoughts were racing as Iwaved to Logan’s family, telling them I was going out for the afternoon. They returned the gesture with a southern softness I still hadn’t gotten used to. Before long I was bumping down the dusty road, heading toward Sagebrush as the noon heat began to set in.

My mind was racing as I tried to figure out how I wanted to go about getting involved with Beau. My chances of running into him again at the diner were probably pretty slim. They way he’d cut and run after our last meeting made me think that he wasn’t very comfortable with the idea of liking men. However, it was clear that he did like men. I’d never seen anyone pop a boner so fast in my life. And the way he got flustered when I said I knew how to ride… well that was a dead giveaway. But chances were this sort of thing was new to him and that meant I had to tread carefully. A man in his position was liable to run, I’d seen in plenty of times before. So, if I was going to get him to open up to me it would need to be private and carefully executed.

The easiest thing to do was play it stupid. If I twisted his words just right, it sounded like he’d offered to teach me to ride horseback the day before. I could just lean into that and see if he bit. And if anyone asked, we had a perfectly innocent reason for being together. Worst-case scenario, I went home empty-handed. But I wasn’t the kind of boy that gave up easily and that cowboy… well, he was pretty fucking hot.

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