Page 40 of Rainbow Rodeo

“Be good now. You look at me like that and we’ll never make it up the hill.”

“Right.” He laughed but dutifully looked away.

“You want pizza, or do we want to go to the grill and have a burger?”

“If we grab a burger, we have the pizza for tomorrow.” He didn’t really care, if he was honest.

“Cool. We get breakfast down here in the morning.” Tank thought a lot with his belly. Dalton had always laughed about that.

“We’ll need it by then, I think.”

“I bet we will.” Tank didn’t look a bit upset by that fact.

“I’m going to need a cold shower to get my jeans on, if I’m not careful.”

“Oops.” Unrepentant man.

“Be good. I’m abused.” He kept a straight face. Mostly. Basically.

“Terribly. I owe you.”

“Moi?” He went wide-eyed and innocent. Hopefully it worked.

“I do. I abused you.”

“Uh-huh. Are you going to do it again?”

“Any minute.”

Okay, there was no way he wasn’t springing wood with the look Tank gave him. It made all sorts of promises.

“Fair enough. We should go… eat burgers.”

“We should. The cold air will—” Tank made an unmistakable motion.

“Yeah. Shrinkage.” He wasn’t sure the air was that cold.

“After the hot water, it will work.” Tank waded to the steps, moving quickly to get their towels so when Dalton got out, he had a shield.

Dalton clambered out, got the towel wrapped around him. Jesus. Okay, that was chillier than advertised. They hurried into the dressing room, bouncing as Tank got their locker open.

“Go wash off,” Tank said, handing him his gear. “I’ll be out in a few.”

“You got it.” He got in the shower, warming himself back up. He didn’t hurry, washing himself with long, slow strokes. That water in the pool had a ton of minerals in it, and his skin felt amazing, like it was healed from months of abuse from the sun and wind.

He stepped out of the shower finally, then dried off so he could get dressed. Tank wasn’t out yet, so he tugged on his pants, then reached for his shirt.

“So, uh, is that guy a boyfriend?” The local was back, and not a bad-looking guy at all, now he could get a good gander.

Dalton blinked, just a little taken aback. Did people just ask like that? Really? In small-town Colorado?

“We’re together, yeah.”

Even if they weren’t, they were here together, right?

“Oh shit. I’m sorry.” The guy laughed, the sound awkward. “Well, if you need a river guide, I work out of Glenwood Adventure.” The man raised a hand, leaving him just as Tank stepped out wearing a towel.

“Cool….” Also, weird. “I think that guy was interested.”

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