Page 61 of Doing Life

“And the rest can go home with us. We got the fridge.” Sloan sounded damn satisfied with that.

Little things made his man happy.

The smell of tube meat sizzling came along soon enough, and Lance sipped his beer, just relaxing. “I think we have a pool available to us in town so you wouldn’t have to drive out to the ranch,” he said suddenly. “I would like to keep swimming.”

“I can drive you out to the ranch, anytime I’m off shift.Shit, honey. If I have to, I’ll find a new place to rent that has one.”

“I think we can get into one for therapy.” It would be good, to find a different place, to try to figure it out on his own.

“I hope so.” Sloan turned the dogs, thewhooshof the grease flaring up sounding wild. “I like how it’s done wonders for you.”

“Well, then you’ll just have to keep taking me swimming.”

“You know I will.” Sloan came to rub his shoulders for a moment, and he guessed he didn’t have to worry about looking around to see if anyone was watching. He wouldn’t see them anyway. But he had a feeling they were pretty alone. The cabin was at the far end of the lot, the parking area was well-deserted back there.

It had been the perfect spot for them.

“I don’t want to go back, man.” He grinned up, he hoped, at Sloan.

“We can come back out, huh? The cabins are super easy to rent.” Sloan sounded as if he really liked that idea. “I mean, it would actually be easier for me to get time off during the week, and then it would be way less crowded, even.”

“I’d like that, babe. If you’re willing.”

“To come out here and have fun with you and be away from everything else? We’ll get us a mattress topper, though.”

“Oh my God, yes.” He hooted, because that mattress?

Even a blind man could see it was shot.

Chapter Seventeen

Sloan walked into the house and went to crank the AC up.

Jesus, what a lousy fucking day. The worst part about law enforcement in the west in general was the long drive to anywhere. But today he had driven all over half of East Texas trying to interview three witnesses, and they’d been avoiding his ass, so it had taken hours.

And then the AC in his cruiser had gone out when he was as far away from the office and garage as he could be. So he’d had to do his rounds without any fucking air.

In Texas. In September.

He hit the bathroom, stripping out of his clothes as he went. God, he stank. He really did. Right at this very moment Sloan wanted to grab Lance and kidnap him off to the mountains.

He’d checked. The low in Santa Fe tonight was going to be forty-five. Just— No fair.

He would never say that to Lance. Not when his lover was improving in leaps and bounds all of a sudden. Lance wasmaking huge progress according to both Will and Brick, and Sloan wasn’t going to do a damn thing to jeopardize that.

His phone rang right as he turned on the water. He glanced at it and groaned. “Not work, at least,” he grumbled. Well, at least not the one he was working at present. It was Lina Martinez, one of his fellow officers back home.

He thought about letting it go to voicemail, but what if it was something important?

“Hey, Lina. What’s up?”

“Hey, vato. Just checking in. How’s it going down there?”

“Oh, Lord. It’s a whole tale. Look, can I call you back in thirty? I need a shower. No AC all day in ninety-eight with ninety-eight humidity.”

“God. Okay, call me back.”

“I will.” He hung up with her, then texted Lance.

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