Page 74 of The Wounded Warrior

Luke’s fingers flew over the phone’s face. He grimaced a little, then tapped a few more times. “He heard about your truck.”

“Yeah. I’ll have to call tomorrow, but they won’t do anything till Monday.”

“True enough.” Luke turned off the phone’s sound and tossed it aside.

“Oh, does that mean he’s pissed at you?”

“I think I was supposed to call him a while ago and let him know I was okay.” Luke grinned faintly.

“Ah. So…” He knew he shouldn’t ask, but he had to know. “Doy’all have, like, a connection? Did he know you were hurt?”

“He did. He was in the hospital for two days.” Luke looked a little guilty then. “When he broke his leg when we were eight, I lost my shit and threw up for two hours.”

“Wow. That sort of sucks, but it’s also cool. I have two sisters, you know? One is like Barbie, the other Wednesday Addams.”

“You have a wee goth kid sister? Awww.”

“I do. Rowenna. She’s going to destroy the world.”

“Wow.” Luke nibbled a bit of sausage. “I’ll keep an eye out.”

“You’re too old for her.” Besides that, Luke was taken.

“I mean for world domination. I come with wheels. I can grab you and run.”

The words hit him, balls deep, heating him like someone had set a can of Sterno under his ass. “It’s a deal.”

“Cool.” Luke touched him again, the man tactile as hell.

He could get used to that. In fact… He scooted closer and lifted his face for a pizza-flavored kiss.

Luke hummed, kissing him as if that was all they had to do and they had all the time in the world. Which, hey, maybe they did. A man had to have hope.

Lord knew he was good at that.

Chapter Twenty-Three

“So, I got a question for you, Lulu.”

Luke hated that shit, when Matty had been gnawing on something for days and then, in the middle of a normal day, just sprang whatever it was on his ass. He knew this was no ‘why is the sky blue’ kind of question. Matt was studiously not meeting his eyes.

“Shoot, then,” Luke said. “I’ve probably got an answer.”

“Why’s McConnell buying in to the Rocking W?”

Rory had sat down with him and helped him—first with the paperwork for the bank to get a loan, then by getting Lori to start finding donors, starting with Rory himself, who funded them for the first year.

Luke raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean? He’s helping me out, and it’s a tax write-off for him.”

“It’s just a lot of helping, that’s all.” Matt’s head was down, eyes focused on hay. “A whole lot for someone not family.”

That hit a little bit below the belt, but Luke breathed through it. He’d talked to Matt a lot about the Rocking W, but not a bunch about Rory, so this was partly his fault.

“Well, I know it’s taking a big chance, bro, but Rory and me…we’re a thing, I think. Like arealthing.”

That made Matt stare at him, and the look wasn’t near as surprised as he’d thought it would be. “Yeah? For him too?”

“I think so, yeah.” His cheeks heated, but Luke smiled like he always did when he thought too hard on Rory. “I mean, we have a damned good time, and he really likes me, and I think he hung the moon.” He glanced up at Matt. “Is that okay?”

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