Page 16 of His Fresh Start Cowboy
After a quick shower to wash the day off him, Hugo stretched out in bed, closed his eyes, and remembered how handsome Brand had looked tonight. Leaning back in his chair with a beer in his hand, doing his best to ignore Hugo and kind of failing at it. Hugo had squashed back a slight pang of jealousy when Brand retreated to the bar to speak with Ramie, but he believed Brand when he said they weren’t an item. Still, good friends who occasionally fuck could still become a couple.
Nah, Brand was into him but he was scared of something. Weston was a pretty small town, even for this part of Texas, and Hugo had no idea if any other gay folks lived here openly. Brand’s family wouldn’t give him a hard time, considering Colt and his husband. Maybe Brand had had a bad experience with a guy that left him gun-shy? Hugo hated to think that anyone could have hurt him, especially given Hugo’s history with Buck.
One of these days, Hugo would finagle a real conversation out of Brand. A private one. He drifted off to sleep hoping it happened soon.
Because of their current small staff, Hugo and Jackson rotated their days off, with the Woods men filling in and often going up to a week without real time off. Brand spent about half his time in the office, and the other half out in the pastures checking on the herds. Hugo was still mostly on barn duty, which he didn’t mind. He was used to that sort of work, and his first week at Woods Ranch passed pretty fast.
Hugo’s first day off was Friday, and he wasn’t sure what to do with himself. He should drive out to Daisy and see his mother, but he wasn’t ready for that conversation yet. So he drove the scooter around Weston for a while, re-familiarizing himself with the place. Not much had changed, other than an empty storefront that he swore had once been an antique shop. Now it had a For Rent sign in the window.
He had lunch at Weston Diner and spent some time emailing his friends while he chowed down on a chicken fried steak and fries. Shawn and Miles kept in frequent contact with texts, and Hugo had sent them photos of not only his trailer, but also some of Elmer’s amazing artwork. Neither of them knew a thing about his history with Brand, though, and he kind of wished they did. He really wanted to talk to someone about this, but the only real friend he had here was Rem, and Hugo was so not going there with him.
He was friendly with Jackson, but the last thing he needed was for Jackson to blab something to other people. Not that he seemed the gossipy sort.
A short body plunked down in the booth across from him and folded her hands on the table. Hugo blinked hard at Ramie, who’d invited herself to join him, apparently. “Uh, hi?”
“I saw you with Rem and Brand at the Roost the other night,” she said in a pleasant, somewhat deep voice. “You’re the new guy at the ranch. Bruno?”
“Hugo. Hugo Turner.” But why did he have a feeling she knew that and had misnamed him on purpose? “Nice to meet you. I hear you and Brand are good friends.”
“We are. I think I know him pretty well, and he tells me stuff. Private stuff.”
Hugo put his phone down and rested his hands in his lap, caught between annoyed and intrigued. “Okay.”
His waitress came over and asked if Ramie wanted anything; Ramie said no. When the waitress left, Ramie continued. “Brand is a very guarded person, because he thinks he carries the weight of the entire ranch on his shoulders. He puts the ranch and his family over himself, instead of going for what he might want.”
“So what is this? You telling me to leave Brand alone?”
“Nope.” She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “I know a bit about your history, and he’s conflicted about things. He also deserves a good person who can love him the way he deserves to be loved. I don’t know if that person’s you, or if they’re still out there, but if you do have feelings for him? Don’t be subtle about it. Sometimes you have to knock the Woods men upside the head with a boot to get their attention.”
Hugo studied her, surprised she seemed to be nudging him toward pursuing Brand, rather than trying to turn him off the idea. Goading Brand would be easy enough, but now that he’d met Ramie, he didn’t want to get in between something. She was pretty in a country girl way, with a round face and dark brown, almost-black hair that hung low around the middle of her back. “Why aren’t you and Brand a couple?”
“Can you keep a secret?”
“Definitely.”
“Good. So can I.” She flashed him a charming smile. “Maybe when I know you better.”
“Fair. I appreciate the advice, and I really do wanna talk to Brand, but he’s harder to pin down than a bucking bronco on an eight-second ride.”
“See? You know him better than you think. He’s avoiding you because he wants to avoid facing something about himself. But he’s thirty-five years old and needs to face it.”
As much as Hugo agreed with her, he asked, “Shouldn’t that be his decision?”
“Yes. But as his friends, it might not hurt for us to nudge him that way.”
True. Someone as stubborn as Brand didn’t always react well to blatant nudging, though. He’d clammed up when Hugo tried to engage him at the Roost on Monday. Maybe backing off and letting Brand stew for a while, until Brand came to him, was a better plan. Hugo got the feeling the stubborn cowboy did not like being ignored.
“You seem like a nice guy, Hugo,” she said. “And Brand does like you, even if he won’t admit it.”
“I’ve been in love with him since I was sixteen.” Now why on earth had that slipped out? “Um.”
She just smiled. “Then don’t give up. I love Brand. He’s one of my very best friends, and I want him to be happy.”
“Thank you, Ramie.”
“Anytime. I gotta get to work. Good luck, Hugo.” She slid out of the booth.
Hugo stared at her empty seat, the last of his lunch forgotten, unexpectedly buoyed by her words. As one of Brand’s best friends, she had a vested interest in his happiness, so she wouldn’t say those things if she didn’t mean them. And she didn’t strike him as the type of person who’d say something untrue just to see Hugo crash and burn with Brand.
