Page 35 of Cowboy Seeks Husband
“I didn’t overhear much. You forgot these.”
“Don’t they go over my jeans?”
“No, they’d be way too hot. Just wear them like pants.”
Roan grabbed the waterproof pants, unbuttoning and unzipping his jeans. He paused before shucking them again. “What all did you hear?”
“Well.” Walker gave him a lopsided grin. “That apparently I’m handsome and adorable.” The smile faded a bit as he looked down at the carpet. “And you think you’re saying all the wrong things. But you’re not.”
Roan blinked when Walker spun around and hurried away.
“Sounds like he likes you, even if you don’t like him,” Ben muttered.
Roan loosed a little confused noise and then got on with kicking his jeans off again. The waterproof overalls creaked and screeched as he tugged them on and he sighed. He was going to squeak his way through a date. Fabulous.
By the time he rasped his way downstairs, Walker and John were already outside. Most of the others had been gathered up in the SUVs and taken into town for supplies, so Roan basked in the quiet for a minute before he stepped out into the humid heat. Which was ten times worse in the dry bib overalls. And he couldfeelhis hair frizzing up.
An old Ford truck stood rumbling in the driveway, the camera and sound guys sat in the back with their equipment. The fact that all the windows were open didn’t bode well for potential AC presence.
“Sexy,” Walker drawled when Roan squeaked his way around the front of the truck, and Roan wrinkled his nose at him.
“You’re the one making me do this.” He opened the door, climbed into the truck, and slammed it shut. Walker got into the driver’s side.
Walker’s fingers curled around the wheel. The skin of his hands was dark and weatherworn, more so than his face, and Roan figured the cowboy hats should be thanked for that. Hell, he should probably be wearing a hat too. The factor fifty he lathered on his face every morning might not be enough. “You still have time to back out,” Walker said quietly. “Just say the word.”
“I’m coming with you,” Roan said, crossing his arms. “But no promises about actually entering the water.”
Walker hesitated. “You can swim, right?”
“Yes, he can swim,” John said from where he was crammed with a sound guy into the truck’s cramped backseat. “That was all in the questionnaire when he applied.”
Walker grinned, gunned the engine, and off they bounced.
Roan’s pants creaked every time they hit a pothole—which was a lot. And it got worse the farther they went. Roan had expected actual asphalt at some point, but instead they remained on dirt roads that turned into little more than tracks through cattle-dotted fields. He glanced over his shoulder to see if John was filming, but it must’ve been too bouncy, or else the mounted cameras on the dashboard were enough to grab his every grimace for now.
“So,” Roan began, deciding to take control and break the ice between them, “what made you agree to do this show?”
For a second, Walker said nothing. His eyes flicked to the rearview. “My step-mom watches all the reality shows. She particularly likes the romance ones. So when she and my head ranch-hand heard there was a reality TV show looking for a gay man with an interesting job to be the main love interest, they talked about how fun it would be if I applied. I left it as a joke. But then Marlon, my hand, went and actually did it. Applied for me, I mean.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah, it was kind of an overstep. But, well…” He shrugged.
“Here you are.”
“Yeah. Here I am. We were all surprised when they chose me, to be honest. And I didn’t intend to do it at first. Not when the first producer called, anyway. I wasn’t interested in meeting someone on TV.” He flicked his hat up and glanced at Roan with a smile, but it looked a little self-deprecating.
“But you obviously changed your mind. Why?”
Walker frowned briefly but then sighed. “It’s not easy meeting a person to build a life with when you have a ranch to run, never mind when you’re gay. So I thought, why not? What do I have to lose?”
“Nothing but a bundle of money if you say no.”
Walker cleared his throat and shrugged. “Right. But it all got a little more real than I’d anticipated when you gentlemen actually showed up on my doorstep. It’s been an adjustment.”
“Do you ever have to fight the urge to slam the door in your producer’s face?”
Behind them John laughed, and Walker’s mouth pressed together. “Every damn day. How about you? What made you decide to go on the show?”
