Page 24 of Rough Stock
Leo shrugged. “Nothing wrong with that.”
“You seeing anybody?”
Leo shrugged again. “Not really. I went out a couple of times with a guy I met through our little piddlin’ LGBTQ activists group here, but it didn’t really amount to much. Can’t seem to find the ‘one,’ if you know what I mean,” he said. “Especially around here.”
“You’ll know when it’s right.” Jensen heard the water shut off upstairs and decided maybe it was time for a shower. “Well, sounds like she’s finished. See you in the morning.”
“I doubt it. I’ll be out and moving around before you even get out of bed. You’ve got stable hands for a change. Sleep in. I sure as hell never get to,” Leo said with a sigh as he dropped his head onto the back of the overstuffed chair.
“Hey.” When Leo’s head snapped up, Jensen leveled his gaze at his younger brother. “I’m glad to see you, and I’m glad to be here. Thanks for stepping up to the plate when… well, you know. Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. I love it here. Great place to hide,” Leo said with a smirk, and Jensen knew what he meant. Their parents had made peace with the fact that Leo was gay, but it still wasn’t easy being a gay rancher in a small SouthCarolina town.
“Stop hiding. Come out into the sunshine with the rest of us. I promise, it’ll rain on you fifty percent of the time out here just like it does in that closet of yours,” Jensen said with a chuckle and slapped Leo’s knee on his way out of the room.
He’d made it up two risers before Leo called out quietly, “Hey!”
“Yeah?”
“I’m glad you’re home too. It’s good to see you.”
Jensen smiled at his little brother. “Yeah. It’s really good to be home.”
The bedroom door was closed when he reached it at the end of the hallway, so he opened it slowly and watched as Shyanna grabbed her towel to cover herself. “Relax. It’s just me,” he said as he slipped into the room and closed the door behind him.
“Scared me to death,” she whispered as she dropped the towel again, and Jensen was treated to a view of that glorious body. Lord, the girl was stacked! “I don’t have any real pajamas. I’m not used to being in a house.”
“Then we’ll go get you some tomorrow. How’s that?” he asked, trying to imagine her in something thin and lacy.
“Sounds good. Can I wear one of your tees?”
Jensen rummaged through his bag and pulled out a blue tee with the University of Wellingham crest on it. “Here. You’ll fit right in,” he said as he handed it to her.
“Thanks. Shower?” she asked.
“Yep. Be out in a minute.” It only took him a couple of minutes to shave and then he jumped into the shower. That took no time at all, and when he stepped out of the bathroom, towel around his waist, Shyanna was already in the bed and sitting up, her back resting in a pile of pillows as she glanced through a magazine she’d found on the nightstand. “Good reading material?” he asked as he climbed onto the bed, still clutching his towel.
“It’s about eight years old. Looks like nobody ever uses this room,” she said as she pitched the magazine back onto the nightstand.
“Nobody ever does. My mom fixed it up when we thought we were getting a female foreign exchange student, but that never happened.” Jensen remembered how excited Dora had been.
“What happened?”
He shrugged. “What they told us was, ‘Nobody wants to come to the middle of nowhere. That’s not a slice of American life.’ If living on a cattle ranch isn’t a slice of American life, I don’t know what the hell is.”
“No shit,” Shyanna said, shaking her head. “What do they want, New York City? That right there’s a fate worse than death.”
“You got that right.” Jensen drew the covers back on his side of the bed and scooted in, letting the towel fall to the floor. He knew what he wanted to do, but he also knew he had some housekeeping to take care of. “Hey, I want to ask you something.”
“Shoot.”
“Why do you keep saying once everybody gets to know you they’ll hate you?” He watched as her gaze fell and she picked at the coverlet with her fingernails. “Because I can’t imagine that.”
“They always do,” she muttered under her breath.
Jensen was really confused. “But why? Do you do something to make them hate you?”
She shook her head weakly. “No. I don’t do anything to make them hate me. They just do.”
