Page 35 of Holding On to a Hero
“I was impressed you were able to stay on.”
I snorted. “You and me both!”
Jason shuddered and said, “I’m glad I wasn’t here to see it. That would have taken years off my life.”
“Well, uh. If you wanted to see it….” Will rubbed his hand on the back of his neck and gave me a sheepish smile.
“You didn’t!”
“I did. Do you want to see?”
“Hell, yeah!” We’d come into the house through the back, so Will went to get his camera from the front porch.
When he came back Jason asked, “You took photos of Endora bucking?”
“Yes, and I’m sorry, Cole. I know you gave me permission to take those photos of you on Saturday, and I know I didn’t have permission for today’s. But just before the gunshots, when I saw how you and the horse were framed by the barn, I thought it might make a good photo for your website. And then since I was already taking pictures when the shots happened and she started bucking….”
“It’s okay, Will. I trust you. You can take whatever pictures of me you like.”
Will had been about to sit down with his camera in his hand, but he paused and stared at me. “Are you sure? Really?”
“Yes, of course.”
Jason chimed in. “We trust you, Will. You won’t do anything with photos of Cole – or of us – that we wouldn’t want you to.”
Will finally sat down and looked at both of us. “Wow, guys. That means a lot. I mean, you’ve only really known me like a week. Thank you.” He cleared his throat. “Okay, come see the pictures. I haven’t edited them or anything, but you can at least see them on the camera screen. Here’s the first one.” He handed the camera to Jason, who was next to him. I put coffee mugs on the table and then went around to look at the camera. Which sadly required me to put my arms around both of their shoulders to lean between them.
Jason held the camera so I could see the screen. I couldn’t make out a ton of detail on the tiny images, but what I could see looked amazing. Just like Will had said, he’d been able to capture me and Endora with the barn as a backdrop in the early shots. The photos of her bucking were much more interesting though.
“Holy shit! Now I’m really glad I wasn’t here to see this in person.” Jason handed the camera back to Will and ran his hands over his face. He turned to me and said, “Fuck, that looks scary.”
“Jason, it wasn’t that bad. I’m fine. Endora’s fine. Arturo was right there. Nothing happened to me.” Time to change the subject. “Will, those were great shots. I really liked the one when Endora was bucking and my hat was flying off. I don’t think we need that on the website, though!”
Will laughed. “Probably not. But once I edit them I’ll put them in the same file sharing folder I put the sheep photos in. You can take a look and see if you’d like any prints at least.”
“Not of the bucking ones!” Jason shook his head. “I donotwant to be reminded of that all the time.”
I ran my hands over the two sets of shoulders. Will’s were not as muscular as Jason’s, but he felt solid. And his biceps were soooo nice. I squeezed one more time and dropped my hands – okay I copped a feel of Will’s bicep on the way – to move back to my own chair. My arms felt peculiarly empty.
I winked at Will. “Jason, you’ve watched my movies. You were even on set when I did that car stunt inThe Toledo Son.That was much more dangerous.”
“Fuck, Cole, don’t remind me of that!” Will started laughing and Jason rounded on him. “Don’t you start. You weren’t there. Spence, his stunt double, had food poisoning. The director didn’t want to lose a day of filming so Cole here had the bright idea to do the stunt himself.”
“It was perfectly safe,” I assured Will.
“You just admitted it was dangerous! You could have been killed.”
“Jason, sweetie, we’ve had this conversation over and over again. Let’s not force Will to endure it.”
“It just makes me go cold all over when I think about it.”
Will, bless him, changed the subject, asking when we might get more animals in. I let out a breath. I hadn’t needed Jason getting wound up with a years-old argument on top of the gunshots and Endora bucking.
I let my eyes run over Will’s beautiful face and felt a surge of warmth in my gut. This was something real. I smiled into my coffee. Time to get this day back to my original plan. Naked sexy time.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Will
