Page 7 of Wistful in Wyoming
Straightening, he exchanged handshakes and back slaps with the new daddy, then turned to leave. He hadn’t even gotten out of the room before Nathan was back at Willow’s side. The little family had been oblivious to everything but each other.
The shrill beeping of the timer on his cell phone jerked him back to the present. Grabbing a pair of mitts, he bent at the waist and removed the bread from the oven. Setting it aside to cool, he headed upstairs to change for the party. Willow and Nathan were hosting a Christmas Eve gathering, and he was incredibly nervous. He hoped Shannon was fussy, so he could disappear with his goddaughter and avoid Dale. Cowardice soured his gut, but he wasn’t sure what he could do about it. His life had become the very definition of being stuck between a rock and a hard place. Just not the hard place he wanted to be stuck up against.
Will you ever have the balls to go for what and who you want?
He’d managed to avoid Dale as much as possible, but the taste of regret was thick in his mouth every time he saw the dark-haired retired Marine. When they inevitably ran into each other at Skyview Ranch or in town, they exchanged the bare minimum that good manners demanded, but not saying much to each other beyond “hello,” “goodbye,” or “Crazy weather we’re having, isn’t it?”
After showering, he dressed quickly, opting for a pair of pressed dark-gray dress pants, instead of his usual jeans, and a deep-green button-down shirt that Willow had often said made his eyes look gorgeous. After tucking the tail of the shirt into the waistband, he smoothed the material over his stomach, noticing for the millionth time he needed to add more crunches and sit-ups to his daily exercise. His age was showing with a softening of his midsection and some noticeable wrinkles on his face. Lately, he’d also been finding some white hairs mixed in with the red on the top of his head. He wasn’t overly vain, but he liked to look good. Some men aged well, like friggin’ Dale, while others didn’t. Willow’s father had only been fifty-six when he’d passed away twenty months ago, but the man had looked fifteen years older than he’d actually been over the last two decades of his life. Loneliness and a near lifetime of regret could do that to a person. Jeremiah was so sick of being lonely, and he didn’t want to have any regrets when he finally passed from this life but wanting to achieve something and actually following through with it were completely different stories.
He slid the championship rodeo buckle that he only wore on special occasions onto his leather belt and snapped it into place, before sitting on the bed and pulling on his best black boots. Adding a spritz of his favorite Ralph Lauren cologne, he headed downstairs where he grabbed his black dress hat and a winter coat from hooks by the front door. He’d taken the gifts out to his truck earlier, knowing he’d be nervous about spending the next few hours in the same room with Dale and worried he’d forget them. Back in the kitchen, he transferred the bread into a basket, wrapping it carefully in a clean tea-towel to keep it warm, before snagging his keys and heading outside.
“Here goes nothing. Maybe Dale will choke on a bite of my bread. Maybe the floor will open up and swallow me whole. Maybe the sky will fall, and angels will descend. Maybe Dale will tell me he doesn’t care about me being out, and he’ll bring me home and fuck me through my mattress. Yeah, dream on, cowboy.” Sighing at his own ridiculousness, he shook his head. “Now you’re like Willow, talking to yourself, friggin’ asshole.”
Starting his truck, he girded his proverbial loins in preparation for the night ahead. “If things get weird with Dale, I’ll just play with Shannon and ignore everyone else.”
Chapter Five
Dale stood in the kitchen,nursing a bottle of beer, with one hip propped against the counter. Coolers loaded with ice, beer, and soda were on the back porch. Platters of appetizers covered the counter behind him and the dinette table across from him. The kitchen’s island was home to at least seven different kinds of dessert, including colorful Christmas cookies, éclairs, and what looked like two different pies. There was enough food to feed a small army.
Nathan and Willow had gone all out on the decorations too—well, actually, Willow had. A grand seven-foot, brightly-lit Christmas tree, with dozens of cute ornaments on it and a star on top, stood in a corner of the living room, and garland framed all the doorways. There were Santa figures mingled in with elves, snowmen, and angels on every available flat surface. A roaring blaze crackled in the living room fireplace, while a pine wreath with a humongous bow hung above it. Six stockings dangled from hooks on the mantel, one each for Willow, Nathan, baby Shannon, Jeremiah, Dale, and Shane Rivers. It’d been very sweet of her to include the three men in what she called her new family tradition.
However, the woman hadn’t stopped there with the decorations. Hell, she’d also gotten stockings for Ethel, her gray cat; Fred and Little Rickie; two prairie dogs that made a daily mecca to her back porch for the seeds and vegetables she left out for them; Lucy and Desi, her two goats; and Johnny and June, the ranch’s herding dogs. Those were all hanging from the top frame of the bay window Willow and Nathan had hired someone to install in the living room over the summer—Willow had always wanted one. It faced the front yard which had about a dozen giant, holiday blow-up characters scattered about since the weekend after Thanksgiving. There were also strings of Christmas lights wrapped around every porch post and spindle and hung along the eaves. Dale couldn’t imagine what their next month’s electric bill was going to look like. Willow knew she’d gone a little ... well,a lotcrazy with the decorations, but she’d told everyone she’d wanted to make their first Christmas as an extended family special. Nathan had apparently put his foot down though when she’d also wanted to order stockings for their three horses, ten chickens, and the twenty-four alpacas on the ranch—five of which had been recently weaned from their mothers and were being sold in the New Year. However, Nathan had given in when his wife had asked for a compromise of green garland and red bows hanging in the barns.
The entire house smelled like sugar, pine, burning oak, and food. Scents Dale had always associated with the holidays. Willow and Nathan didn’t know, but this was the first holiday season of his adult life that he’d spent at home with a group of people. During his time in the Marines, he’d often been halfway around the world, and then afterward, he’d either worked or spent Christmas alone. Carl Faulkner had always gone to Cheyenne to spend it with his family, leaving Dale to run the ranch for a few days—not that he’d minded. It’d been a long time since his folks had passed away, a year apart, and without siblings or close family, the holidays had lost their appeal to him. That’d changed after he’d come to work for Willow and Nathan.
Dale had forgotten how much he loved this time of year. The lights, the parties, and the smiles on children’s faces as they waited for Santa to come. It was magical.
He nodded a greeting to Anthony, Jeremiah’s foreman for the past two years or so. Most of the staff from the JP Ranch were there, Nathan and Willow having adopted the group of mostly bachelors. In his time there at Skyview, Dale had come to learn that neither of his bosses had immediate family left and were more than happy to grow their chosen family at every opportunity. They loved having people at the house and throwing small get-togethers. Now that Shannon was a little older, the baby never wanted for a pair of arms to hold her or a knee to bounce on. The child was going to grow up with the biggest passel of uncles in three counties. Poor thing wouldn’t be allowed to date,ever, by the looks of the group filling the house. It was kind of amazing to see a bunch of rough and tough cowboys going ga-ga over the little girl who hadn’t even said her first word yet and wouldn’t for a while.
Taking another sip of his beer, Dale left his post by the counter and headed into the living room, just as the front door opened, sending a gust of cold wind blowing through the house.
Shouts of “Shut the door!” were called out to the person coming in. Dale didn’t even need to see who’d entered to know it was Jeremiah. Whenever he was in the room with the gorgeous redhead, a shiver raced down his spine and his heart fluttered. It was unexplainable and frustrated him to no end. He hated that Jeremiah had even this small measure of power over him, without any effort either.
“Merry Christmas!” Willow called, shuffling over to her friend, with Shannon propped on her hip. Earlier in the day, she’d dressed the baby in a fluffy, bright-red dress, with white tights and shiny black shoes. The shoes had apparently gone missing while Dale had been in the kitchen, and if he was seeing things right, the tights were also now gone. Chuckling, he stood back, observing Jeremiah as he greeted his friends. He’d handed a basket of something off to Nathan and dropped a large, red, Santa-like sack, bulging with gifts, onto the floor, before hugging him and slapping his back. He then took Shannon from Willow, blowing raspberries on the little girls’ neck, making her giggle. Once the baby was tucked against his chest, her head resting on his shoulder, he gave Willow a one-armed hug, kissing her on the top of her head.
Dale tried not to notice how good Jeremiah looked in his dress clothes, the green of his shirt bringing out the sharp emerald of his eyes and setting off his gorgeous, thick red hair. Dale kept getting a flash of auburn chest hair and pale skin at the open collar of his shirt. He was helpless not to imagine how all that ivory and freckled skin would look spread out on his sheets. He wanted to suck hickeys on the insides of the other man’s thighs and leave finger-shaped bruises on his hips.
“Fuck,” he muttered, trying to will away his growing erection, knowing it was useless.Why did I give him that ultimatum again? Oh yeah, I’m a dumbass, that’s why.
Jeremiah’s sparkling eyes and laughter brightened the whole room, until his gaze strayed to Dale. When he saw Dale staring back at him, Jeremiah’s smile slipped, and his cheeks flushed. Dale couldn’t help himself—he winked, knowing it would get a rise out of the other man.What the hell? Are you a schoolyard bully? Picking on the person you like, instead of talking to him?
He drained the last of his beer then left the empty bottle on an end table before snagging his coat from the back of a kitchen chair and heading outside. He needed a fuckin’ cigarette.
* * *
Jeremiah forcedhis gaze away from Dale as the foreman left the room, refusing to give into the desire to chase the guy down.
Beside him, his best friend gave him a hip-check. “You know,” she said in a soft voice, “whatever’s going on with you and Dale is kinda hot to watch. The sexual tension is so high in here, I feel like I’m going to get pregnant again just being in the same room with you two.”
“Willow!” he scolded, his face flaming with embarrassment as his gaze darted around the room. There were over a dozen people there already, milling about, but no one was paying attention to him and their hostess. He lowered his voice. “You can’t ... Jesus Christ, what if someone heard you?” he hissed, leaning closer to her. “Shut. Up.”
Rolling her eyes, she gestured around them, at the house full of their friends, hired hands, and chosen family. None of them except Willow, Nathan, and now Dale had any clue he was gay. “What? You think any one of these people are going to care? Newsflash, they won’t. They love you and just want you to be happy, whatever that means to you.” Patting his cheek, none-too gently, she kissed her daughter’s head full of black curls and left him standing there with his mouth hanging open.
She was crazy. In a small town like Antelope Rock, filled with rednecks, there would be a load of judgment slammed down on him by at least half the population, if not more. However, as he looked around the room, at the men who worked for him and others he considered his friends, he wondered if maybe she could be right. When Willow had moved to the Rock, with the exception of a few uppity religious types and some others, who’d hated the father she’d never known, many of the townspeople hadn’t held her ancestry or her unusual appearance against her. She’d expected far worse, coming from Philadelphia to a town with less than 1000 people in it, with her sleeve of tattoos, her nose stud, and her short spiky hair that’d been dyed pink at the time. Maybe if the town could welcome an out-of-the-norm woman like Willow, they could accept an openly gay man, or a gay couple even, in their midst.
The thought wouldn’t leave him for hours, as he ate, changed Shannon into her jammies, fed her a bottle, and drank some beer with his hosts and their guests. Dale had come in from the porch, filled a plate, then gone back outside. Jeremiah knew that because he’d been watching the back door.
“Here, baby girl, go see Daddy.” Giggling and kicking her feet, Shannon seemed more than happy to be handed over to her adoring father. Nathan grinned and opened his arms wide to take her before cuddling his daughter close to his chest and kissing her. Jeremiah’s heart clenched, knowing he’d probably never have a child of his own. “I need some air.”
