Page 18 of The Finding Series: Vol. 1

“It turns out your town’s one vet isn’t available to treat emergencies anymore. I guess Mrs. Parson’s cat needed its yearly shots more than that calf needed saving. Damn shame your only other option is someone who likes sucking dick too,” he said with a sad shake of his head as he took the bag from the clerk. “Oh, and Mr. Henry, would you please cancel the order I placed yesterday for the lumber for my new barn? I think I’ll be taking my business elsewhere.”

The clerk’s mouth fell open at that and Rhys smiled as Dane pushed past him and left the store. Finn, still looking shell-shocked, followed the vet out the door.

“One last thing,” Rhys said as he leaned over the counter and dropped his voice. “If Finn so much as gets a hangnail the next time he comes into this town…” Rhys let his words drop off and Mr. Henry went pale. He turned and nodded politely at the gawkers, then left.

* * *

Rhys waited for the explosion he knew was coming. After he’d walked out of the store, Finn’s furious gaze had pinned him, but the younger man had kept it together long enough to say his goodbyes to Dane. Rhys had settled in the passenger seat and waited for the shouting to commence, but Finn had remained silent. But when Rhys had mentioned he’d needed to stop and get a hat and a couple of shirts, Finn had completely ignored him and steered the truck back to the ranch.

The truck flew up the dirt road leading to the ranch, dust and gravel shooting up in its wake. The vehicle came within inches of slamming into the side of the barn before Finn smashed down the brakes and the truck lurched to a halt. Finn barreled out the door and stormed into the barn. Rhys trailed after him and leaned against one of the stall doors as he waited for Finn to unleash his fury.

“You had no fucking right,” Finn said bitterly, his back to Rhys. Rhys remained silent which seemed to piss Finn off further. He swung around, stalked up to Rhys and threw a punch. Rhys had been expecting it though, and easily caught the fist aimed at his face. He shoved Finn back up against the door and held him there, pinning his wrists to the door. But Finn wasn’t about to submit and head butted Rhys. The glancing blow had him seeing stars, but he managed to maintain his hold on Finn.

“Stop it!” he snarled.

“Go to hell!”

“Rhys.” Callan’s voice came from somewhere behind him and Rhys chuckled harshly, but kept his eyes on Finn.

“Running to his rescue again, Callan?” Rhys said and he felt Finn lurch against him once more as he tried to escape.

“What’s going on?” Callan asked. Rhys was amazed the other man hadn’t pulled him off Finn. Finn seemed caught off guard by Callan’s lack of action too because he stilled in Rhys’ grip.

“You couldn’t just let it go, could you Rhys?” Finn said snidely. “A couple more weeks and it all would have been over, but no, you had to play the big hero! Do you really think you made everything better? That you changed anything at all?” Finn shouted. “You get to leave in six months. He doesn’t,” Finn said, his eyes shifting behind Rhys, presumably to Callan. “Now they’ll never stop coming at him!”

“Finn,” Callan began.

“No! He had no right. It was my fight!” Finn said.

“Not if you stop fucking fighting, it’s not!” Rhys responded sharply.

“My choice! Not yours!” Finn yelled and shoved Rhys hard. Rhys let him go and Finn pushed past him and stormed out of the barn. Rhys slammed his hand into the wood and closed his eyes as the stinging pain shot through him.

He felt Callan behind him, then felt the other man take his hand and examine it. “Talk to me, Rhys. Tell me what went down.”

Rhys pulled his hand free. He gave Callan a quick rundown of what had transpired in town.

“You did the right thing,” Callan observed. “He’ll see that.”

“Doesn’t matter. I’m done with this shit,” Rhys said, but Callan grabbed him by the arm, preventing his escape.

“Come take a ride with me. It’ll help you cool down and I could use a hand checking the fences.” Callan’s touch was strong and soothing and Rhys wished he could sink into the man for just a minute and absorb some of his strength. He settled for a quick nod and followed Callan out to the pasture to get the horses.

ChapterNine

Finn went on instant alert when he heard the sound of a car approaching. He was in the process of bringing the horses in for their evening feeding and for the first time in the hours since his blowout with Rhys, he’d finally started to relax. But the possible new threat had him scurrying to the tack room to get the rifle Cal had left him for exactly such a scenario. He checked to make sure the gun was loaded, then went to the front of the barn. Relief went through him at the sight of Dane Winters getting his baby from the car seat out of the back seat of his SUV.

“Hello again,” Dane said as he slung a diaper bag over his shoulder and closed the door. “That some kind of Montana greeting?” he asked as he glanced at the rifle Finn was still holding, the barrel pointed at the ground.

Finn finally remembered the gun and said, “No, sorry,” and he quickly returned the gun to the tack room. He went back to Dane who was busy showing his daughter the few horses that Finn had gotten into their stalls. The baby made a few gurgling sounds and waved her hands and a huge grin spilled across Dane’s handsome features. Cal had mentioned that Dane would be boarding his horse at the ranch for a while, but beyond that Finn knew nothing about the man. Well, he supposed that wasn’t true anymore since Dane’s little show of support had revealed a pretty important detail about the other man’s life.

“We just wanted to come and feed Kirby a couple of carrots if that’s okay,” Dane said as he repositioned the baby so she was nestled in the crook of one arm.

“He’s still outside. I’ll go get him,” Finn offered.

“We’ll go with you if it’s not too far of a walk,” Dane said with a smile as he tickled the baby’s chubby cheeks with one of his big fingers. The sight set off a longing inside of Finn that he hadn’t known he had. When he’d brought up the issue of having kids someday to Cal the night he’d given his notice, the words had been spoken to bolster his argument and represented some far off time in his life. But seeing the open love this man – this gay man – had for his child had Finn realizing it was something he really did want.

“Um, it’s just up the hill. Not far,” Finn managed to say.

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