Indiana Summer - 19. Agreements

Disclaimer: This story includes sexual and romantic situations between consenting individuals. Allusions to illicit or illegal activity, sexual or otherwise, may be used for enhancement of the story line and not as promotion thereof. Remember AIDS, HIV and other STDs are a very real threat; please always practice safe sex. I can prove copyright on this story so please do not copy or remove this story for personal use without my permission.

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Indiana Summer19: Agreement

At dinner, we didn’t talk about me staying; at least not with Mr. Templeton. He had called just as we were sitting down for dinner and talked with Annie. We didn’t hear much but I caught something about a tractor needing repair.

“Dad has been spending a lot of time down at the Murphy farm this year.” Billy commented while we ate.

“Is that weird?” I asked, spearing a piece of fried fish from the platter in the middle of the table.

“A bit, yea. I mean, dad and Mr. Murphy have always been friendly but I can’t remember him being down there this much before.” Billy replied thoughtfully.

“I doubt that’s anything to worry about. Jack has had bad luck with farm hands this year and he is getting on in years. I imagine that it’s stressful trying to run such a large farm by himself.” Annie spoke idly as she ate.

Billy didn’t look convinced by her statement and I had to admit that it didn’t sit well with me either. Something seemed off.

“If that’s the case, I wonder why he hasn’t had me come back to work. I’m no great shakes at mechanics but I’m good at general labor.” Billy and I were thinking along the same lines, it seemed.

“I imagine he hasn’t had you come back for the same reason he can’t keep any other farm hands; he doesn’t want to pay what the work is worth. Norma would always complain about that, how cheap he was.” Annie replied off hand.

“Norma?” Billy asked curiously.

“Jack’s wife, you should remember her. She taught you in Sunday School.” Annie replied with a smile.

Billy looked confused for a moment, as if he was trying to come up with a long forgotten memory before he smiled.

“Yea I remember her now. She’d always wear her hair back in a braid and would give us Starburst when we got the Bible questions right,” Billy’s small smile became fond at the memory before turning to worry, “Whatever happened with her? I don’t remember her passing away.”

“Oh no, she didn’t pass; at least not as far as anyone knows. To tell the truth it’s a bit of mystery. All anyone really knows is that several years ago she just up and let one night. Jack never said where she when or why she left. Madeline used to hear from her every now and then but I’ve never thought to ask. Everyone is entitled to their secrets after all.” Annie replied cryptically as she took a sip of water.

Billy must have caught onto my unasked question cause he spoke up again.

“Madeline is Walkers mom. We always called her Maddening Madeline when we were kids because she would get this really severe look when Walker got into trouble.” Billy smiled again, I was glad he had some good memories of his childhood.

“You never called her that where she could hear you though.” Annie smiled.

“Of course we didn’t….we saw the whoopings she gave Walker…we weren’t gonna sign up for it too.” Billy laughed and I had to join in.

After dinner, Billy and me did the dishes and went to collect the horses from the corral.

“Looks like we finished just in time.” I told him as the wind picked up. It had been warm and sunny all day but the humidity had been getting worse as the day progressed and fat, gray clouds started to roll in at about four or five.

Billy leaned his head back and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath through his nose.

“Oh yea, you can smell the rain. It’s gonna pour buckets tonight. We’d better get these guys back fast unless we want to get caught in it.”

We broke into a jog and got to the corral just as the first fat drops started to fall.

“Cover the hay and I’ll get them hooked up.” Billy nodded at the feed trough as he scooped up the horse leads.

Quick as I could I pulled the tarp and bungee cords from under the trough and even when one of the bungee cords broke and snapped back across my forearm I managed to get it secured enough to keep it from blowing off before Billy got the horses done.

The rain hadn’t increased but the wind was picking up fast and it seemed to be spooking Shadow and Speckle. Billy already had the two of them clipped to their leads but they were pulling against him. I realized that he hadn’t hooked Elder up yet so I moved forward to help him.

“No, no way. The way they’re acting they might spook and run,” Billy gritted out and handed me Elder’s lead, “Go get Elder, I’ll take care of them.”

I’d gladly be trampled to death by the two geldings rather than try to lead the stallion back to the barn. I had made some progress with Elder but I still didn’t trust him as fully as Billy did.

Standing off the side, Elder seemed calm. It looked like he was watching Billy with the others, trying to decide whether to get involved.

‘I’ve officially lost my damn mind…I’m assigning logic and reason to a horse.’ I chided myself as I stepped forward and clipped on his lead. Elder followed me almost placidly as I led him out of the corral, one hand on his lead while I shielded my eyes from the wind and rain with the other.

Billy was still struggling with Shadow and Speckle but had managed to get them out of the corral. With a gentle tug at Elder’s lead I sped up so I could walk with them, I wanted to be close just in case something happened with the other two.

Soon as we got next to them, Elder got twitchy on his lead. Before I could pull him away, he knocked his side against Speckle, who in turned bumped against Shadow. The nudge was enough to make the two of them stumble, but before either of us could do anything, the two of them righted themselves and we kept going. I didn’t realize until we got back to the barn what had happened.

“How did he do that?” I asked once we had the three of them secured in the stall.

“How did who do what?” Billy asked distractedly as he rolled up the damp towels that we had used to dry the horses.

“You know who and what. How did Elder calm them down like that. He barely nudged them. He just showed up and suddenly they were fine. I don’t understand.” I walked over to Elder’s stall as I spoke; he was standing there staring at me with his big, liquid brown eyes.

“I’d be a liar if I said I understand everything about horse behavior, or even elder’s behavior for that matter,” Billy stepped up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist and rested his chin on my shoulder, “Horses are a herd animal and in the wild the heard is almost always led by the Alpha Mare. In a domestic heard you usually keep the stallion separate and either a gelding or a mare leads the herd.

Our little heard is different though, Elder has always been the one in charge. If you let them out to wander on their own outside the corral, they follow Elder wherever he goes and if they walk away, he herds them back. If they get scared because of a storm, he calms them down. I don’t know how he does it but he does. Elder is unusual for a stallion. They usually aren’t as cooperative as he is.”

“Why did y’all never have Elder gelded?” I asked curiously.

“Originally Dad bought Elder to breed. He comes from real good stock; we could have probably made a killing in stud fees. After that plan went bust though, dad seemed to lose interest in anything that concerned Elder.” Billy answered as he pulled away and moved over to the barn door, the rain had picked up and looked to be working itself into a deluge.

“Why didn’t the stud thing work out?” I asked, leaning against the other part of the barn door.

“We don’t know for sure. It was a few years after he had scratched dad when he was defending me. We found a good mare, made all the arrangements, worked out fees and cost and everything. When it came down to it though the mare always rejected Elder, wouldn’t let him close to her. We tried a few different times but the result was always the same; either the mare would reject him or he would reject her.

Dad consulted a few seasoned breeders and they told him that it was strange to have so many unsuccessful attempts, especially since we tried different mares each time. A few suggested we try using him for artificial insemination but by that time dad was frustrated and gave up on it.” Billy answered sadly.

“You really wanted him to succeed though didn’t you?” I asked, moving over to his side.

“Yea, I know it sounds creepy but that was my mind set back then. Dad was always so angry with me, with Elder. I thought that if it worked than maybe he’d calm down. Dad has always been obsessed with making money. I figured if he got what he wanted it’d get him off our backs…and maybe one day I’d get another foal to raise. I loved working and raising Elder so much. That’s what I’d like to do the rest of my life, breed horses, raise’em and train’em,” Billy replied, smiling.

“You’ll get there you know,” I told Billy as I wrapped my arms around him and leaned on him, “You’re smart, determined and if you can take a damaged horse like Elder and make him into what he is now then you could probably do anything. I think anyone who knew yours and Elder’s story would be happy to own a horse you train.” I told him quietly, making him smile wider.

“Maybe sometime in the future, let’s focus on getting back inside without getting washed away first though.” Billy replied, looking out into the rain that hadn’t slacked off at all.

“Unless you got some umbrellas or rain coats in here I don’t think that’s gonna happen.” I smiled when Billy shook his head.

“I guess we’re getting wet then…really, really wet.” Billy replied, pulling away to do one last check on the horses. We made sure that the three of them were comfortable, closed the big doors to guard against the wind and water, and went to a smaller side door.

“You want to go first?” I asked, nodding toward the dark curtain of rain.

“Do I look like a moron to you?” He asked in return, his eyebrow cocked.

“Not especially, no…so we go together.” I replied, turning back to look toward the house.

“Yea, sure…together. You first, though.” Before I could do or say anything in response Billy shoved me by the shoulder and I tumbled out into the cold onslaught, barely managing to stay on my feet.

“YOU ASS!” I roared at Billy as I pelted for the house. Billy didn’t have a reply, though; it seemed he jumped into the fray just after he shoved me out.

We sprinted to the house, pushing and shoving whenever we got into arms range and reached the back porch, soaked and shaking.

“That was a d..d..dirty fucking th.th.thing to do Billy boy.” I did my best to glare at him but the adorable redneck just smiled at me before wrapping his arms around me.

“I’ll get you nice and warm tonight.” Billy promised, as he ran his hands up and down my back.

Billy pulled away before I could do anything, and it was just as well as Annie opened the door a moment later, holding two large, fluffy towels.

“You boys really need to be more careful,” She said as she tossed the towels toward us, “Why on earth didn’t you just stay in the barn till this rain subsided. You could have cut open a straw bale and used the horse blankets to keep warm.” Annie continued to chide as she ushered us into the laundry room.

Neither of us said anything, just grinned like a couple of idiots, while she made us strip off our boots and socks. Once barefooted, and on her orders, we headed upstairs to strip out of our soaked clothes.

We paid a little more attention to each other than we really should have given how fucking cold we were but neither of us seemed to be able to look anywhere else. Once we were down to our boxers, we kind of just stopped and looked at each other. With a shy smile, Billy moved over to me, hooked his thumbs under my waistband, and pushed them down till they slid freely down my legs.

Given how cold I was, my package wasn’t as impressive as it usually was, shrunken up against my body, Billy didn’t seem to mind. Before I could do it for him, he stripped out of his boxer briefs and grabbed his blanket off the bed.

Billy wrapped the blanket around me then moved until we were pressed flush, front-to-front, and wrapped his arms around my waist.

“Better?” He whispered against my neck and I could hear a genuine note of concern in his voice.

Feeling a little bad, I grabbed the edges of the blanket and wrapped it and my arms around him.

“Now I’m feeling a lot better…isn’t this kind of risky though?” I asked, I really wasn’t too worried but I needed the distraction. Just having a naked Billy against me was stimulating enough for my cock to perk up and it really wasn’t safe to try something this early.

“Not really…mom always knocks and we’d hear dad’s boots on the stairs.” Billy replied as he wriggled against me, the ass knew what he was doing.

“You know what I’d really like to do?” I shouldn’t have been having the thoughts I was but I couldn’t help it.

“What would that be?” Billy asked, letting his hands move down to cup my ass cheeks.

“I’d like to get you in a nice hot shower and be able to run my slick soapy hands all over your body.” I whispered back, nuzzling my nose against his neck.

Billy shuddered against me and rubbed his cheek along my shoulder.

“We have got to get my parents out of the house so we can make that a reality.” Billy replied huskily.

I don’t know how long we stood under the blanket, but it was long enough for our combined heat to start affecting certain parts of our bodies. Before things could go too far I eased myself away from Billy, making him frown in the process.

“Speaking of showers, I need one. Why don’t you continue to warm up while I hop in, then you can take your turn.” Billy didn’t seem too keen on the idea but he did it anyway.

I pulled on a pair shorts and after grabbing my toiletries headed for the bathroom.

The wind had picked up so much that I could hear it over the cascade of the shower. It was still just rain and wind though, no thunder or lightening, thankfully.

A particularly loud gust, which sounded like there was a pack of howling dogs on the roof, sounded just as I turned the water off and stepped out. I was lucky enough to get my boxers and shorts before the power was gone.

I had to take deep breathes as I ranged around in the dark for my stuff. I’m not afraid of the dark, not in the traditional sense, but I hated moving around in pitch black. Even though I know it’s dumb, in the back of my mind I always expect something to jump out at me or to fall on the edge of something.

‘I probably should have listened to mom and dad when they told me not to watch those horror movies as a kid.’ I thought silently as I groped in the darkness, trying to find the doorknob.

Just as my fingers met the cool, smooth metal though, it twisted and the door suddenly opened. I will deny to my dying day that I jumped back when that happened, or that I shrieked like a girl.

“Relax, it’s just me. Are you alright?” Billy stepped into the bathroom, flash light beam illuminating the floor.

“I’m fine, just didn’t expect that to happen.” I clutched my toiletries tight, hoping to hide the post adrenaline rush shaking I was doing.

“You’re not afraid of the dark are you?” I couldn’t see his face but I could tell from his tone that he was worried.

“No…well, not how you’d think at least.” I told him as he moved closer to me.

“Come on, let’s get back to the bedroom, I’ve got an oil lamp set up.” Billy put a hand on the small of my back and guided me back to the bedroom. It was kind of sweet.

The oil lamp was set up on the table between Billy’s bed and mine. If I wasn’t still feeling a bit shaken up than I would have thought it was romantic the way it made the room sort of glow.

After I stored my stuff, Billy pulled me over to his bed and pushed me to sit down. Billy flicked the flashlight off and tweaked the size of the lamps fire before sitting down next to me and dragging me up to his side. It wasn’t until then that I noticed that Billy had gotten dressed.

“You sure you’re ok?” Billy asked, wrapping an arm around my waist.

“I’m fine, just a few too many horror movies at a young, impressionable age.” I joked and Billy laughed with me.

“You’re lucky. I didn’t get to see a horror movie until I was thirteen.” Billy replied, sounding a little bit envious.

“Seriously,” I asked and Billy nodded, “That’s kind of sad. Every kid should get the chance to be scared shitless before the age of ten.” Billy laughed a bit as I rested my head on his shoulder.

“Seth used to try to sneak me into the room to watch with him but mom was always extremely vigilant. The closest I came was ghost stories when we went camping.” Nostalgia crept into Billy’s voice.

“We need to find some time for you to call Seth again.” I said quietly and Billy pressed a kiss to the top of my head.

“I can’t thank you enough for that, babe. You don’t know how much being able to talk to him means to me.” Billy whispered against my hair.

I sat up and moved until I was straddling Billy’s hips and pressed a quick kiss to his lips before I answered.

“I do know how much it means to you, and you don’t have to thank me for it. I’m just sorry that it took me so long to come up with it.” I told him as I wrapped my arms around his neck.

“You came up with it just in time.” Billy smiled as he rested his hands on my hips.

Smiling, I leaned in until my bare chest was pressed against the smooth, worn cotton of his tank top and rested my head on his shoulder.

Billy wrapped his arms around my waist and nuzzled into my neck.

“You want to lay with me tonight?” He asked quietly.

It really was an easy question, yes, I did want to lay with him, but I was worried about his folks coming up and catching us.

“What do you think our chances are at getting caught?” I asked in return, pulling back so I could see his face.

“Not very high, I was down stairs when the power went so mom knows we’re ok and dad doesn’t come upstairs unless he absolutely has to. I don’t know why, I think he might have a fear of heights, he always seems uneasy up here.” Billy answered with that shy little smile I loved so much.

Even though I still had a few reservations, I let Billy maneuver the two of us around until we were lying comfortably. Billy reached over and turn the wick on the lamp down until it went out, pushing the room into darkness, before snuggling down against my chest. “I could get used to this.” His breath ghosted over my skin as he spoke.

“That’s the idea, babe.”

Before I let myself drift off to sleep, I spoke again.

“If your dad ain’t around tomorrow we should try and find time to let your mom use the cell phone.

“Yea…she’d really like that. I don’t think she’ll mind that you got the phone either.”

“Good, because I hadn’t thought about that.” We both laughed.

It really was nice falling asleep with Billy wrapped around me. With any luck, this would get to be a common occurrence.

***   

David didn’t think it would be too much of an issue finding time to let mom know about his phone or get in contact with Seth, and usually he’d be right. From the minute we got up though, (which was hard as fuck to do when you’ve got a half-naked David Baily wrapped around you), we had been busy.

The power was back by morning but the wind had done a good bit of damage that we had to take care of in addition to the rest of our chores.

“How the fuck am I supposed to build a door?” David complained as he looked over the remains of the small side door on the barn.

Somehow, the wind had managed to not only rip it clean off its hinges but also break it into three pieces.

“After everything we’ve done, building a door is what you have a problem with?” I asked, hefting the posthole diggers and shovel.

“If I had the right wood, then no, it wouldn’t be a problem. Building a sturdy one from this leftover scrap though, is the bitch.” David complained, waving his arm toward our leftover woodpile.

I did a quick look around and moved up behind him. I wrapped an arm around his waist and let it drift over his groin.

“I guess this kind of wood wouldn’t work either?” I asked against his neck before dropping my arm and stepping back. Dad had been around all day, tending to the fields.

“You are an evil man Billy.” David growled, rearranging his cock.

“Would you be able to use some of the wood from the busted corral posts?” I offered. The wind had gotten severe enough to snap a few of the older posts that made up the corral.

“If they aren’t too rotted then I might able to use some of it. Let’s go check it out.” David tucked some work gloves into his back pockets and followed me down. “These look pretty good, are you sure you won’t need them?” David asked as he examined the treated timbers.

“Nope, Walker is supposed to be bringing some new pieces before it gets dark. Can you get these back by yourself or do you need a hand?”

“Nope just load up my other arm.” David replied as he hefted two of the boards on one shoulder. I laid the others across his other shoulder and watched as he carefully walked back to the barn.

Once David was out of sight, I started to dig up what was left of the broken poles. Two or three feet of the poles had been buried so I had to dig fairly deep before I could work them out.

No matter how what I was doing or how much I worked, I couldn’t help but worry about telling mom about David’s phone. I knew it was unlikely that she’d be too mad but with the odd little things she’d been doing lately, I wasn’t as sure.

The prospect of her being able to talk to Seth I’m sure would be a huge point in the ‘Not getting our asses kicked’ column, but it was getting there that might be an issue.

“Hey Billy.” The demure greeting shocked me out of my thoughts.

Standing my shovel up in the pile of dirt I had dug I turned to find Sam standing shyly behind me. “Hey Sammy. What you doing up here?” I asked neutrally. We hadn’t talked a whole lot since her last blow up at me over David’s and my plan for him to stay.

Sam chewed absently at her lower lip for a moment, always a sign that she was nervous, before she spoke up.

“I come to apologize,” Sam said heavily, “Look I don’t like this idea that you two have come up with. I think that you are moving way too fast but that doesn’t give me the right to be a bitch about it.”

I’d known Sam long enough to know that this somewhat back handed apology was the best I was going to get.

“I really do love David. I know you think that this ain’t gonna last, and the truth is you might be right; but I’ve never wanted anything as much as I want this; and really, what’s the worst that could happen?” I rushed the words out.

“Exactly baby…there is so much bad that could happen. What happens if your dad finds out about it, or what if he decides that he doesn’t want to be with you, or that you don’t want to be with him?” Sam’s desperate tone made it clear that these were the core issues she’d been holding back.

I moved up to Sam and wrapped her in a hug before I answered her.

“Dad’ll flip out about me whether I’m with David or I ain’t. At least with him here it wouldn’t be too bad. As for the rest, I don’t know. I know you don’t want to hear it but we haven’t talked about what happens if one of us falls out of love. I guess what happens to any couple. We both move on.” It was a big admission to make and while I knew having it with Sam was a bad idea, having it, period, was a good thing.

“When did you get to be so grown up?” Sam asked against my chest.

“I don’t know. I guess it’s better late than never though.” I smiled and Sam chuckled.

We stood holding on to each other for a few more minutes before Sam pulled away.

“So, I’m guessing that you’re cleaning up from the wind last night. Anything major happen?” Sam asked in her best nonchalant voice.

I broke down everything that had happened while I went back to working on digging out the posts.

“You guys got hit hard. The worst thing that happened down my way was some of mom’s potted plants blew over, which is a big deal to her. Do you know if Walker got a lot of damage?” Sam asked as I tossed my shovel aside.

“Yea, he said that there wasn’t anything messed up too bad around his way. He’s supposed to be bringing me some new posts here soon.” I answered.

“You need a hand with that?” She asked as I gripped the post below the snapped area.

“Nope, just stand back. I don’t want to hit you.” I replied and Sam took a few paces back.

Planting my feet, I tightened my grip and pushed up with my legs. The strain in my shoulders told me that it wasn’t going to budge. I shimmied the board around in the hole a bit, trying to loosen it up, before trying again.

The shimming did the trick. With bit of squelching sound, the board lifted free. I wasn’t fast enough to rebalance myself though so before I knew it I was on my butt in the dirt. Sam rushed forward, laughing the entire time, and offered me a hand up.

“I’m fine by the way.” I growled at her and tossed the board aside. Sam just kept laughing.

“I’m not laughing about that,” Sam finally managed, “I was just thinking about you and that board, and you and David and the thoughts and the images got crossed and I just kind of lost it.”

It took me a minute to get what Sam was talking about but once I was able to get all the pieces put together, I couldn’t help but laugh a little myself.

“How the hell do you go from disapproving of our relationship to making cracked sex imagery?” I asked as I moved over to the other broken post.

“I don’t know.” Sam managed to gasp out before going into another laughing fit.

I just smiled, shook my head, and went back to work.

***

With the measurements confirmed, I checked the placement of the hinges and screwed them into place. Putting the door itself up would have to wait until Billy came up from the corral to keep it steady for me.

“It looks great. Are those the old corral posts?” Annie’s voice sounded behind me and I turned to see her standing in the doorway of the barn.

“Yep; they were just what I needed. It’s was Billy’s idea, pure brilliance.” I smiled as I complimented Billy. It really was a good idea.

“Honey you can stop kissing up, He ain’t around and I’m already on yall’s side. That’s why I’m here. I was wondering if William had said anything to you today.” She asked quietly as she glanced over her shoulder.

“No, ma’am, he hasn’t. I haven’t really seen him a lot today though; he’s been out in the field. Billy said there were some stalks that had been up rooted, and he took off a few minutes ago.” I replied and Annie nodded.

“I didn’t think so. He hasn’t mentioned anything to me either. Not that it means anything. I’m sure he’s just thinking it over. If he doesn’t say anything before then, I’ll bring it up over dinner.” Annie sounded like she was talking more to herself but I nodded along with her anyway. “Well, I just wanted to check. I’ll let you get back to work.”

Before she could go, I decided that this might be the best chance I had to talk to her about my phone.

“Hold on a sec, I…I need to talk to you about something.” Annie looked quizzically at my rushed words. I felt a bit awkward about talking about this without Billy but this might be the only chance I had.

Before I could talk myself out of it, I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and held it out to her before explaining. “You sure your uncle won’t mind?” She asked calmly. I admit I hadn’t been expecting that.

“No ma’am, not at all. All I have to do is explain it to him and he’ll be right as rain. ” I replied, not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“Just to be clear, I don’t approve of what your Uncle did,” I knew that other shoe was going to drop, “But if you get a minute where you can call and let Billy talk to Seth than do it. We’ll work on getting me in there next time. If you’re ok with this happening more than once that is?” Annie asked with a smile, and really, how could I say no?

“Technically this would be his second time. You see, that is the other bit. Billy talked to him a little while back. I’m telling you now so you can give him a call too…before things get…busy.” It felt kind of wrong to be telling Annie to do something behind the old man’s back but I squashed the feeling fast by thinking of what he had put Billy and the rest of the family through.

Annie looked a little awestruck, an expression I wasn’t sure I liked on her, as she reached out and took my phone. She looked at it, then at me, then back at it before she opened it.

“Press the green button twice, his number is the most recently dialed. Me and Billy will be up to the house in a bit.” I smiled before turning back to my door.

I didn’t turn back around until her footsteps faded. I moved over to the big doors and saw her disappear into the house.

I decided not to wait around so I headed down to the corral to let Billy know what had gone down. It was a bit crazy but as I walked down to the corral, I had to fight the urge to start running. I really wanted to see Billy. It had been one of the few days that we hadn’t worked together. The most I’d seen him was when he and Sam came up to drill holes in the new boards that Walker had brought.

It was nice to see the two of them, yes even Sam. I knew that Billy had had a falling out with her and it seemed that they had worked it out; and I hadn’t seen Walker in a while. Walker though had his own work to do so he hadn’t stuck around and Sam had left with him. I had helped Billy with the boards but we didn’t get to talk much, and then he was back to the corral.

Billy looked to be tying up the last rope as I got closer; he was squatting down with his back to me so I let out a loud whistle to let him know I was coming. Billy looked over his shoulder and even at that distance, I could see the smile that broke over his face.

Without even realizing I was doing it, I quickened my pace until I was almost running. Billy met me at the corral gate, grabbing the top and vaulting over it like he’d done a million times. I got there just as Billy was righting his footing and without thinking about it, I wrapped my arms around his waist and tucked my nose against his neck.

“You missed me or something?” Billy rumbled in my ear as he wrapped his arms around my waist. “Crazy as it might sound, yea, I really did miss you.” I mumbled against his skin, letting the scent of sweat and Billy trickle into my lungs.

“It ain’t crazy. I’ve missed you too.” Billy pressed a kiss to my neck as he spoke.

I held onto him a bit longer before I decided that I should probably do what I came down here to do before we went back to the house.

“You didn’t have to do that alone; you could’ve come and got me.” Billy chided me but I just shook my head.

“No, I couldn’t have, I don’t know how long your dad is going to be gone for. I had an opening so I grabbed it. Besides, it’s ok; things went pretty much exactly how you thought they would.”

“You shouldn’t have, but thank you, for everything.” Billy smiled and pulled me into another hug and pressed a kiss to the side of my neck.

“You’re welcome Billy. Let’s go up to the house before we go back to the barn. I need your help to put up the door and we’re all done.” I pulled away and led him up to the house; he let his hand brush back and forth against mine as we walked.

 ***   

We headed to the kitchen when we got back to the house and found momma at the sink. Soon as we walked in, she game up and threw her arms around me, holding tight. David smiled and moved over to the sink and drank a glass of water while I asked mom about her call. Like mine had been, it was a short and sweet conversation with a promise of a longer one in the near future. She smiled the whole time but as she did, I couldn’t help but think something was a little off with her, it wasn’t anything I could put my finger on but she seemed a little…lost.

‘Definitely need to find more time for her to call him soon.’ I thought to myself as she gave me a kiss on the cheek and left the kitchen.

“You good to go?” I asked David, moving over to the sink. He was staring out the window and didn’t answer, “Hey, you ok?” I nudged him with my shoulder as I spoke.

David jumped and shook his head, as if he was trying to clear his thoughts, before smiling and handing me the glass of water he’d gotten.

“Ready when you are. Let’s get this done.” David smiled but it seemed a stiff.

I couldn’t help but feel that something was off with him too but I was feeling too emotionally drained to figure it out just then. I needed a bit of work to get my head right and then I’d make sure that everything was okay with him.

“I’m ready to go, I want this day over so I can get some sleep.” I winked at him, hoping to let him know that I wasn’t really interested in sleep.

“Yea, me too. Let’s go.” David smiled, a real one this time, and grabbed my arm and drug me out to the barn.

***  

It took us twice as long to get the new door up as it should have.

I’ll take the blame for that. I was too distracted by what I had seen in the kitchen. Usually Billy and his mom hugging didn’t bother me, at least, not anymore, but the sudden intensity coupled with the view from the kitchen window...I was freaked.

‘I need to relax, even if she had seen us it wasn’t like we were making out. From that distance, it would have looked like I was comforting a friend…which is what I was doing.’ I told myself silently; as I completely missed the nail I was aiming at and damn near smoked my thumb with the hammer.

“Whoa, careful David, that’s a good way to break a knuckle.” Billy nudged me as he held the door in place.

“Yea…got sweat in my eyes; not to mention that normal folks do this with screws.” I replied as I wiped my hand across my face and tried to get my head together.

“Yea well we don’t have any that’ll fit. You wanna swap with me?” Billy asked with a small smile.

“Yea that’s a good idea. Besides, I do enough pounding in this relationship.” I leered at Billy, hoping to make him stutter or blush. I was a bit disappointed when it didn’t work though.

I guess he was getting better at innuendo.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Billy smiled as he pounded in the nail that I had nearly busted my knuckle working on, “So far as I know we haven’t got to the pounding part of our relationship yet.”

Maybe it was the worry that Annie had saw us together down at the corral, the way Billy managed to keep a completely straight face while saying it or maybe it was just the joke itself; or maybe it was all of it together. Either way I was laughing so hard that I had to clutch the door to keep from hitting the ground.

Billy had chuckled at his joke but nothing like what I was doing. It got to the point where I knew I was becoming a bit hysterical but I couldn’t stop until Billy had grabbed me and pulled me into the barn, dragging the door so that it sat securely in the frame.

“Hey…you need to calm down. Are you alright?” Billy’s hands came to rest on my shoulders as he spoke and the seriousness in his voice calmed me down.

Too out of breath at that moment to talk, I wrapped my arms around Billy’s waist and pulled him close, letting my head rest on his shoulder.

“It’s alright; you know you can talk to me.” Billy whispered, pulling me tight against him.

I wanted to tell him my suspicions about his mom seeing us but I didn’t want to scare him. Even if I couldn’t imagine Annie being upset that Billy was gay I knew he wouldn’t see it like that; until she told him herself and I knew it was too much for Billy to come out to his family at this point.

Instead, I hedged and used his dad as an excuse.

“I’m just freaking about what your dad might say,” I said into his shoulder, “He said we’d talk but we never did and he hasn’t said anything about it today; to me or your mom. She told me to wait and she’d work on it but… I’m worried about how it will go.”

“And how did me making a sex joke turn into you having a meltdown over that?” Billy sounded somewhere between confused and amused.

“I don’t know. It was funny, especially for you. I guess it just got sort of mixed up and got out of my control.” It wasn’t a great explanation but I didn’t understand it all myself.

Billy nodded and held onto me for a minute longer before pulling away.

“Don’t bottle up things like that, David. You can talk to me; I’m a big boy. I want to be able to help and comfort you like you’ve done for me.” All trace of amusement was gone now and in their place was a little bit of hurt.

Mindful that we risked getting caught at any minute, and that we still had a door to hang up; I leaned in and gave him a fast kiss before stepping back.

“I know babe…I’m sorry. I promise that I’ll work on that. I guess I’m just not used to sharing.” I told him sincerely and Billy nodded, looking relieved.

“Let’s get this door done. It’s the last thing we’ve got to do today and I want to get it done. Maybe if we’re lucky we can sneak in a quick ride before dinner.” Billy’s stress on the word ‘ride’ made it clear he wasn’t just thinking about the horses.

After we had the door up, we did manage to go for that ride. Sadly, though, Annie told us we couldn’t be gone long as dinner was almost done. Part of me wanted to think that she was doing it on purpose but another part told me that I was being paranoid.

So, instead of taking off through the woods like we usually did, we took a quick ride down to the bridge and back. We even put Speckle on a lead attached to Elder’s saddle so that he could get some exercise too.

Even that short of a ride though, pushed our time frame to the max. After getting the horses wiped down and stowed back in their stalls, we barely had enough time to wash up before dinner.

Mr. Templeton was at the table when we came back down from washing up and I was worried he might say something about us not being showered before dinner, as we usually were. He didn’t say anything though, in fact his only acknowledgement that we were there was a slight nod as we sat down.

Dinner went on pretty much as it always did. The old man was silent while the three of us talked. Annie wanted to know about all the repairs we had done. Like she always did, she applauded our work and congratulated us on our ingenuity on the new side door.

“I looked at that while you two were gone. It was good work. Who did it?” Mr. Templeton broke his silence so suddenly it left the three of us stunned for a moment.

It also could have been the fact that he had actually said something nice about our work.

“I suggested using the scraps from the corral posts but David put it together.” Billy found his tongue before I did and spoke up.

The old man nodded and took a few more bites of food before he spoke again.

“You too do pretty decent work together. If you’re still interested city boy, and you can get your daddy to agree…I guess you can stay for a while. I expect you to work and pull your weight though. No slacking off.” The old man never took his eyes off his plate and his tone couldn’t have been more grudging but I didn’t care…HE SAID YES!

“You won’t regret it sir. I’ll send off a letter to my dad tomorrow and ask him to get in touch so we can talk. If he says yes, I promise you won’t regret it.” I swore and Mr. Templeton nodded.

“Make sure I don’t, otherwise you’ll be on the first bus back to Hollywood.” Just like that, the conversation was over and he went back to his food; not that he ever really stopped eating. His demeanor made it clear that the topic was closed for the moment.

I looked from Billy to Annie; the looks they wore made it plain that they were just as shocked that he said yes I was. I guess I wasn’t the only one doubting he would.

After a second, Annie, following William’s silent order, smiled wide and winked at me. Billy though managed to slip his hand under the table and rest it on my leg. He squeezed tight and I looked over at him.

I swear the smile he wore could have brightened up and entire city.

 *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************

I want to thank Rush for her work in editing, without her I would be nowhere. As always, I love to get your thoughts and opinions so feel free to email me at allenarcane88@yahoo.com, drop me a PM, write me a review or visit the discussion forum.

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