Studs, Spurs, and Stephanotis - 1. Chapter 1

Luke

“ARE YOU ready to order, sir? Sir?”

“Yeah, one sec…”

Firmly aware of just how little control he had over his life lately, Luke Sylvane pensively perused the daily coffee selection in the new coffee shop that catered mostly to the recent influx of young hipsters, and the few locals who wanted to put his small town through a new culinary reinvention. Luke however, wasn’t interested in a cultural renaissance. The last thing he needed in his life right now was another change that he couldn’t control. If he’d had more time after showering off the scents of morning chores left behind from working on his horse ranch on an uncharacteristically warm fall morning, he’d have brewed his own damn coffee in the ancient, but perfectly serviceable coffeemaker in his kitchen to the exact specifications he liked- Folgers Classic Roast brewed so hot, the tip of his tongue and throat were usually angry at him for at least an hour most days after he finished his first cup in less than five sips. By the second cup, the triumvirate of his lips, tongue and throat, sulkily waved the white flag by going numb. Luke hadn’t had time to piss off his personal biology today, because he’d had to rush out of the shower, hair still damp, and pour himself into well-worn jeans and a lightweight, equally well-loved flannel shirt his daughter, Jessie, vocally disapproved of each time he wore it.

Too bad. He hadn’t had any coffee yet, and by the look of the menu, he wasn’t going to have any anytime soon either. He’d be caffeinated yes, but as far as Luke was concerned, when coffee had the names of exotic locales and were broken down by phrases like, ‘elegant hints of chocolate with a nutty aftertaste,’ or, ‘an aroma of apricot, caramel, and a heart of fruity orange blossom notes,’ it wasn’t fucking coffee. But he didn’t have any other options because he needed caffeine to keep back the headache he’d develop within the hour otherwise.

Grumpily resigned, Luke scanned the menu with the single-minded focus of a man on a mission to save the world from a DefCon One asteroid attack. But after another throat clearing sound from the impatient barista on the other side of the counter, Luke finally settled on a regular, no excuse, him, a tall coffee.

Black.

Just like his mood.

Luke paid for the coffee, which was more expensive than an entire large can of Folgers even when it was on sale, then moved down the counter, bypassing the barista’s tip jar completely. It was a dick move and one he normally wouldn’t have made, but being under extreme duress without also being properly caffeinated was crime enough without catching attitude from a tall, gangly and acne scarred college kid. Luke knew he should’ve probably been more patient towards the little shit, considering that a kid like that probably only got love from his preferred hand on a Saturday night, with his favorite snacks in his parent’s basement. Pimples and lattes didn’t run a man up to the top of any romantic resumes with potential romantic partners.

Fortunately, the rich aroma of freshly brewed coffee wrapped around Luke with renewing comfort and kept his lizard brain snark under control. If his beverage had had a normal name instead of, ‘Guatemalan Island Mist’, it would’ve been perfection. Considering how complicated people and relationships were, sometimes a man just needed simplicity in his coffee. Coffee was about heat and robust flavor. Easy. Straight forward. Coffee wasn’t composed of mixed communications, or long, drawn out confessions of your shattered hopes and dreams when you fell for the wrong man, and he dropped your ass like a bad habit because he felt compelled to give a shit about what other people thought, and hide in the closet like a box of off-season clothing. Coffee, was just the sweet bliss of caffeine. With an old-fashioned donut to chase it down with, it was simplistic nirvana at its best. After weeks of picking up the pieces of his romantic personal life, Luke planned to be the poster child for minimalism.

He waved away the spiky haired barista’s offer of putting ice in his coffee. It might’ve been a good defense against the heat wave that’d been setting record highs over the past few days, but ice was one more step away from the path to streamlining his life. He did however, accept two sugars from the pretty brunette waiting for him at the end of the counter after he’d collected his offensively expensive coffee and dropped the remaining change from his payment into the kid’s jar.

Having a fucking conscience was a pain in the ass.

The young woman’s dark brown eyes twinkled with familiar mischief as she held her end of the little white packets a second longer than necessary, only releasing them after she winked at him.

“Well, well, if it isn’t Luke Sylvane. Haven’t seen you in a while.”

“Three days ago, Kelly,” he said before she could make a comment that would probably hurt his head considering some of the things she’d said to him recently. “In my kitchen, having breakfast with my kid, aka your BFF discussing wedding details because you’re her maid-of-honor.”

Her lightly glossed lips curled into a deeper grin. After being his daughter’s best friend for over ten years, Kelly was a staple in his home, spending more time there than in her own. Luke had watched her grow up, transitioning from knobby knees and scrunchies, to skirts lengths that had earned her the same hairy eyeball his own daughter had gotten whenever Jessie had tested the waters of teenage rebellion with her wardrobe. Unfortunately for her, sharing genetics with Luke meant he considered their home a dictatorship not a democracy when it came to curfews and hem lengths. Anything too short for him to comfortably measure visually, had always earned a hard, “nope,” before he’d gone to get himself a beer, his steps in sync with Jessie’s as she’d flounced upstairs amidst theatrical sighs. Kelly wasn’t his kid, but her stepmother, Lanie, was a friend and she considered Jessie as much her daughter as Kelly, so parental trust went both ways. Most of the time, if Kelly and Jessie were together and dressed similarly when Jessie was banished until she came out with enough fabric to satisfy Luke, even if it’d scandalize a nun, Kelly also came down in something of Jessie’s that pacified his eyes. At least until last year when Jessie and Kelly had both turned twenty-three only a month apart, and Kelly had gone from treating Luke like a second father, to making it crystal clear that gay or not, she was more than the open to a new world view of him as her daddy.

Luke was all about a hard fucking NO. Actually, it was more like, ABSOLUTELY-NO-FUCKING-WAY, NO, and he’d been quick to set obvious boundaries. Boundaries which Kelly cheerfully flirted her way around, though Luke suspected it might be mostly at his expense at this point because Kelly knew he’d never take her up on her offers, even if he wasn’t gay.

“I know, just feels longer. If we were waking up together every morning, I’d miss you less.”

All of her even white teeth flashed at Luke when he noisily cleared his throat. With the recklessness of youth fueling her happy hedonistic view on life, Kelly wasn’t fazed by an audience. Everyone in town knew that Luke was as queer as a Spring parade, but optics still mattered to both him and Lanie so he had to derail this freak train.

Luke took a minute to regroup by tearing open the sugar packets. He added all of one, and a little less than half of another, to his cup of coffee before sealing the steaming brew in again with the black lid. Kelly chuckled when he took a sip of the surprisingly smooth, hot liquid that helped soothe some of his earlier aggravation.

“How’re you doing today?” she asked, giving him an out.

Luke’s lips creased into a smile, the lie falling easily off his lips after way too much time spent rehearsing it in case anyone asked out of polite curiosity like she was.

“I’m doing’ alright, Kelly. Been keeping busy. How are you? Keeping out of trouble?”

“Until you decide to see what’s right in front of you, there’s no trouble to be had. Not the fun kind anyway.”

To quote fucking Charlie Brown, GOOD GRIEF.

Aggravated amusement lifted Luke’s left eyebrow when Kelly leaned against the counter, closer to the perimeter of his personal space, though she was still on her side of the counter. Not even the curly fall of her waist-length hair, held back from her forehead with a sparkling black headband, could hide the full curves that balanced her slim waist and full hips in worn blue jeans. Kelly winked at Luke as she leaned forward on the counter. Her white uniform t-shirt strained across the bounty she was cheerfully trying to bestow upon him as if she thought that’d erase the reality that Luke had seen all that impressive cleavage slowly morph from the flat as an ironing board stage. She wanted attention. Luke wanted to get a second apron to hang around her neck like a bib of chastity.

If Kelly had been a boy, the cheesey come ons would’ve gotten her a lot of pizzeria phone numbers in lieu of real ones at bars and nightclubs, but being a pretty girl with a megawatt smile meant that any man who wasn’t gay, or old enough to be her father—Luke was both—would’ve been all on board.

Luke wasn’t interested, but it never seemed to matter how many times he turned Kelly down, citing interchangeable excuses—A) she was way too young for his ancient ass at 22 years his junior She knew damn well that she had the wrong equipment to turn his crank C) She was his daughter’s best friend and he saw her as a daughter.

His unspoken theory was proven when Kelly said, “You’re looking’ good as always. The gray works for you by the way. Very silver fox a la Adam Rayner in Superman & Louis versus George Clooney in like, well, everything.”

She grinned and Luke snorted, taking another careful sip of his coffee. If it’d been as hot as he drank it at home, he’d have considered scalding his tongue so he wouldn’t have to engage at all, even though he knew from experience that Kelly had mastered the art of one-sided conversation even before she’d graduated to one-sided flirtations. She’d always been chatty. It was what made her great at working with people. Good for business, but bad for his hair situation. More than a few of those grays—the ones he hadn’t earned from his own daughter—had Kelly’s name all over them.

On a good day, Luke might’ve been able to convince himself that the recent, heavier increase of “salt” in the salt and pepper at his temples and sideburns, added some interest and ‘worldly’ contrast to the darkening, gunmetal strands of his otherwise standard haircut that Luke tended to keep on the shorter side unless he got lazy, like he had over the past few weeks. It currently brushed his temples in the morning in a sleep mussed mess before he combed it back with his fingers, and plunked his battered brown cowboy hat on his head to start his chores. Unfortunately, he hadn’t worn his hat to the café, so Kelly was able to gently brush her fingers across his left temple briefly before Luke recovered enough to step back. As fleetingly flattering as Kelly wanting to hang her freak flag on his flagpole would’ve been if she was male, she wasn’t, and he had enough relationship issues to deal with as it was.

Luke cleared his throat again, giving her a publicly appropriate version of the hairy eyeball which just earned him a cheeky wink. Luke shook his head. After waking up alone for the third time this week with his own spunk drying to cement on his inner thigh, and the name of a man he couldn’t have on his lips, he was done with the yesterday, and all the days in the past eight months before that. Today was the first inning of a brand-new ball game. Four months shy of forty-five wasn’t in the territory of one foot in the grave yet, but it was too old for wet dreams that made Luke come in his sheets like a horny pubescent. And it was really too old to be pining like a school girl over a man he couldn’t have. He couldn’t control the universe, but managing how he dealt with the steaming pile fate had served up for him was doable. With some hard work and daily exercise—most of it which he got from said hard work on the ranch—he’d be fine.

And caffeine. Lots and lots of caffeine.

After finishing his morning chores, Luke had convinced himself in the shower this morning—his second of the day since the first one had been to wash the spunk off his skin before he’d tossed his sheets into the wash— that this would be the last day for this level of internal conflict that was worse than the scripted. Judge Judy knockoff programs that always seemed to focus on men not being daddies to the umpteen kids they’d fathered. At this stage in his life when he had a grown kid of his own, was successfully running his own business, had good friends, and an overall decent life, Luke didn’t need Final Destination style trainwrecks in his future. Today was the last fucking day for this shit.

He tried not to dwell on the fact that he'd promised himself the same thing yesterday.

Luke felt his jaw tightened as he scowled before he could stop the subtle tick of irritation.

This time he meant it.

“You okay there, Luke? Coffee too hot?

Kelly had been friends with his daughter since they’d met at a local social youth group function when they’d both been fourteen, so she’d spent countless hours over at his house for sleepovers, just chatting in the kitchen with him and Jessie over bowls of cereal while wearing fuzzy socks and oversized pajamas. She’d become family, and knew how to read him because of her naturally empathetic personality beneath the silly flirtation. Sometimes she was far too observant for her own good or for his, so Luke forced a smile into place as he tucked an extra tip into her jar like he always did when he came in while she was working a shift.

“No, I’m good. Just have a lot on my mind today. Have you seen Keith?”

His brown eyes were already scanning the room, but he didn’t catch even a glimpse of his best friend in the packed coffeehouse.

“Actually yeah, he came in before it got super crowded. Not sure where he sat though. Anything important going on?”

“Not sure yet. He just asked me to meet him here for breakfast.”

Ask and you shall receive.

When he turned back to face the counter, Luke found himself almost at eye level with Kelly’s ample bust-line as she arched onto her tiptoes to look over the morning crowd.

Even though he was a solid six on the Kinsey Scale, Luke could appreciate the sheer force of mechanics that gravity was undergoing to keep Kelly in an upright position.

“He has to be around here somewhere.”

She grinned at him while still on tiptoe, showing off twin rows of even white teeth that had never seen coffee stains despite where she worked. Part of maintaining that trim figure were the green protein shakes she sometimes made in his blender in the morning for her and Jessie when she spent the night. She’d offered Luke sips of hers on a few occasions, even though she always got the same response; he’d rather eat grass.

“He was grumpy when he came in, so I tossed in an extra double chocolate muffin in his bag, on me. He likes those and sometimes you just need to soothe the bear.”

She giggled when Luke eyed her, leaning over the counter to gently tap his cheek with a soft, neatly manicured hand.

“Don’t worry, Luke. You’re the only one I want to call Daddy.”

Her dimples teased him when her impish grin deepened.

Luke cleared his throat and stepped back, managing to squelch down the threat of a smile. He wasn’t getting anywhere near that.

“I know Keith’s stressed out about the wedding so maybe it’s that? Jessie told me about it when we went out for drinks last weekend. And this morning he was mumbling something about place settings, and not ever getting laid again if he didn’t figure out plus ones,” she elaborated. “I’d have dosed his coffee with whiskey if I had it, but I had to settle for some extra hazelnut creamer.”

This time Luke allowed his smile to turn into a low chuckle at Keith’s expense.

The wedding.

That explained the semi-frantic message Keith had left on his voicemail earlier that morning. Luke had missed the call because he’d been mucking out the horse stalls before dawn. By the time he’d listened to it an hour after sunrise, his normally calm as the summer rain best friend had sounded like was entering the final countdown to a toddler-worthy meltdown. If he was talking about not getting laid, his wife Liz must’ve been on the warpath. Having been friends with Keith for so many years, Luke knew what could happen when Keith’s normally laid-back wife, Liz, went on one of her rare tears. Keith had spent a few of those times on Like’s couch.

His lips twitched again.

“Bo cares about the details as much as most men would, but Liz is so happy that their only child actually wants to get married and maybe adopt a few kids one day to make her a grandma, that she’s determined on making it perfect. I’ll talk to Keith. Remind him of all the ways he usually sweet talks her down.”

Kelly grinned at him, seeming in no rush to get back to work as she finally returned to a flat-footed position and leaned over the counter, getting back into Luke’s personal space.

“Jessie’s so happy to be marrying Bo. They’re like peas in a pod and just click, Yanno? It’s nice to see people happy, though I can’t imagine getting married anytime soon. I’m happy enough with just having a good time.”

Her grin deepened slowly and Luke felt a suspicious chill lick along his spine. Smiles like that never meant anything good. He’d bestowed a few smiles like that in his time on men he’d eventually talked into his bed, or up against a bathroom wall-whichever was more convenient.

He quirked a brow when Kelly leaned in closer to him, dropping her voice to a seductively teasing whisper. “I just want to have some fun with a sexy guy who can teach me a few things about orgasms that Cosmo magazine can’t.”

Luke coughed into his fist before he shook his head.

Nope.

“And I’m sure one day you will baby,” he assured her in a mild tone that still made it clear he wasn’t going to be that guy. “But you better warn him first that if he hurts you in any way, he’s going to deal with the same level of hell I’d bring down on anyone who hurt Jessie.”

A simple statement, but one that was also 100 percent truthful with a twofold consequence; Kelly’s expression softened, and when she smiled almost shyly, Luke knew that the gentle, discreet point that he’d been trying to make about loving Kelly like a second daughter, had been properly received. A heels-by-her-head situation was never going to happen with him.

“Thanks Luke,” Kelly said, squeezing his hand before moving back onto tiptoe as something caught her attention.

“Ooh I see him,” she announced a second later. “He’s back there talking to Jessie, and Chief McNally. Figures, since he and Jessie are usually joined at the hip when she isn’t with me.”

Luke nodded slightly. The fact that his secret ex-lover and daughter had become good friends over the past couple of years had complicated Luke and Noah’s relationship to the umpteenth degree once they’d started sleeping together, because Jessie didn’t know about their relationship. No one in town except Luke even knew that Noah gayer than Christmas behind closed doors.

From ample negative experience from his ten years on the Detroit police force years before moving to Montana for a drastic lifestyle change, Luke knew all about very carefully drawn straight blue lines and that they were often a disaster for men and women confident enough to wear both their badge, and their sexuality out publicly and proudly. Knowing all that, Luke should’ve walked right out of the gay bar in Whitefish seven months ago.

The GOAT was almost an hour away from their small town. It was also one of the few decent gay bars in the area, which was why Luke made the occasional trip out there whenever he needed both a decently priced beer, and an itch scratched. He’d never run into anyone he knew before, so when he’d seen Noah’s tall blonde form at the bar a few feet away from him in well-fitting blue jeans and a dark blue muscle t-shirt that showed off his broad shoulders and chiseled waist to perfection, Luke had almost swallowed his tongue. Noah had had his back to him while he ordered a beer so Luke could’ve moved away and disappeared into the crowd to avoid a face-to-face encounter. Instead, he’d stood his ground and ordered his own whiskey shot and preferred beer combo, tipping the latter Noah’s way when the younger man turned around and spotted him. He knew what Luke’s alcohol preferences were after spending time at neighborhood barbecues that Jessie and Luke had also been invited to.

Luke had expected surprise, maybe some fumbling from the younger man at being found in a place a straight man had to no reason to be. What he hadn’t expected was for Noah to raise his own beer in acknowledgement before sweeping Luke with a slow, lazy smile that was full of deliberate heat when he raised his gaze from its perusal over Luke’s body that was hard and broad from years of ranch work, up to meet Luke’s gaze steadily.

Unflinching.

Steady.

Unapologetically intentional, like he was about most things .

And damn, had that confidence been HOT.

So hot, that when Noah had woven his way through the throng of men at the bar, and leaned against the sleek wood into Luke’s space to say hello and lightly clink his beer bottle casually against Luke’s, Luke had grinned at the balls on the younger man, even though he’d known it was a bad idea on multiple levels. The first major issue being that Noah was almost fifteen years younger than Luke. The second, was that judging by the endless stream of pretty girls he’d publicly toted about town for years, Noah should’ve retired from law enforcement and opened a furniture shop that specialized in wardrobes. Maybe name it Narnia, since the man was so deep in the closest, he deserved to be crowned high king.

It’d been a bad news situation all round, but the moment Noah had confidently backed Luke up against the bathroom wall in the club after five rounds of beers and equal shots of whiskey chasers, Luke had thrown his usual pragmatism out the window.

“If Jessie wasn’t already in love with Bo, AND Noah wasn't straight, I’d be worried about how much time Jessie and Chief McNally spend together. But I can’t blame her. She may not be interested in what he’s packing under that uniform, but that man is fine.”

Kelly grinned. Luke made a noncommittal noise since he couldn’t blame her. Noah was fine. He was also more age appropriate for her than Luke was, which would’ve worked out amazingly if the sheriff hadn’t dated women only to keep up the straight-all-American-male, persona. But Luke wasn’t about to share his line of reasoning as to why no woman truly had a chance in hell with Noah McNally. Much as he loved Kelly, she had the tendency to let things go from her ears to her lush mouth in less than sixty seconds. Having the entire town know Noah’s business wasn’t something Luke wanted on his conscience. He knew how hard coming out could be, so he’d never out someone else.

No matter what it cost him personally.

Luke’s knuckles went white as his hand tightened on the edge of the counter, his mind flashing back to his dream earlier that morning. Back in the wee morning hours, when Noah’s name had rolled off his tongue smooth as silk when the dream had hit the perfect high note and Luke had shot a load all over his bed…

“Much as I appreciate the surprise, Chief, I wasn’t planning on company tonight. I was thinking about driving out to Whitefish,” Luke said, leaning his head against the wall to look down the steps of the staircase at his sometimes lover.

A status that was Noah’s choice, not his.

Luke had always been alright with casual relationships, but there was casual, and then there was closeted. Noah’s closet had an industrial grade padlock on it, which irked Luke because he’d been out for years after fighting for that right. Yet, he still kept coming back, drawn in by a man who was too young for him, and cockier than he had any right to be. He was also intelligent, funny, and a good man despite not wanting to embrace who he was. Those were the things that kept Luke holding out for an unlikely change in Noah’s thinking.

The younger man flipped on the light switch at the base of the stairs with the practiced ease of someone who knew almost every room in Luke’s house—because they’d spent countless hours christening almost all of them during their secret relationship over the last few months—before he laid his set of keys to the house on the sideboard table by the door.

“It’s starting to rain, and those dark, windy roads aren’t safe,” Noah informed him, his lips twisting into that slow, lazy grin that always went straight to Luke’s traitorous dick.

Noah tipped his pale cowboy hat up with one finger so it wasn’t casting shadows on his handsome face, and Luke could watch every one of his lover’s emotions play across his features; mischief, lust and amused affection.

“Since I’m a public servant and all about safety, you’re staying in for the night. Consider this house arrest for your benefit.”

Luke cocked an eyebrow. “So, this is just a public service call?”

Noah didn’t step back when Luke moved down the staircase towards him, reaching out to trace his fingertips over the star shaped badge pinned to Noah’s broad chest. Luke had the hands of a man who worked for a living, but Noah never minded when they explored every inch of his naked body in bed.

Noah’s grin deepened, showing strong, even teeth that had never had to undergo the expensive torture of braces like Jessie’s had.

“Yeah, because as an elected official I have to keep my people safe and happy. I’m pretty sure what will make you happy tonight, is ordering a deep-dish Hawaiian pizza with extra bacon, and having my cock up your ass. In whichever order you prefer, of course.”

Luke’s response was an answering grin before Noah moved up the last step to close the gap between their bodies. Noah’s hand braced itself on the wall over Luke’s head, palm flat and fingers splayed far apart for stability. The skin exposed by Noah’s rolled up shirt sleeves was summer tanned, highlighting the sprinkle of blonde hair dusting his strong forearm. The younger man didn’t break eye contact when he reached down to curl his hand hard around the bulge in Luke’s battered blue jeans.

“Fuck!” Luke hissed. Noah’s bold grip might’ve been a little too firm for most men’s tastes, but his young lover had learned exactly what Luke liked, including that some rough manhandling straight out of the gate was sometimes the fastest way to break him down into pure erotic sensation.

Luke’s head thunked back against the wall when Noah increased the speed and pressure of his fingers until it was bordering on painful due to the friction of the fabric against Luke’s bare dick. Going commando was a frequent occurrence on nights he planned to go to the club and Noah knew it.

“That’s the plan,” Noah murmured, gentling his movements to start that slower, lazy stroke that could always put Luke over the edge if it went on long enough..

Noah pulled back to look into Luke’s brown eyes with his own for a searching moment before he dropped to his knees.

“But first things first…”

Kapow!

The coffee mug that had been teetering precariously on the edge of the counter, went right over Luke’s hand when he accidentally bumped it while in rewind mode, the top popping off of the Styrofoam cup.

Swearing with feeling, Luke stumbled away from the steaming trail of coffee leaking everywhere. Freshly brewed, aromatic roast was always an incentive to get him moving in the morning, but never more so than when it was melting a path towards his dick.

“Sweet fucking Christ!”

His shout added percussion to Kelly’s exclamation of his name in a surprised tone. The older woman standing behind Luke on line was the only one who remained silent, shooting them both a look of obvious disapproval.

Ears burning, Luke dipped his head in a quick universal sign of apology.

“Excuse me, Ma’am. Kelly, I’m sorry. Throw me that towel behind you and I’ll get this mess cleaned up.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Kelly didn’t seem to care that her customers were grilling her with death stares. She just grinned at Luke, dimples appearing as curious mischief shimmered in her eyes.

“Wherever you went, I bet I’d want to be a fly on the wall. Your lips parted, and certain other parts look pretty happy now.”

Her grin deepened and Luke felt his ears burn as he stepped closer to the counter to hide his half hard dick against the extended lip of the coffee bar counter.

This was Mickey Mouse bullshit.

Noah McNally was the epitome of supreme, closeted-as-fuck, Mickey Mouse bullshit.

Fuck Noah McNally.

“Come over to this side and we’ll get you all cleaned up. Harry-” she called out to a short, pudgy kid straining the seams of both his uniform shirt and jeans- “can we have a cleanup out here please? Have Miranda take over the register. Come on Luke,” she said as she turned back towards him. “Never thought this was the way I’d get into your pants, but I’ll take what I can get.”

Too aggravated to be anymore scandalized than he already was, Luke allowed Kelly to guide him around the counter to grab some paper towels. He had the sense of mind to take them out of her hand before she tried to rub him down, but didn’t stop her from touching the still tender, healing pink skin across the knuckles of his left hand when she spotted it.

“What happened?”

“I cut myself on some glass in the barn awhile back,” he said, thankful he didn’t have to lie about that. Granted, it’d happened when Noah had made a house call and found Luke in the barn when it was getting dark. They hadn’t been paying attention when they’d gone for the cliché, ‘roll in the hay,” in actual hay and had broken the beer bottle Luke had brought out with him earlier to help himself wind down. They’d used every curse word they knew between them, but after Noah had played Clara Barton and patched Luke up, they’d ended up laughing and enjoying a rare night in at Luke’s place, binge-watching S.W.A.T. It’d been a great night.

Until Luke had woken up alone.

Again.

He inhaled deeply and forced his exhale to be more relaxed than he felt. Gently, Luke pulled his hand away from Kelly’s to finish swabbing at his damp shirt tail and crotch. “Wasn’t paying attention.”

“If you were with me, I can guarantee you’d be paying very close attention, gay or not.”

Luke couldn’t catch his laugh in time. Despite his wiser judgement, Kelly’s impish, infectious smile temporarily lightened his mood. She was just like him, looking for love in all the wrong places because she was a kid with the town drunk for a daddy and a mama who’d left him and Kelly when she was only eight. Her stepmother was a good woman though, and while Luke had ZERO intention of ever playing Daddy, he could offer some appropriately paternal advice.

“Sweetheart, any other man in this word would be a fool to turn down an invitation from you. Just stick to the good ones and remember what I said earlier-you’re as important to me as Jessie is.”

Kelly’s smile warmed and for a moment, Luke got a glimpse of the teenage version of her that he’d first met; a frizzy-haired little thing with a shy smile-as All American as apple pie, before she found her sex appeal during her and his daughter’s senior year of high school. Even though according to Jessie, Kelly had never acted on it and was still as virginal as a nun..

“You help me figure who those are and I promise to keep my hands to myself from now on.”

Kelly flashed Luke a flirty smile then added a chocolate biscotti to his order that he hadn’t paid for.

“Well, if I can’t flip you, I can at least feed you. You know where to find me if you ever change your mind. Consider this one on me because you keep inflating my tip jar.”

Chuckling, Luke took the bag. “Thanks sweetheart.”

Her perfume was something feminine and flowery as he leaned in to buss her cheek briefly with his lips.

“You’re a good girl, Kelly. When you find the right guy, you’ll know.”

She grinned, about to say something that was probably another playful pass, before something caught her attention, cutting herself off mid-sentence. “Oh look, Jessie’s waving.”

Luke followed her gaze.

His daughter’s pretty face with its high cheekbones, petite nose, full lips and slightly collected chin was capped with thick waves of shoulder length blonde hair that was naturally highlighted cornsilk pale by the summer sun. Summer memories were still imprinted on her skin with a warm, pale golden glow even now, in the early fall. Of course, she’d have been easy to spot even if she hadn’t been wearing a lacey hot pink top, lime green jeans and waving like a maniac. Jessie’s big, open smile could light up any room, and was the one major constant even after she’d transitioned from his slim, feminine featured son, into an even more feminine young woman.

Luke grinned back out of habit, though that level of cheer this early in the morning wasn’t a good sign for Keith. Then again, it might not be a good sign for him either. Luke loved his kid, but right now his attention was focused only on the man standing beside a still waving Jessie.

As if he knew the moment Luke spotted him, fucking Noah McNally looked up and settled those bold blue eyes on him.

Damn he looked good. Even as frustrated as he was with Noah, Luke could appreciate the landscape.

Noah’s dark blonde hair was neatly cut and slightly tousled, probably from the cowboy hat currently held at his side in his hand. It added a boyish appeal to the otherwise classically strong lines of his face, though there was nothing innocent about the slow, sexy hitch of his lips. The rest of the scenery was just as good. Noah’s Boted uniform was a light khaki color, livened up by his heathy summer tan, and the shiny brass star tacked onto his chest. It was standard issue for his position as the head of their town’s small law enforcement, but Noah’s wide chest and strong, leanly muscled arms strained the seams almost indecently. Since Noah was facing him, Luke couldn’t see how his ass filled out the back of those uniform pants, but he knew from experience how tight that curve, was and how warm and secure Noah’s ass felt wrapped around his dick whenever Luke was so deep inside him, he could feel his heartbeat…

 

Luke gasped with momentary discomfort as Noah’s hands shoved down the front of his already uncomfortably tight jeans, but then he popped the brass tab on the front of the battered denim and made it all better with his hot hand stroking Luke’s dick with that rhythm he’d perfected over all the nights they’d spent together.

“Just like that,” Luke groaned, throwing a hand out to brace himself on the wall when he felt his jeans sliding further down his thighs. Noah had to remove his own hand to help Luke step out of the restrictive denim, but he made up for the inconvenience in spades.

Luke’s knuckles went white as he felt the warm rasp of Noah’s tongue sliding up the back of his knee. When he looked down, Noah offered him a wicked look through his fair lashes then dipped his head. Lips that Luke knew could curl with humor and charm to knock even a nun on her ass, widened into a smile that he couldn’t see from this position, but he felt it on his skin as Noah rubbed his cheek against Luke’s hip.

“Holy Fuck!”

Luke moaned and stopped thinking as his eyes closed when Noah’s lips—as soft as any woman’s— parted. His tongue drew a slow, wet line up Luke’s inner thigh to tease his balls just below the heavy weight of them, before he forged a new path along his taint….

 

“Yoo hoo… Okay, you’re officially banned from handling hot liquids today. I’m cutting you off,” Kelly admonished as she helped herself to a blueberry scone from the display case after waving a hand in front of Luke’s face to get his attention. “What’s wrong with you today?”

Luke blinked.

Sweet Mother Mary.

“It’s the heat.”

It wasn’t a complete lie. The day was gearing up to be another scorcher. However, the inside of the café was cool from both the central air conditioning system, and the fans twirling lazily overhead more for ambience than necessity, to make the lie a hard sale. Kelly eyed him doubtfully and Luke swallowed hard, struggling to get both his emotions, and his hard-on, under control.

It’d been just over a week since he and Noah had last gotten together, back when Luke had issued his ultimatum of Noah having to decide whether they’d start stepping out into the sun together, or calling things off. Luke had never liked ultimatums, but it’d been the right thing to do. Noah’s, ‘I love you, I love-you-not,’ mantra had finally gotten old. Luke had come to terms with his own sexuality years ago. It hadn’t been easy, or pretty, but he done it. He refused to go backwards just because Noah wasn’t willing to even try and live his life with transparency.

Noah McNally was complicated.

Noah McNally was sexy as hell.

Noah McNally was off limits. Just a big fucking ball of hazard signs wrapped in explosives because Luke was too old for wet dreams. He was definitely too damn old to be someone’s dirty secret. That ship had sailed years ago.

No touch.

But oh man, did he want to.

Stifling a sigh, Luke dragged himself from his own tumultuous thoughts to focus on Noah. No outward emotion was revealed on the younger man’s face beside an easy neutrality, but he’d been angry over the ultimatum when he’d stormed off that night, so Luke knew just how much effort he was putting into the act.

Just like that, a rush of anger cooled the lust that’d been riding Luke since the morning.

Fucking Micky Mouse Bullshit.

He hadn’t done anything wrong except fall for a man who wasn’t willing to accept who he was, and what he and Luke were, and could be, when they were together; stable, happy, and fucking like cheerful rabbits. He didn’t deserve any attitude.

Fuck Noah McNally was officially his goddamn theme song.

Bring back the fucking 80s and homemade mix tapes.

After excusing himself from Kelly, Luke made a beeline through the crowd for the table Jessie was sitting at with Keith and Noah. When he got there, Luke leaned over to kiss his daughter’s cheek, then fist-bumped Keith, who was sitting in a chair with his half-eaten double chocolate muffin in front of him on a crumpled piece of brown bakery paper.

“Morning baby. Keith. Sheriff McNally,” he said, addressing Noah with as much polite detachment as he could muster.

“Lucas,” Noah responded with a nod. “Been awhile.”

The use of his given name rankled Luke. To everyone in town, he was just ‘Luke.’ Noah was the only person who ever used his full name.

Usually in the dark, when he turned the word into a multi-syllable purr in his peaceful, almost rhythmic accent, that was the sound of Montana natives.

Luke smiled back stiffly, forcing down the flood of emotion that welled up instantly at the double meaning laced neatly between the other man’s casual greeting.

“Yeah, it has,” he said, then dismissed Noah with another tight smile before turning his full attention to Keith.

His best friend was a tall, barrel-chested man whose thick auburn beard matched the even thicker, straight hair on his head, though that was currently hidden beneath a ball cap. Unlike a large percentage of the locals in town who preferred to sport some type of cowboy hat, Keith lived in long sleeved Henleys and jeans during the fall and winter, and plain colored t-shirts, jeans, and a ball cap in the spring and summer. He was a man of simple tastes, with an easy going, ’salt of the earth,’ personality, and a booming laugh that was usually preceded by a wide smile.

He wasn’t smiling right now. Despite his bulk, he was giving off the impression of a bedraggled teddy bear slumped into his chair like he’d had a rough night being puked and snotted on by a sick toddler. Luke could relate, so he kicked Keith’s ankle lightly beneath the table as he sat across from him. Keith eyed him unhappily.

“So, what’s so important that you dragged me down here?” Luke said. “Kelly mentioned something about wedding stuff. Shouldn’t Bowen and Liz be here?”

Jessie smiled. “Bowen’s working. Liz is swamped at the bank, and Lila won't be in town till this weekend, so they volunteered Keith to help me with some last-minute details. He volunteered you to help him help me.”

“Oh, he did, did he?” Luke shot Keith a dirty look. The other man finally grinned, the hard lines of his wide angled face hidden by his thick ginger beard, playing up the teddy bear aesthetic.

“You’re my best friend, so you need to play interference. Liz likes you better than she likes me lately.”

“I don’t know anything about planning a wedding.” Luke protested. “I was an urban city cop for ten years, and now I work with horses. Neither of those add up to wedding planner on a resume. Horses don’t need opinions about flowers and fluff.”

Jessie snorted and Keith smirked, stuffing a large piece of chocolate muffin into his mouth, presumably to keep himself out of the conversation for as long as it took to chew and swallow as slowly as a five-year-old with a piece of steak.

Luke snorted, then took a bite of the biscotti Kelly had given him, while he waited them out. They’d played versions of this game before, and Keith always lost- he was terrible at poker.

“Don’t worry, Luke. This first part is really easy.” Jessie pulled a small white card out of her blue leather knapsack, setting it on the table between them. “I just need to know the name of the guy Keith says you’ve been sleeping with for the past six months, but hasn’t met yet. I want to add him as your plus—Whoa!”

Jessie quickly leaned over and delivered a few solid whacks to Luke’s back with a small hand as he wheezed around the bite of biscotti suddenly lodged in his throat. Through blurred vision, he saw Noah ducking his head, a huff of sound coming from his direction that could’ve been a laugh, or a groan.

“Christ on a Cross, Jessie!” Luke finally rasped when he’d managed to wash down the biscuit with the remainder of Keith’s barely lukewarm latte, which he’d pushed into Luke’s hand.

“What?” His daughter’s pretty face was nonplussed. “We’ve all had our own booty call nights. Maybe me more than some before I met Bo, but you’re an adult, Luke. I don’t know why you think you need to hide it.”

Luke shot a dark look was shot Keith’s way. His best friend held up both hands in mea culpa, and probably a silent plea not to be murdered when they were alone at some later point. Unimpressed, Luke glared at him for another minute, then looked over at his daughter with a shake of his head.

“Nope. This conversation isn’t happening unless you can convince Anthony to pay for sessions with a hypnotherapist who can make this entire experience go away.”

Keith wiped his hands on a napkin. His muffin was gone, and so was his stall tactic. “I told you not to say anything, Jessie. I’m sorry, Luke. I was just worried because we never keep things from each other. I was talking to Liz about it the other night in the kitchen and Jessie came in looking for Bowen and overheard us.”

Jessie waved a hand through the air, cutting off any more apologies from the man she’d considered a second father even before Bowen had proposed. She’d spent as much time at Bowen’s house as Bowen had spent at theirs, even before they’d officially started dating.

“Don’t apologize to him, Keith. He used to grill everyone who came over, regardless of what their below-the-belt-hardware was. It was practically a police state,”

Keith hid his burst of laughter in a poorly timed cough. Luke felt the little vein at his left temple threatening to explode from its insistent pulsing.

“How I found out doesn’t matter,” Jessie added. Her voice was pitched higher than it had been before she transitioned years ago, and worked with a voice coach to feminize it. Luke rarely noticed the change anymore, but when Jesse got fired up like this, the feminine lilt of her tone sounded extra indignant.

“The fact is Luke shouldn’t have to hide things like this from the people who love him, unless the guy’s a jerk. If that’s the case, cut him loose, Luke. You’ve always told me not to settle for anything less than the best. You’d never approve of me boning an asshat.”

Feeling his blood pressure spike to levels that would concern his physician, Luke slouched into a chair and pinched the bridge of his nose hard.

“What kid speaks this way to their daddy?”

“Oh please. We’ve never had the typical father/daughter relationship.”

“You know that wasn’t my fault, Jessie. Your mom never told me about you,” Luke said with a scowl that his daughter softened with the light pat of her hand over his. and a gentle squeeze of his fingers.

“I’m not blaming you, Luke. I love mom because she gave birth to me, thereby gifting the world with a fabulous free spirit who kicks ass as a social worker, because I was raised to be an accessory in her life as a happy, dysfunctional bohemian moppet. That ridiculous history makes me phenomenal at relating to the really emotionally fucked up teenagers I’d happily kill for.”

There was a small huff of sound from Keith’s corner that was probably another muffled laugh as Luke sighed. He hadn’t been living in Montana, or known Keith back when he’d been a fumbling twenty-two-year-old in Chicago trying to figure out which way he preferred to have his candlestick polished, so, he hadn’t been around to talk Luke out of ending up in the backseat of his father’s old bronco on a blanket with the former homecoming queen when they’d reconnected at the informal class reunion other former classmates had organized through Facebook, at a lake. The sex had been quick and anticlimactic for both of them—unlike his next level, nirvana finding encounter with the former Sr. class high-school quarterback later during that same weekend—but it’d been enough to knock Kristen up, though neither she or her family had told Luke about it before he’d left for Detroit to join the police academy.

Luke hadn’t learned about Jessie’s existence until he’d already made detective, and she’d shown up in the middle of the night in front of the door of his one-bedroom walk-up apartment in bright pink pants, a fuzzy purple sweater, denim jacket, and pink streaked blonde hair in a crazy tangle of short curls around her then, more boyishly featured, fourteen-year-old face.

While Luke had gawked at her in his sweats, and old academy t-shirt, Jessie had matter-of-factly informed him that she was his son, though she was also pretty sure she was a transwoman in the making, so Luke had better be cool with that, because she was. After she’d dropped that bomb, Jessie had handed him a manilla envelope containing her birth certificate, passport, and photos of her and Kristen from Jessie’s first birthday, to more recent life events at that point. Then she’d moved past him into his apartment, dropping her floral embroidered denim backpack on the floor by the door, before asking if he had anything vegetarian appropriate in his fridge.

Eventually, over slices of freezer section, double cheese pizza, Luke had found out that after Kristen had given birth to Jessie at her aunt and uncles in Iowa, she’d taken the baby to California, armed with a few hundred dollars, and dreams of becoming a big film star like the other hundreds of smalltown girls across America who didn’t make it. Unlike most of those other average, fresh cheeked girls from no-town USA, Kristen had worked her former homecoming queen magic, and snagged herself a rich, older lawyer going through a bad divorce, who’d been happy to accept a ready-made family into his life, since his own kids were being held as custodial leverage.

According to his daughter, the man who’d raised Jessie as his own wasn’t a bad guy. She’d assured Luke that Anthony had been, and still was, affectionate and attentive whenever he was actually home, and not working 60+ hour weeks in the office. She’d wanted for nothing financially, and she loved him because he’d been the only father she’d ever known. Kristen on the other hand, had gotten swept up in the socialite life, and gone through most of Jessie’s childhood like the free-wheeling moppet Jessie had described her as, in Prada and Louibitans, once she’d starred in a few B-rated movies. Pictures of her had apparently appeared in so many magazines, that Jessie had said it was a miracle Luke hadn’t found her before. To be fair, most of the magazines were gossip rags, and Luke had never really followed social media of any kind. He’d been too busy trying to make detective, then keep his shield, while also keeping his sexuality a secret.

He hadn’t known how to be a daddy, and had told her that. Jessie had grinned at him around a mouthful of cheese and informed him that she already had a dad, so being a Luke would suit her just fine. He’d thought it suited him just as well, and most of the time he still felt the same way, though sometimes—like when she’d told him she wanted both him and Anthony to walk her down the aisle—it rankled, mostly because he knew Jessie adored him as much as he did her, but those lost years were a way for her to finagle a situation until she got her way.

Like now.

“Hey, I’m happy to call you dad, maybe even big daddy, if it’ll get you to tell me who you’re seeing.”

Luke snorted and made a face. “No thanks. I don’t have enough in my bank account for the therapy bills.”

“Your kid might be crazy, but she’s not wrong man,” Keith interjected in his deep, mild tone that always made Luke think of Eeyore, even though his best friend generally woke up all smiles to greet every morning. “We’re getting too old to waste our time. Every day that goes by, is one foot closer to the grave.”

“That’s only because Liz is going to push you into yours for being an asshole,” Luke shot back.

“None of us want you to be with someone who doesn’t appreciate you, Luke,” Jessie continued, her expression turning stubborn as her eyebrows rose and momentarily hid beneath her thick, side-swept bangs. “We just want to help.”

Sighing helped cut back some of the irritation Luke felt at the word help. He loved his friends and Jessie, and the logical part of his brain knew they were trying to make sure he was happy. He understood their concern, but they were meddling, and this was one situation where meddling could make a bigger mess out of an already epic clusterfuck.

“Look, I appreciate what y’all are trying to do, but I don’t want, or need your help. This isn’t going to be some kind of intervention. I’m a grown man, and can handle my own relationships.”

“Except when the lights are on, and other people are around right?” Jessie said.

Before Luke could snap back a response, Jessie turned her puffed up fervor on Noah, who’d been inching towards the door, apparently hoping to escape the awkward conversation.

Coward, Luke thought caustically. Of course, it wasn’t the first time his former lover had sought the easy route out lately.

Taking a certain measure of satisfaction in watching the big man cowed by a barely 5’3 waif, Luke leaned back in his chair and waited for his daughter to wrangle Noah in like a skittish horse.

“You guys are friends. Did you know anything about this, Noah?,” Jessie asked, propping a hand on her hip as she narrowed her eyes at him.

“No.”

Luke was tempted to deck the man solely on the principal of lying to his kid, but it was hard to toss stones in glass houses.

“It’s none of our business who Luke dates, Jessie.”

“It is our business when some jackass is messing with his chances of finding true love.”

Luke groaned, dropping his head into his hands as Jessie turned back to him, eyes flashing with the passion that made her excellent at her job as a social worker, because fighting for the underdog was ingrained in her soul.

“You deserve a good man, Luke, not someone you can’t introduce to your friends. Don’t settle. I know a lot of guys who’d jump at the chance to date you,” she continued to Luke’s horror. “Good, successful and very sexy men. Half of them will be at the wedding, ready and willing, and I’ll absolutely send each and every one of them your way for a dance, unless you just tell me who this mystery man is, so we can properly vet him.”

“Jessie, enough.” The almost stern command in Noah’s voice jerked both Luke and Jessie’s heads up. “Luke asked us to butt out and I—“

Whatever he’d been about to say, was cut off by the loud trilling of his cell phone. Noah muffled a rude sound as he turned to take the call. After a quick exchange that was mostly grunting on Noah’s end, he hung up.

“I have to go. Luke, you going to be ok with the wolves?”

It was all he said, but Luke knew him well enough to read between the lines.

Ask me to stay.

Luke ignored the unspoken request. He’d asked before. Hell, he’d even begged once. And Noah had walked away every time.

“We’re good.”

Luke echoed Jessie who smiled in satisfaction, as if she’d just won the battle in their standoff.

“I know how to deal with them. Pretending I’m deaf usually works well. Go on.”

Noah looked like he wanted to say something, but was deflected when Jessie pulled another RSVP card out of her backpack.

“Wait, before you go, who are you bringing to the wedding, Noah? You left it blank. Bo and I didn’t know if you had a plus one.”

“I don’t. Yet,” Noah said, his blue-eyed gaze steady on Luke. Thankfully Jessie didn’t seem to pick up on the tension between the two men as she continued onward.

“Why not? I don’t need another lonely, single man at the wedding. Some of Bo’s cousins are too slutty to be trusted. Sorry Keith.”

Keith smirked. “Those are Liz’s nieces, not mine.”

Jessie snorted as if to say, same difference.

“Well, the wedding is next weekend and you need to bring someone with you, Noah. It’s not like you haven’t dated a lot of women, though it has been a while,” she mused, almost to herself.

Luke tensed as a light bulb went off in his head at her observation. The fact that Noah hadn’t been publicly dating anyone for the last three months had gone over his head, but apparently not over Jessie’s.

He glanced at Noah for a clarification he knew he wouldn’t get in public. The man’s face was predictably neutral.

“I can handle a few flirty cousins, Jessie.”

“Slutty cousins,” she corrected. “One look at their knobby knees, and you know their type. Why do you think I went with long bridesmaid’s dresses?”

Noah’s lips twitched. “I can handle them,” He repeated. “I’m not looking for a one-night stand.”

Luke eyed him sideways, tempted to ignore his earlier stance on throwing stones in glass houses, and knock Noah in the mouth. The fact their one-night stand had lasted three months, was just semantics.

“Since when? Because I’ve never seen you with the same girl more than twice.”

“Maybe I’m turning over a new leaf. One foot closer to the grave every day, right Keith?”

“Yes sir, and you and I’ll be sharing a grave because Luke’s right about Liz. If you don’t produce some hot, wedding-worthy-piece-of-tail in time for the wedding, she and Jessie are going to push us both into it.”

Luke’s eyebrow lifted, waiting to see how Noah would react to that, but Noah didn’t meet his eyes.

Jessie huffed, the deep exhale flicking her bangs up briefly. “Suit yourself, but you have eleven days days to change your mind. If you do, just bring her to the wedding. I’ll save an extra seat.”

Noah nodded, finally looking back at Luke for a long count. His slow smile was unexpected, promise and an aggravating level of confidence apparent in the pearly tips of his teeth.

“Noted. I’ll see you guys later.”

“Doubtful,” Luke muttered, as he watched Noah edge out the door. The man moved like sex on legs- strong, confident and stoic; a recipe for a man who’d fuck him through the mattress, but not give so much as a ‘by your leave,’ as he rolled out of bed, and right through the door.

“That’s another one who needs to settle down,” Jessie said, interrupting Luke’s inner turmoil. “He goes through women like Kleenex.”

Luke’s teeth gritted hard. It didn’t matter that he’d been the only one sharing Noah’s bed for three months. In small towns, perception was reality. And according to popular consensus, the chief was sleeping with every pretty woman from the bordering towns, whom he’d toted around their town publicly the last few years, whenever he felt the pressure to conform.

“Sounds like you need to find him a nice girl to settle down with,” Luke said, his voice satisfactorily even.

Despite Noah’s earlier exchange with Jessie—which had added an extra layer of confusion to Luke’s anger—the fact still remained that the last time he and Noah had seen one another, Luke had all but begged Noah to stay, before he’d finally issued his ultimatum. Until today, Luke hadn’t had any contact with Noah since that night. He’d tried to call Luke a few times the next day, but Luke had declined every call. Initially, he’d been hurt, but over time, that pain of rejection had slowly flared into anger. Some of the rage had simmered off after about a week, but Noah hadn’t left any messages, or voicemails after that first day. He also hadn’t texted Luke even once since then, so as far as Luke was concerned, Noah was excomunicado.

Keith’s gaze shifted between Luke and Jessie before he shook his head, and threw his hands up as he rose from his chair.

“This is getting too emotional for me. I feel like I’m growing a vagina. So, on that note, you two work it out. I’m going to go home and see if I can convince Liz to blow me for being a good errand boy, and leaving this situation in your competent, queer hands.”

Jessie made a face at the same time Luke did.

“Totally don’t need to hear about your sex life, Keith,” she said.

Keith snorted. “Says the woman who just spread Luke’s dirty sheets business all over this table with pretty stationary.”

He clasped a big mitt of a hand on Luke’s shoulder. “I promise you enough booze to knock you out for at least a day tomorrow night.” He grinned, then leaned over, grasping Luke’s face between his hands so he could plant a solid, noisy kiss on his cheek. Luke, swung at him, but Keith danced out of the way with grace perfected from years of experience with giving each other shit, just because they could.

Luke tried to keep a straight face but started laughing like Keith had intended. “You’re an asshole.”

“Hopefully I’m an asshole who gets lucky when I get home for helping set up this romantic shit show. Jessie, be nice to Luke. Get someone to kiss him all better if you put him through the ringer too hard. That red-headed friend of yours is cute. Probably tastes spicy. People who think blondes have all the fun, have never dated a ginger.”

He saluted them with a grin, then made a hasty, long-legged beeline for the door when Luke flipped him off.

Luke shook his head and turned to look back at Jessie who was eyeing him speculatively.

“What?”

“You need to go home, put on a clean shirt, and meet me at the florist. I need your help.”

“Don’t you have a female friend you can bring with you? I can’t tell the difference between a petunia and a posy.”

Jessie smiled sweetly. “Alex is only doing the bouquets and boutonnieres. We’re doing edible centerpieces, and you know all about fruit.”

“Cute,” Luke said with a snort, picking at the leftover biscotti even though he wasn’t hungry. Jessie’s version of the Spanish Inquisition had killed all need for breakfast. “I’ll pass.”

“Oh, come on. It’s just finalizing the little stuff like the bouquets for the bridesmaids and the flower girl, and the boutonnieres for the groomsmen. It’ll be fun, and we get to spend the afternoon together. Besides, do you really want to cockblock your best friend?”

“You got a bar of soap in that ridiculous bag for your mouth?”

Jessie made a rude sound, and waved him off with a slim, neatly manicured hand polished in hot pink. There was nothing subtle about his kid, or the hot pink and lime green wedding theme she has somehow gotten Bowen to agree upon for their October wedding. Jessie had poo pooed him when Luke had suggested hanging out complimentary sunglasses to all of the wedding guests.

“Stop being such a stick in the mud. It’ll be fun. Besides, you’re paying for half of the wedding. Don’t you want to see where all your hard-earned money is going’?”

Her deliberately innocent expression and sweet tone sent the same sharp chill down Luke’s spine that he’d experienced the day Jessie had gleefully held up her driver’s permit after passing her test when she’d turned sixteen.

“Honey, you’ve never had a problem running off with my credit card before.”

“I’m getting married in less than two weeks, and starting a new, responsible life with a beautiful, kind, and open-minded man. I feel blessed, so this is me turning over a new leaf, and being more considerate of others.”

Her smile was positively angelic. Luke felt the chill solidifying into ice cubes.

“Jessie…”

She ignored the warning note in his tone. “Maybe wear those jeans I got you last Christmas. The ones that fit you so well, they probably still have the tags on them, because God forbid you be a well-dressed rancher.”

Jessie’s smile and tone of her voice as they delivered her words finally registered in the lizard part of Luke’s brain that controlled his flight or fight instincts.

“Oh hell no.”

“What?”

“You’re not playing matchmaker with me, and whomever the hell you have in mind in that pretty, devious little head of yours. I don’t do blind dates.”

To her credit, Jessie didn’t try to deny her master plans “This isn’t a date. It’s just an appointment to discuss my wedding flowers, and I want your opinion,” she said airily. “But, if you and Alex hit it off and you want to bring him to the wedding as your plus one, that’s fine too.”

Her smile was as bright as her outfit. Luke waved the biscotti at her like it a delicious sword to ward her off. He was tempted to flick water at her at the same time while saying, ‘the power of Christ compels you!’ but he’d already caused enough of a scene earlier with his coffee.

“Not a chance in hell, baby.”

“Why not?,” Jessie demanded indignantly. “Alex is a nice guy. He’s done amazing things with the flower shop on Greenly since he bought it last year from the previous owners. He’s amazingly talented, really nice, and super cute. You two could become poster boys for, ‘my two daddies’.”

Luke dropped his head into his hands and considered singing, ‘Swing low, sweet chariot, coming for to carry me home,’ as Jessie continued.

“Luke, I’ve tried sweet, and I tried kind, but you can now consider this the official intro into our tough love segment. I’m leaving the nest, and you need a new good-looking in your life to spend your winters with. You deserve to be happy, and I’m going to make sure that happens even if I have to drag you to your possible happily ever-after-while by your damn ankles while you’re kicking and screaming.”

“I’ll be ecstatic if you get me another cup of coffee, and a time machine to rewind this entire conversation.”

Jessie clucked her tongue at him disapprovingly. “Don’t be a baby. None of us want you to end up as a lonely old cowboy with nothing but horses for company.”

“I like horses. They don’t talk.”

“Careful who you say that to.” Jessie’s expression turned sly. “A guy who loves horses and says he doesn’t need a man…”

She held her long, elegantly shaped hands an obscene distance apart, and Luke laughed despite knowing damn well that he shouldn’t encourage her.

Little Shit.

“Look, I’m not asking you to marry Alex, just meet him. Have coffee or something. He’s a really sweet guy and he wants to meet you in public. During daylight hours. It’s a win-win.”

Jessie grinned when Luke sighed again.

“Hey, it’s this or a dating app, and you don’t want Keith helping me write your profile because he was a little too excited about the idea of putting in your fetish for firefighters.”

“Keith’s an asshole,” Luke said with a snort, before he rubbed a hand over his face. He didn’t want to be set up with anyone, especially an unknown florist, but he knew his kid. When Jessie dug her heels into an idea, his options were either to comply, or leave the state, preferably in federal WITSEC custody.

“Fine, if I have coffee with Alex once, will you drop this stupidity?”

“Absolutely, daddy.”

Jessie grin widened, and Luke sighed again.

Ask and you shall receive…