Cowboy Summer - 13. Night Train

“We should do something tonight.”

“Yeah?” Rhydian was driving back on the road again, which meant that he was keeping his eyes fixed out of the windshield and being careful.

“Yeah,” Bryce’s hand on his knee was incredibly distracting, “I have a boyfriend now. We should go on a date.”

“Haven’t we already been on a bunch of dates?” As soon as he said it, Rhydian was no longer sure that riding out to a lake or keeping Bryce company at the shop qualified as a date. Bryce squeezed his thigh gently. “A real date. Dinner and a movie. You can meet my parents.”

“OK,” Rhydian took his hand off the gear shift and laced his fingers with Bryce’s in his lap, “I have to go back to Iron Hill first though.”

“Really?” Bryce pouted, “I was hoping you could come back with me to our house.”

Rhydian kissed the fingers he held quickly before letting go to change gears.

“It’s not a real date unless I can come and pick you up now is it?” He smiled, “I have responsibilities babe. Shura needs me.”

Bryce knuckled his shoulder.

“I don’t mind sharing you with your horse. And I’ll come pick you up, better not push this driving thing eh?”

Rhydian dropped Bryce off outside his house and drove home feeling like he’d left his heart behind somehow. That feeling vanished the second he was back at the ranch, and Rhydian stopped to wonder why going home never felt as good as this did. Arriving back at Iron Hill Lake really did feel like coming home. He sort of wanted to spend time examining the feeling, but the sound of Shura’s voice called him out, and made it hard to think about anything else.

Rhydian made up the dinners without having to count the scoops of the different feeds and left them soaking while he combed the sand school flat. There were still a few large goats for steer wrestling practice in a stall, so he made a couple of rope head collars and put them in the round pen for the night with some hay and a bucket of sheep nuts. He found Shura’s head collar hanging on its peg and whistled to the horse in the field. Shura answered him with a shrill whinny.

“Go,” Rhydian turned to find Sam standing shirtless at the end of the row of stall’s, arms folded across his tan chest and looking happy, “We’ll finish up here. Ride your horse and we’ll feed.”

“We?” As Rhydian spoke he heard a shuffling in the hayloft from where Sam surely just climbed down, “Oh. Hi Caleb...” Rhydian took great delight in seeing Sam snigger.

He realised that the Texan wasn’t just shirtless, but wearing nothing but his jeans and boots, no belt, his fly was halfway down and there were bits of chaff in his hair. A tea coloured hand stuck out over the edge of the loft.

“Hello Rhyder.”

Rhydian left the stable laughing.

The boy let the horse out of his stable and the dapple creature followed him without a touch or a lead rope, nose hovering at the bend of his elbow as they walked away. Far from thinking nothing of it, the whole time he walked Rhydian measured his paces, kept his shoulders aligned with the horses and his breathing even. It wasn’t perfect yet, but he could feel the bond as strongly as if there was a rope wrapped around his chest, tying him to the horse. He and Shura were listening to each other.

Rhydian put Shura’s head collar on once they’d stopped and twisted the thin lead rope around to make reins, then used a foot up on the corral fence to slide onto Shura’s bare back. Boy and horse walked around the outside of the school gently, and Rhydian gripped with his knees, kept his balance moved with the horse as he went. The part of his mind not busy with throwing more and more strands into his connection with Shura thought about Sam and Caleb.

He’d seen that look before, that first morning before he had really known either of them, sitting together at the breakfast table sharing toast and jam, butter and crumbs on their fingers. Sam had looked so utterly happy, completely in love; Caleb had looked shy, like he was trying not to believe how lucky he was, and totally head over heels as well. Rhydian found it almost funny that they’d been together two years, they shared a room in the house, a little section of their own attached to the side, and yet they had chosen to romp in the hayloft like any tearaway pair of teenage lovers. Caleb’s voice had sounded happy and embarrassed and Rhydian hoped that in another two years, he and Bryce would have that easy camaraderie.

Except that you’ll be gone in eight days… Rhydian felt his heart thump incredibly hard, so hard it hurt, and Shura stopped stock still underneath him. Rhydian pushed his hand against his chest. He couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Bryce in eight days and never seeing him again. It was irrational and silly and probably completely melodramatically teenage, but he still didn’t want to leave. Shura’s snickered whinny distracted him, the horse’s head bent round and nuzzled on his knee.

“Yeah, I’m OK,” Rhydian patted the horse’s neck, firm and reassuring, I’m alright bud.” He squeezed with his thighs, and they started off again.

Twenty minutes later, Rhydian drew his cantering horse to a gentle stop, and slid softly from his back onto the ground. He turned Shura loose in the school where the horse rolled and itched, throwing up sand with his hooves and having fun. Rhydian didn’t need to put him back on the head collar to take him to the fields where Sam and Caleb were feeding. The dapple grey trusted him. They walked together, his hand on the space behind the horse’s shoulder in perfect time, connected all the way through to their hearts.

To Caleb, standing in the paddocks, handing out buckets to horses hungry for their wet dinners of chaff and molasses, they looked like one and the same being. He elbowed Sam gently and together they watched boy and horse moved together into the field. Rhydian stood there staring at the sky and Shura laid his head over the boy’s shoulder. Rhydian’s hand curved underneath his jaw and stroked the dapple grey fur. It was hard to imagine the two of them ever being apart.

“He’s never going to want to leave, is he?” Sam said softly.

“No.” Caleb sighed, “They love each other, that’s for sure.”

“What are we going to do?”

“Is there anything we can do?” Caleb fed the last horse and watched while Rhydian collected a feed bucket and stood with Shura while he ate.

“If I know anything about you babe, I know you already have a plan.”

They all ended up walking back towards the house together, Sam and Rhydian teasing each other jovially about their afternoons. It was amazing how the boy had relaxed, no longer wound up tense all the time, no longer shy and uncertain of himself. Three weeks of sun and horse, and a bit of heartbreak and a pretty boy with green eyes, maybe that was all Rhydian had needed.

“So you got plans tonight?”

“Bryce is coming to pick me up,” Rhydian bright smile was quickly replaced by horror, “And I’m out of clean shirts again!” He tugged at the hem of the blue t-shirt, now dusty and marked with streaks of green chaff, “Ah crap.”

“Go have a shower bud,” Sam knuckled his shoulder, “We’ll sort out your wardrobe. Go on.”

Caleb looked sideways at his man as Rhydian kicked out of his boots and ran up through the house.

“What are you up to?”

“Kid’s got a date,” Sam shrugged in an oh-so-innocent manner, “He deserves to look good, and I know I’ve got a couple of old shirts that don’t fit anymore that’ll do him fine. We can’t let Bryce pick him up smelling like horse feed can we?”

*

Rhydian waited out by the front gate, leaning on the fence post, watching for the dust of Bryce’s truck on the road. He’d ended up with one of Sam’s old rodeo shirts, black with white piping and bald eagle’s embroidered on the yoke, and his cleaner pair of jeans. Caleb had laid out all his clothes for him and he’d jumped out of the shower and straight into them without really thinking about it. He’d left his rodeo hat at home this time, and ran a hand through his short hair again before hooking his thumb in his pocket. There was something in that pocket.

Rhydian drew out two little square blue foil packets and gulped. Sam had written on the condom wrappers with a sharpie marker. Good luck kiddo xx and Be Safe! Rhydian stuffed the protection back in his pocket, knowing that he was blushing furiously. The big Texan certainly had a sense of humour that was for sure. Rhydian kicked at the dusty ground with his boots. Half of him hoped he got an excuse to use one of those wrappers. The rest of him was shit-scared of even thinking about it. What if Bryce thought that he was like Jase, out to get some pleasure, and not actually caring about him at all? Rhydian decided right then and there, as Bryce’s truck came into view barrelling down the drive, that he was not going to make the first move. He cared about Bryce, more than he really wanted to admit, and he wanted Bryce to know that too.

Bryce hugged him as he got up into the cab of the truck, and the boy’s chatted nonchalantly about their late afternoons apart. Bryce was jealous, because he’d wanted to ride with Rhydian too, and Rhyder listened as Bryce talked about his educational wrestling with his summer calculus homework. He was so pleased to be free of homework, and dreading the idea of starting at a university that he couldn’t give two hoots about.

They went for dinner at what to Rhydian looked like a classic American burger joint, and the burger’s arrived in their little red vinyl booth piled high with salad and onion rings, mustards and relishes with a toasted bun and stuck through with a long wooden skewer. They chatted and ate, Bryce swiped sauce off of Rhydian’s lip with his thumb and Rhyder blushed and fiddled with his napkin. It was pleasant and fun, and incredibly easy. Being with Bryce was exciting, he made Rhydian’s heart beat faster every time he smiled, and it was so easy and natural. Rhydian stole Bryce’s milkshake and the other boy had grabbed an extra straw so that they could race to the bottom of the glass. It was perfect. Bryce kissed him, tasting like ice cream and strawberries, right there in the booth. Rhydian insisted on paying.

“So what next?” Rhydian was tucked into the corner of the bench seat, watching Bryce change gears, “Did you pick a movie?”

“There’s nothing good on,” Bryce didn’t sound like he was especially unhappy about that, “I had a different idea.”

“Oh yeah?” That sounded good, and Rhyder found their hands joined on the seat between them.

“I got a blanket in the back and my sister bought us a half of Comfort,” Bryce smiled, biting his lower lip, “You wanna go listen to the freight train?”

Rhydian wasn’t sure if this was some sort of code, but he smiled anyway, and wished that his jeans didn’t feel so tight.

Bryce drove them out of town in the other direction from Iron Hill Lake and across the river at the back of town. The roads changed to dust and gravel, and both the boys held onto the truck as they drove, bouncing in the cab.

“Where are we going?”

“The freight train comes through here some nights,” Bryce killed the engine. Without the lights it was dark. They were in the middle of nowhere, “Sounds really cool. Come on.”

Rhyder followed Bryce out of the truck, and felt his heart jump again when the green eyed boy took his hand.

“I hear it coming! Hurry up.”

They raced along the little path, and as they got further away from the truck he heard the noise, like a rumble in the far off distance. Bryce was gripping his hand, pulling him along into the night. When they reached the escarpment by the tracks, the trees cleared and the sky opened up. Bryce laid the blanket out on the ground and smiled.

“We got the moon and a billion stars, what movie could be better than this?”

“Good choice.” Rhydian sat down on the blanket beside his boyfriend and stared up at the stars. The sky was so much more enormous than it was back home, the stars thick like swarming fireflies. Bryce moved closer to him, a hand on his chest making him lean back on his elbows, and Rhydian tapped his boot against Bryce’s own. Bryce uncapped liquor and took a sip, handing it across.

“You hear that? I love the sound of the train, steel and old boxcars. Goes on for ages.”

Rhydian sipped from the neck of the bottle carefully. He did not want to get drunk, not after the last time, just enough to take off the edge. The train made a low rumble, like the noise of some gigantic purring cat, and Rhyder could see why Bryce liked it. The ground vibrated gently under them, and it was sort of soothing.

“We don’t really have freight trains in England,” Rhydian passed back the bottle, “I’ve never heard one before.”

Bryce put down alcohol and lost interest in it. Rhydian found himself sinking back on the blanket with Bryce lying in his arms. The boy was warm and soft, and Bryce’s hair smelt of apples. He tasted like alcohol and ice cream. They kissed under the light of the stars, exploring each other’s mouths. Bryce’s hands found their way inside Rhydian’s shirt, and he hissed when the boy touched him, fingers tracing down his chest, stroking his abs. Rhydian groaned, pulled Bryce against him, his finger digging into his denim clad arse, the furrow of his spine. Bryce melted against his chest, lying between his thighs, the heat of their bodies keeping them warm as the night cooled off.

Rhydian couldn’t get enough of his boyfriend, and Bryce kissed his neck and then moaned in his ear when Rhydian ground his hips into his crotch. Bryce’s eyes glowed in the starlight, and Rhydian found his heartbeat matching the ground shaking rhythm of the train. Bryce pulled back, kneeling between his thighs and Rhydian groaned in frustration.

“I wanna look at you.” Bryce’s white teeth set in his lower lip made Rhydian’s cock twitch in a really distracting manner. “You’re beautiful Rhyder, I’ve been thinking about you all day.” Bryce’s hands shook on the pearl snaps of the borrowed shirt, and Rhydian covered them with his own. He divested himself of the garment in about three seconds flat, and sat up as best he could to kiss Bryce again. The boy pushed him down.

“Hey…”

“Shirt for shirt?” Bryce grabbed the back of his t-shirt and hauled it over his head. Rhydian grinned, running his hands over the tight packed muscles of the other boy’s stomach.

Bryce wasn’t much shorter than him, but he was narrower, and thinner around the waist. Somehow, though, Rhydian found himself matched strength for strength with his boyfriend. They were kissing again, locked together, exploring new skin. Rhydian twisted his weight, just like he did in steer wrestling, and rolled over, pinning Bryce beneath him. He kissed a line down Bryce’s neck, loving the mixed vibration of the passing freight train and the timbre of his boyfriend’s moans. When he got to Bryce’s chest, the texture of the honey-coloured nipples distracted him. Rhyder pressed one with his tongue, licked and kissed the hard nub and Bryce’s hands were running over his short hair, moaning and panting. Rhydian moved lower, and damn all that not making any moves shit, because licking Bryce’s navel and having his boyfriend whimper and moan was incredible.

“Rhy!” Bryce’s voice was breathless and soft, “Oh god… Rhyder… ngh…”

“You OK?” Rhydian looked over his chest at the boy, smiling. His fingers picked at the studs of Bryce’s fly, “Babe?”

“Oh god… I…”

“You want me to stop?”

“Hell no!” Bryce leant up on his elbows, nearly growling, and Rhyder decided that it was permission enough.

He kissed every inch of new skin, relished the sensation of Bryce’s shivers under his fingers as he drew jeans and boxers over his hips. Bryce’s erection bobbed between his legs, perfectly proportioned, and Rhydian kissed the base, and then licked a line up the underside to the glans. It was different, interesting, wonderfully weird, and Bryce tasted like salt and sweet things, bacon and syrup and breakfast pancakes. He kissed the tip of Bryce’s cock, and opened his mouth to sink down around the length.

It took a little bit to work out how to breath, how far to go down, when to suck, but Bryce coaxed him, encouraged him with murmurs and moans, fingers on his skull and shoulders. Rhydian’s own cock was hard and throbbing, begging for his attention, and he groaned around Bryce’s cock in pleasure and frustration. He didn’t dare, but when he felt Bryce’s fingers on his chin, he tilted his head up to look. Bryce smiled like he was in love, and the last worry that Rhydian had about this working out as it had with Jase vanished.

“Come ‘ere babe.” Bryce pulled him up, kissed him hard, invading his mouth. They sat up together. Bryce’s legs wrapped around him, and Rhydian wrapped his arms around Bryce, keeping him close. Bryce’s fingers unbelted his jeans, un zipped him, found his aching member. Rhydian groaned and hissed as Bryce’s hand wrapped around him. “Closer.”

“I can’t be any closer babe,” Rhydian’s breath was ragged, “God you’re beautiful.”

Bryce smiled, pushed his knees apart so that Rhydian was sitting cross legged on the blanket with his jeans pushed down his hips, and then crawled into his lap, wrapping legs around and behind his back. Rhydian hung on to the boy, and was about to ask what on earth they were doing, when Bryce shifted his weight and brought their erections into contact. They both hissed, and Rhydian felt his heart jumping about in his chest like a wild mad rabbit.

Bryce wrapped his hand around them both at once and they were kissing, panting, moaning, and crying. Neither able to form any sort of coherent words, Rhydian pressed his forehead against Bryce’s and held his green gaze as he came. Bryce cried out, gripped his shoulder, and then he too spilled his orgasm messily over their joined crotches. Rhydian kissed him the second he had enough breath again.

They found a way of lying down like that, wrapped around each other without ever having to let go. Bryce found tissues in his pocket and cleaned them up a little bit, but neither of them could be bothered to re arrange their clothes. The ground still shuddered with the passing of the night train. Their closeness kept them warm as together they watched the starts glinting overhead. It was exactly as it should have been. Rhydian kissed the boy in his arms, his boyfriend, and nuzzled into his neck.

“I want to stay like this forever.”

“Me too.” Bryce stroked his chest softly, “I love you babe.”

Rhydian felt his heart give a massive thud. It hurt but it was awesome. Rhydian had no idea how he was going to ever live through this.

“I love you Bryce.” He hugged the boy closer to his chest, “I love you.”