Cowboy Summer - 16. One Of Those Nights

Bryce came by around one and he and Rhydian were late for lunch because they spent so long making out against the side of Bryce’s truck. Bryce smiled at him and bit his lip, told him he was beautiful.

It was the best birthday afternoon. There was a small crop of new guests, and Rhydian went with Caleb and Bryce to show them the ropes and teach them about being at Iron Hill Lake. It was fun, and Rhydian enjoyed being the voice of experience and knowledge, able to easily direct the riders where to go and how to act around their horses. Caleb watched him closely, and it made his heart race when the native man smiled and nodded, letting him know he was doing well. Afterwards Sam joined them, fresh from his Jase-related-errands, and the four young men went for a ride and a swim in the lake.

They arrived back, the horses drying in the sun, all of them riding shirtless, to be greeted by Jase standing on the back steps with a man who might have been his spitting image.

“Oh boys…” Jase grinned from ear to ear, “You’ll make all the pretty girls drool.”

Rhydian blushed hard, and Bryce clicked their spurs deliberately, then grinned at him secretly, biting his lip.

“Who’s that?” Rhydian asked, nodding to the man who looked quite like Jase. A similar kind of grin, denim shirt and jeans, and wearing a ball cap and work boots.

“That’s Shaun,” Sam replied, “I think everything might be nearly ready for your party Rhyder.”

“I get a party?”

“Sure you do babe,” Bryce put a hand on the back of his neck, “It’s a special day.”

They fed the horses together in the field where Samson still waited patiently, and Rhydian took the time to stroke the big chestnut, the horse nuzzling gently at his pockets in search of love and pony nuts. The sun was on its way to sinking into the horizon when they got back. Rhydian was sent upstairs for a shower and to get dressed, he arrived back into Bryce’s waiting arms

“So you’re the famous Rhydian from across the water eh?” Shaun had the sort of warm and booming voice that made Rhydian wish that the man had a burning desire to record bedtime stories. “You weren’t making it up I see Jase.”

Rhydian had the unexpected pleasure seeing Jase blush. He hadn’t previously been sure that such a thing was possible.

“Hi. Rhyder.” He held out a hand which was immediately enveloped in a hearty shake, “Nice to meet you.”

“The birthday boy!” Shaun’s smile was as big as his voice, “Everything is ready for you young man.” Shaun pulled him onto a hug, “You have some great friends to pull all of this together for ya.”

“Thanks,” Rhydian smiled, but stepped back to Bryce when he was released. All hugs were good, but having his arm around Bryce’s shoulders was better, “And what might Jase have been lying about.”

Sam sniggered into the collar of his shirt.

“He was boasting about how hot you are.” Sam stuffed the hat he’d bought Rhydian at the rodeo on his short cropped hair. Rhydian ducked and grinned, and reset the hat on his head at a better angle.

“And I see he wasn’t joking.” Shaun hugged Jase around the neck, and Jase grinned evilly. Obviously there was someone in the world who could give and take just as good as he got from Jase. Rhydian surprised himself by feeling both pleased for his friend, and also a little bit ambivalent. There were much more important things to be excited about, like Bryce’s hand in his back pocket, squeezing his butt.

The six of them ended up packing into Jase’s Chevy, partly because Bryce’s truck seemed to already be gone, and partly because it was the biggest of the vehicles. Bryce ended up half in Rhydian’s lap, and Rhydian wrapped his arms around his boyfriend, snuggling into his neck. The sun was pretty much down now, just a line of red on the horizon as they drove away. Rhydian watched the stars out of the window and held the sound of Bryce’s heart beating in his mind. He would never forget that sound and that feeling, he was going to remember it forever, the soft double thud of his boyfriend living and breathing in his arms. He hated that part of his mind was locking the memory away even as he made it, knowing that he was going to need to draw on the strength he felt sooner rather than later.

“Happy birthday babe,” Bryce whispered in his ear as the truck stopped, Rhydian hadn’t really paid any attention to where they were going, “I love you.” Rhyder shivered and kissed Bryce really hard. Now was not the time to be reflective, now was not the time to doubt himself.

What Jase had built, fully cemented him in Rhydian’s mind as some kind of all-country party boy. Any other time of year, this would be a field, plain boring, studded with giant trees under which grew nothing but grass. Whatever had grown here had been harvested and razed weeks ago, and the ground was soft with old ash and dust. There was a fire, a massive one, any number of hay bales and old logs strewn around to sit on, buckets and buckets full of ice and beer, soda, cola and various stronger things. Everyone was there, drinking and dancing in cute bits of shuffle step and line-work to the music blasting from the speakers mounted in the back of one of the trucks.

Then there were the smells. Roasting meats, frying things, sugar mixed in somewhere, hot new bread cooling in the night air. There was a smaller fire, being watched over by a bigger man Rhydian took to be a relation of Kenny’s, since he had a similar sort of look and was swigging from a bottle of corn liquor with no apparent ill effects. Over that fire was hanging a big cauldron, and there were a pile of pitchfork’s on the ground. When everyone saw them coming there was cheering and hollering.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY RHYDER!”

Bryce kissed him, all unashamed and beautiful, and Caleb knuckled his shoulder. Rhydian beamed.

He got hugged by everyone, sipped from a dozen different drinks, but smiled and thanked Sam when the older man pressed a cream soda bottle into his hand. It was his birthday, and damn but he wanted to remember it properly. The guy Kevin, who turned out to be Kenny’s older brother, handed him a pitchfork and pointed to the big cooler.

“Huh?”

“Pitchfork fondue buddy!” Jase kneaded his shoulders, “You’ll never have had anything like it.”

So Rhydian selected a giant steak, made sure it was securely stabbed with the fork and on Kevin’s instruction, placed the fork prongs down in the boiling oil.

“That’ll be the best steak you’ve ever hand birthday boy,” Kevin assembled bread rolls and sauces as Rhydian hauled the meat out of the cauldron, “Crunchy on the outside like nothing you’ve ever had, all tender and warm inside.” Kevin took a big bowie knife and sliced part of the steak off, handing it to Rhydian. The meat fairly melted away on his tongue, it was amazing. The next piece he took and turned to Bryce.

Bryce sucking meat juices off his fingers short-cut straight to his cock, and because of that it was really hard to listen to what Kevin was telling him as he sliced and served up the steak Rhydian had ‘cooked.’ Rhyder took his meaty delicious sandwich and walked hand in hand with Bryce to the fire. They took seats on a hay bale, ate their fondue rolls and watched everyone else getting food and drink, dancing and tripping over their own boots. Rhydian returned Bryce’s gesture by turning a kiss on the corner of his boyfriend’s mouth into tracking down his neck with his tongue and lips and making Bryce groan as though they weren’t in the middle of a party in a field. He heard Jase mutter something about them ‘being X-rated’ and smiled to himself in a proud sort of manner.

They chatted to everyone, talked about everything. Hunter and Derek wanted to know everything about his entrance for the rodeo, and even Johnny and Christina said that they would and could watch him compete. Bryce told him how well he would do, how proud he was that his boyfriend was a real rodeo cowboy, and Rhydian lost a chunk of time staring into the green eyes then kissing until he was dizzy. The moon was full and huge, and Bryce was sitting in his lap, their arms wrapped around each other. Surely there could be no better way to spend his birthday.

“Cake!”

Except for that.

The cake had been hiding in another truck. It was a massive slab covered with the sort of piped white sugar frosting that Rhydian associated with New York TV dramas and Queen’s bakeries. On the top were words picked out in blue and red swirly letters.

Happy Birthday Rhyder

Rodeo Cowboy

Rhydian’s cheeks ached from all the smiling, but he couldn’t stop himself. When everyone had cake, Jase jumped up on a hay bale, cake in one hand, beer in the other.

“To Rhyder,” He raised the chilled bottle over his head, “Happy birthday bud, welcome to the adult side of eighteen!”

Everyone drank. Then Caleb stood, coughed, and turned to him, smiling as wide as Sam did most days.

“Happy birthday Rhyder,” He raised his bottle too. “You’re one of us now.”

Rhydian chinked his bottle with Caleb’s, then Sam’s. He was home. Regardless of being in a field five thousand miles from any blood relative, this was where he was meant to be. He was one of them.

Bryce kissed him, tasting like sugar frosting and ice cream and whiskey.

“Dance with me.” It wasn’t a question. A slow song was playing, and people were dancing close, moving softly in the firelight. It was later than Rhydian had thought. He took Bryce’s hand without a moment of hesitation as his boyfriend pulled him into the glowing circle of orange light.

They danced toe to toe, pressed against each other as much as they could, and Rhydian rested his forehead on Bryce’s and watched the firelight and moonlight dance in his green eyes as he moved slowly in time with the music. Everything was perfect; the heat of the fire on his skin, the heat of Bryce seeping into him where they touched, the gentle buzz of alcohol and the sweetness of the cake and cream soda. Sam and Caleb were dancing like they only had eyes for each other, and Bryce was moving his hips in gentle but insistently distracting ways. When the song changed, Bryce leant up and whispered in his ear.

“Baby, let’s go.”

“’Kay…” Rhydian’s voice was lost somewhere. No one was watching them, except for Jase and Shaun, sitting on the back of Jase’s truck, and Rhydian waved once as they slipped into the darkness.

Bryce had him by the hand, pulling him along, and they found his truck parked a way off, half hidden behind one of the giant trees. Bryce had obviously done some preparing of his own, because there was a mattress in the back and blankets too. They left their boots in the short grass by the tree. Bryce slid in beside him. His boyfriend straddled his lap, kissing him as he opened his shirt, and Rhydian wondered how he had managed to get this lucky. He could see the moon through the trees over Bryce’s shoulder, the very far off sounds and light of the party, the sky full of stars.

And he knew. He knew it as Bryce smiled and sat up, digging in his pocket for something square and shiny in a foil wrapper, knew it as they kissed, his heart speeding up to match Bryce’s. Bryce bit his bottom lip and smiled and Rhydian couldn’t hold back from smothering him with hot and hungry kisses. He knew that when he looked back at his life, at the memories he made, that this was going to be one of those nights. One that he’d always remember, whatever happened in the near future, he would never forget the way Bryce felt kissing him, the weight and heat of him in his lap, he would always remember the way he felt in his heart. This was one of those nights, and Rhydian decided right then and there to make the most of every moment.

Bryce stilled over him, then laid down along his chest pulling up the blanket a little so it wouldn’t get lost. They didn’t speak as they found their way inside each other’s clothes, just kissing and touching, skimming finger tips over hard muscles and smooth or rough skin until they were both totally naked, pressed against each other from lips to feet. Rhydian tried to shape what he wanted into a question, but found himself getting lost inside the idea in his head, wanting to sound cute, romantic, not stilted or demanding. Bryce beat him to it.

“It’s your birthday babe. Whatever you want.”

“You’re not just doing this because…?” Rhydian’s half question was drowned in kisses and the heated touch of his boyfriend’s cock against his own.

“No. I love you.” Bryce wriggled against him, “So which will it be cowboy?”

“You’re asking me what position I want to have sex in on my birthday?” Rhydian couldn’t quite believe his luck ,because he already knew that we wanted to be inside Bryce, have Bryce inside him, taste him, touch him, everything. He was spoilt for choice.

“No.” Bryce separated out the foil condom wrapper to show a second one, “I’m asking you which position you wanna have sex in on your birthday first.”

Rhydian kissed his boyfriend, rocked his hips in a demanding and unmistakable sort of way and had the delight of watching Bryce shiver and squirm with delight.

“Happy birthday babe.”

Rhydian felt like the luckiest boy on earth.