Coming Home Page 13

  Cade straightened and crossed his arms over his chest. If Brett wanted a fight, he’d have to acknowledge the issue first. “I’m always what?”

  The challenge seemed to throw Brett off and, as the anger dulled in his eyes, Cade felt a rush of guilt. He was doing this to Brett, confusing him. He wasn’t being fair.

  “Look,” Cade said quietly, “it doesn’t have to be like this.”

  “Like what?”

  “Tense and shit.” Cade took a step back in an effort to give them both more breathing room. “We could forget the past couple of weeks, put them behind us if they make you this uncomfortable.”

  Brett didn’t look convinced, but his eyes remained calm and Cade decided now was as good a time as any to ask the question that had been keeping him awake at night.

  “Why are you uncomfortable?” he asked, searching Brett’s face for clues. “That night with Jess, it was just a bit of fun, nothing serious.”

  Confusion flashed in Brett’s gaze before the anger returned. “Why can’t you leave it the hell alone?” he seethed, bringing his beer bottle down on the bar with so much force Cade expected the glass to smash to pieces.

  Returning his attention to Brett, he replied with a question of his own. “Why is it bugging you so much?”

  “Maybe because it doesn’t seem to be bugging you at all,” Brett said, fists curling at his sides. Realizing they were drawing attention, Brett moved forward, his body heat enveloping Cade as he spoke again, this time in a much lower voice. “You liked it.”

  Cade gave a small laugh of surprise. “Of course I liked it. It was sex, what’s not to like?”

  “No.” Brett shook his head. “Not just Jessica. You liked…even when she wasn’t around, you liked…”

  Tired of beating around the bush, Cade groaned his frustration. “Liked what?”

  Brett couldn’t say it but his thoughts were clear in his desperate eyes. “You were hard the whole time,” he ground out eventually. “I saw you, I saw you looking.”

  Cade’s gut twisted. This wasn’t how he’d expected the conversation to go. He knew Brett had suspected this. Hell, he’d made a poor show of hiding his feelings for the man, especially that night. But when he’d thought about this confrontation over the past few days, he’d dreaded it, dreaded the accusation and disgust Brett was bound to display. What Cade hadn’t counted on was the mix of confusion and desperate need in Brett’s eyes he was facing now. And he’d be damned if that wasn’t desire burning beneath all that emotion.

  They stared at one another in silence and Cade finally let himself acknowledge the fact that Brett felt something too. No matter how small it was something.

  “Brett, honey,” a female voice simpered.

  Brett’s eyes dimmed once again and he turned his back on Cade. Glancing over the other man’s shoulder, Cade watched Mary Ellen practically rub herself up against Brett. She was a piece of candy, this one—all candyfloss smiles and sugar-coated tones. Not his type at all.

  It became clear as Brett slipped his hands down around her tiny waist he was putting an end to the conversation he’d been having with Cade. The high of anticipation and hope Cade had been feeling swooped downward, the anti-climax almost unbearable as he turned away from Brett and his piece of sugar. He would have walked straight out of the bar if his cell hadn’t started buzzing in his pocket.

  He pulled it out and flipped it open, not recognizing the number. “Hello,” he said into it.

  “Cade, it’s Jimmy here.”

  Frowning at the strain in the old man’s voice, Cade pressed the cell tighter to his ear. “Everything okay, Jimmy?”

  “I tried to get Brett but he ain’t answering his phone,” Jimmy rushed on. “You boys need to come home. It’s Dixie. She’s not doing so good.”

  A sinking feeling weighted down Cade’s stomach as he glanced back at Brett. Of all the horses, losing Dixie would break his heart. “Did you call the vet, Jimmy?”

  “Yeah, Rob’s on his way now.”

  “Okay, we’ll be there in twenty.” He snapped the phone shut and strode back to Brett. “We need to get out of here.”

  Brett didn’t look away from his doting friend as he asked, “Why?”

  “One of the horses is sick. Jimmy just called me.”

  This got Brett’s attention. He untangled himself from the blonde who pouted up at him. “Sorry, Mary Ellen,” Brett said, not sounding particularly sorry at all. “I gotta go.”

  Cade almost felt sorry for the girl who stood forgotten at the bar as Brett headed for the door. But noting the way the guy behind her was staring at her ass, eyes glinting with interest, Cade shrugged off the sympathy and followed Brett outside. Mary Ellen wouldn’t go home alone tonight.

  The atmosphere in the car on the ride home was as strained as it had been on the way to Billy’s. But the tension in the air was a different kind of tension—worry, fear.

  “What horse?” Brett asked tersely as they left the town behind them.

  Cade held his breath and then released it slowly. “Dixie.”

  They didn’t utter another word until they reached the ranch. As soon as Cade pulled up in Brett’s drive, whinnies of pain reached his ears. With Dixie at the front of his mind, he got out of the car and jogged to the stables with Brett right beside him.

  “There you are,” Jimmy said when they stepped inside the darkened stables. He stood outside one of the empty stalls beside the stable doors. Or at least it had been empty until now. When Cade reached the stall and saw Dixie inside, Rob Daly standing beside her, the pit of dread in his stomach deepened. They’d moved her down to this stall so she was right beside the exit. That way if she gave out it wouldn’t be such a difficult task to move her.

  “How is she?” Brett asked flatly and Cade knew he’d figured out why they’d moved her too.

  Now they were closer, Cade could see the weariness in Jimmy’s weathered face as he shook his head. “Not doing too good.”

  “The stiffness that was there when I came out last week is much worse,” Rob said from the dark stall. “And she’s sweating buckets.”

  “She went into convulsions about an hour ago,” Jimmy added, grimacing at the memory. “Poor thing fell on the ground. That’s when I called Rob.”

  “Convulsions?” Cade asked, looking at the vet for confirmation. When Rob nodded, he didn’t just confirm the convulsions, he confirmed Cade’s suspicions. “Tetanus.”

  Rob nodded again. “I’m almost sure. Between the stiffness and the spasms.” He dropped to his knees and pointed to her front right hoof. “There’s a cut just here on her leg. I missed that last week.”

  “Tetanus?” Brett asked, his brows drawn together in a frown. “But we have all the horses vaccinated every year, surely it can’t—”

  Rob cut him off. “Vaccinations aren’t a hundred-percent guarantee against the disease,” he reminded him gently.

  There was a tense silence. Then Brett asked another question Cade had been dreading.

  “So what’s the next step? What treatment does she need?”

  Rob ran his hand over the horse’s mane and shook his head. “She’s too far gone, Brett. Tetanus can lie dormant for months but once the symptoms set in, the disease progresses quickly.”

  Another silence and Cade could almost feel Brett’s heart breaking.

  “So we wait?” He directed his question at Rob as Brett stepped inside the stall.

  Rob didn’t reply as Brett ran a loving hand over the horse’s stiff flanks, and Cade had to fight every instinct he had not to go in there and reach for him.

  After a few moments, Brett turned his face away from the horse and looked at the vet. “Are we waiting?”

  Rob hesitated and then slowly shook his head. “I think it’d be best if we put the old girl out of her misery.”

  A lump formed in Cade’s throat at the dooming words. He watched with an aching heart as Brett continued to pat down the horse, the usual harsh tone in his voice replaced by somet
hing softer as he soothed the distressed animal. Losing Dixie was a blow he didn’t need to face right now.

  Cade shifted his focus to Rob as Brett continued to whisper in the horse’s ear. “What happens now?”

  “I have what I need in the truck,” he said somberly. “When Jimmy called and told me what was going on I thought I might need it.”

  Cade nodded stiffly. “And what about the—” he faltered and then took a deep breath, “—what about the body?”

  “I can take it away on my trailer. There’s a removal service I deal with just outside Steeplecrest. I can take care of all that.”

  Sensing the vet was trying to make it as easy for them as possible, Cade made a mental note to thank him later on. Right now he didn’t think he could speak as he watched Brett, usually so hard and unyielding, stroke the horse gently, saying goodbye.

  While Rob went to get his supplies from his truck, Cade turned away from the stall and swallowed past the lump in his throat. Jimmy was having a hard time of it too, rubbing at his eyes and clearing his throat with a cough.

  “I’m glad I was here,” Jimmy said hoarsely. “I just came by to pick up something I’d left behind and I heard her.”

  “Glad you were here too,” Cade forced out, summoning the strength to face the stall again. Despite Brett’s soothing strokes, the horse’s pain was palpable. Her eyes, which had always been so soft and intelligent, were watering. The lockjaw had set in and she didn’t appear to be able to move her face. She looked like a different animal from when he’d seen her that morning. She’d been stiff then too, but he’d put it down to old age. He wished it had clicked in his mind, but even if it had and they’d called Rob then, it probably wouldn’t have made a difference. Probably.

  Rob returned with a bag in his hand. He walked into the stall and got to his knees, unzipping the bag. Brett didn’t turn from the horse but Cade didn’t miss how his shoulders tensed further, the muscles bunching beneath his T-shirt.

  With a needle in hand, Rob stood and approached the horse. “Are you ready?” he asked, looking to Brett for permission to continue.

  Brett’s curt nod was the only answer he got and, as Brett continued to whisper to Dixie, Rob inserted the needle beneath her skin and pulled back the syringe. Dixie didn’t seem to feel the prick and Cade supposed she probably couldn’t feel anything through the pain she was already experiencing. He looked on as her eyelids drooped. Slowly, her legs folded beneath her body and she dropped to the floor. Her eyes closed fully as if she were drifting into a sleep. Two minutes later, Rob stepped forward to check for a pulse.

  “She’s gone,” he confirmed, getting to his feet. He turned sorry eyes on Brett and then glanced at Cade. “We can wait a while before taking her out, but not too long or rigor mortis will set in.”

  “Thanks, Rob,” Jimmy croaked out. “But maybe we should get this done now, right boss?”

  Brett turned and Cade had to look away from the raw pain swimming in his dark eyes.

  “Yeah,” Brett said quietly, “let’s get it over with.”

  Moving the animal from the stall to Rob’s trailer was no mean feat. Her weight bore down on them as they half-carried, half-dragged her across the yard. It made Cade’s stomach turn to see the beautiful horse be treated this way, but he had to remind himself she was gone and what they were carrying now was dead meat, soulless.

  He stood with Brett as Rob drove away, carrying what was left of Dixie with him. Jimmy left too and when the lights at the back of his old pickup faded into the distance, Cade couldn’t stop himself. He reached out and put his hand on Brett’s shoulder. To his surprise and relief, Brett didn’t shrug him off. They stood like that for long minutes until Brett turned and started back toward his house. Cade didn’t hesitate. He followed him.

  Chapter Nine

  Brett didn’t turn on the lights when they stepped into the kitchen. There didn’t seem to be a point to illuminate the room. His eyes were tired and the thought of brightness made his head throb. He turned to the window where shards of moonlight were slicing through the glass and casting shadows over the floor and walls. That was enough light. They didn’t need more than that.

  He stared at one triangle of silver that illuminated a picture frame on the wall. In the frame sat a picture of his parents, taken just after their wedding. As if their death had occurred only yesterday, the grief struck him between the ribs, a knife digging deep into his body and twisting cruelly. They were gone, he realized. And Dixie was gone too.

  Swallowing hard, he dropped his gaze to the floor. His vision blurred, his throat burned. The thud of boots on the floor behind him reached his ears and he lifted his head. At the back of his mind he knew he should ask Cade to go but he couldn’t bring himself to form the words. If there was one thing he was sure of, it was that he needed Cade here. If the man walked out of the house and left Brett alone, he didn’t know what he’d do.

  “Do you want something to drink?” Cade asked quietly, his voice close. “Or eat?”

  Brett shook his head wordlessly. If he spoke his tight rein on his control would crumble. Cade brought his hand down on his shoulder like he had before in the yard and he closed his eyes as the warmth of the large palm seared through his T-shirt. The warmth spread from his shoulder, down his arms and over his chest, soothing away the chill in his bones. Cade’s grip on his shoulder tightened and he released a shaky breath. Inside him something shifted and a shiver of awareness tripped down his spine. He was treading thin ice here, he knew it. He just couldn’t bring himself to care.

  Slowly, he turned to face Cade and inhaled sharply when he found the man stood mere inches from him. Their eyes met and Brett’s throat tightened further when he saw the tenderness in Cade’s blue gaze. There was a shimmer of pain there too, a shared pain. Cade felt what he felt. They’d both lost so much already. They were coming through it together. It made so much sense now why they should comfort each other. Who else but Cade could understand what he was going through?

  That thought repeated in his mind as his lips sought out Cade’s in the dark. The other man’s sharp intake of breath reached Brett’s ears before he covered Cade’s mouth with his own. The kiss started out soft at first as they tested the waters, little tremors of electricity passing between them. Brett lost himself in the texture of Cade’s lips, smooth and firm, as they worked over his. And then Cade opened for him and the moist undersides of his lips pressed against Brett’s mouth. He opened his mouth too and let the tip of his tongue glide along Cade’s fuller bottom lip. Cade gave a quiet moan and his tongue touched his. Feeling the effects of the contact between his legs, Brett slid his tongue along Cade’s, exploring the man’s velvety mouth with a mix of curiosity and desire. Kissing him was completely different to kissing a woman. The firm pressure of his lips, the steady thrusting of his tongue, the warm taste of beer and mint on his breath. Nothing feminine about it. And when Cade stepped closer, closing the distance between their bodies, the difference became even clearer. Blood raced in Brett’s veins, thick and fast, as he acknowledged the thick bulge in Cade’s jeans, accepted that it was for him. He felt a tremor of fear, of wariness, but the building need within him washed the emotions away. In his pants, his dick strained against his boxers and, needing Cade to know how aroused he’d become, he sucked the man’s tongue into his mouth and pressed his hips to Cade’s. As their clothed erections rubbed together, a delicious friction building through the double barrier of denim, Brett groaned into the back of Cade’s throat. He could come this way, just rocking his hips against Cade’s. He could already feel his balls tightening, aching for release.

  But abruptly, Cade ended the kiss, tearing his lips away. Brett waited for him to speak, fear gripping him. It wasn’t the earlier fear of the unknown that surged through him. This time he feared Cade wanted to stop, to put an end to what passed between them, and Brett didn’t know what he’d do if Cade walked away now. His lips burned, his cock throbbed heavily in his pants. He needed a release
that he was certain only this man could give.

  He held on as Cade’s eyes, navy with desire, searched his.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked eventually, his voice shaking. “We don’t have to.”

  Relief washed over Brett and he would have smiled if he hadn’t been so worked up. “I don’t want to stop,” he said, moving against Cade again. He drew in a deep breath, barely able to believe what he was about to say. “Come upstairs with me.”

  Cade’s eyes flared though uncertainty remained in their blue depths. The desire won out and he nodded, expelling a long breath. “Okay.”

  As they climbed the stairs, Brett’s mind travelled back to a few weeks ago when they’d done the very same thing. Of course, that night he’d been pissed out of his mind and Cade had been forced to half-carry him up the stairs. Wondering if Cade had felt this way back then, Brett’s breathing grw shallow. Remembering how he’d led Cade into his bedroom and stripped out of his clothes, he felt his cock lurch in his jeans. Cade had backed away respectfully and left the room, hiding any desire he might have felt.

  Tonight wouldn’t end that way.

  When they stepped inside his bedroom Brett stared down at the king-sized bed for a few moments before turning to face Cade. Tendrils of dark blonde hair, damp with sweat, hung around his shoulders. His lips were set in a hard line. His eyes glittered with need. This time it was Cade who reached for Brett, claiming his mouth, thrusting his tongue past his lips. He walked Brett to the bed until the backs of Brett’s knees met the edge. Sitting, he leaned back on his elbows and let Cade and his firm lips take control.

  Before he knew it he was on his back and Cade was on top of him, teeth nipping at his bottom lip. Plenty of times before, he’d had a girl ride him, bouncing around in his lap. But having a man on top was a whole different ball game. Cade’s body, long and heavy with muscle, covered Brett completely. They were equals in height, in strength, and they could match one another’s needs and desires. Brett didn’t have to be gentle with Cade, and from the way Cade scraped the edge of his teeth over Brett’s chin, he sure as hell wasn’t going to go easy on him either.