Coming Home Read online

  Cade shrugged. “Who else is going to do it?”

  He had a point. Steeplecrest Ranch wasn’t exactly the center of things. “You want to go now?”

  “Eat first. I can wait.”

  “Thanks.” Brett got the steak started and then grabbed a couple of sodas from the refrigerator. He slid one across the table to Cade and then pulled back the tab on his own. As the meat sizzled in the hot oil, he stood over it and took a long drink of cola. Damn, he was starving.

  “Jimmy gone home?”

  Brett nodded, flipping the steak over in the pan. “He’s not looking too good.”

  “Well, he’s working hard.” Cade rested his elbows on the table and leaned forward. “And with the accident and everything…” He let the sentence trail off.

  “Yeah.”

  Their respective fathers had done a lot on this ranch. They were big boots to fill and Jimmy was picking up the slack. For the first time, Brett realized how lucky he was that Cade had stuck around.

  They fell into silence, a silence disturbed by the crackle of frying meat. Not an awkward silence, much to Brett’s surprise. Who’d have guessed Cade would make such easy company?

  After a few minutes, Brett transferred the steak to a plate and grabbed some bread. The first bite of meat melted in his mouth and with his appetite urging him on, he shoveled the rest in.

  “Hungry?” Cade asked, a small smile lifting the corner of his mouth.

  Brett shrugged, still chewing. When he’d swallowed the last crust of bread, he sighed. He could have eaten another one of those.

  “You ready to go?” he asked reluctantly, mind still on food.

  “Sure.” Cade rose from the table and grabbed his Stetson. His hair had grown out, a shaggy mane of dirty blond curls brushing his shoulders.

  Brett frowned. Why the hell was he noticing a thing like that? Since when had he turned into a goddamn woman?

  He looked away and dropped his plate in the sink. Then he followed Cade out of the house to the guy’s car.

  “Still using a rental?” he asked when they were on the road.

  “For now. No point in buying one if I’m heading back to New York.”

  Brett blinked, an uneasy sensation tightening his stomach. “You’re going back to New York?”

  “I don’t know.” Cade slanted him a look. “I’m on a trial, remember?”

  “Right.” Brett faced forward, concentrating on the road. He didn’t want to think about the possibility of Cade’s departure. And he didn’t like the sense of dread it roused within him. He’d spent weeks wishing Cade would get the hell out of Steeplecrest and suddenly he’d done a one-eighty. Overnight. Like he wanted Cade to stick around.

  Change the subject. “I must have been still pissed this morning,” he said, keeping his eyes on the barren land they drove by. “When I woke up and saw the time—” he laughed shortly, “—I thought for a second ‘Dad’s gonna fucking kill me’.”

  As soon as the admission left his mouth, he regretted it. Stupid thing to say, especially to Cade who’d no doubt read more into it than necessary. Heat crawled up Brett’s neck as he felt Cade’s gaze studying him, picking him apart. If the atmosphere had been strained a minute ago, it was ready to snap now.

  When Cade remained silent for a couple of minutes, relief eased the knot of tension in Brett’s stomach. Maybe he’d let it go.

  But then Cade opened his mouth. “I don’t think it’s hit me yet,” he said quietly, slowing as they approached a junction then steering the car to the left. “I’ve been gone for seven years. Not used to seeing them every day.”

  Brett suddenly found it hard to swallow. He had seen them every day. “Sometimes it’s like they’re on vacation.” His lips twisted in a bitter smile. “Except they didn’t do vacation.”

  Cade laughed and the rich sound was warm to Brett’s ears. “They sure didn’t.” There was a pause before Cade asked, “Does it feel really different without them around?”

  Thinking about his dad’s way of overanalyzing the procedures with Jimmy and Ken’s short fuse with the bulls, Brett nodded. “It’s a lot quieter.” Then he added, “Not so quiet with you here though.” The words made it sound as if he liked having the guy around and he wished he could take them back. But then again, maybe he did like having Cade around. If anything, the time passed more quickly and the workload decreased faster with an extra person on board.

  If Cade had taken his words to mean more than he’d intended, he didn’t show it. “You saying I’m loud?” he asked instead, slapping a palm on the wheel.

  “Louder than Paul and Danny.”

  Cade snorted. “That’s not hard, is it? Those kids just don’t talk.”

  Silence drifted over the car again, but this time Brett relaxed into it. Soon, Cade pulled up outside Billy’s.

  Seeing the parking lot brought back another rush of memories from the previous night. “Jesus Christ,” Brett moaned, remembering how Cade had half-carried him across the tarmac-covered surface. “I haven’t been that wasted since high school.”

  “Then you’re not living right.”

  “Maybe not.” Brett got out of the car and rested his hand on the door, looking back in at Cade. “And, uh, thanks for the ride.”

  Cade’s dimple winked at him. “No worries.” He shifted the clutch. “See you tomorrow.”

  He nodded and watched the Lexus roll away, leaving a cloud of dust in its wake. He turned back to the parking lot, vacant except for a couple of cars and his blue truck. He trudged toward it, sneaking a glance at Mrs. Blackthorn’s upstairs window that overlooked the lot.

  He could only hope to God she hadn’t caught the show last night.

  ***

  Over the next couple of weeks Steeplecrest Ranch really started to feel like home again. Cade got up at dawn every day, letting the morning sun act as his alarm clock. He started out feeding the cattle and the horses, then moved on to whatever big tasks they had that day. A couple of times, he took the four-wheel drive out to check out the land. And he’d spent a couple of evenings fishing in the creek at the other side of the ranch. It was a far cry from a day at his New York office.

  To make things even better, the whole dynamic had changed between him and Brett. They’d slipped into an amicable working relationship and Cade had been invited over more than once to watch a game on Brett’s flat screen. It wasn’t easy hiding his attraction to the other man, especially when Brett lounged on the sofa wearing nothing more than a pair of sweatpants slung low on his narrow hips.

  “Christ, Jess, sometimes I think he’s going to stand up and his pants are gonna fall down,” Cade said on the phone one night after an evening at Brett’s. “And I’m sitting there praying it’ll happen.”

  Her laugh tinkled down the line. “If it does, please take a picture.”

  “Will do.”

  They’d come so far Cade now felt he could mention their folks without turning Brett to stone. They didn’t talk about them often—dead parents didn’t really work well with replacing horseshoes—but when it came up they handled it and Cade was getting to grips with just how much pain Brett had to work through. Problem was that knowing how much grief the other man felt made Cade want him even more.

  “We got him,” Brett shouted on one stifling afternoon. “Hold him there.”

  They were on the dry land above the pastures where the gradient became really mountainous, Brett on horseback, Cade on his feet. One of the bulls had strayed from the herd and Cade couldn’t figure how an animal as large and stupid looking as this one had gotten so far. Brett had roped him and the bull stared dopily at them with the loop around its neck.

  Cade jogged toward it and shook his head. “You going somewhere, big guy?”

  Brett rode up behind him and dropped down from the horse. “You got him secured?”

  “Sure do.” Cade pulled on the rope, leading the animal back to where he’d come from.

  “We need to get them branded.”

 
“Why? There’s no other livestock around here.”

  “Yeah, but they could get stolen.”

  “Who’d want to steal one of these?” Cade asked, glancing at the bull whose big brown eyes gazed into the distance.

  Brett grinned. “They’re smarter than you think.”

  Sure. They strode down toward the grassy meadows and Cade drew in a breath. Brett had visited their parents’ graves last night and Cade had been searching for a way to bring it up all day. “Jimmy said you went to the cemetery last night,” he said on a rush of breath, grateful to finally get the words out.

  There was a brief pause before Brett confirmed it. “That’s right.”

  Cade nodded, not sure what to say next. He wanted to know what it had been like standing over the graves. He hadn’t ventured down there yet, hadn’t worked up the courage.

  “No big deal,” Brett said, answering the unasked question. “Just a cemetery.”

  “A cemetery where our folks are buried.”

  “Yeah.”

  Even though he’d brought it up, desperation to get away from the subject of their dead parents swept through Cade. He hunted his mind for something to say, something different. Remembering the phone call he’d received that morning, he faltered. One awkward topic to the next. “My boss called me today,” he said, glancing up to catch Brett’s reaction.

  The man lifted a brow. “I thought I was your boss.”

  Cade snorted. “In your dreams.”

  “What did he say?” Brett’s tone was even, but Cade detected an edge to the casual enquiry.

  “Wants to know when I’m coming back.”

  “Why? He thinks your vacation has gone on long enough?”

  “Vacation?” Cade gestured to his boots that were caked in dirt. “If this is a vacation, I’m going to kill myself.”

  Brett laughed shortly. After a few seconds, he picked up on the conversation. “Do you like your job?”

  “Sure.” Cade thought about the hard work, the competitive environment, the unbeatable buzz after landing a big client. “I’m good at it and I like the work.”

  “Then why are you still here?” This time the edge in Brett’s voice was clear.

  Cade glanced at him, noting the stern set of his jaw. “I like this place too.”

  Brett didn’t question him further. He kept his gaze fixed on a point ahead and neither of them said a word until they reached the pastures.

  “Want to come over to my place tonight?” Cade asked once the adventurous bull was back in its pen. “I’ve got two rib eyes and a couple of cans in the refrigerator.”

  Brett turned, brow still furrowed. But he nodded, accepting the olive branch. “I’ll come by about seven.”

  “Great.”

  ***

  Three hours later, bellies lined with the best kind of steak, they lounged in Cade’s living room watching baseball on ESPN.

  “This place looks different,” Brett mused.

  Cade glanced around the room, remembering how he’d ripped the house apart on one lazy Sunday after the funeral in an effort to make the place feel more like his. “I moved some stuff down to the basement—picture frames and Mom’s antiques.” He took a sip of beer and shrugged. “It was too feminine in here.”

  “Guess I should do the same,” Brett said quietly.

  Cade frowned. He’d forgotten Brett hadn’t lived with his folks at the time of the accident. When Cade had left home seven years back, Brett had still been living in the Miller house, but a couple of years later, he’d moved into the town. A two-storey off Main Street, if Cade was remembering his mother correctly. “Do you still have your place in town?”

  “Yeah. I’m going to put it on the market. No point hanging onto it.”

  The conversation dimmed, but shouts and thuds from the TV set created a buzz in the room, preventing the silence from becoming deafening. Their lives had changed a lot in a short space of time, Cade realized—they’d both led lives separate from their families. Now they were living at home again, this time without any parents around. It left a weird energy floating around the place. He and Brett were responsible now. The ranch rested on their shoulders alone.

  “You know what would really piss my mom off about dying?” Brett said, cracking a smile as he looked away from the TV set.

  Cade leaned forward to rest his beer on the coffee table. “What?”

  “She never saw me get married.” Brett shook his head in wonder. “Not a day went by when she didn’t shoot a hint my way. She tried to set me up with every damn girl in Steeplecrest before I hit twenty-one and that’s no lie.”

  Cade laughed, thinking of his own mother. “Mom hated any girl I brought home.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Yeah. I don’t think there’s a woman in this world she would have been happy to have as a daughter-in-law.”

  “But she wanted you to get married eventually. She used to go on about you and your New York girlfriends all the time.”

  “She did?” Cade struggled to absorb this nugget of information. “It must have been the distance. She probably hoped my taste in women would improve in the city.”

  There was a moment’s pause before Brett said, “Well, now she doesn’t have to worry about it.”

  “No, guess not.” The smile faded from Cade’s face as the reality struck home. No girl would ever have to impress his mother again. And he’d never be forced to reveal his ambiguous sexual preferences to her. A relief. “Ever come close to getting married?” he asked, leaning back against the leather sofa.

  “Nope.” Brett glanced his way and smirked. “And it ain’t happening any time soon.”

  “You don’t want to settle down?”

  Brett hesitated, his eyes narrowing as he thought about it. “Not yet,” he said finally. “The girls I’ve been out with—I haven’t found the right fit.”

  “Same here.” Except he hadn’t found the right fit with girls or guys. As Brett turned his attention back to the sports channel, Cade studied his angular profile and wondered what it would be like if he and Brett were the right fit. If they crossed the line and became lovers, would they be able to hang out like this, chilling with a couple of beers? Or would they be too busy screwing each other’s asses off?

  If he had his way, it would be the latter.

  Cade grabbed his can and gulped down the last of his beer. This had to stop. Fantasizing about Brett while he was sitting a few feet away screamed bad idea. One of these days Brett was going to turn around and catch Cade ogling him. Or God forbid, he might notice the erection Cade suffered ninety percent of the time when Brett was near. Brett would have him on the first plane back to New York if he got wind of the thoughts circling Cade’s mind.

  “I’m heading to El Paso tomorrow,” he said, changing the subject in an effort to distract himself. One of the ranch’s suppliers down in the city had a horse he wanted Cade to check out.

  “I forgot about that.” Brett turned and glared at him. “Don’t buy anything without me knowing about it.”

  Cade grinned and shook his head. “No, sir.”

  “Fuck off.”

  He laughed and got to his feet. “Want another beer?”

  “Nah. I better get going.” Brett rose from the armchair and stretched his arms behind his neck. The move lifted the hem of his T-shirt enough to reveal a strip of tan, muscled stomach. Cade’s cock twitched and he turned abruptly.

  “I’ll see you when you get back,” Brett said, walking down the hallway.

  “Sure.” Cade waited for the door to close behind the other man before dropping the empty Budweiser cans on the hall table and racing up the stairs. He had his jeans unzipped before he got to the bathroom. He tore the rest of his clothes off and reached into the shower stall to turn on the water. With a sigh of relief, he stepped beneath the hot spray and wrapped his hand around his dick. For fuck’s sake. This was what two hours spent in Brett’s company drove him to. Jacking off in his damn shower. What the hell age was he?
Sixteen?

  He closed his eyes as he pumped his hand up and down. His skin stretched tight over his shaft, the head bulging, drops of come already seeping from the slit. He dipped his head and breathed in, imagining Brett’s naked body as his strokes quickened. Smooth golden skin. Flexing muscle. Powerful thighs and an enormous cock he knew would drive him to pleasure as he’d never known it before.

  The jets of water drowned out his strangled gasp as his dick swelled further. His balls drew tight beneath him. So fucking close. With a ruthless grip, he pulled his hand up his cock and swiped his thumb over the broad head. In his mind, he conjured up Brett’s face, the full lips that so often pressed into a harsh line of disapproval. He could almost hear the man’s voice telling him exactly what he was doing wrong. He tried to manipulate what Brett had said in the past into what he ached to hear now. “Bend over,” he imagined Brett saying hoarsely. “Bend over. Let me fuck you.”

  Cade let out a long moan as his climax exploded, his balls emptying all over his fist. He pictured Brett on his knees before him and watched the mirage lick up his sticky release. His whole body shuddered, his skin tingling with excitement. He rested his forearms against the stall’s tiled walls and sucked in a deep breath.

  He needed to get laid. Fast.

  Chapter Five

  The following morning dragged as Brett got to grips with paperwork he’d been pushing aside since the accident. The tedious work had his brain working overtime and it was darn typical that Cade had chosen that day for riding down to El Paso. Back in New York Cade dealt with paperwork all the time, so why the hell wasn’t he looking after this crap?

  At noon, Brett passed the halfway point and pushed back from the desk. Enough for now. He’d head into the yard, see what needed doing. Nothing like manual labor to relax his mind.

  The midday sun beat down on him as he worked, searing through the thin material of his shirt. He didn’t mind. He thrived on the heat, loved how it made him sweat. Cade was different that way. He liked the sun well enough but when it shone this hard he kept to the shade.

  Remembering the man’s mention of New York the previous evening, Brett frowned. He couldn’t figure the guy out. Did he want to go back to New York or would he stick around? He didn’t seem to know himself and it was starting to piss Brett off.