Page 17

Tickled as anything, Luke nodded at Sue Ann. “Make it a double.”

“You boys and your hollow legs…” she muttered, giving him a wink.

He laughed, and when Rory raised an eyebrow he jerked his chin at the tabletop. “You get too full, your stitches will pop.”

“There’s only three and my pop can fix them.”

“Yeah? Your dad is a…what, a surgeon? I kinda remember that.”

“Yep. Orthopedics. He works with the Rangers, the Mavs, some of the local rodeo riders.”

“Cool. Your mom work?” He felt like he should know this stuff, but he didn’t. He would bet Rory knew everything about Momma and Preacher.

“She’s a social worker in Dallas part-time.”

“Y’all all do brainy shit.” Luke chuckled. His people worked with their hands. Mostly.

“Now I know John is a computer geek of massive proportions. What does Mark do?”

“Mark is a bartender in Mexico. Like whoa, cantina of doom. Very Dusk Till Dawn .”

“No shit?” Rory gave him a wide-eyed look.

“None at all. He chucked it all, took the dog, and moved to Mexico.”

“Good for him.”

“You think so?” He sorta thought it was a bullshit move.

“Yep. A man has to go where the wind takes him.”

“And yet you’re still here.”

Rory nodded and offered him a grin that didn’t seem to hold any regrets. “This is my home.”

“You’re a brave man or a fool, buddy.”

“Six of one, half dozen of the other.” Rory winked at him, playful as all get out.

He shook his head, trying for serious. He couldn’t keep a straight face to save him, though.

“Not every bright boy ends up in the big city, right?”

“Right. Most out ones do, though. You don’t hide.” He had to admire that. Shit, he liked Rory McConnell. A lot .

“No. I tried that once. It didn’t work out for me.”

“Yeah. That’s one reason I don’t miss the military.”

“I can only imagine. Did you have a…a lover? A partner? Fuckbuddy?”

“No. I got some good help once in a while…” Luke raised a brow. “I assume you’re not involved. Right now.”

“No. I am not involved. I am also not a cheater.”

“I just wanted to make sure.” He didn’t want to offend, but he couldn’t cope with competing or breaking someone up.

“It’s fair. I may be a giant flaming queer asshole, but I’m not a bad man.” Rory waggled his eyebrows at him, but the words were totally serious.

“No. No, I get the feeling you’re a decent human being.” The pancakes came along with clean forks.

“Sometimes. Oh, syrup!”

They buttered and syrupped and Rory ignored the extra plate, which weirdly was the hottest thing ever. Was that even weird?

Maybe Luke was just desperate. It had been a long time, and Rory did it for him more and more every minute.

“I really want to kiss you again,” Rory said, voice low, soft. “I know I can’t, not here, maybe not even today, but I want to.”

“I want that, too. A real kiss. One we can take our time with.” Luke hushed his voice, as well, not wanting everyone to be all up in their business.

“My place or yours?”

“Mine has a nosy brother.”

“My back porch has a ramp.” Rory licked his fork and caught the drop of syrup on his tongue.

“Your place it is.”

“Excellent. I have the afternoon off.”

He looked at Rory, trying to decide what they were doing. Rory was in no shape to have anything more than a make-out session, but there was value in that. Real, not cheesy high school value. So, okay. “I’m in.”

“Good deal.” Rory took another bite of pancake, like they hadn’t just made plans for a rendezvous.

“No sense wasting pancakes, right?” Luke helped scarf them down, anticipation riding high.

“Not a bit. I cleared my calendar for the afternoon, so we’re gold after we’re done eating.”

“You had high hopes, huh?”

“Honestly, I thought I’d go home and fantasize.”

“Well, we might only get so far.” Luke met Rory’s hot blue gaze. “I have no idea how I’ll react once things get going. My body is still…sometimes it doesn’t feel like mine.”

“Luke, I have a tore up hand and stitches in my thigh, bruises like you wouldn’t believe. I want time. Kisses. That’s my best game.”

“That sounds real fine.” Luke relaxed, appreciating the ground rules.

“Oh, good.” Rory gave him a grin. “I’m not in top form.”

“Hey, you look great to me. I saw you the night it happened.”

“Yeah. I was a little green around the gills.”

“Swollen. Scraped. I felt for you.” Luke polished off his half of the pancakes.

“I felt for me, too. Seriously.”

“I bet. Why would Harris try so hard to kill you?” He could be a dog with a bone sometimes.

“Oh, we have history,” Rory said again.

“Still sounds pretty crazy.”

“Yes.”

God, what had Harris done? That stony expression on Rory’s face did not bode well. “I’m sorry? ”

“Thank you.” Rory scooped up the last bite and held it out to him, as if daring him to get into the game.

He arched one eyebrow. He’d faced war. He could flirt in public with a small-town lawyer. He snapped the bite off the fork, then licked it, his tongue catching all the syrup.

The grin on Rory’s face let him know that he’d passed a test. Woo-hoo. He guessed if you were out and proud, any feller you dated had to be willing to be public. What did he have to lose? He was who he was, and he was too fucking old to lie.

Sue Ann came back over a few minutes later, bright-eyed with curiosity. “You boys need anything else?”

“I’m good, honey. You want another round, Luke?”

“No, no, I’m fine.” He was ready to go, in fact.

“Just the check, then. Thank you.”

“You got it.” She bustled off, coming back in a few moments with the bill.

Rory checked it quickly, then pulled some bills out of his wallet. “Here you go, lady. Keep the change.”

“Thanks!” Sue Ann bebopped off, and Luke looked at Rory.

“Sure I can’t pay for mine?”

“This was my apology lunch. You can get the next one.”

“I can.” The next one. Woo .

“Excellent. Sue Ann, I’ll see you later in the week.”

“Have a good one. You too, Luke. Thank you for your service.”

Luke nodded, trying for one more smile. He worked it, he thought, and he was proud.

They managed to get him outside and rolling toward Rory’s office before Rory asked, “How tired are you of hearing that?”

“A lot. I mean, I get it. I appreciate it on a purely academic level. Still want to hit things. ”

“I would say you can hit me, but I’m not into that and also, I’m sore. You can totally hit your brother if you want.”

“We had it out a few times already.” Luke thought Matt was a damned good guy.

“Good for you!” He glanced up at Rory, who was obviously being a shit, with the way he was grinning like a monkey.

“Yeah, yeah.” He shook his head. “I do adore him.”

“Well, y’all are twins. It would suck if you hated each other.”

“I bet it would.” He couldn’t even imagine that. He and Matt were so connected. So tight.

Matty believed in his ass, even when they were at each other’s throats, for fuck’s sake.

“So, do you live where your office is?” Luke asked.

“No. I park where my office is.”

“Oh.” He hoped to hell he could get in that truck without killing himself.

“I have my Mustang today. Is that cool? I’ll fucking rent whatever you’re more comfortable with.”

“No, that works. If you can help me out, I can handle everything else.” A sedan body was a far better bet for him.

“You tell me what to do, I’ll do it. I have more of a driveway than a parking lot, so we’ll have some privacy.”

“I can do that.” He would just remember what his therapist had told him.

“Rock on. I don’t intend to embarrass you and, like I said, I may have had a wild fling with a man on the wheelchair basketball team at UTA.”

“Why? I mean, what was it about him?” He wasn’t panting, but he was sweating keeping up.

“I met him at a mixer at SMU. He was fucking fierce. He came onto me like a freight train, and I… I was twenty years old and putty in his hands. ”

“That sounds kinda sweaty.” Okay, little hill. He could do this.

“Kind of.” Rory grabbed the handles of Luke’s wheelchair. “This cool?”

“Yeah. Thanks.” He didn’t want to be gross when they were making out.

“No problem. Derek always said hills sucked.”

“They burn. I’m getting better, but Matt’s put a rope up from the barn to the house just to help me get back up that rise.”

“Oh, that rocks. Seriously. I have a single story.”

“Yeah? Someday I’ll do stairs again.” He would. If it killed him.

“That would make things easier, huh?”

“Walking sure would.” They made it up the little rise, and he got his wheels moving on his own again. “Therapist says months, not years, so I just have to keep working.”

“Months. Damn, that’s pretty fucking cool.”

“I hope so. I keep trying not get my hopes up.” He would be devastated if he thought too much on it and it didn’t happen.

“Yeah. I can’t imagine. I mean, I can imagine, but I’d probably get it wrong.”

“Probably.” Luke laughed when Rory pinched his arm.

“Butthead. Aren’t you supposed to be stroking my ego?”

“Nah. I am fixing to stroke other things,” Luke murmured.

“Oh, listen to you. I like it, cowboy. I like it a lot.”

“Yeah?” Luke liked a little dirty talk now and again. This was the best part of dating someone new, wasn’t it? Learning what each other liked.

“Indeed. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I’m not a shy man.”

“No!” They made it to the parking area, the Mustang gleaming in the sun. “Nice ride. ”

“She is, isn’t she? I bought her in law school and restored her.”

“You did?” Now that was unexpected. Somehow, he didn’t see this man in his pressed and starched jeans, Luccheses, jacket and tie working on a car, covered in oil.

The vision didn’t turn him off one single bit.

In fact, it kinda revved his engine. Luke liked a man who was good with his hands.

“I did. Keeps me out of trouble. How do we do this?” Rory asked.

Luke turned his chair back around and wheeled up to where the door would open. “Okay, you open up, and I’ll get my chair in the right place.”

“I’m on it.”

Somehow, they managed. It took some finagling, a near disaster, and some up close and personalness, but they managed.

They were both sweating and panting by the time they got him in the car.