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Chapter Twenty-Two

“ S o, what are you going to call it?” Rory glanced down at his hand, which held a piece of the three pizzas they’d cooked and were devouring. Not shaking. Yay.

“Whut?” Luke looked up, frowning as if he wasn’t following. Considering they’d been talking about rain, Rory guessed he got it.

“Your new venture, honey. What are you going to call it?” He thought things needed a name. It was important. A man couldn’t walk around saying, “I’m going to do this thing without a name,” after all. There was no power in that.

And Luke really needed to think of his thing as something besides ‘my therapy place at the old Lawson ranch’, didn’t he? Too wordy.

“Oh. Uh, well, it’s going to be a ranch. For wounded warriors, but that’s taken. Maybe a brand of some kind, huh? Matt’s is the Lazy L.”

“Really? Matt? That doesn’t seem to fit a bit.” Wounded warriors… “Just use the ‘w’, honey. The Leaning W. The Broken W—no, that’s creepy. ”

“The Bar W. Nah, sounds like a place to get drunk.” Luke brightened. “The Rocking W? That could work.”

“The Rocking W.” Rory grinned—he liked that. That worked. “It’s got a ring to it, you know? I think that’s a good one.”

“I do too.” Luke kinda bounced. How cute was that? “I never thought about names, but it gives it direction.” Luke’s face fell a little. “Not that I’m having any luck with financial aid, and I can’t afford to blow all my savings in case Matty needs a crutch for a few months here and there.”

Huh. “What all have you tried?”

“VA. A couple of charities. County and state. I have a commitment from two horse rescues, but that’s just animals and volunteers.” Luke spread his hands. “I mean, that’s amazing, but I need feed, improvements, all that.”

“Well, do you have the projections for an investor? It might be a decent tax deduction.”

“Projections.” Luke looked gobsmacked. “No. I’ll have to work them up.”

“I can help. Hell, I’m pretty sure I’m willing to invest, at least enough to help with start-up.”

“I—wow. Okay. I mean, I have the figures at home for initial costs. I would just need to, what, figure out return percentages?”

“Well, you’re not going for a profit, so it’s not returns, more how you intend to make costs. You’ll have to either be totally funded or charge folks for their stay or a mixture of the two.”

“Right. I looked into nonprofit status, but yeah, I would have to have the full start-up covered there I think, and then get grants and donations.”

“Well, we need to figure that out. I have a number of contacts, you know? And so does my dad, the orthopedist.” He grinned, because Pop would be all over this idea .

“I don’t even know what to say, babe.” Luke grabbed his hand. “Thank you for even giving a shit.”

“Of course I do. It’s a great idea, and if it makes a difference, then we have to try.”

That smile made everything worthwhile. Luke seemed so used to doing everything for himself.

“You’ll help me get the paperwork together?”

“Sure I will, honey.”

“Thanks.” Luke let him have his hand back, then grabbed another piece of pizza. “Been an eventful day. I could text Matt to come get me.”

“Or you could stay the night.”

“I could. You wouldn’t mind?”

“I’ll even wash your clothes for tomorrow.” His cheeks were fixin’ to light on fire, but he refused to seem embarrassed. “It’s Saturday after all. We could…have a day.”

“We totally could.” Luke grinned, cheeks just as pink as his probably were. “Let me text Matty.”

“Rock on.” He beamed, just about as tickled as he could be.

A day. They were going to spend the night together then have a day.

Luke’s fingers flew over the phone’s face. He grimaced a little, then tapped a few more times. “He heard about your truck.”

“Yeah. I’ll have to call tomorrow, but they won’t do anything till Monday.”

“True enough.” Luke turned off the phone’s sound and tossed it aside.

“Oh, does that mean he’s pissed at you?”

“I think I was supposed to call him a while ago and let him know I was okay.” Luke grinned faintly.

“Ah. So…” He knew he shouldn’t ask, but he had to know. “Do y’all have, like, a connection? Did he know you were hurt?”

“He did. He was in the hospital for two days.” Luke looked a little guilty then. “When he broke his leg when we were eight, I lost my shit and threw up for two hours.”

“Wow. That sort of sucks, but it’s also cool. I have two sisters, you know? One is like Barbie, the other Wednesday Addams.”

“You have a wee goth kid sister? Awww.”

“I do. Rowenna. She’s going to destroy the world.”

“Wow.” Luke nibbled a bit of sausage. “I’ll keep an eye out.”

“You’re too old for her.” Besides that, Luke was taken.

“I mean for world domination. I come with wheels. I can grab you and run.”

The words hit him, balls deep, heating him like someone had set a can of Sterno under his ass. “It’s a deal.”

“Cool.” Luke touched him again, the man tactile as hell.

He could get used to that. In fact… He scooted closer and lifted his face for a pizza-flavored kiss.

Luke hummed, kissing him as if that was all they had to do and they had all the time in the world. Which, hey, maybe they did. A man had to have hope.

Lord knew he was good at that.