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Chapter Twenty-Five

L uke hummed, running the curry comb over Petunia’s rough-ass coat. He had a soft brush to finish her sensitive spots, like her face and her long ears, but she was shedding her summer coat, which made him laugh. Silly beast would grow huge hair for the winter.

She tossed her head, huge ears twitching as she leaned into the grooming. Lord, she was tame as a dog. She loved to make him a muscle with the grooming, too. She could stand there for hours.

“Are you brushing a donkey?” Rory asked from the other side of the stall door, making Luke jump.

“Someone has to keep my ass clean,” he shot back.

“Indeed. I hear there’s a few folks in line for that job.” Rory was in his redneck tuxedo, wearing a chambray button-up and a beat-up straw. Luke liked it.

“I bet you fight them all off. Come meet Petunia. She showed up two weeks ago. Now we have two donkeys.”

Rory frowned. “Showed up?”

“Bonus donkey. ”

“Ah. I get that. I had someone drop off a dog the other day. I fed her, but she up and disappeared.”

Luke nodded. Anytime you lived in the sticks, animals came and went. “I bet Mal ran it off just staring at it out the window.”

“Hell, she could possibly light it on fire.”

“She might just.” Luke shook his head. That cat was a force of nature. “What kind of dog was it so I can be on the lookout?”

“Pit mix. Pregnant. Liver-colored.”

“Oh, man.” That was a tough row to hoe. A stray momma dog. He’d have Matt ride out and watch for her.

“Yeah. I’m hoping she’s hiding out in your barn between us. You been out there at all?”

“I have, but I’m glad I didn’t put out the rat poison yet if we got dogs and stuff. I’ll get traps instead. Those box ones.”

“Yeah.” Rory grinned at him, tickled as hell. “So, what can I do?”

“Well, I need to check hooves on a couple of the ladies over there.” Luke pointed across the way.

“You want to take over? On her body you go in light circles. On her legs, down to just above her hocks, just brush like you would a dog. Then use the soft brush in the caddy there to do her hocks and ears and face and just around her tail.” Rory gave him an arch glare and his cheeks heated.

“Right. Sorry. You make it easy to forget; you’re so fine. ”

“Yeah. Y’all think I’m a dipshit and I know it. Go on.”

Luke rolled out of his way. “Hell, babe, I have no idea if you know donkeys. You got some fancy horses. Ropers.”

“Hee-haw! Have I never spoken to you of Rowenna’s beloved donkey, Ho-Tee?”

“You’re kidding, right?” Luke shook his head. “That’s awful.”

“She was ten. She thought it was brilliant. ”

“Lord have mercy.” Luke grabbed a hoof pick. Miss Jasmine would be fine, but the chair still made Pickle nervous. She would try to kick.

Rory whistled and chattered as they worked, the sound comforting and easy. Matt would kill him, no question, but Luke liked it.

When Rory finished with the donkey, Luke had him move on to washing down a mare who’d caught her side on something sharp and needed doctoring every day.

“Lord, honey, you have to watch this shit. You’re awful pretty to be tearing yourself up.”

The mare bobbed her head, snorting and blowing her lips.

“She loves it when you talk to her.”

“She’s a beauty. Seriously. Are any of these guys going to move to the Rocking W?”

“Petal is. These two here. Jasmine and Pickle. Pickle still needs a lot of work. She was badly beaten and is skittish.”

“Who does that?” Rory sounded utterly confused, genuinely.

“Assholes, I guess.” Luke pushed back, then put a hand on Jasmine’s flank to keep her in the loop. “Okay, lady, time to give me a hoof.”

Jasmine offered it up, no problem. Her hooves had been a mess when they’d picked her up at auction, but they were good now.

“That’s it, baby girl. You’ll be able to range with the others. Farrier comes next week to do your final check-up.”

“You know, it’s a cruel irony that furrier and farrier are only one letter apart, Luke.”

Luke blinked. Rory did think of the strangest things. Of course, he thought of a buddy who was into furries…

“Okay, what’s so funny?” Rory asked.

“You ever hear of a furry fetish?”

“Oh God, yes. I have the Internet and a sleep disorder. I Bing.” Rory chuckled, the sound evil, merry. “I just keep thinking about the sweat factor. It’s not so bad during, but what about when everything cools off? Isn’t there an odor issue?”

Obviously, Rory had never been bivouacked with a bunch of sailors.

“There’s always an odor in the military, babe. Now, picture a two-hundred-pound Marine who wants to be a raccoon.”

“A-Whoa. Whoa . That’s…juicy.”

“You got no idea.” Thankfully, neither did Luke, really, though there were a couple of pics on Dane’s phone that had burned his eyes. “I tell you, for someone who never got to do the sex thing, I got to hear about it. A lot.”

“That seems incredibly unfair. Someone needs to take up the slack. I seem to totally be the man for the job.”

“I think you’re the only one qualified.” And then some. Rory made him stupid.

“I’m sure there are others interested, but I don’t care.” Rory peered at him over the stall wall. “I’ve been hired.”

“You have. On a permanent basis.” He felt brave saying it, and it made his heart beat fast.

“All right then. I love the benefits.”

“Do you?” Luke finished up with Jasmine. “I think they’re stellar.” He wheeled out. “Now the kicker.”

“Be careful with you.” Rory watched him stretch and make his back pop. “Your momma still want to do the lunch thing? I’m taking a personal day Friday.”

“Oh she does. She’s been poking me, but with your truck and the poisoned beer and all, I’ve just been giving you breathing time.” Luke grabbed a towel from a stack at the end of the aisle, which would help pad him if Pickle decided to go apeshit.

“Well, see if Friday works for her and we’ll do arepas. ”

“I’ll call her this evening.” It was real decent of Rory to think of his momma. “You hear back from Jake yet?”

“Antifreeze. Not your standard bar fare.”

“How did he think he was gonna slide that past you?”

Rory snorted. “Jake tells me it’s only been standard to bitterize it here for about a year.”

“Well, shit. Thank God the asshole didn’t have some in his garage.”

“What I want to know is why he had it in a bar. At a Mexican place. Not a lot of call for it.”

“No. No, the only thing I can think is that it was in his car and he improvised for the boss.”

Rory nodded, the hat brim bobbing in the shadows. “I didn’t know the kid from Job, so it had to be.”

That thought was the scariest part of it all. Who knew how many frickin’ people Doug Harris had on the payroll who were gunning for Rory now.

Of course, Rory seemed to have taken the whole LeBlanc Family motto of ‘no running’ to heart. The man was out there, living his life. Hell, all the land in the county that was free to buy had been bought.

He had no idea what other business interests Doug Harris had that Rory might be fucking with, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

His not-so-private prayer was that Rory could let it go, could just breathe and work on fewer avenging-angel-type deals. Or that Doug Harris would do something to get his ass arrested. Then Rory would have what he wanted.

Luke wanted his man to be able to be really happy, and bitterness would eat a man up inside.

God knew he knew that. Christ.

He’d learned all bitterness could teach him.

Now he was working on sheer joy. “Hey, when we finish up here you want to go over to the Rocking W and hear me wax poetic about my plans? I need to take a load of boards over and you can drive.”

“I’m at your disposal, honey. Point me and shoot me.”

“Rock on.” Luke slid into Pickle’s personal space, watching her closely. “Hey, sweet lady. I need to clean your hooves.”

She gave him the side-eye, judging whether she was going to kick the shit out of him or not.

“Now, don’t get all mad, girl.” He stroked her, making her skin shiver. “We can be friends. I know we can. Poor baby. Everyone’s not an asshole. Everyone’s not bad and you can learn this.”

He felt her relax, breathe, her chest bellowing.

“That’s it, lady. That’s it. I just need your foot.” Now was danger time. She lifted her foot after a couple of stomps, yielding to his gentle pressure. “Good girl. Good girl. This won’t hurt a bit.”

Luke rubbed the hoof pick over her hoof before digging in, letting her feel it. Then he chipped away at the crusty stuff in there, knowing she would eventually be free of it. Tim the farrier said she was doing great.

He noticed as he finished that Rory had gone quiet, and didn’t that feel good? That his lover got it, understood that this was a bit of a trial.

Once he was out of the stall he held up his hand for a high five. “That was the best she’s ever been. Woo.”

“Rock on, honey! I’m proud. You’re damn good with them.”

“I’m learning every day.” He shook his head. “It’s never been in my life to be gentle and patient, you know. I was a human weapon.”

“It is weird that I find that hot—the patience, I mean.”

“Nope. Just like I find your unaccountably freaky sense of humor and weird death wish sexy as hell. ”

“Fuck you, honey.” Rory cracked up, then came to sit on his lap, just like he belonged there.

“Hey.” Luke wrapped both arms around Rory, tickled pink that his legs were getting strong enough that they didn’t ache when Rory did that.

“Hey. I like riding you, you know? A lot.”

“I like it too. Are you trying to distract me, babe? Matt will beat us if we get busy in his barn.”

“As tempting as that is, you’ve just tipped my kink scale. I’m not a sharer.”

Luke paused to digest that. “Ew. You are nuts, you know that?”

“You brought it up, cowboy.”

“Not that way.” Luke made sure Rory’s feet were up before starting out of the barn. Rory would get up soon but this was a game they played. How far before the weight made Luke’s arms give out.

“You’ve got the body of a Greek god.” Rory said the most wicked things.

“If you mean one of those damaged statues…”

“Nah, they have teeny tiny weenies.”

He hooted. “That, at least, was undamaged.” Though he did have a few tiny shrapnel scars. Those fascinated Rory’s tongue and Luke loved it.

Hell, there wasn’t much he didn’t love about Rory.

“I thank God for that every day, Mr. LeBlanc.”

“Horndog.” He stopped and took a kiss. “Your turn to push me. I just pooped out.”

“Good deal. You made it damn near to the drive this time.”

“Did I?” He glanced around. Damn, he had.

“Yeah. With me on the chair.”

“That’s pretty cool.” Luke played it down as much as he could, but he was proud .

“You’re a stud.” Rory pushed him toward the house.

“I am. Thanks for hanging out with me, babe.”

“I like you. It’s the easiest thing ever.”

“It so is.” Luke laughed for sheer joy. “I just really dig you.”

“Excellent. Let’s tell Matt where we’re off to and go explore your land.”

“Good deal.” He was ready to show Rory all his ideas, and not just on paper.

Best of all, Rory wanted to play too.