Page 4 of Wellspring
THE REMAINDER of the night passed in restless, sweaty dreams, leaving Cade feeling terribly unrefreshed the next morning.
He ordered a bath and dropped his clothes off at the laundry before heading to the boarding house where Heller was staying to meet him.
It did nothing for his composure when Heller rose to greet him wearing a similar suit to the one he had worn yesterday and the one Cade had spent all night imagining peeling off him.
“I need to go to the warehouse to pick up the furniture,” he said gruffly.
“Once I’ve done that, I’m all yours for the day. ”
The moment the words left his mouth, Cade wished he could call them back because the images they conjured were far too disconcerting for his peace of mind. Heller seemed to take them in stride, though, no surprise showing on his face.
“I will with you come,” Heller offered. “That way will we already together be.”
“You know….” Cade hoped his advice would be taken the right way. “… it would sound less foreign if you said, ‘I will come with you’ instead of putting ‘come’ at the end of the sentence.”
“Only come or all actions?” Heller asked.
Cade breathed a quiet sigh of relief that he hadn’t offended the man. “All actions.”
Heller nodded sharply. “I will come with you. We will accomplish more that way. Is that correct?”
“Yes, that’s right,” Cade said. “You ready to go, then?”
“I am ready,” Heller confirmed.
“I’ve got to get the wagon,” Cade said as they walked toward the warehouse district.
“I will with—” Heller stopped and shook his head. “I will help you with the horses.”
“Thanks,” Cade said. “I left them at the livery here at the docks, but we still have to hitch them up, and that will go faster with two rather than one.”
They found the stable and hitched the four draft horses to the ranch’s big covered wagon.
Cade noticed the stolid animals reacted as comfortably to Heller as the high-strung stallion had done the day before.
Cade grinned at the reaction of the other cowboys if Heller showed up on the ranch still calling that brute Butterfly.
He’d try to suggest something a little less feminine as they rode west. Once the horses were hitched, Heller swung up on the seat next to him.
Cade drove the team with practiced ease down to the warehouse. He tied them to a hitching post and unlashed the back of the wagon, dropping the rear gate as well. “This would be so much easier if she’d let me bring the buckboard,” Cade muttered.
“What is the difference?” Heller asked from where he hovered at Cade’s elbow, obviously willing to help but not knowing how.
“It doesn’t have the canvas across the top for one thing,” Cade said.
“And it’s lighter and only requires two horses to pull.
But the weather is unpredictable in the spring, and since the money’s spent, she didn’t want to risk any damage to the furniture.
Not to mention the weight of the furniture might be too much for the smaller wagon. ”
Heller nodded. “It seems I have much to learn.”
“Don’t worry.” Cade flashed a grin in Heller’s direction. “I’ll teach you.”
ERICK’S FACE tightened at the innocent comment, not because of anything Webster said but because of his own inappropriate reaction.
He had spent the night tossing and turning in his lonely bed, a novel sensation for a man used to sleeping alone, but Webster had planted the idea of congenial company in his mind at dinner, and Erick had not been able to weed it out.
The cowboy had haunted his thoughts until he fell asleep and his dreams for the rest of the night.
Waiting for Webster to arrive this morning had been hard enough, but then they had started work and Erick had pushed aside his inappropriate thoughts.
Until now.
Now he was assailed by thoughts of everything Webster could teach him, not on the range, but between the sheets.
Erick’s social standing and the realities of acquiring amenable companionship had resulted in a certain sameness to all of his amorous encounters.
With a cowboy for a lover, Webster or someone else, his social standing would count for nothing, and perhaps he could finally experience the other side of lovemaking.
He suspected Webster could give him a good ride if the man was willing.
Unfortunately, he had no indication that Webster shared his preferences, much less was interested in him. He couldn’t stop the spike of desire, though. “I will learn gladly whatever you wish to teach me.”
Erick saw a spark light Webster’s eyes, but he had no way of telling if it meant what he wanted it to mean.
Stifling the urge to run his fingers through his hair, a habit his mother had spent years trying to break him of, he turned his attention back to the bustle around them.
“The shipping master will meet you here?”
“He said he’d be here at nine.” Webster pulled out a pocket watch. “We’re a few minutes early, but I’d rather that than miss the appointment. I’m getting anxious carrying around the money Miz Roarke sent for the final expenses.”
The shipping agent arrived before Erick could think of a reply.
He opened the warehouse and showed them the six crates that contained the furniture Webster’s employer had ordered from England.
He didn’t quite catch what Webster muttered under his breath, but he could tell from the man’s face that it was not complimentary.
Pushing back his sleeves, he looked at his new friend.
“The sooner we start, the sooner we can be finished.”
Webster nodded, looking at the crates for a moment. “Let’s get the smaller ones in first, up near the front. We’ll save the big one for the back, right over the axle. It’ll have more support that way, plus we won’t have to move it as far.”
The smaller ones were hardly small as far as Erick was concerned, but he saw the logic of what Webster suggested.
It took both of them, the shipping agent, and one of the warehouse workers to move even the smallest of the boxes from the warehouse onto the wagon, and Erick was sweating by the time they had it aboard.
By the time they loaded the last crate, he had done more hard labor than the rest of his life put together.
It felt wonderful.
“We’ve ruined your suit.” Webster climbed onto the box seat of the wagon next to Erick. “I’m sorry. I’ll buy you a new one to replace it.”
“ Nein ,” Erick replied immediately. “My new life is not suits but clothes like yours. It does not matter if the suit is ruined. I would have no reason to wear it anyway. I will donate the others to a local church before we leave for your ranch.”
“That would be a shame,” Webster blurted, the color staining his cheeks visible even beneath his tanned skin. Erick allowed himself a moment to hope it meant Webster had noticed his appearance. “You should keep one of them so you’ll have something to wear if you meet a gal you want to court.”
Erick shook his head. “I left that behind when I buried my wife in Prussia. There will be no more… gals for me.”
“You don’t know that,” Webster insisted, though his voice had an odd tone to it that Erick didn’t know how to read. “I’m sorry to hear you lost your wife, but you’re still young. You could fall in love again.”
“I did not say I loved her,” Erick pointed out, his voice dry. “Our parents arranged our match. She managed the house while I managed the estate. We had a partnership, not a love affair.”
“Just like Miz Roarke, but she’s made a new start. You can too.” Webster slapped the reins on the horses’ rumps to start them moving toward town, the tension that had invested his compact frame as they discussed his marriage gone now. “You want to have options if you meet the love of your life.”
Images filled Erick’s mind of a life spent on the range with a cowboy much like the one sitting beside him, a campfire burning next to them as they snuggled into a bedroll for warmth.
“I will think of something should I meet such a person. I lived in a world where nothing mattered but meeting the expectations of others in behavior and in dress. I am happy to leave that world behind.”
“I can see that.” Webster pulled to a halt in front of the local mercantile. “We should be able to get the gear you need here. If we can, we could leave for the ranch first thing tomorrow morning.”
“I would like that.” Erick said. “I would like to see your home.” If fortune favored him, perhaps it could become his home as well.
CADE HAD done many difficult things in his life, leaving behind the Comanche who had adopted him after his parents’ death being one of them, but standing in the Galveston mercantile watching Heller come in and out of the dressing room trying on new clothes had to rank up there near the top.
The entire morning had been fraught with tension to the point that Cade was almost convinced the other man shared his preferences if not his attraction.
That only made it harder because he caught little hints to suggest interest, but nothing so blatant it couldn’t be a simple misunderstanding or difference in cultures.
Without his jacket to hide Heller’s lower body, the pants they had selected visibly hugged his thighs and backside, outlining muscles hard from riding.
That and the hint of hair he could see at the open shirt collar were enough to feed another night’s fantasies and more.
All he needed were boots and a hat and he’d be dressed for the trail.
“It fits?” Heller stretched and turned to try to see himself in his new clothes.
“They fit perfectly.” Cade swallowed hard around the lump of desire in his throat. “Now we need to get your trail gear and we’ll be ready to hit the road.”