Wilde Love (Forever Wilde 6)

Doc’s arms slid around my front and he plastered himself along my back, resting his warm face against the back of my neck. He had no idea what that kind of intimate touch did to me. At least I hoped he didn’t.

I was sticking around here hoping to make this family mine in some way, but tonight had made it clear as day that Doc wasn’t willing to share. And why should he? He was right. I was just… just… what? The hired hand? The bachelor uncle?

“I think it’s time for me to go,” I said softly.

“No.”

“You don’t need me anymore,” I said, pulling his arms away from my front before things got awkward in my thin pajama pants. I stepped away and moved over to the little wooden chair in the corner to sit down. It had been a long, lonely day.

Doc followed me and knelt on the ground in front of me, shocking the hell out of me—maybe out of both of us. He laid his face on my thigh and put his arms around my waist again. When he spoke, his voice was full of anguish.

“I will always need you! You can’t leave me. Please, Wes, please. Please don’t leave me. I can’t lose you too.” His sobs were wretched, and they damned near broke my heart all over again. I slid to the floor and held him tight, holding the back of his head with one hand and rubbing his back through his shirt with the other. I smelled the faded Doc scent of Old Spice and something I finally recognized as apple pie.

“You cost me a slice of your mother’s pie,” I murmured into his messy blond hair.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. I felt the warm puff of his breath on my chest and tried to think of mucking stalls. “It was miserable without you there. My father was fit to be tied. Talked about you the whole damned time. ‘Major this, Major that, do you think Major is having a fine time with his friends?’ My mother finally admitted that you hadn’t gone after all.”

Doc began fiddling with the long drawstring on the front of my pants, bending it in different shapes between his thumb and forefinger. I took a slow breath and tried not to notice. “How did she know I stayed here?”

“She said you give her an emergency phone number every time you go anywhere, even into Hobie for feed. And that if you didn’t leave a number, it probably meant you didn’t go.” He paused for a minute. “I thought maybe you went to Dallas to… uh, a club or something. Like, uh, someplace you didn’t want to give her a phone number for.”

He kept his head down like he didn’t want to make eye contact when referring to my sex life, but I noticed he didn’t move away from me either. I still held him against my bare chest.

“I don’t go to Dallas for sex, Doc,” I said quietly enough Billy wouldn’t hear us if he woke up to use the bathroom.

Doc lifted his head and finally looked at me. “You don’t? Then… how… I mean… when…?”

I moved him off me as gently as I could, unable to talk about this with his body pressed against mine. He moved over until both of us had our backs against the wall side by side.

“There are a couple of men here in—”

“Here?” he asked. “In Hobie?”

Chapter 21

Liam “Doc” Wilde

Why was I so shocked to find out there were other gay men in our small town? Well, because it was Texas for god’s sake. This wasn’t the most open-minded place on earth.

“Who?” I asked.

“Doc…”

“You know I won’t tell anyone. I want to know who.” Why was I so bothered by this? “Who?”

Major rubbed his hands over his face before looking at me through his fingers. “Jonny Rittenhouse for one.”

“Jonny?” I spluttered, picturing the big muscular ranch hand who’d been working for my dad longer than I could remember. “Our Jonny?”

Major lifted an eyebrow.

I tried to picture the two of them together. Naked. For some reason it made me ridiculously angry. “He’s a big dumb idiot.” I did not just say that.

Major’s eyes flew open wide in shock. “He’s a hard worker and a good man. What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Oh, so this is like… is he… is… I mean are you two like…”

He rolled his eyes at me. “Don’t hurt yourself, Liam. Are you asking if he’s my boyfriend?”

“That word sounds weird when the two people involved are over forty,” I muttered.

“The answer is no. We have sex, we do not date.”

“Sex?” I squeaked.

Major’s eyes twinkled, and I got the feeling he was enjoying seeing me squirm. “It’s a little different with guys like us. We can appreciate helping each other out from time to time without expectations of a phone call the next morning.”