Texas Pride

“Let’s eat.”

Chapter 8

Well, if Austin were being honest, he’d rate this dinner experience somewhere around a three. A three out of about a thousand, and that measure only applied if a thousand meant things were just barely fair.

They ate together at the kitchen table. Austin sat directly to Kitt’s right, close enough so that they kept bumping knees together under the table. The bumping was intentional, of course. Austin made it a slight caress, falling just short of running his foot up Kitt’s leg. The whole thing totally turned him on except Kitt seemed to want nothing to do with it. So much so, he angled himself until he sat awkwardly at the table. Completely out of Austin’s reach.

Austin switched them to wine. It was a great bottle, something many years old that he’d brought with him from California. Kitt drank it like it was water, pretty much finishing the whole bottle himself. About two minutes after sitting down, Kitt started talking about artificial insemination and kept going on and on through the salad, steaks and baked potatoes.

Now, had Austin paid attention, he would know for sure. But since he really hadn’t, he could only guess Kitt started at the conception of the idea of artificial insemination and moved through each year’s struggles and highlights until they reached using it in the day to day life of a farmer…yeah, Austin was done hearing about artificial insemination.

Austin picked at his food. He never took full bites and drank quite a bit of the second bottle of wine he opened. The original plan was to slow dinner down to keep Kitt at the table drinking more wine, but now, he couldn’t eat because all hope of turning this dinner around to anything positive faded fast. Kitt, on the other hand, ate quickly. It was amazing how Kitt could eat so fast, yet never break his lecture of agriculture management. Kitt couldn’t have been in his house for more than an hour, but he could see the other man physically trying to find his way out of the situation and right out the door.

What Austin couldn’t tell was whether the bulge in Kitt’s Wranglers was due to his interest in Austin, or whether Fisker might be waiting for him. Maybe, Austin got in the way of their plans tonight. That caused a scowl to form and determination to set in. He wasn’t going to let Kitt slip away so easily. If Kitt refused to give him the chance to romance him, then Austin would change tactics. Kitt was a hardworking, straight forward kind of a guy, and that’s how Austin would play it. Should’ve done it like that from the beginning.

“So talk to Mike and let me know when you’re interested in movin’ forward with any of it. I have no problem helpin’ you out. I’ve got the equipment, even the storage devices. I do it for everyone around here, and I won’t charge you anything to help make up for that first day we met. Thank you for the dinner. I should get goin’. Want me to help with the dishes?” Kitt rattled on like a machine gun and started to rise from his seat.

“How long have you hidden?” Austin asked as straight forward as he could.

Kitt’s nervous energy faltered. The question clearly confused him. Austin pushed his chair away from the table, sat back in his seat, crossing his right leg over his left knee and picked up his glass of wine to take a sip, all the while looking Kitt directly in the eyes.

“I don’t hide it. Everyone around here has the same offer I gave you. Well, not the no charge part, but everything else.”

Austin reached forward, placing a hand on Kitt’s hand as he started to pick his plate up.

“Kitt, hold up. Give me a minute,” Austin said purposefully directing his gaze to Kitt’s chair. He waited until Kitt sat back down, and then nodded his head to Kitt’s glass of wine. “Don’t run off so quickly. I have a couple of questions for you and I think you misunderstood the first one. Do you hide from everyone, or just from the people around here?”

Kitt didn’t answer. He just gnawed on his bottom lip with his eyes trained on Austin. The nervous energy turned into a shell shocked look.

“Kitt, it’s the biggest reason I’m here. Please understand, I’m not calling you out, I’m just tired of always hiding, and I’ve never been any good at guessing who’s what. I am the master of hiding though, so I can spot it in someone from a mile away. I’m gay, Kitt. And I think you are too.” They never broke eye contact as Austin revealed his biggest secret to Kitt.

“You’re gay?” Kitt asked.

“Yes.” Austin said it with more confidence than he felt. It was only the third time ever in his entire life he’d said it out loud.

“But you’re gettin’ married.” It wasn’t really a question, but a statement of fact, and it clearly confused Kitt by the look on his face.

“If I was getting married would I be here without her? Cara’s paid and paid very well indeed. I’m trusting you with my secret. Only a handful of other people know about me, and honestly, I’ve had the hots for you since I first laid eyes on you.” Austin let that sit there between them, never breaking their eye contact. A blush slowly crept onto Kitt’s cheeks.

“Do you date?” Austin asked after a moment of silence. It was really more of a ‘Do you randomly fuck?’, but he changed it at the last second.

“No.” Kitt’s response came immediately. He still hadn’t admitted anything to Austin, but at this point, Austin assumed the yes had been given.

“What about Fisker?” Austin wasn’t going to leave anything out.

“How do you know that?” Kitt asked, the blush crossed with a little bit of alarm on his face.

“My security watches the place from every angle. I’m hiding here until people stop caring about me. I’m seriously done with that other world. I’m done living that kind of lifestyle. They caught the car out on the highway. It doesn’t fit the area, they tailed it.” Austin kept it simple, not explaining anything more.