Stars & Stripes (Cut & Run 6)

Ty was shaking his head, muttering under his breath as they watched Mark take his turn. Before Zane could quell the urge, he pulled his lover close to give him a very public kiss. It caused a few gasps and murmurs, and Zane could feel all those eyes on them. He didn’t care. Ty didn’t flail or tense up, and Zane felt him smiling against his lips.

“Even if we don’t win this,” Zane said, “thank you.”

Ty nodded, lingering just long enough to make Zane’s heart beat faster. Then the judge called for the last contestant to take his turn, and Ty gave Zane one last glance and a smile before stepping out into the cleared arena. There were three targets, and the closer he came to the smallest target, the higher his points. The most he could get was six, and they only needed one point to beat Mark and Jamie.

Zane laughed heartily as Ty tried to get the rope settled in his left hand. He might have been able to handle the thick, heavy rope with both hands, but with his dominant hand in a cast, it was just too much for him.

The crowd began to buzz, ripples of laughter going through it.

“If I was a rodeo clown, you’d all be gored to death,” Ty said as he finally got the rope in place.

There was more laughter, and Zane realized he was grinning from ear to ear as he watched his lover make a spectacle of himself.

When Ty got the rope going in circles over his head, Zane thought his partner might actually have paid attention when he’d tried to teach him. He had good form, and the rope was swinging like it needed to. But then Ty released the lasso too early, and the toss came sailing toward Zane and the other contestants instead of the targets.

Stuart didn’t have time to dodge it; he just stood there as the rope dropped around his shoulders and Ty pulled it tight. He stumbled forward, arms trapped at his sides as the crowd burst into raucous laughter and applause.

“Sorry!” Ty said with a wave of his hand that pulled the lasso tighter.

“What the hell are you doing!” Stuart bawled. “You f**king moron!”

Ty pulled him forward again, and Zane could only shake his head as he watched, stunned by his partner’s gall.

Ty continued to apologize profusely, making a show of being a bumbling drunken idiot, and Stuart kept up a litany of cursing and accusations as Ty inexplicably managed to wrap him up even more instead of helping him out of the ropes.

“Wow, these things are really complicated, aren’t they?” Ty said over the raucous laughter of the crowd. Stuart lost his balance and tumbled to the ground. Ty stood over him. “How do you make it let go?”

Stuart’s friends came over to help, strong-arming Ty out of the way. He held up both hands and took a few steps back, the picture of innocence.

“You’re insane,” Zane said as soon as he drew close. Ty was grinning, his eyes sparkling in the dying sunlight as they watched Stuart struggle to get loose.

“I’ve always wanted to do that,” he said, as gleeful as a schoolboy who’d just caught a frog.

“And?”

Ty looked Zane up and down, as if sizing him up, then he gave a lecherous grin. “You think we could take one of those lassos home with us?”

“Ty, focus!”

Ty grinned. “We got him.”

“You’re sure?”

“Damn sure.”

Mark and Jamie were declared the winners amidst a round of polite applause as Ty and Zane discussed it. When Zane was declared the individual winner of the event, he looked around in surprise as everyone cheered.

“Nicely done, Big Iron,” Ty said to him.

Zane looked at him suspiciously as Ty patted him on the shoulder. If Ty had made that lasso toss, he would have won.

Harrison came up to smack each of them on the back. “Well, if it ain’t Pancho and Lefty. Looks like you caught you one,” he said to Ty with a big grin. He put his arm around Zane’s shoulder. “That was a mighty fine show you put on. Boy, I had no idea you could throw a knife like that.”

Zane felt himself blushing. Ty patted him on the shoulder and gave him a wink. “I’m going to go have a discussion with the sheriff,” he said, then left Zane alone with his father.

“I guess . . . we have a lot of catching up to do,” Zane said with a hopeful smile.

“You bet your ass we do.”

“Have you talked to Mother?”

Harrison’s jaw tightened and his eyes grew harder. He nodded curtly. “If she intends to make me choose between my wife and my son, she’s got a surprise coming. I hope you and your boy decide to come down more often.” Harrison threw a pointed look at Ty, who had melted into the crowd, shaking hands, laughing with strangers. He’d been accepted for the most part, whether by his own doing or Harrison’s influence, Zane didn’t know. Zane’s mother could sign all the legal documents she wanted; it wasn’t going to pierce through Zane’s armor now.

Zane nodded, throat tightening. “I think we’ll be able to manage that.”

Harrison patted him on the cheek. “Did you catch him?”

“Ty claims he has proof enough to get the sheriff. That’s what he’s doing now.”

“Let’s hope he’s right. Why do you look worried?”

Zane took a deep breath. “We think Mark’s involved.”

Harrison inhaled sharply. “I hope you’re wrong on that one, son.”

“Me too.”

Zane remained there as his father walked away, the feeling of warmth and acceptance spreading deeper into him. His mother and their suspicions of Mark were a small blight on an otherwise bright day. He set off into the crowd to find Ty again, feeling somehow that if it weren’t for Ty, he would never have come home, and he would have drifted through life alone until it killed him. Ty had given him a new home, and then shown him he still had his old one.

He was still musing over the twists and turns of life when a commotion broke out ahead of him. He pushed through the crowd to see what was going on, and somehow he wasn’t surprised to see Ty in the thick of it. Ty stood with the sheriff and two of his deputies, facing Stuart and his three friends. Stuart was in Ty’s face as the crowd cleared for them.

“You accusing me of something, boy?” Stuart was saying as Zane came up on them.

“I’m saying I know where you got that limp,” Ty said.

Stuart puffed up his chest like he was trying for courage as he glared up at Ty. Both deputies put their hands on their firearms, ready for a show of force.

Everyone and his brother was armed, and the tension was gathering in the air.