Rough Stock (20 page)

“Like how you ride.” Clay nodded and Mason took in a deep breath. “So how do I learn to do that?”

“You don’t.” Clay turned to the two boys, who were acting like they were witnessing history in the making. “Take her saddle off and change up her riggin’, then load her into the chute again. We’re gonna see how Mason does bareback.”

Shaking his head, Mason pushed his hat back off his forehead. “April Dawn’s a saddle bronc.”

“She could have gone either way when I bought her. I worked her out a few times bareback just to see. She’ll be all right.”

Mason shook his head. “God help you if you’re wrong, Clay.”

Clay glanced down at April and then back to Mason. “Have I been wrong so far?”

Mason let out a wry laugh. “Oh, shut up. No one likes a know-it-all.”

Clay laughed and squeezed her closer to him, not knowing that every moment spent in their presence squeezed her heart a little more.

She’d be fine once she was back home, in her apartment, busy at work and with Ben to hold her hand and make her feel better. That’s what she needed. To talk to Ben. April watched Mason’s ride, and just as Clay had predicted, he did great. She left them to discuss techniques and walked away.

“Tell me what to do,” she said into her cell phone when Ben answered.

“Hmm. Let’s see. You’re in Oklahoma with two sexy as hell cowboys on a horse farm. I’ll tell you what to do. That’s an easy one. Ride those two cowboys until none of you can walk.”

“Ben!”

“What? I’m serious.”

She felt her cheeks grow hot. They’d already been doing that and now she was more confused than ever. “I mean, how can I leave them? What am I going to do at the end of the week when I’m supposed to fly back to New York?”

“Are you crazy? I wouldn’t leave those two to come back here to that job and that one-room joke you call an apartment.”

“I love my job,” she defended. She’d give in and let the apartment jab slide.

Ben snorted.

“What was that for?”

“I know better. You do
not
love your job. This is me you’re talking to, remember. The one you bitch to when Christian works you to the bone, doesn’t pay you what you deserve, yells at you when he’s mad at someone else… Shall I go on?”

“No.” April sighed. She knew he was right. She liked the idea of working for a Broadway director better than the reality of it. “But what do I do about my apartment?”

“When is your lease up?”

“Um, it expired last year and I never got around to renewing it.”

Ben let out another sound of disgust. “Good, then just move out. What that landlord charges you for what I doubt is a legal apartment… More likely it’s half of the apartment next door that he added a wall to. Anyway, he doesn’t deserve notice and I’m sure he won’t try making any trouble for you.”

“But Mason is going back to the Army.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but the Army isn’t a life sentence, is it? They do let you out eventually.”

“Yeah. I guess. That doesn’t mean Mason wants to get out.”

“If you were living there again, I bet he wouldn’t be able to get out fast enough.”

“Clay will be on the road riding a lot of the time.”

Ben’s voice sounded wearily indulgent. “And he’ll be home when he’s not.”

April sighed. “This was exactly what I was afraid of. That the minute I saw them again I’d give up on my dreams and settle.”

She could practically hear Ben’s disagreement in his silence on the other end of the phone.

“Tell me what you’re thinking, Ben.”

“That if I had even one man who loved me the way those two love you, I’d run to him, wherever the hell he lived. It’s not
settling
. It’s called being happy.”

“What about my career?”

“Let me ask you this, April. When you were a little girl and dreamed of your perfect job, what was it? Was it running after a self-centered diva after you’ve picked up his dry cleaning and coffee, or did you have higher aspirations than that?”

April scowled at Ben’s fairly accurate description of her current job. “I always wanted to be a reporter.”

“Hmm. Correct me if I’m wrong, but there are newspapers, magazines and TV stations outside of Manhattan. Yes? Maybe even a few in the state of Oklahoma?”

April sighed, loving Ben more than ever, but hating how he was persistently right all the time. “Yes.”

“Any other arguments you can create to get in the way of your happiness or are you willing to give in and let those two hotties love you?”

That was a question April would have to think more about.

***

Mason found himself in Clay’s kitchen again, staring out into the dusk. It had been an eye-opening day. He’d learned a few things. One, he was a pretty damn good bareback bronc rider. Two, Clay was eerily good at reading both horses and riders. Mason was actually starting to believe he…they…could make a success as stock trainers.

“What are you thinking about?”

Mason turned to find Clay leaning against the doorframe.

“How much I hate you right about now.”

Clay raised a brow. “Oh?”

“Just when I thought I had my life figured out, you come back into it and turn it all upside down again. Bareback riding. April. Stock training. Quitting my Army career. Anything else you want to throw at me while you’re at it?”

Clay grinned. “Nah, that about covers it for now. So what’s the problem?”

“For one, April is leaving in a few days.”

“I told you, I’m working on that.”

Mason had no doubt. “Okay, let’s say you pull off that miracle and convince her to stay. Then what? We live like some Mormon family?”

“Mormons have multiple wives, not husbands.”

“See. We wouldn’t even have an established religion to hide behind.”

“Mason, look…” Clay glanced out the window behind Mason and frowned. “What’s my father doing here?”

Uh oh. Fathers didn’t visit alone and at dinnertime unless something was up.

Shit.
Mason pushed off the counter. “I’ll get the door.”

A moment later, back in the kitchen again, he and Clay faced Mr. Harris.

“Mason. Clay. I want to talk to you two.”

Fathers also didn’t start a conversation with those words unless someone was in trouble.

Clay nodded. “Sure thing. What’s up?”

He glanced around. “Where’s April?”

“She’s having dinner at her parents’ house. She’ll be over later.”

Mr. Harris raised a brow at that and took a deep breath before saying, “I’m pretty sure I know what’s going on here.”

Clay frowned, confused, but Mason knew exactly what Clay’s father thought he knew, and he was right. The man was observant, and there had been a lot to observe back in the hospital with Mason angry, April worried and Clay thankful to be alive. Not to mention the big fight he’d witnessed after they’d arrived at the Carson’s with the trailer. The three of them hadn’t been too discreet lately at all.

“What are you talking about, Pop?”

“You two and April.”

Realization dawned on Clay’s face before he hid it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Want some coffee? I was just about to make some.”

Mason bit his lip, thinking coffee wasn’t going to distract Clay’s father. Not when this was the topic of conversation.

Mr. Harris ignored Clay’s attempt to change the subject and went on. “I can understand how it all happened. I always wondered back when you were in school what was going to happen if she ever chose one of you over the other. I guess the answer was she didn’t choose, did she? Don’t bother denying it because it’s become pretty obvious to anyone who is looking that you two are both with her.”

Clay remained shocked into silence as Mason kept his head down and his eyes focused on a crack in a tile on the kitchen floor. Their lack of denial only proved Mr. Harris right as he continued. “I guess what I want to know is what you’re going to do about it now?”

That was one of Mason’s main problems with this situation. The one he couldn’t get over. They could live happily, just the three of them, but they didn’t live in a bubble. Assholes like Clinton in the past, or even those who loved them, like Clay’s father now, would always judge them. There’d be talk. He could take it. Clay probably could too, but April? It would destroy her.

At least it was Clay’s father who confronted them now, and not someone else.

Clay straightened his spine. “I won’t lose either one of them. Mason is my best friend and April is the woman I love.”

His father took a deep breath. “I figured you’d say that. All right, then.”

Mason raised a brow as Clay repeated, “All right?”

Mr. Harris shrugged. “What can I say? I love you, son, and I want you happy. If this, as strange as it seems, makes you happy, then so be it.”

Clay hugged his father, then pulled back. “Um, Pop?”

“Yeah, son?”

“Does Mom know?”

“Not yet, no.”

“What about the Carsons?” Clay asked his father.

“Not that I know of, but you’ll have to tell them eventually. Your parents too, Mason. But I wouldn’t tell the rest of the town. I’d keep it hidden if I were you. There’ll be those who won’t understand.”

Mason finally couldn’t remain silent any longer. “How do you suggest we do that? Keep people from knowing?”

“I think I’ve got that figured out. To the public, it’s gonna have to be like this. Clay and April are dating, and Mason is living here to manage the farm.” Mr. Harris glanced at him. “Sorry, Mason, but it wouldn’t seem right for you and your girlfriend to move in here together since it’s Clay’s place. It makes more sense if she’s Clay’s girl.”

“It’s fine, sir. Good, actually.” Apparently scheming was a genetic trait among the Harris males. It might work, for a while at least. Eventually people might start to question why Mason never dated, though hopefully they’d just assume he was discreet.

Clay hugged his father again. “Thanks, Pop.”

Mr. Harris shook his head. “Don’t thank me. Just do me a favor. Let me lay some groundwork before we break this to your mother.”

“You think she’ll be okay with it?” Clay asked.

His father nodded. “I think she will. All she wants is for you to be happy and anybody can see you are that.”

When they were alone again, Mason shook his head at Clay. “This doesn’t change a thing.”

“Sure it does. One of the big issues you had with this was how others would view it. My father is fine with it.”

“It doesn’t change the fact that April will be leaving for New York.”

He grinned. “We’ll see.”

After the surprise confrontation with Mr. Harris, Mason’s nerves had had about enough. “What do you mean, we’ll see?”

Clay smiled at him. “I think you’ll find out in a minute, because April just pulled up and she looks pretty happy.”

As if on cue, April came flying into the kitchen. “I got a job offer.”

He’d never seen her look so excited. Mason’s heart stopped in his chest as he swallowed the lump in his throat. “In New York?”

He noticed Clay grinning as April shook her head. “No, as a reporter for one of the networks that covers the PRCA rodeo circuit.”

Mason raised a brow at Clay, who shrugged and rose to hug April. “That’s great, darlin’. I’m really happy for you.”

“What I don’t understand is that I never applied for the job.”

“Well, darlin’, I’ve heard about these headhunters that do nothing but look for good people to hire. I’ll bet that’s who found you.”

She frowned. “I guess so. I did write a lot of articles for the college paper.”

Mason smothered a grin as Clay nodded vigorously. “I bet that’s it. You know what this means, don’t you? You can travel to the rodeos with me when you need to write a story, and stay here at the farm the rest of the time. We’ll be one of those commuting couples, we’ll work together and then we’ll both live here with Mason in between competitions. Until we get big enough to hire help here, of course, then Mason can come on the road with us.”

April’s eyes opened wide as she turned to him. “You’re staying here? You’re not going back to the Army?”

“Well, I have a few months more in Germany, but yeah, after my contract is up I think I’ll be moving in here, for a while anyway. We’ll see how it works out.”

Clay shook his head. “Don’t worry, darlin’. Once we get him here, he’s never gonna leave.”

Always stubborn, Mason folded his arms. “We’ll see.”

“Yeah, we will.” Clay hugged April harder and grinned at him over her head. “But what I’d really like to see right now is my new delivery of hay.”

Mason frowned. “What are you talking about? It looks like hay. What’s to see?”

Clay’s eyes twinkled. “You obviously aren’t blessed with my vivid imagination. Come on, both of you. This is your home now too, and we can damn well get naked and christen the barn if we want to.”