Twisted (41 page)

“Jeffy, want some dip?” Mike rode up next to me and held out his can of Skoal wintergreen. I took a pinch and put it in my mouth.

“Much obliged.”

“Can I try some?” Jason was looking right at me.

“You ever tried dip before?”

“No, but you, Mike, Smitty, and Jeanette all use it.”

“Maybe after we get down off the horses.”

“Yeah, Jason, it can make ya kind of dizzy if you’re not used to it.”

Jason looked at Mike. “You’re kidding me. You guys are always treating me like a little kid.”

“Let ’im go for it, Mike. Jason, it’s your neck on the line. Even if you get dizzy or sick, you’re still gonna work. Got it?”

“Yeah, I got it.”

“Good, and whatever ya do, don’t swallow the juice. It’ll make ya sicker than a dog.”

“Whatever.” Mike rode up by Jason and held out the can. Jason put a big dollop in his mouth. I could see him chewing, rather than just letting it sit between his cheek and gum. Mike looked at me questioningly.

“Up to you, buddy.”

I knew he was thinking of saying something to Jason about how to dip. He finally spoke up. “Jason, just leave a little in a wad between your gum and the side of your mouth. Don’t chew it.” Jason nodded almost gratefully, pulled off his glove and dug out most of the dip. He spit several times and finally started looking a little less green.

“Thanks, Mike.” We came up on a group of cattle. Most of them were heavy with calf. Mike and I spread out, and I began to sing. “‘As I walked out in the streets of Laredo, as I walked out in Laredo one day’….”

Mike joined in with me. A lot of cowboy songs are sad and slow. The cattle seem to like the slow ones better. They certainly sound more soothing. The cattle slowly began to amble in front of us. Mike was closest to the two yearlings, so he drove them over toward Jason. I kept singing to the cattle while Mike gave Jason some instructions. He spoke in a singsong kinda voice to keep from spooking the cattle.

“Okay there, Jason, just guide your horse over toward the two yearlin’s. Give him his head, and he’ll cut ’em out for you and drive ’em away from the other cattle.” Jason looked at Mike and then me, very uncertainly, but did what Mike had told him to do. The two yearlings tried to rejoin the other cattle, but Jason’s horse had been through this so many times, he knew just what to do. He kept heading off the cattle until they finally called it quits and retreated to a snow-free patch of grass. Jason trotted back to us. He was so proud of actually doing some cowboying that he looked like a puppy getting its ears scratched.

“Good job, Jason.”

“Thanks, Jeff!” I’d noticed more and more over time, Jason was settling in to ranch life. At first he’d not wanted to wear boots, insisting that his sneakers would be sufficient. I hadn’t seen the sneakers in a while. He was now dressed for the weather and wore an old Stetson of Smitty’s. He seemed to have calmed down quite a bit. At first he tried to reject anything he thought was “cowboy,” but now he seemed to be adopting it.

“I reckon we’re gonna turn you into a cowboy yet, Jason. You think so, Mike?”

“Yeah, Jeffy, I sure do. Lookit the way he’s ridin’. We ain’t gonna be able to tell him from an old hand pretty soon.”

Jason was practically glowing. “That’s cool. I enjoy doin’ stuff with you guys and cowboyin’.” He was quiet for a few minutes and then looked from me to Mike several times.

Mike finally just asked him what was up. “Looks like you got somethin’ on your mind, Jason, what is it?”

“Uh, I was thinkin’… I mean, I wanted to ask you and Jeff, about, um, about datin’.” I turned to him.

“What about it?” Mike asked the question. I had to grin when I heard Jason say “datin’.” He was trying to imitate us.

“Well, you know I’ve been with a lot of guys, but I’ve never really dated. I’m not sure even what to do.”

“You got somebody in mind to ask out?”

“I do, Jeff, that’s why I’m askin’ you two.”

Mike got a devilish look. “That’s great, Jason, but I don’t think you’re Jeanette’s type.”

Jason’s mouth dropped open and he started to protest but then saw the twinkle in Mike’s eyes. “I’m serious, Mike. There’s a guy in town I wanna ask out.”

“Anyone we might know, Jason?”

“Seein’ as you know everyone in town, I would think so.” He gave me an exasperated stare. “If you have to know, it’s Tim Fuller.”

“Tim, whose parents own the Schoolhouse Brewery?”

“Yeah.” He suddenly found his saddle horn really interesting.

“Well, if that don’t beat all. I’d kinda reckoned Tim was one of the boys, but I never thought too much on it. You, Mike?”

“Other than him bein’ a nice guy, I ain’t thought on who he might wanna bed or not.”

“Guys, can we stop talkin’ about Tim being gay or not? He is, take my word for it.”

I chuckled. “You talkin’ from experience, Jason?”

“No, and that’s why I wanna talk to you two, if you’d ever stop makin’ fun of me. We’ve been talkin’ a bit, and he came out to me. He was tellin’ me how lucky I was to be stayin’ at the ranch and how much he looks up to the two of you. He’s even out to his parents. I told him I am lucky to be around the two of you. I told him how I come to respect both of you. He’d mentioned that he’d asked you if you might have positions cowboyin’ come summer. Next thing I knew, we were kissing. I really like him and wanna go out with him. He’s more than just a fuck, but I don’t know how to act with a guy like that.”

I was about to make some remark about seein’ skyrockets, but the look on Jason’s face stopped me. He was dead serious, and I could see he really wanted to hear our opinion.

“When we started datin’, we decided to get to know each other, rather than jumpin’ in the sack right away.”

“Jeff’s right, Jason. He told me he thought I was special, and he didn’t wanna ruin that by fuckin’ too soon.”

“So what did you guys do?”

“We hung around together a lot, didn’t we, Mike?”

“We sure did. We played football on the lawn, we put on a rodeo for some tourists, and we went out to eat a few times.”

“Remember practicin’ ropin’ together, buddy? Or when I tackled you when we was playin’ touch football?”

“Hell, Jeffy, I ain’t never gonna forget that.”

“You tackled him when you were playing touch football? What was up with that?” Jason gave both of us exasperated looks.

“I didn’t know what was up with it either, Jason. I was runnin’ toward the goal, and Jeffy was there in front of me. Instead of just touchin’ me, he tackled me. I started to ask him just what in the hell he was doin’, and then he kissed me.”

“Really?” Jason looked from me to Mike.

“Really. It was the first time we kissed. Kinda when we decided we was gonna date, too.”

“Wow, that’s really nice. What do you think I can do with Tim for a date?”

“What do you guys have in common? You said you’d talked a bit,” I asked.

“He likes to ski.”

“You’re a pretty good skier, Jason. Invite him to go skiin’ with ya. Take a nice picnic lunch too. Maybe a little candle in a jar so the wind don’t blow it out.”

“That’s a good idea, Mike. Does Tim like to ride, Jason?”

“I’m not sure.”

“I’d reckon askin’ him to go ridin’ would be a nice date. He did ask me about cowboyin’.”

“We both like video games.” Jason continued to look at me.

“Then get on a networked game. You two can be partners, say Alexander and Hephaestion, or the Spartan warriors.”

“Sometime when we all get together to play cards or Trivial Pursuit or something, can I invite him?”

“Course you can, Jason.” Mike grinned at him.

“Can I invite him over for dinner next week?” Mike and I exchanged glances. Most of the cowboys fixed their own food and ate in the bunkhouse. He did most of the time too, but he did like to eat with us once in a while.

“I reckon so. Just give us a few days notice, so we don’t plan somethin’ else, okay?”

“Okay! Thanks, Jeff, Mike!” He turned and trotted back a couple of hundred feet to catch any strays.

“Jeffy, I kinda feel like we got a kid who’s bringin’ a potential partner home.”

I laughed. “Yeah, it sort of does feel like that, doesn’t it? Jason sure has changed, hasn’t he?”

“He has. In a good way.”

Just then we spied a small herd of cattle. There were yearlings, a couple of young heifers, and several pregnant cows. Mike began singing “The Yellow Rose of Texas” and moving to one side to start cutting out the cattle that were gonna calve. I moved to the other side. This time it was a little harder to get the herd separated, as there were fewer cattle to be culled out since the first group was still with us. It took us about an hour of gentle herding. We didn’t want to get the cows that were gonna calve all worked up. We stopped for lunch in a little hollow which was clear from snow. In the pasture, between the wind and the cattle, most of the snow had been blown away or trampled. I lit a fire so we’d have some hot coffee with the sandwiches we’d brought.

“This is gonna take a couple of days, isn’t it?” Jason was watching me as I lit the fire.

“Probably, Jason, why?”

“I like this. For the first time since I got here, I really feel like I’m one of the guys.”

Mike glanced over at him. “Jason, you been one of the guys since you got here.”

“I know, I just feel more like a cowboy now.”

“Everyone’s gotta start somewhere, Jason.”

“Jeff’s right. My first job with horses and cowboyin’ was muckin’ out stalls.”

“Oh….” He started hemming and hawing, and I knew he was thinking on asking us something.

“Spit it out, Jason, what’s on your mind?”

“I never told Tim that I lived on the streets and turned tricks for money.”

“You’re afraid that, when he finds out, he’s gonna lose respect for you?” Jason wouldn’t meet my eyes when I asked.

“Yeah, I am.”

Mike looked lost in thought, but then spoke up. “Jason, before I got together with Jeff, I was real closeted. If I wanted to hook up with another guy, I’d go to some rest area or something and find some guy to go down on me. I never did anything else, but when I was younger, I’d do that four, five times a week. When I first came out to Jeffy, I told him. He accepted me for who I am.”

“Mike’s right, Jason. I can’t speak for anyone else, but when I look at Mike, I see the handsomest man on earth, my best friend, and someone who I wanna spend all day, every day with. What happened before we got together, don’t concern me. Mike was honest with me, and because of the way I feel about him, I couldn’t care less what happened before. If Tim’s the one for you, he’ll accept you, too. Just be honest with him. Don’t hide anythin’. You don’t need to give him details or numbers, but mentionin’ you lived on the streets and had to hustle for money is enough detail.”

“I’m just nervous about him.”

I couldn’t help laughing. “Young love. Ain’t it grand, Mike?”

“Sure is. I hope you’re gonna invite us to the weddin’.”

“Mike, Jeanette told me that Jeff proposed to you at the rodeo over the loudspeaker.”

“Yep, he did.”

“So, do I get invited to your wedding?”

I nodded to him. “Of course you do, Jason. We were thinkin’ on askin’ you to be in the weddin’.”

“Really, Jeff?”

“Yep. We’d thought about flower girl or maid of honor.”

He got an ornery look on his face all of a sudden and then laughed. “I’ll be maid of honor or flower girl if one of you wears a wedding dress.”

“It’ll have to be Jeffy. He went in drag for the wild drag race at the rodeo.”

“Some of us are just secure enough as men to do that, Mike, and others aren’t. Since I did the drag thing in the rodeo, it’s your turn now, buddy.” He just shook his head and laughed.

We’d finished up the sandwiches we’d brought and drank up all the coffee. It was kind of obvious Jason didn’t like the strong black cowboy coffee we did, but he gamely tried to drink it, more to fit in than anything. We saddled back up and continued with driving the cattle down and culling out others. It looked like it was going to be a several-days job.

“Jeffy, you reckon there might be any chance of cattle up in the high pastures?”

“I’d hope not, but ya never know. I’d be surprised if José doesn’t ask us or have someone ride up there to check.”

“I’ll volunteer if you will. It was a lot of fun last time we were up there.” I thought back on when Mike and I had ridden up to the high pastures for roundup last fall. We’d only been together a couple of weeks. It was really nice to be alone together in the line camp. One night there was an incredible meteor shower, and we sat outside most of the night, watching shooting stars.

“It was, wasn’t it? You remember the shootin’ stars, Mike?”

“Hell, I ain’t never gonna forget that. We were huddled together outside most of the night, just watchin’ the stars and makin’ wishes on the fallin’ ones.”

I laughed. “We reckoned we wished the same thing, remember?”

“Yep, and we both thought we’d already got our wishes.”

Jason piped up in the midst of our remembering. “That sounds really nice. Maybe if you got work for Tim cowboyin’, we could ride fences and spend time at the line camp.”

“You sure you guys would be comfortable there, Jason? There’s no runnin’ water or electricity.”

He looked at me like I’d started speaking Swahili or something. “Okay, so we’d have to have dinner by candlelight. I think that would be real romantic.”

“Jason, let me share a little secret with ya. Just about anythin’ can be romantic if it’s with the right person.”

Mike gave me a big grin. “He’s right, Jason. If I was muckin’ out stalls with Jeffy, it would be romantic. I reckon though, we’d have to shower together afterward, and we’d be thinkin’ on that pretty much the whole time we were workin’.”

“So, you’re saying that if Tim is the right guy for me, I’ll enjoy everything we do together.”

“See there, Mike, I told ya the boy’s got a good head on his shoulders. He figured that one out right quick.”

We continued to ride, looking for cattle and herding the pregnant cattle when we found them and culling out the rest. It was very slow going. In the late afternoon, it began clouding up and got windy. We still had a few hours of work ahead of us, based on the rate we were going, when the clouds let loose and began to disgorge, not the snow we expected, but a cold, wind-driven rain. The cattle didn’t like moving in it, and although we were dressed well, we didn’t have rain gear. I could feel my jeans and longhandles soaking through. Water was dripping down the back of my neck every time I turned a certain way.