Page 67 of Cattle Stop

Already, Cooper’s breath picks up, blood pulsing in his ears over the soft smack of their mouths, and Whit’s low grunt as he hooks his hand beneath Cooper’s thigh and yanks their hips flush. Somewhere, Sadie barks and the circular saw spins. Cooper tips his head back and winds his arms around Whit’s neck, letting Whit hold him off balance, the truck against his back and Whit’s body pressed in close.

Sadie barks again.

“S’just Socks messing with her,” Cooper murmurs as Whit sucks on his neck.

Whit presses their foreheads together and hikes Cooper’s shirt up to his ribs and says, “Good.”

“Yeah, good, like that.” Cooper pushes into Whit’s fingers on his fly.

They’re not really going to get each other off in the middle of the pasture, are they? Whit edges Cooper’s zipper down. Oh, fuck yeah, they’re really going to get each other off in the middle of the pasture. This is a goddamn dream come true.

Good news, fifteen-year-old me, life turns out to be truly excellent, Cooper thinks and shoves both his hands between Whit’s ass and his boxers.

Sadie barks again. She follows it with a yip, and then her deeper bellow that isn’t her years-long war waged with Socks but an announcement of a car arriving. Cooper peels his eyes open and peers around the back of the tailgate. A truck, actually. And climbing out of the cab—

Cooper jerks his zipper closed. “I didn’t invite him.”

“What?” Whit wipes the back of his hand across his mouth. He looks dazed, a little dreamy, until he blinks, and there’s his normal coolness and a pinch on his forehead as he cranes his neck to look. “Is that Brad?”

“Hey guys!” Brad shouts, waving his arm over his head.

Cooper ducks behind the bed of the pickup, straightening his hair and pulling down his shirt. Brad can’t really see them, not with the truck parked how it is, but fucking hell, this is awkward. “I don’t know what he’s doing here.” Cooper grabs his hat where he’d set it on the tailgate, jamming it onto his head like it’s any sort of real barrier between him, Whit, and their apparent audience.

It’s fine. Brad didn’t see anything. And neither did Drew, who walks around the side of the house, lifting a hand in hello, or the other man who gets out of Brad’s truck.

Huh.

“Travis?” Cooper asks.

Whit pushes his arms through the sleeves of his T-shirt. He already looks cool as a goddamn cucumber, while Cooper’s skin is still buzzing. “Yeah, that’s Travis.”

“And I thought you were stuffy as all hell. He gives you a real run for your money,” Cooper says, squinting at the neat tuck of Travis’s crisp button-down into his slacks. Even from here, his shoes look shiny.

Up close, those shiny shoes are even more out of place in the dust and gravel of the barnyard, the toes clean and the laces neat. Cooper shakes Travis’s hand and probably leaves a smear of dirt behind, his hands grimy after a morning of milking, chores, and fencing…and Whit’s ass that he could still be grabbing right now.

Cooper forces a smile. “So good to see you again.”

“Yeah, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?” Travis rocks back on his heels, looking around the barnyard. “Penny around?”

“No,” Drew says.

“What’re you two working on over there?” Brad shields his eyes against the sun with a cupped palm, cracking his gum. “New pasture?”

“Just a lane between the pastures and the barn,” Cooper says.

“What a great idea, Coop, I should’ve thought of that. Saves some time, yeah?”

See? Cooper could ask Whit. Dig his elbow into Whit’s ribs, toss him a smile and tease, Brad gets it.

Instead, he just shrugs. “That’s the hope.”

Brad claps him on the arm and Cooper shifts away, though his shoulder bumps into Whit’s chest. “Sorry,” he mumbles.

Didn’t know Whit was standing right there and now it’s just awkward, crammed between the two of them. Cooper backs up a step and bends to rub Sadie’s ears.

Brad snaps his gum again and says, “Thought I’d pick up this week’s order for the market, if you’ve got it ready.”

“Brad’s politely not mentioning that I dragged him over here, wanted to see if I could get a bit of cheese too.” Travis turns in a small circle as he looks around. “And I wanted to see the place. It’s looking pretty good, Drew. Things going well?”