“All prettied up and ready for me to take it off.” Vaughn leered and took a step closer with hands outstretched.
Darren let out a very unmanly squeak of distress. “No touching,” he snapped.
Vaughn’s expression changed. He’d been sleepy and smiling, and now he was wary. “Darren?”
Darren held up his hands in an effort to stave off the reaction he expected Vaughn to have. “I have an interview, okay? At an investment bank in Dallas, in the accounts department.”
Vaughn’s mouth opened in a parody of shock. Then he closed it again just as quickly. Evidently he had no idea what to say.
“You’re here, okay? And I want to be here, and I don’t want to go home, but I can’t sit on my ass.” He waved around him. “The ranch, horses, there’s little to no accounting here.”
“If that is what you want to do.”
“Riley commutes to Dallas,” Darren said hurriedly.
“It’s not that,” Vaughn said on a sigh. “Just, is the city really what you want? You hate the city.”
Darren winced. He hadn’t expected Vaughn to be a blunt. “I hate the city, but I love you,” he defended.
“Then don’t go. Take a few more days to think about what you want.”
“You sound like you don’t want me staying.”
“I never said that.”
“I need to stay here in Dallas, with you.”
“Darren, what I said last night was true. I’m happy here in my work and with the people, but this place is missing something, it doesn’t have you in it.”
Darren smiled softly. “I want to be with you. I want to stay here, and I’ll do anything to make it happen.”
“You can stay in here with me as long as you need to, ’m sure Jack won’t mind. Just wait a bit before making a decision on what you’re doin’.”
“I don’t care what I’m doing, as long as I’m with you.”
Darren waited. He’d laid all his cards on the table, and now he had to leave Vaughn to think about it. He edged away from the window and picked up his keys, but he didn’t get to the door. Vaughn grasped his arm and tugged him back.
“Really?” he asked.
“Really what?”
“You want to make a life on the ranch? With me.”
Darren lifted his chin. “Isn’t that what I’ve been saying all along?” He had, but he knew Vaughn hadn’t been listening, not really.
Vaughn worried his lower lip with his tooth, a sign that he was thinking. Then he sighed heavily, and Darren tensed. This was make or break. “I was waiting for you to want to go back, to the money and what is yours. But being honest, all I really wanted was for you to follow me here.”
A great weight lifted from Darren at that simple statement, and he felt so much lighter. “You’d best wish me luck with this interview, then.”
Suit or no suit, Darren held onto Vaughn, and they stood there for the longest time simply hugging. Finally they separated and Darren kissed his lover firmly.
“I’ll find you after,” he said.
“Good luck.”
Darren jumped the small height from the trailer to the road and left the D with a couple of hours to spare until the interview. He would use the time to find some kind of housing; after all, the two of them couldn’t stay in the trailer forever. If he got the damn position, that was.
* * * * *
The building he parked under wasn’t the tallest in the city, but it was impressive, at least fifty or sixty stories of glass. There was a security entrance and reception, and it all felt a little wrong, although he didn’t want to admit it. He’d made this gesture to find a job, and he could handle the glass and the city if it meant he got to go home to Vaughn at the end of the day.
The interview part went well, lots of questions about what he’d been doing before and comments about whether or not he knew this was an entry-level position. The practical part was easy enough, and he lost himself in figures long enough to make sure he made the best impression. They made all the right noises when he left, but his gut was telling him he hadn’t gotten it. He was overqualified with his degree, and he was too old for entry-level at this company. But he didn’t have the corporate experience to work at a big company at a higher level.
Frustrated, he stopped at the nearest Starbucks and ordered himself a latte. Only sitting in the window, people-watching, did an idea begin to form. He didn’t exactly need the money a nine-to-five job would give him. There was plenty left for a while after the purchase of the Bar Five, despite the mortgages Hank had taken out on the place and the lack of assets to sell other than the land. But that wasn’t his money. That was for something else altogether. That couple hundred thousand sat in his accounts, and he was using it to do something positive. Invest in the kids that Hank hurt.
So if I’m working for myself, how am I doing this? he thought. He hadn’t much thought past the idea of it, but now, maybe he should really think about what he could do. He pulled out his phone and opened the note app, listing the possible clients he could work for. Ranches. What I know. Vaughn would have to keep him in pasta and ham until he made any money, but that was beside the point.
His cell vibrated, and he knew who it was even before he answered. The company he’d just interviewed at. Apparently he wasn’t being called back for a second interview. He thanked them politely.
He’d known that would be the response. His heart hadn’t been in the interview. Not really.
The journey back to the Double D was a slow one. Not because of traffic, but because he was thinking and he needed the time and he doubled back on himself a few times. He even pulled into a diner and sat for an hour scribbling on a set of four napkins set out in front of him.
He’d need somewhere to work. Perhaps he and Vaughn could set up a spare room or something in a house. Anything would work. It wasn’t like he’d need a lot of space, just a filing cabinet, internet, and a damn good computer. Maybe Jack and Riley would rent him a small room off a barn, or hell, he could work at the trailer’s tiny table.
When he reached the D, he stopped under the large wrought iron sign and got out of the car, stretching tall in the warmth of the sun. A car pulled up next to him leaving the D and the driver lowered the window.
“Can I help you?” a man asked. He was short with white-blond hair and dark brown eyes. “Are you lost?”
Darren felt like laughing. No, he wasn’t lost, for the very first time in his life, he actually felt like he had direction. Crossing to the guy, he held out a hand. Clearly this man was something to do with the D. The light of recognition in the other man’s eyes must have reflected in his. This was Marcus, Liam’s lover.
“Darren Castille. I don’t know if you remember me, from the court, um…” He paused. “Vaughn’s partner.”
The other man took his hand firmly, a strong grip for a little guy. “Marcus Walker,” he said. “I remember you.”
Darren waited for condemnation or something like it; after all, he was Hank’s brother. But there was nothing.
Instead Marcus was smiling. “Last I saw, Vaughn was over at the barn with the horses.”
Darren thanked him and climbed back in his own car before making his way down the long road to the ranch. His confidence in what he was doing steadily grew, but everything dropped as soon as the ranch came into view.
Doubts assailed him and had to count back from one hundred before he got out of the car.
“You okay?” a voice said from behind him. Turning on his heel, he was faced with Jack, who evidently was worried that Darren had taken so long to get out of his car.
“Yeah.” That was an easy answer.
“You looking for Vaughn?”
“Yeah.”
“Can I just talk to you quickly, be honest with you?” Jack began. Darren nodded, he wanted honesty. “I don’t know what y’all are planning, but Vaughn is happy here. And I offered him the position permanently.” There was no warning in his voice or any element of advice; he was merely making a statement.