Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch by L.A. Merrill

Author:L.A. Merrill [Merrill, L.A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gay romance
ISBN: 978-1-63533-569-9
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2017-05-31T04:00:00+00:00

WE SETTLED into a pattern over the next four days. Breakfast spilled over into rehearsals, and then right after lunch, the traveling show headed into the hills in search of Wi-Fi and the day’s location. At night Michael and I rewrote the next day’s script while Enzo hosted a revolving door of costume-patching customers in his room. We were like a ship in battle, retreating behind the headland to make repairs before the next morning’s skirmish.

During a fit of frustration about our lack of locations, we tested cabling the camera up as well, but Ronni kept accidentally unplugging it from the laptop, and we couldn’t risk losing the signal in the middle of an episode. With all of us up in the hills every day, Jen decided to start coming along too, and Ronni deputized her as her assistant. Jen knew the land almost as well as Michael and could guide Ronni as she walked while filming and not let her fall into an unexpected burrow. (We weren’t taking any chances after the wolverine incident.)

Each episode garnered more viewers and a skyrocketing number of upvotes. The cast grew giddy with the attention. It was difficult to shoo them all off to bed at night so Michael and I could write. As much fun as shooting a hit web series was, the days were dusty and stressful, and I looked forward to the cool nights spent writing. Michael was so calm and encouraging. Watching him work, the creative way he deconstructed scenes and rebuilt them, was like a master class in craft.

Together we guided John and Lorna through their illicit courtship, introduced Cousin Tom, the gambler from Back East who seduced John’s sister Anne, and staged Lorna’s rescue from the rascally outlaw Doones, who held her captive in an old deer hut we found. The Doones retaliated, wounding Tom in the process. Tom was nursed back to health by Anne, and then the couple ran away to the California gold rush. Lorna discovered she was the heir to a silver mine (a large hole in the hillside that the cast was forbidden to actually enter).

No matter how good the story we were writing was—and it was good, so good—the best part of the entire evening was when Michael sent me to bed. Because he kissed me then, a rough tug into his chest and two kisses into my mess of hair. I didn’t know quite what to read into this, since it was something he did with his friend too, but by then I had a massive crush on him and the fact that he was touching me was enough to send my heart into happy spirals. And then in the morning, he sent me off with a pile of cue cards and a genuine good-luck wish that had me smiling all through the long walk ahead.

It started spitting rain on the walk back on Thursday, and by the time we were inside, it was pouring. We had dodged a bullet

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