The Cowboy and the Outcast: A Gay MM Cowboy Romance (Farthingdale Valley Book 3) by Jackie North

Author:Jackie North [North, Jackie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blue Rain Press
Published: 2023-09-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Kell

Kell could not have imagined how cool it would be to work with Marston. To be around another guy all the time. Sure, he had worked around Bede, who’d looked out for him, who’d been kind, but this felt different.

Back in school, Kell had imagined kissing this boy or that, hauling out his newfound realization and taking it for a spin. Giving in to his preference for other boys, trying it on for size.

At that time, that kind of self-honesty had been so new, so overwhelming, that he’d not known how to act on it. But he had a good imagination and had used it, thinking of himself going up to that ginger-haired boy from school, the tall one, and looking up at him and saying something flirty about his delightful freckles. Or accidentally bumping into the captain of the track team, a long-legged gazelle of a boy who probably had no idea how beautiful he was, and simply saying hello.

Even when he’d been on the train with a huddle of other boys his own age, runaways all, sharing a folded burlap sack, stained with engine oil around the edges, with a perfect stranger, he’d never had the guts to do more than imagine.

Once in prison, after Bede had taken Kell under his wing, testing any boundaries, or trying on preferences, even the lightest smidgen of flirting, all of this was a huge no-no.

Bede’s advice had been meant to save Kell from getting his asshole ripped open. Kell had been all for that, so his imagination, at least about testing the waters with another guy, had gone into lockdown. It was as if he’d been frozen in time since the moment he’d left home two years before.

Now? Now, working around Marston, it was different. Not that Kell was able to even begin to exchange flirty words or looks with Marston. Marston was too tall, too broad shouldered, too inflexible-seeming to bend to a little laughter, a wink, or even a grin. No, his was a dour gaze, impenetrable, unknowing.

And yet, Kell’s draw to him was a powerful undertow, and nothing he was at all sure he wanted to resist. Besides, Marston seemed to be offering the same kind of safety that Bede had, a shadow into which Kell could step, hidden from anything trying to get at him.

Yes, he was old enough to figure out pretty quickly that the dangers in the valley were minimal. He knew that. But his two years on the road, his sixty-day stint in prison—all of this had left its mark. Was staying with him.

Being with Marston made him feel better and safer than he had in ages. Not to mention, being with Marston was probably the most fun, the most interesting time he’d spent in ages.

“Left to right,” said Marston, letting Kell take over the task of spraying the inside of the shed. “Steady swings. That’s it. You’ve got it.”

Sometimes, when Kell’s dad had been trying to teach him something, Kell would have the tool taken from his hand because Dad knew better how it should be done.

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