Grandpa and Doc exchanged a look. “You’ve known him for five minutes and you’ve seen something pretty major in him we never noticed before,” Grandpa said. “I have to admit how upsetting that is.”
I looked down at my feet. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply—”
Grandpa reached out a hand to squeeze my own. “No, Charlie. That’s not what I meant. I’m grateful to you for caring enough about him to notice. It’s not that we didn’t notice the direction he’d chosen, it’s more we didn’t realize it wasn’t what he wanted. I wonder how we might be able to encourage him to follow his own path now instead of Bill’s.”
I’d been considering that very thing.
“I don’t know how to ride horses. Would one of you mind teaching me enough so I might be able to go with him on some trail rides? The more we can get him outside and on a horse, the more he might reconnect with that part of him. At the very least, he’ll enjoy the outdoors and fresh air. He works too much. Saint told me Hudson’s never available to go out in Dallas because he’s always working late, and one of the sisters heard the same thing from Hudson’s assistant. Even if he stays in his current career, he can’t have his life be all about work.”
“Are you taking him to that dog trial with you near Austin?”
I shrugged. “Originally I wanted to take him so he could see Mama work, but now I’ve decided to leave Mama here, I’m not sure if he’d still want to come.”
Doc laughed. “Don’t be an idiot. If you’re going, he’s going to want to go.”
My phone buzzed on the kitchen counter where I’d set it down earlier. I checked the screen and saw a text from the man of the hour.
FYI: I am naked in your bed.
“Sorry, gotta go,” I blurted to the gents. “Thanks again for dinner!”
Pretty sure my feet didn’t touch the ground until I was standing over a naked Hudson with the door to my room locked behind us.
35
Hudson
Hudson’s Words To Live By:
If someone offers to put their finger in your ass, politely accept.
I’d been so distracted on the drive home by the idea of sex with Charlie, I hadn’t noticed a huge piece of scrap metal in the middle of the road. After my tire blew, I lectured myself for the stupid lapse in attention the rest of the way home. I’d been so damned giddy to see him and touch him, I’d known I couldn’t keep my attraction secret from my grandparents all through dinner.
I had to touch him.
And, of course, I’d known Doc and Grandpa would understand. I didn’t like the idea of keeping secrets from them anyway. Even after Charlie was long gone back to Ireland, the subject of sexuality would come up among my family, and I wouldn’t want to feel like my time with a man was some kind of dirty little secret.
Charlie was the furthest thing possible from a dirty little secret. He was life and light, energy and personality and fun. Being around him made me feel at once freer and more grounded. There was something about his spirit that seemed to tap into something in me and let it out for the first time in my life. It wasn’t just my sexuality but my willingness to see things in a different way.
Touching him, looking at him, laughing with him, were all ways of tapping into that feeling. As soon as I’d seen him standing in the farmhouse kitchen, I’d wanted my arms around him and my mouth on his sweet skin.
And now he was here.
“What took you so long?” I asked from my naked sprawl on his bed.
He looked nervous. “How did it go with Darci?”
I’d been so anxious to get back to him, I’d forgotten he’d be worried about how she’d taken seeing us together.
“Come sit down,” I said, sitting up and moving over to make room for him.
Charlie scrambled up beside me. “Is she upset? Did she cry? Do you need to stay in the cabin ton—”
I reached for his face and pulled him in for a kiss before he could go into a full tizzy. “Baby, it’s okay,” I murmured after a nice long tease of his lips. “She was surprised more than anything. Asked me lots of questions about whether I’d known all along and if that was the real reason I hadn’t wanted to get married.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That I didn’t have many answers other than the fact you and I are together and I am happy. Once she calmed down, she actually seemed to understand that was all that truly mattered. She’s a smart woman.”
He stared at me with those clover eyes. “Really?”
I ran a thumb across his lower lip. “She graduated top of her class from nursing school,” I told him, even though I knew that wasn’t what he’d meant.