He shook his head before reaching out to hold the door open for me. “But what if there’s a solution to this I just haven’t thought of yet?”
We walked across the open recreation room to my bedroom door. It both broke and warmed my heart at the same time how responsible this man felt for others. “Can we set Ames aside for the rest of the night?” I asked. “We can brainstorm ideas on our road trip to the trial this weekend. Meanwhile, I can think of several more pleasant topics we could discuss.”
Hudson’s forehead smoothed. “Yeah? Like what?” He reached for me and began pulling off my clothes.
“Why you’re ticklish behind your right knee but not your left. Why you don’t like my tongue in your ear. Why you—”
The rest of my list was cut off with a kiss.
It turned out all of the talking could wait. The night was for touching and kissing and loving. And that was a language all of its own.
39
Hudson
Hudson’s Words To Live By:
There’s nothing more breathtaking than watching someone you care about pursue their dreams.
When we arrived in Junction, Texas, Friday night, we discovered a large group of people from the dog trialing community on an outdoor patio at a restaurant called Lum’s. The food was good, but the company was outstanding. Everyone Charlie introduced me to seemed to either know him or have heard of him. We spent several hours drinking and laughing with all of the people we’d see in the fields the following day.
Before we left the restaurant, someone talked Charlie into handling their dog during one of the events the following day. To hear the woman tell it, Charlie Murray was the best damned dog handler in the history of sheepherding.
“I once saw him tell Mama to pack his suitcase, and she had him all done up with shirts pressed and everything before it was time to check out of the hotel,” a man named Glen said. Everyone around him laughed, and I saw a rare instance of Charlie blushing.
“I believe it,” I said. “The other night I was fixing pizza in the kitchen and asked myself where I’d put my beer. And damned if that dog didn’t walk over to the counter and point her nose at it. Oh—” I turned to Charlie. “—remember the other morning when I couldn’t find my shoe and she found it behind your dresser?” I looked at him, remembering Charlie’s naked ass in the air helping me search under the bed. I’d done way more looking at that than searching for the shoe.
One of the ladies winked at me. “And why was your shoe behind Charlie’s dresser?” she asked with a knowing smirk.
I felt a full-body blush at my slip. I wasn’t used to the casual outings that my siblings experienced all the time. What did Charlie think about his friends hearing we were most likely sleeping together? Had I been wrong to imply it? Did he live out and proud among these folks, or did he choose to keep things quiet around certain groups? Suddenly, I felt like a bull in a china shop.
I glanced over at him, worried I’d see his discomfort. But of course, all he cared about was me and my own feelings.
“Because he threw it at me when I overslept for a meeting,” he said quickly. “I was late and didn’t answer my door. He barged in and chucked his shoe at me to get me up.”
I rolled my eyes, deciding to trust my gut read on the crowd. “That’s only partially true. I did throw my shoe at him once, but it was an accident that happened when I was rushing to get naked.”
The crowd burst into laughter with hoots and hollers. The only person who looked uncomfortable was one of the servers collecting dirty plates from the table. The man looked like any number of Texas guys I knew who didn’t cotton to same-sex sinning. But the dog trainers around the table were kind and accepting. And they clearly thought the world of Charlie.
Charlie tucked his face against my shoulder to hide his blush, but I knew he was smiling. I wrapped my arm around him and pulled him closer, dropping a kiss on his wind-blown mane.
“You okay?” I asked softly.
“So very okay, Hudson. Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For coming with me. I didn’t realize how much I wanted you to see this.”
I shifted far enough away to look me in the eyes. “We haven’t even seen the dogs work yet.”
He shrugged. “That’s not all there is. It’s the community, the people. The shared love of a hobby.”
I could see how happy he was, and that made me feel euphoric. That feeling lasted the entire weekend. The following day I watched Charlie own the sheep. With clipped whistle commands I’d seen him demonstrate back at the ranch, he had a dog named Maya working like a dream. She took to him as easy as could be and would have followed him to the ends of the earth.