1 Chapter 1

1

“You fuckers are on your own for supper tomorrow,” Jimmy Wilson announced to the ranch hands sitting around the supper table.

Everyone looked up from their plates, although Rory Brown, as usual, soon ducked his head.

“Why?” Liam, the ranch foreman, asked.

“As none of you jokers are lucky enough to have boyfriends, or a girlfriend in the Z-Man’s case,” Jake Pierce told them, “you won’t know that tomorrow is Valentine’s. And Jimmy, Barry, ’n’ me are gonna have a romantic meal just for the three of us.” He leaned over and kissed Barry’s right cheek, Jimmy immediately doing the same to Barry’s left cheek.

“We are?” Barry asked, returning the kisses to his men.

The hamburger Rory was chewing took on the taste of sawdust. He picked up his glass and gulped some water to help swallow the suddenly unpalatable food. He did know Valentine’s was fast approaching, not that he had any plans to mark the holiday because, sadly, as Jake had pointed out, he was single. And also, as Jake had pointed out, Zane Fox—the man he carried a secret torch for—was straight. Rory risked a quick peek at the huge hunk sitting next to him. Zane was too busy packing away his food to pay any mind to the goings on between the three lovers at the head of the table.

When Barry Logan had first arrived on the Double J, he instinctively knew how to handle the often rambunctious ranch owners. Barry really seemed to care for everyone on the ranch, Rory included. Without being pushy, the Englishman had helped Rory come out of his shell.

“Quit it!” Barry said, slapping Jimmy’s chest.

“Aw, is the nasty cowboy hurting my man?” Jake said, trying to pull Barry onto his lap.

“And you can quit it as well.” Barry fended Jake off and straightened his shirt. “Eat your dinner before it gets cold.”

Jimmy’s and Jake’s horseplay with Barry only served to deepen Rory’s pity party. Rory didn’t begrudge the happiness the three men had found. He just wished he had some of his own.

“I said quit it!” Barry slapped at Jake’s hand that was undoing the buttons on his shirt. “This romantic meal you’ve planned for tomorrow. Who’s cooking it? I don’t have anything special in the larder for—”

“Not you,” Jake told him.

“If you think I’m letting either of you two loose in my kitchen, you’ve got another think coming.” He let out a gasp and jumped slightly before slapping Jimmy’s upper arm. “Quit playing with my junk under the table.”

“Rory’ll do it,” Zane suddenly announced.

“What, play with Barry’s junk?” Liam asked, earning him glares from Jimmy and Jake.

“Cook tomorrow,” Zane continued, seemingly unfazed by the sexual innuendo. “He did a great job of feeding us all while you three were in England.” He turned his massive head and smiled at Rory. “You’ll cook for them…us, won’t you?”

“Uh.” Rory swallowed then tried again. “I don’t know how to cook anything fancy.”

The look of disappointment on Zane’s face had Rory regretting his words. Despite his nervousness at tackling such an important meal, he would be cooking it for the man he was crushing on, along with all the others of course, so…“maybe if Barry can show me a few things then maybe—”

“Great!” Zane’s pat to Rory’s back had him pitching forward, narrowly avoiding face-planting in his food.

“That’s settled then,” Wayne, the other ranch hand on the Double J, said.

“Nothing’s settled,” Barry said. “It isn’t fair to put that much responsibility on Rory’s shoulders, and, like I said, I don’t have anything suitable in. I apologize for the rather unoriginal menu tonight. Been too caught up with trying to fix the problems in the ranch game.”

Barry had devised a game that people could download to their phones or tablets that simulated running a ranch. Rory had to admit, the game was quite addictive. All the hands were represented in the game, which made everyone feel included. Yet another example of how Barry touched everyone’s lives in a positive way. Rory remembered Barry saying something about how a recent update had broken something and it was proving difficult to fix.

“Food’s great,” Zane said, reaching for another burger. Was that his fourth?

“You’d eat anything put in front of you,” Wayne told him. Then evidently realizing his comments could be construed as criticism of Barry, he added, “But you’re right, these are great burgers. Love the onion rings, too.”

“It’s all out of the freezer,” Barry told them. He didn’t consider it cooking unless he made whatever it was from scratch.

“About tomorrow,” Jake reminded. “Me ’n’ Jimmy have it all planned. We’ll drive to the city tomorrow afternoon, book into a motel, go to a restaurant for dinner, then back to the motel to…” He waggled his eyebrows.