Kate Sherwood - Dark Horse 02 - Out of the Darkness (4 page)

Evan stares at him and then shakes his head. “Shit, Dan.” He looks down at the ground, and then back up. “You need to…. Okay, it’s not my place to tell you what you need.” He takes a moment to think. “But… It’s okay….” He stops again. “Fuck. Okay. I’m an asshole. I was worried, and I was stupid, and I’m sorry.”

That’s not quite what Dan was expecting. “Uh. No, wait. You weren’t stupid, you were mad because I let Tat get hurt. I mean, she’s your sister, and I was supposed to take care of her, and I didn’t.”

Evan smiles a little ruefully. “Yeah, that’s what I was thinking at the time.” He shakes his head. “When I was being stupid.” He casts his eyes down and then looks up at Dan earnestly. “It’s a dangerous sport. I knew that. I mean….” He looks a little unsure, then goes ahead. “I knew about Justin before I even met you, you know? So me acting like it’s some big shock…. I mean, yeah, it was a shock that
Tat
got hurt. I guess I always sort of thought, you know… you were being so careful. I thought you knew how important it was, so I could count on you to keep her safe.”

“I know, I should have—” Dan stops. He still isn’t quite sure what he should have done differently, but he knows the result. “I let you down.”

“No.” Evan’s voice is quiet but firm. He brings a hand up and cups Dan’s jaw, then looks back toward the barn. Dan’s a new addition to the relationship, and while Evan and Jeff are totally open about their status, Dan’s part is still not public knowledge. Evan would obviously like to keep it that way. “Shit, man, can we…?” He looks around, and his eyes settle on the feed shed by the parking lot. “Can we talk in there? I feel like half the world is watching us out here.”

Dan looks around. “I don’t even think the
horses
are watching us. But, yeah, okay.” He trails obediently after Evan, and he’s glad that he did, because as soon as they’re inside the door, Evan grabs him and pushes him against the wall, lining their bodies up together. He braces his forearms on either side of Dan’s head, and hovers his mouth just barely away from Dan’s.

“Is this okay?” he breathes, and Dan starts to nod, but at the first sign of vertical motion Evan’s lips are on his, passionate and demanding, and Dan doesn’t really worry about completing the gesture. He has no idea what’s going on, but he really doesn’t care at the moment, and he tilts his head to get a better angle as he opens his mouth to Evan’s tongue.

And then Evan’s pulling away, and that doesn’t seem like a good idea, but his hands move down to Dan’s arms and then his torso, and he’s reaching under Dan’s shirt, fingers finding warm skin as Evan stares at him. “Shit, Dan, this part is so easy. This just works,” Evan murmurs, and then he goes in for another kiss while his hands track lower.

A shadow of reason comes back to Dan, and he ducks his head a bit before Evan gets to him. “Wait, man, is this allowed?” Evan lowers his own head enough to reach Dan’s lips, and he kisses Dan in between his words.

“You mean with Jeff?”

 

And then they’re kissing more deeply, and Dan has to make himself pull away again. “Well,
without
Jeff, yeah.”

Evan reluctantly stops kissing, and his hands don’t move any lower, although they stay pressed tight against Dan’s skin. “Shit. I guess we never really worked that out.” He leans in and kisses Dan again, but it’s gentler, less urgent. More like a goodbye. Then Dan feels Evan’s lips curve up against his. “We could have a vote, right now. Two-thirds majority….”

Dan laughs a little and gently pushes Evan away. If this isn’t going to go anywhere, he needs some damn space.

Evan sighs. “Yeah.” He walks over to the doorway and stands in it, looking out. The sun coming in catches the dust in the air around him, and it looks like he’s glowing. It’s beautiful. He turns his head and looks back at Dan fondly. “I meant it though, man. I know it wasn’t your fault.” He leaves the doorway and walks back toward Dan, looking earnest. “Look, here’s what I think we should do. I’ll try to be more sensitive and aware of stuff that’s likely to freak you out. But… I don’t know… you’re gonna keep working on
not
freaking out, right? Like, in this case, I get it that was traumatic to see a fall, and obviously that would be… upsetting.”

Evan looks like he knows that those words are a little inadequate, but he charges on anyway. “So I’m not saying you shouldn’t react to
that
stuff. I’m just saying—I can be an asshole. I try not to be, but sometimes I am. If I am… you can call me on it, man. You can say, ‘fuck you, Evan, you knew the risks when you let your sister start riding, and I did everything right, so calm the fuck down.’” Evan grins a little. “I can’t guarantee that I’ll be happy to hear it, but… I bet it’d make you happy to say it, you know?”

He scrunches his face up as if the next part is even harder to say. “And you can also say, ‘fuck you, Evan, you knew the risks when you dragged me into this crazy relationship, and I’m doing everything right, so calm the fuck down on that too.’ ’Cause you are, you know?” Evan sees Dan’s quizzical look. “You’re doing stuff right with the relationship. Jeff and me… it was our idea, and we’re running around like chickens with our heads cut off, getting jealous, and expecting things to be easy, and… you’re good. You’re great, really.”

Dan doesn’t really know what to do with all this. “Dude… I’ve gotten jealous a couple times. And I’ve got
no
right to that—I’m the new guy.”

Evan shakes his head and smiles. “Yeah, okay… and I gotta say, I
love
it when you get jealous. It’s hot as hell. But… you keep it to yourself, mostly. You don’t make it our problem.” He stops for a second. “Or… shit, is that bad? I mean… you’re allowed to make stuff our problem, you know….”

Dan squirms a little. “Yeah, I think I was pretty good at making myself Jeff’s problem this morning.”

Evan rolls his eyes at Dan’s discomfort. “Okay, so that’s
good
! And
I
can help you out with stuff like that too.” He reconsiders. “Well, honestly, stuff like
that
, Jeff’s pretty much the man—he’s like the world’s best teddy bear. But if he’s not around, I can try. Or I can try to help you with other stuff….” He looks at Dan in exasperation. “Okay, I can’t quite think of what I could help you with right now, but there must be something….” He sees Dan’s crafty look and laughs as he adds, “Something beyond the physical.”

Dan’s still leaning against the wall, and Evan shuffles in a little closer, then catches himself. “Shit. We need to get this worked out with Jeff. It’s fucking hard to see you and not touch you.”

Dan isn’t quite sure how he’s gotten off this easy. “So, wait, that’s it? I mean… with Tat?”

Evan shrugs, but he seems resigned rather than nonchalant. “I tried to talk her out of it before she got started—like I said, I was aware of the risks. So… yeah, right now I want to line a room with rubber and fill it up with those little foam packing peanuts and make her live in there forever, but you know, she’d probably develop a foam allergy or something.” He grins a little guiltily. “I’m kinda happy that she got hurt just bad enough to put her out of action for a while and maybe to teach her to be careful.”

He sees the doubt on Dan’s face and comes close enough to smooth the frown lines out with his thumb. “You’ve made it as safe as it can be, Dan. I see that. I’m… I’m sorry if me being an overprotective asshole made any of this harder for you.” He leans in for just a quick kiss. “Seriously. I can’t say I’m not gonna freak out again, or that I won’t be totally nervous when she gets well enough to start back at it, but… I’m gonna try to keep it under control, okay?”

Dan thinks for a second. “And you can talk to me about it, right? I mean, if you’re helping me, I can help you too. Right?” This time it’s Evan with the inappropriate grin, and Dan can’t help smiling back. “Yeah, okay, we
need
to talk to Jeff.”

Evan laughs and then gets a little more serious. “But, hey, in the meantime—have you heard back from Chris? Are we good to go?” Dan’s confused again. Evan’s quick recovery is great, but a little disorienting. “Uh, I don’t know. I think he left a message earlier.” Evan frowns at him. “But you didn’t check it? Are you not into the idea anymore?”

Dan just laughs a little. The idea that he could be anything less than thrilled at the chance to buy into the business, to be even a part owner of these magnificent animals, doesn’t make any sense. And Evan was right: being a partner instead of an employee would make Dan feel a lot more secure about the romantic relationship that the three of them are trying to develop. “Yeah, I’m still into it… I just thought you might not be.”

“Damn, man… I’m sorry. I… hey, Tat was telling me about

Monty. She said he
acts
like everything’s a big deal, but really he’s solid and steady underneath.” Dan nods in agreement with the assessment. “And she said you’re good on him because you just ignore all the stupid crap and focus on the core, and just expect him to behave when it actually matters, and he does.” Dan nods again; he’s glad Tat’s been paying attention. “So, that’s what I’m like, too, maybe. Just—I get fired up about stuff, you know? But if you can just ignore it—and, yeah, I know, I can work on calming down—but I’ll come through when it matters. Seriously.” He looks earnestly at Dan, who smiles back at him.

“Yeah, okay.” Dan doesn’t really know what comes next. He thinks about checking the message from Chris, and then thinks that maybe he doesn’t want to. What if it’s not good news? What if Chris says there’s a problem with something and Dan can’t sign? Maybe he’ll just leave it for a while. “Hey—do you still want to learn to ride?”

“What?”

“Do you want to learn to ride? ’Cause—Tat’s gonna need something to do with her time. And, you know, I’m happy to teach you, but… I bet she’d get a kick out of it.” Evan looks a little uncertain. “I could keep an eye on things.”

“Dude, Tat knows what she’s doing, and
she
just broke her collarbone.”

“Well, I’m not saying you should start off jumping. Save that for the second lesson, maybe.” Dan grins. “And you could learn on Smokey—he’s steady, and he’s got a western saddle, so you’d be pretty much welded to his back.”

“Hey, Dan?” Evan looks at him levelly. “Check your messages. Let’s get that straightened out, and then you can start trying to get me killed. All right?”

“Yeah. All right.” Dan grins. “But after… I can start trying to get you killed then?”

 

Evan nods resignedly. “Yeah, okay. Call.”

Dan does. He punches in the code and listens, walking outside and leaning against the wall. Evan follows him and stands waiting after Dan hangs up. Finally, he gets impatient. “So? Are we good?”

Dan looks up, and his face breaks into a grin. “Yeah, he said it looks good.”

Evan smiles back. “Well, all right, then. I’ll call my guys, tell them to get stuff signed. Is it cool if we put Tat’s name on it? You can have a meeting with her, like, once a year, and I’ll be there as her guardian. And it’ll be one more step removed from me being your boss, so that should make you happy.”

“Sure, yeah. And, hey, if you’ve got some extra money lying around—you were right, this might be a good time to buy some horses. And it’d be another thing for Tat to work on while she’s getting better.”

Evan grins at him and loops an arm around his neck, pulling him in tight. “I like the way you think, partner.” Dan smiles back and leans in just a little. It’s been a hell of a day, but he’ll take happiness where he can find it.

Chapter 3

It’s still only mid-afternoon, and as much as Dan would like to spend the rest of the day hanging out with Evan, he has got things to do. And if he’s being honest with himself, he has to admit that it might not be a great idea to spend a whole lot more time with Evan until they get the rules straightened out with Jeff.

Evan seems a bit oblivious to this strategy, though. He says that since he’s already home, there’s no point in going all the way back into town for just a couple hours. He spends about ten minutes on the phone with his executive assistant, dealing with whatever absolutely can’t be put off until the next day, and then rejoins Dan in the barn. “I don’t really know why I bother working; I could just get Sam to take over. She’s practically running the place now.”

“So why don’t you?” Dan has just brought Winston in from the paddock and puts him in the crossties. He heads off to get the horse’s grooming kit, but he walks backward so Evan knows he’s listening for the answer.

“Why don’t I get Sam to take over?” Evan sounds a bit confused.

“Well, not Sam, necessarily, but… yeah. I mean, you own the company, right? Couldn’t you just sit back and live off the profits? You can’t actually need the salary, can you?” Dan has the kit and returns, setting it on the ground next to Winston. Evan is standing by the horse’s head, tickling Winston’s nose.

“Uh, yeah, somebody else could do it. But I like to think that I can do it better… you know, I’m not just being arrogant, but… it’s my family’s company. Who’s going to care as much as I do how it works?”

Dan nods, but isn’t quite ready to let it go. “Yeah, but… who cares? I mean, you say that
I
don’t spend much money, but I bet I spend a way bigger percentage of my income than you do. If you just sold everything now, stuck the money in the bank at some crappy interest rate—you still couldn’t spend all the interest, could you?” He nudges Evan out of the way for a second, giving himself space to brush Winston’s face.

Evan shakes his head a little sheepishly. “No, probably not. But… I don’t know, it’s more than just money. It’s….” He frowns a little. “It’s something, but I can’t put it in words. Let me get back to you?”

Dan laughs a little. “Yeah, or you know—it’s not like it’s a big deal. I’m just curious. Trying to understand you better.”

 

Evan nods and smiles. “Yeah, okay.” He looks at the grooming kit. “Will it bug him if we both brush?”

“What, you’re gonna get your fancy clothes all dirty?” Evan has lost his jacket and tie along the way, but he’s still wearing dress pants and a crisp white shirt that really doesn’t look designed for manual labor.

“Dude, I can’t just sit here and watch you work. I feel like a slacker.”