Kate Sherwood - Dark Horse 02 - Out of the Darkness (7 page)

“An assignment?” Dan doesn’t really think he’s the one to be teaching anybody anything. Not from books, at least.

“Well, the books alone are lovely, and they’ll keep her still as long as she’s hurting.” Tia sets the books on the table and bustles around the kitchen as she talks. “But I think it might be best if she stays still a little longer than that, gives herself a chance to really heal. And I don’t think Evan or I will have much luck convincing her to do that, but you….” She laughs a little. “Well,
you
could probably just tell her to sit still and she’d stop breathing until you told her differently. But it might be a bit more pleasant for her if she felt like there was a purpose to it.”

“A purpose.” Dan is totally out of his depth. He can see Tia’s point, but he has no idea how to make up an assignment. He wishes he’d just left the damn books by the front door. They would have figured out who they were for. “Like….” He grabs the first book.
Equine L ameness
. An assignment? Okay, yeah, maybe…. “Like, I could describe some symptoms, and she could diagnose the problem?”

Tia looks up excitedly. “Yes, that would be excellent! Could you do that?”

 

“Uh, yeah, I guess.”

“Let me just get you a pen and paper….” Tia scurries over to a little desk in the corner and finds a pad of paper and a pen. Then she catches herself. “Do you have time now?”

“Uh, sure, yeah.” He sits down at the table and starts writing. He leaves a sheet of paper in each of the books, some with questions or projects, others just with suggested chapters or points about which horses to think about while reading. He barely notices when Tia brings him a cup of coffee, and he’s literally halfway through a bagel covered in cream cheese before he realizes he’s eating. He’s got a couple of books for which he can only say, “Read the whole thing—it’s excellent,” but for most of them he’s able to give some pretty concrete tips on how Tat should focus in. It’s kind of fun, really.

When he’s done, he replaces the books in the bag and returns the pad and pen to the desk. Tia smiles at him. “Thank you. I think that will really help.”

“Well, I broke her, I guess I can help fix her.”

 

Tia raises her eyebrows at him. “Oh, you control gravity now? I had no idea I had such a powerful man in my kitchen!”

There’s a shuffling sound in the doorway. “I had no idea you had
any
man in your kitchen, Tia. Are you giving away my breakfast?” They turn to see a groggy-looking Blaine, still in sleep pants and a Tshirt.

“Early birds get the worms, Blaine,” Tia responds. The two are obviously comfortable with each other, but that makes sense if Blaine is Evan’s best friend. What doesn’t make sense is that Dan’s never heard about him before now.

Blaine smiles at Tia, but his eyes sharpen a bit when he turns to Dan. “Hey. I’m glad you’re here—it saves me a trip to the barn.”

Dan tries to look like he cares about saving Blaine’s time. “Yeah? What’s up?” He prays it’s not going to be a request for a trail ride or something. Some people have trouble understanding the difference between a calm pleasure horse and a high-spirited eventer.

Blaine glances over at Tia, then back at Dan. “Come outside with me for a second, all right?” He’s already on his way to the French doors. Dan’s tempted to figure out an excuse to stay, but he tells himself to stop being contrary. He was on his way out anyhow.

“Thanks for the coffee and bagel, Tia,” he says, and she just waves him away. He goes outside and sees Blaine standing by the railing, looking off over the pool toward the distant ocean. Dan goes and stands near him. “So, what’s up?”

Blaine doesn’t turn around. “I went looking for Jeff last night. We were being a bit obnoxious, and he took the dog for a walk, and I went after him to apologize. Bring him back.”

Dan wonders just how obnoxious they were being and why Evan hadn’t been the one to go. But he doesn’t know why Blaine’s telling him any of this. “Okay….”

“But when I found him, he was already talking to somebody. Well”—Blaine drags it out, makes it clear that he’s making a point— “he wasn’t really doing that much talking.”

Oh. But still, why does Dan need to explain himself to this clown? “Okay….”

“Okay? That’s what you have to say?” Blaine sounds pretty pissed off. “Do you really think it’s a good idea to be fucking around with your boss’s boyfriend?”

“Thanks for your concern, man, I’m touched.”
“Fuck you. Does Evan know?”

Dan’s tempted to walk away, but he forces himself to see the situation from Blaine’s perspective. The guy’s trying to be a good friend. “You should ask Evan.”

“I should….” Blaine seems a bit taken aback. “Seriously? What, you
want
to get caught? Do you think Evan’s gonna dump Jeff over some fling with a slutty stable boy? ’Cause it’s not going to happen, man. I don’t know what game you’re playing, and I don’t know why the hell Jeff’s going along with it—” Blaine pauses and looks Dan up and down with a sneer on his face. “Well, okay, I know why he’s going along with it; I just thought he had better sense than that.”

That’s nice. A lovely way to start the day. “Dude, seriously. Talk to Evan or talk to Jeff if you want. I’ve got nothing to say about any of it. Not to you.”

“Not to me? What the hell does that mean?”

“What do you think it means? I don’t know you from a hole in the ground; I get that you’re trying to look out for your boy, but you’re talking to the wrong guy. I don’t owe you any explanations.”

“I’m just trying to give you a chance to keep things from getting messy.” Blaine sounds a little less sure of himself than he had been. “And I’m touched by your kindness. But, seriously, I don’t have anything to say. Talk to Jeff or Evan.”

 

Blaine stares at him for a second, and then wags a finger. “Don’t think I won’t.”

 

Dan returns the gesture mockingly. “Don’t think I care.” And he turns and heads down the stairs off the deck.

He’s about halfway to the end of the house when he hears a voice calling his name from the deck. He half turns and sees that Blaine has been joined by one of the girls and a shirtless Evan. Evan sees Dan turn and waves his arm, beckoning him back. But there’s no way on earth Dan is going to stand there and chat with Evan while Blaine stares at them. He taps his watch, indicating that he has no time, and calls back, “I’ll see you tonight.”

Evan looks like he’s thinking about coming after Dan, but then Blaine says something to distract him, and Dan is able to continue on to the barn. Robyn and Michelle are already riding, and he feels a bit guilty about his late start until he remembers what time he’d gone home the night before.

He sets up some jumps and takes Monty out. One of the challenges of training eventers is that the horses can get confused about the different styles of jumping that are required to complete a crosscountry course and a stadium-jumping course, and Monty’s been getting a bit reckless with his stadium jumping lately, apparently deciding that if the jumps collapse anyways, it’s okay for him to be sloppy with his hind feet. It’s a bad habit but it isn’t fully formed yet, and Dan needs to get to it before it is. They work together for a while, and if Monty hasn’t gotten any better by the end of it, at least he hasn’t gotten any worse. Some days that’s all a trainer can ask for.

Dan’s just walking him around the ring, cooling him off, when Evan’s car pulls to a stop on the driveway next to the fence. Evan’s the only one in it, Dan notes with relief, and he walks the horse over to say hi.

“Hey, man….” Evan is already talking as he climbs out of the car. “Blaine was being a bit cryptic about something this morning. There were other people around, so I didn’t drag it out of him, but… was he okay with you on the deck?”

Dan laughs a little. “He’s a pretty protective guy, huh?” Evan groans and covers his eyes with one hand. “Jesus, what did he do?”

“Nah, you can’t really blame him. He saw me and Jeff kissing last night, and he wasn’t impressed. Apparently I’m the slutty stable boy who’s here to steal your man.” Dan grins a little. With a bit of distance, he can see the humor. “At least I wasn’t the gold-digging whore trying to get my claws into your money.”

Evan looks mortified. “Shit, man, I’m sorry. Jeff said he ran into you, but he didn’t mention that Blaine was there. Wait… why the hell were you making out in front of Blaine?”

“Dude, he was lurking. Obviously we didn’t know he was there.” “Yeah, shit, okay. Jesus… was he a total ass about it?”

“Uh, from his perspective, I’m sure he’s a fucking hero. From mine… a bit obnoxious, maybe.”

 

“Yeah, that’s a pretty good description of Blaine in general, really. I’ll talk to him, get him to back off.”

Dan smirks a little. “Don’t worry about it, Evan. Seriously, I don’t give a good goddamn what he thinks, and it was kinda fun watching him get all worked up. So, if you wouldn’t have told him anyways, don’t bother doing it on my account.” Then something occurs to him. “Might want to warn Jeff, though. Blaine seemed pretty disappointed about his taste in pretty-boys.”

Evan winces and shakes his head. “I just left them at the house together. Jeff has about a two-hour tolerance for Blaine at the best of times.” He pulls his phone out. “I’d better call. You’re sure you’re cool?”

“Evan, I’ve been called a slut by better men than him.” Dan knows that’s not exactly what Evan needs to hear, but it’s fun to say. “Better women too.”

“Damn, you’re in a good mood. Maybe I’ll get Blaine to stick around, be an insulting asshole on a regular basis.”

 

Dan grins, and then gestures to Monty. “I’ve got to keep him moving. I’ll see you tonight though, yeah?”

 

Evan nods, and is dialing his phone as he climbs into the car.

Dan finishes the day with no further interruptions except for an excited phone call from Tat, thanking him for the books. He heads home at a reasonable hour and cleans up, then spends a long time staring at the meager contents of his closet. He talks to Justin’s photo a bit, too, but it’s a lot lighter than usual. Dan tells him about Blaine, and both Justin and Puppet-Chris agree that the guy’s a bit of a douche, and then Dan tells them about the art show, and how he’s going to be totally uncomfortable but really kind of wants to go anyways. Most of the conversation is just in his head, but occasional interjections are spoken out loud. Dan thinks it’s somewhere between quirky and weird, but probably not all the way to crazy. He hopes. At least talking to Justin’s photo makes sense in that it’s as close to talking to the real Justin as Dan can get. Having a conversation with an imaginary friend who just happens to be a puppet who looks like Dan’s actual best friend—that’s a bit harder to justify. It’s just Dan’s bad luck that the puppet is such a good listener and gives such good advice. If he wasn’t so useful, he’d be easier to give up.

Dan pulls out the green shirt that Justin had given him and looks at it consideringly. He’s got dark gray dress pants; maybe those and the shirt….

His phone rings about seven o’clock, and he sees that it’s Evan calling. Probably checking whether he’s backing out. Dan’s happy that he’s already dressed and ready, so he’s got evidence of his commitment to the event. But it turns out that Evan has something else on his mind.

“So, I tried to talk to Blaine a bit, and he was a total ass about it,” Evan begins. “And Jeff thinks it’s funny, and you seemed to think it was funny this morning… so do you mind if we just let it ride? I mean, he’s a big talker, but he’s not going to take a swing at you or anything, so it should all be pretty harmless.”

Dan snorts. “You guys are weird friends.”

 

“Yeah, we used to be a lot closer. He’s just ridiculously loyal, you know? We’ve really got nothing in common anymore, but….” “Dude, you’ve got to stop feeding him. I know it’s hard, but it’s only fair—he needs to find a full-time owner.”

“Nah, he’s not that bad, really. I mean, he’s got a good heart, and he tries. He just really doesn’t understand how my life has changed, you know?”

“He doesn’t understand your sudden interest in starting up a threesome with a slutty stable boy?”

 

“Jesus, man,” Dan can almost hear Evan’s wince. “That’s what you said earlier. Did he use those actual words?”

 

“I don’t know, something pretty close. Or maybe those exactly....” “I don’t know if you should be more insulted about the ‘slut’ part or the ‘stable boy’ part.”

Dan just laughs. “Dude, I’ve been each of them at some points in the past, and I’ve been both together sometimes too. He’s not wrong about the character, just the timing.”

Evan doesn’t speak for a couple beats. “Well, then, I guess neither one is really that much of an insult. I’ve been a slutty party boy….”

“Cocktease bar boy….”
“Pretty-boy college kid….”
“Twink cabana boy….”

There’s a pause, and then Evan says, “An honest-to-God cabana boy? Like, with a tan and tight shorts and everything?”

 

“Not much of a tan, really. But the shorts, for sure.”

 

“Jesus, that’s hot.” Evan sounds like he’s ready to drag Dan off to a beach right now. “Do you still have the shorts?”

 

“Fuck no! I was just a kid. Only did it for a couple months.”

“Shit, and I missed it. Someday, you and me are gonna have to have a talk, figure out just how many of my sexual fantasies you’ve actually already fulfilled.”

“Dude, someday you and me and Jeff are gonna have to have a talk, figure out just when I’m allowed to start working on the fantasies you’ve still got outstanding.”

“Okay, and that brings us to the second reason for my call!” Evan sounds excited. “Can you stick around after the show tonight? We can go to Jeff’s….”

“What about your guests? Won’t they miss you?”

 

“Nah, I already told them tonight was all about Jeff. They know what a big deal it is for him.”

 

“Okay, and I guess that’s question number two. Are you sure you guys don’t want to celebrate alone? I mean, I don’t want to intrude.”

“Dude, a big emotional talk and then hot sex…. The first one is Jeff’s perfect night, the second one is mine. Put them together, and we’re both happy as damn clams. We absolutely want you there. Jeff was the one who suggested it.”

“Well, yeah, okay, then. So if I come by the gallery a bit later? Like, ten, maybe?”