Love Means Courage - Andrew Grey

moment she began to understand because her eyes began to water. “I never meant to hurt you, but I thought you understood that we were just friends.” Shit, shit, shit. This was not the place to do this, but he couldn’t let it go on any more. It would only hurt worse later.
    “I thought—” She wiped her eyes and took a deep breath. “It’s my own fault.” Her words said one thing, but the hurt look on her face told him quite another.
    “I didn’t mean to give you any indication that I was interested in anything beyond friendship, but if I did, I apologize.” Len didn’t know what else to say, and thankfully, Janelle didn’t press him. She just nodded softly and left the barn without another word. A few minutes later, Len heard her car start and then pull away.
    Len felt bad for her. It felt like this was his fault. Cliff had been right: he should have listened to him. He hoped she’d be able to get past this and they could return to being friends, but he wasn’t so sure. Resigning himself to the loss, he picked up his tools and went back to work. Randy returned for lunch, and they ate together. “You’ve been really quiet. I may as well be eating alone.”

    “Sorry, I’m just preoccupied today.” He couldn’t get Janelle off his mind. He’d hurt her, and even though it wasn’t intentional, he wasn’t happy about it, either.
    Randy finished his lunch and put his things away. “If we get some rain, we should be able to cut hay in the next week or so. We’ll need to find people to help. The hay needs to be cut and then left to dry for three days. Then it gets baled and loaded into the loft. It’s quite a production.”
“I helped load hay when I was a kid, but all I did was place the 140
Andrew Grey
    bales on the lift. I’ve never actually worked the rest of the process.” Randy smiled devilishly. “Since you did so good with planting, you can cut and turn the hay.”
    “I take it that is another of those jobs that requires hours in the tractor.”
“How’d you guess?”
    “You were too damn happy to have me do it.” Randy hated sitting in the tractor. He’d rather be doing things with his hands than spend days driving around fields. “Come on, we need to get back to work. And just because I like you, I’ll drive the tractor.” Randy slapped him on the back, smiling at him before leaving the barn.
    As the afternoon wore on, the heat and humidity continued to climb. Len had finished most of the heavy work earlier in the day, so he puttered around the barn, cleaning and making sure everything was organized before bringing in Thunder and Misty from their pastures and getting them ready for his ride with Cliff.
    “I REALLYlove this place.” The creek babbled softly as they rested on the blanket in what had become their place. The slight breeze rustled the leaves, and Len was resting on his back with Cliff next to him. Up to now, Len had been the aggressor when it came to sex, hell, when it came to anything in this relationship with Cliff. But he was hoping that if he were patient, Cliff would take the lead.
    “Me too. This clearing holds a lot of memories. I used to come here when I wanted to hide from Dad. Once, after I’d decided that his horse would look better blue and used Rit dye on him, I hid out here for hours until I thought he’d cooled down.” 141
    Love Means Courage
Len slid his hand along Cliff’s leg. “Did it work?”
    “Are you kidding? He tanned my hide but good. For a year, he brought everyone to see that horse just to show them what his crazy kid had done. I still have relatives who won’t let me live that down.”

    “How old were you?”

    Cliff got that look that told him something was coming. “I was twelve and really stupid.” Len waited. “But I got to ride the horse in the Fourth of July parade, though.”

    That did it. Len cracked up. “You’re kidding?”
    “No, it was the only year the town had a blue horse. I rode with a white horse on one side and a red horse on the other. We were very patriotic.” Len was about to laugh, but the urge left him as he felt a pair of lips against his neck. Arching his head back, he felt those lips travel toward his ear and then to his lips. Len returned the kiss ardently but kept his hands on the blanket.
    “You taste so good,” Cliff murmured. Len felt a hand slip beneath his T-shirt and slide up his belly, lightly stroking his skin. “I want you naked.”
    Len smiled against Cliff’s lips.