Love Means No Shame - Andrew Grey

decided.” Geoff looked across the table, and he could swear on a stack of bibles that he saw Len smirk like he’d known it all the time.

    “Yes.” Geoff got up and carried his dishes to the sink. “I’m moving back here. This is home.”

    24

    Love Means … NO SHAME
    TWO weeks later, Geoff had loaded all his things into the back of a truck he’d brought from the farm. Thank God it hadn’t rained. His father’s funeral had gone well, with a lot of tears and even more reminiscing and wandering down memory lane. Geoff had indeed given the eulogy and found he’d reduced most of the people in the church to tears. Thankfully, he’d managed to stave off his own until he was done speaking. Then he’d taken his seat next to Len and cried on his shoulder.
    A few days later, he’d returned to Chicago to resign from his employment and empty out his apartment. Mr. Vain had been surprised and even hinted that he’d like to get together with Geoff again, but Geoff dismissed him offhand and spent the better part of the last two weeks turning his work over to others.
    Raine had been disappointed that Geoff was leaving, but he’d taken it in stride.
“You could always come with me,” Geoff said.
25
Andrew Grey
    Raine had scoffed, “What am I going to do on a farm?” Then they’d both laughed and arranged to go for a drink one last time before Geoff left town. They’d had a good friendship, and Geoff made Raine promise he’d come for a visit.
    The drive back to the farm was pleasant, and Geoff rode contentedly, the windows open and music on the radio. He arrived just before noon and pulled in the drive. The house was quiet with Len out working, so Geoff unloaded what he could, figuring they could get the rest later. When Len arrived, Geoff had lunch ready and waiting.
    “What are you doing the rest of the day?” Len quizzed as he sat down.

    “Unloading the truck and then working with the horses. I want to get that stall ready for Princess; she should be just about ready to foal, unless she did it while I was gone.”

    “Nope, she looks like she’ll be ready in the next few days. The boys and I’ll be in the west pasture riding fences. I want to move a hundred head in there.” They sat down and started eating. “How did it go with your job and this Raine?”

    “The job was easy enough, but Raine was much harder to leave. He’s the best friend I’ve had in a long time.” Geoff continued eating quickly; he had plenty to do and wanted to get it done.

    “Tonight I thought I’d look at the books, get familiar with them.” Before he left he’d learned that the farm employed three men full time and a few parttimers who helped with general chores, like cleaning stalls and bringing in hay.
    “Could you do that tomorrow? I have something I need to talk to you about tonight,” Len requested.
“Sure.” Geoff took his and Len’s dishes to the sink. “I’ll get those later.”
26
Love Means … NO SHAME
    Geoff went back outside to finish unloading the truck. Once he had everything inside, he drove the truck to the barn and got to work preparing the largest stall for the impending birth. Once he was done, he cleaned out a few other stalls, watered all the horses, and filled their mangers with hay and some oats. Joey arrived as he was finishing up and brought more hay from the loft and swept the barn floor.
    “Join us for dinner, Joey?”
“I can’t tonight. Mom’s planning a special dinner for my birthday.” He seemed so excited.
    “Then get home and start celebrating!” Geoff scooted him out of the barn and watched as he ran to his bike and took off home. Len and the men were all heading toward the house, and Geoff wondered what was going on until he remembered it was Friday, the night of Len’s weekly poker game.
    The weekly poker game had been a tradition on the farm…
forever. Geoff could remember as a kid sitting next to Len, watching him play, learning from him the entire time.
“Geoffy… you gonna come and get your ass whupped at cards?” one of the men called out.
    “I’ll be in soon!” he called back, smiling. Fred had always called him Geoffy—he was the only person on Earth who got away with it. It was nice to be home. The city had been fun, but these people cared about him, had known him most of his life.
    But things were different now. Before, his dad had been the boss. He was the one making the tough decisions, and Geoff hadn’t really been involved and hadn’t had to