Running Wild

harsh. “My grandfather died on my watch. While I was out being horse.”
Seamus’s face softened. “Oh, babe.” He came around and gave Ri another of those hugs, and Ri realized that both times he hadn’t jumped. In fact this time, he wrapped an arm across Seamus’s. “You couldn’t have saved your grandfather. It was sudden and it was over.”
Ri looked straight ahead. “I should have been here.”
“Even if you’d been human, you could have been out running errands, doing chores. I know you wouldn’t have been gone for days, but there’s no guarantee someone else would have saved him.”
“I wish he hadn’t been alone.”
Seamus squeezed him tighter. “I understand that. But he had you around near the end, when it mattered. You looked after him the last couple years, so much so that he dismissed me.”
Ri turned. “He really liked you, Seamus.”
“I know. I know he didn’t want to answer questions about you. I’m fine with all that. I’m saying you did your best, you took care of your grandfather, like he took care of you. Try not to have too many regrets, okay?”
“It’s hard.”
Seamus kissed his temple then straightened, ruffling his hair. “Okay, I need to finish this painting before the sun sets. When you’re done eating, why don’t you come out to the barn?”
    Not only did Ri come out to the barn—dressed, Seamus noted rather disappointedly—but he helped Seamus paint the last side. As they cleaned up with turpentine, which had Ri gagging, benefit of an excellent shifter sense of smell no doubt, they showered together between kisses and hand jobs.
    Just like that Ri looked completely worn out. Seamus frowned. “Is it always like this?”
“Like what?” Ri collapsed onto the bed.
“You’re so tired. Is that from the shifting?”
One corner of Ri’s mouth lifted. “Sex makes me sleepy.”
“Do we need to space it out better?”
He laughed. “It’s everything. Going to the city. Meeting other shifters.” His
    eyes clouded a bit at that, then cleared as he added, “You.”
“To be honest, I’m tired too.” The sun was setting, but the days were long in
the summer and it was after nine.
“So it’s not too strange?”
Seamus settled behind Ri on the single bed. They’d need to do something
about the sleeping accommodations in the house—like buy a double bed. “No.
Even if I weren’t tired, it wouldn’t be strange .” He nuzzled Ri’s nape, and Ri let
out a full-body sigh. “I’m just trying to figure out how much the shifting takes
out of you.”
Too much, Ri couldn’t help but think, but he didn’t voice his sometimesenvy of humans, who didn’t eat so much and didn’t deal with shifter urges. “Ri?”
“Yeah?”
“Have you thought more about the farm? Thing is, I have to go back to work
in less than two weeks. But I could come out on weekends. Together we could
work and build something here.” Maybe next year, he could go down to four
days a week at the lab, but one thing at time. He didn’t want to get ahead of
himself or overwhelm Ri. They hadn’t even had a relationship conversation yet. Ri was silent.
“Say you know I’m coming out on the weekend. Can you time your runs
before or after my visit?”
Ri huffed a laugh. “Pretty much, yes. Unless something weird happened.” “What constitutes weird?”
“Hard to say. Shifter visits. Or maybe anyone visiting.”
“My parents? They’ll come once in a while, but I’ll try to manage them.” “They’re okay. They like you.”
“Yeah, they like me. They’ll like you once they get to know you.” Ri let out a quiet sigh. “We’ll see.”
Behind him Seamus kissed his shoulder in reassurance, then pulled Ri closer
to him. “You will see. But for now, sleep.”
    They settled into a wonderful routine then. Routine, Ri thought, besotted with the word. Yes, he’d had a routine with Grandfather near the end, but that had been infused with a terrible sadness. This was different. Seamus wasn’t dependent on Ri, and Ri couldn’t let him down the way he’d let down his grandfather. They just wanted to be together, working on the barn, working on the garden, going through old things in the house that needed to be thrown away.
    Seamus had been concerned that Ri would find the last chore painful, but he’d never been one for objects.
They also had lots of sex. Ri had never had so much sex in his life. And the wonderful thing about it was, he didn’t mess it up or put Seamus off. It just kept