“Then what's the real problem?”
“Mom wants me to bring my boyfriend, and I'm just not sure if we’re at that stage yet.”
“The unnamed boyfriend? It's been months, Lan. I think at this point, you could at least give us that much. Assuming there is a boyfriend of course.”
“Of course there is. What kind of sad sack makes up a boyfriend?” I asked, trying to sound offended when, in reality, I was that sad sack. I didn't mean to make up a boyfriend. It just kind of happened. My mother was harassing me to move home, and I was trying to explain why I didn't want to when she jumped to the conclusion that I must have found someone special. And I just kind of let her make that leap.
Carol Anne Nichols was a wonderful mother, but she was old-fashioned in a bizarrely progressive way. She had no problem with my being gay. She actually was a bit of a mother bear about it when I was growing up, which is why I tried not to tell her how horrible school was for me. She would have moved heaven and earth to try to make things better, but the simple fact was, people were assholes, and having your mother show up to defend your honor wouldn't have helped my situation. She taught women's studies at the local college and was very much a supporter of equal rights. She’d also been married to my father for thirty years and believed the path to happiness was paved with true love. In her mind, nothing else would explain why I would want to stay in Texas instead of going back to Oklahoma.
“Well then, bring him with you and get your ass home for Thanksgiving,” he insisted, and I let out an audible sigh. “Landon, I know you don't like it here, and unlike Mom, I'm not asking you to move back. I'm just telling you that Mom loves you and misses you, and it would mean a lot to her if you came, and it's going to hurt her feelings if you don't.”
“You sound like Mamaw,” I said. Our grandmother was the queen of guilt trips, and Chad sounded just like her.
“I was trying,” he said, laughing. “She's the next call you'll get if me begging doesn't work.”
“Lord, no. I'll be there.”
“Okay, and, Lan, try to bring the boyfriend, but if for some reason you can't, still come.” I could tell by the tone of his voice he didn't think there was a boyfriend. Not that I blamed him when I refused to give them a name. I said it was because it was new and I didn't want them googling him and trying to dig up dirt on him—which was something my mother would do, by the way—and that I would give them all the details when I was ready. Truth was, I'd never been a good liar and somehow in my mind giving him a name went beyond letting my mother think he existed and straight into liar, liar pants on fire territory.
“I said I'll be there, okay? I really have to go. I need to get this horse loaded and get on the road.”
“Okay, love ya, brother.”
“Love you, too.” Then I hung up the phone.
I picked it up, stuck it in my pocket, and turned to find Miller Monroe leaning against the open door of the barn. Damn, he looked good, but he always did. Problem was, he knew it.
“How long have you been standing there?” I asked.
“Long enough.” He stood and walked over to where I was. “So…a boyfriend?” He raised one eyebrow. “I don't remember a boyfriend when you were hanging all over that big biker guy at The Watering Hole the other night.”
“Look, my mother thinks I have a boyfriend, okay? And I let her think that because it makes her feel better about me being so far away. It's no big deal.”
“Well, it sounded like this boyfriend is expected to show up at your family's house for Thanksgiving. That sounds like a big deal to me.”
“I don't know what to do,” I admitted. “It seemed harmless enough to let her think I had someone here at the time. She liked the idea that I had someone looking out for me. Do you know how hard it is to convince your mother you're perfectly capable of taking care of yourself?”
“So just tell her you broke up. People break up all the time.”
“I figured I would just say he wasn't able to get off work. Of course, I guess that means I’m going to have to make up a job for him, and then a name, and then they’re going to ask me a bunch of questions about him. Well, shit.”
“You told them you had a boyfriend but didn't tell them anything about him?”
“I told you, I didn't tell them I had a boyfriend. My mother assumed I had a boyfriend, and then she told everyone else. I just didn't correct her.”
3
Miller
I knew I shouldn't have eavesdropped. Reed was busy helping Ripley with something in the house and asked me to see if Landon needed any help getting loaded up. But when I realized he was on the phone, the nice thing to do would have been to give him some privacy, or at least to let him know I was there, but nobody ever accused me of being nice. Truth was, Landon intrigued me. He had ever since he first turned up at the Bluebird Ranch.
We'd almost hooked up once about a year ago, not too long after he moved here. Cap and his jerk of an ex had agreed to give him a ride home, but in the end, I took him. He was attractive, and I was tempted, but Landon Nichols had forever written all over him, and I hadn't been in the market for anything serious. He’d been flirty and adorable. But there was no way it would have ended well, so I dropped him off at the ranch and went home alone.
I’d regretted that decision on more than one occasion. He hadn't flirted with me again, either because he thought I wasn't interested or because he'd been around long enough to hear what a bad bet I was if he wanted more than a fuck.
“Why don't you have a boyfriend?” I asked without thinking. Not that it was my business; it wasn't. But that was the first thing that popped into my head. He was gorgeous, built, kind, and he had these beautiful blue eyes that felt like they saw way too much. I didn't understand why he was single.
“I don't know. Why don't you?” he asked.
“Because I don't want one.”
“Same here,” he huffed.
“I hope you do a better job of lying to your family than you do to me.”
“Look, I'll figure something out. Most likely, I'll just cave and tell the truth. Then my mother will be all hurt and beg me to move back to Oklahoma like she normally does.” I was pretty sure I was missing a big piece of the puzzle here, like why him not having a boyfriend had anything to do with him moving back to Oklahoma, but I didn't like seeing him so distressed.
“I could go with you,” my mouth said before my brain had time to process what it was saying.
“You what?”
I thought about it for a second. Actually, it wasn't the worst idea. I didn't really want to spend the holiday with my father's family. They harassed me constantly about when I was going to grow up and take life seriously. Apparently, running a successful business wasn't enough for them. The holiday get-togethers on my mother's side weren't any better. They'd turned into a circus ever since my grandfather married Elsa Morton. It was already crazy, but Elsa had turned it into an event instead of a family thing, and I wasn't interested in going.