“Well, you be good to him, then.”
Levi blinked. “I—what? Of course I’m good to him. He’s a terrific friend.”
Hugo snickered and leaned in closer. “Dude, anyone with eyeballs can see how you two look at each other. There’s no sense in pretending.”
Oh great.
“Please, don’t gossip about it,” Levi whispered. “George is an intensely private person and gossip will make him hugely uncomfortable.”
Hugo mimicked locking his lips with a key. “And if you don’t want others to gossip, maybe stop making moon eyes at him when he isn’t looking.”
“Duly noted, and I thank you for your discretion.”
“No problem. I mean, you never spread my stuff around, so I won’t spread your stuff around.” During their single date, Hugo had told Levi a bit about his past, including the tidbit that he had—by some epic twist of fate—grown up in Texas one town over from fellow ranch horseman Colt Woods and gone to school with his younger brothers. Colt had disappeared while Hugo was just a kid, so he’d never recognized Hugo, and Hugo wanted to leave it that way.
He’d left a lot of hurt behind in his old hometown. Levi could definitely empathize with needing to get away from your past. Levi just wished he’d gotten away from his own in a less painful, self-destructive manner.
Reyes added a log to the fire. “Hugo, I’ll take the first watch if you want to get some sleep.”
“Cool. Night, Levi.”
“Night,” Levi said with a grin.
Reyes replaced Hugo on the log, and they sat in silence for a while. Not even the brightness of the fire could dim the beauty of the stars. “They make you feel very, very small, don’t they?” Levi asked. “The stars.”
“Yes, they do. When Miles and I go camping, just the two of us, we’ll lay on a blanket and watch them for hours.”
“I do that at home sometimes, just to hear them whisper.” Robin always said the land whispered to him in the darkest hours of dawn. He used to sit on his porch for hours whittling before he’d gotten a handle on his insomnia. Levi had always believed nature spoke to you if you knew how to listen.
“Can’t say that I’ve heard the stars whisper,” Reyes said, “but this land does sometimes feel magical. It gave me my husband, and I can’t imagine how lonely my life would be without Miles in it. He’s everything to me.”
That Reyes was being this open with him surprised Levi a little. They were friendly but not what Levi would consider friends. “Thank you for sharin’ your truth with me, Reyes. Sincerely. I can only hope to have that sort of love in my life one day.”
“If you do find it, hold on tight with both hands. And be as honest with them as you can. I kept something bad in my past from Miles, and I almost lost him. I thank God every day that he forgave me.”
Levi glanced at the tent, uncertain how George would react to certain parts of the year he’d spent drunk, high and eventually homeless. “I’m glad he did. I don’t think I’ve ever seen two more in-synch people than you and Miles. Except maybe Robin and Shawn, but I also spend a lot of time with them at the ghost town.”
“True.”
They stared at the fire for a while longer. The other campers had all retired and the night was silent, save the crackling of wood as it worked to keep them warm. The tree had sacrificed its branches to the earth, and tomorrow those ashes would be buried back in the very ground that birthed it. The circle of life.
Eventually, Levi’s eyes drooped and he could no longer ignore the siren’s call of sleep. Tents and sleeping bags weren’t the most comfortable things on earth but it beat the bench seat of a rusty, abandoned pickup truck in the freezing rain with only a ripped tarp to cover himself. The tent itself was sort of warm, probably from George’s body heat, and George’s soft, steady snore was a very comforting sound.
As quietly as he could, Levi shucked his boots and slid into his sleeping bag. Zipped it up about halfway and used his jacket to bulk up the small, attached pillow. Tired though he was after a long day of riding in the winter sunshine, Levi lay awake for a long time, listening to George breathe.
* * *
George woke to the sound of voices outside his tent, and it took him a few seconds to remember why he was so stiff and sleeping in a tent at all. The camping trip. He blinked his tentmate’s face into focus. Levi slept facing him, a wave of dark hair fanning over his forehead. Peaceful. He’d never woken up in bed with another guy before, and while this wasn’t technically a bed, they were maybe a foot apart.
Close enough.
Yesterday had been both a joyous and stressful day for George. Joyous for all the new experiences of trail riding, looking at the stars with Levi, and simply being around a crowd of people again for the first time in years. And stressful for all the same reasons. He’d tried hard not to use his safe word with Levi, and being able to separate themselves from the group during the card playing had helped immensely. It had also left George aroused and with a desperate need to kiss Levi again.
They’d both refrained, and George had managed to fall asleep. But just observing Levi’s sleeping face sent blood where he didn’t need it. He did have to pee, though, so he quietly untangled from his almost-too-hot sleeping bag, put his sneakers and jacket on, and braved the chilly morning.
Hugo was stoking the fire with small branches, waking the embers up into a full roar again. With the Harrison family the only others moving around yet, George took advantage of the watering hole to relieve himself. The sun was still low on the horizon, rising slowly over the rolling landscape, and George took a few pictures of the gorgeous shades of pinks, reds and oranges that swiftly brightened to brilliant blue.
Over a filling breakfast of biscuits and gravy and coffee, Reyes informed them they’d be leaving the wagon behind and riding up to a summit, before the long trail ride home. After hearing the stories of Slater’s heroic rescue, George was eager to see this summit in person. Levi seemed a bit standoffish during the meal, sitting with a lot of room between them and barely speaking.
Odd but George was in too good a mood to read anything into it.
Reyes unhooked his horse from the wagon and actually rode her bareback. Their group rode for a few miles before stopping near the edge of a cliff that overlooked a vast green valley. The view was beyond breathtaking, and George kind of wanted to cry for how lovely the land was. Down in the valley full of plants and another creek was a small herd of deer all grazing together. He took as many photos as he possibly could while keeping a safe distance from the edge. Even Levi seemed in awe, if his wide-eyed, slack-jawed expression was anything to judge by.
“I remember my first time here,” Miles said to George, coming up on his left. “I couldn’t believe it either. That I’d ever see something so pretty in person.”