Marcus was just passing through Texas when he met Kent. In his cowboy hat, low-riding jeans, and black boots, Kent looks like the type of guy Marcus desperately wants to love.<br><br>But two years later, he's discovered Kent is cold and distant, the quintessential American cowboy, and spends more time drunk than sober. Marcus can never predict his mood and blames himself for the flailing relationship.<br><br>Then, one day when Kent rides into town, Marcus finds a young runaway hiding in their barn. Luke is warm, loving, and quick to please ... everything Kent is not. Though the answer seems obvious, Marcus finds himself torn between the boy who demands his love and the man whose love he craves.

Cowboy

He reached down to get it out from under his feet, that’s something


he would do while driving, veered over the line and almost hit an


oncoming car, a policeman of all people. Looked up in time to see


the lights and pulled hard to the right, off the road and into a


ditch. “He’s fine,” Officer Schultz assures me again, am I crying


here? I don’t know. “But he’s pretty shaken up and has a blood


alcohol level of almost twice the legal limit.” She stops, waiting


“He’s okay,” I whisper, and Luke rests


his head against my back, his arms tightening around my waist.


sounding like one of those cops on TV, book him.“He passed


out the minute we got him in a cell.” A cell, Jesus.


Arrested. I wonder how many drinks he had before he thought he


could try to make it home. My fear is slowly turning to anger, what


the fuckwas he thinking? That he’d sober up on the drive


Chapter 22