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

It’s over in a few minutes—wiping my hand on


the sheets, I yank my pants back up before anyone can come in and


find me here, getting off where the boy slept. With angry hands I


strip the sheets from the couch, tear off the pillowcase, ball


everything up into embarrassed fists and storm down the hall to the


washer. His clothes are still in there, waiting to be dried—I shove


the sheets on top of them and run another load.


Then, while I’m thinking of it, I slip into


Kent’s darkened bedroom, strip his bed down too, holding my breath


so I won’t catch a whiff of the stale sweat and beer that rises


from his sheets like a swampy miasma. Jesus Christbut he


needs to bathe. Once I have his sheets in the washer, I open the


windows in his room just to air the place out. I’m glad I


don’tsleep with him—I’d suffocate in the night.


I put new sheets on his bed, and then on the


couch, because seeing the empty cushions reminds me of what I just


Chapter 27