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

But another hour or so and Kent will be up.


So Luke leaves my room, closing the door quietly behind himself,


and suddenly I’m alone again, almost cold. I huddle into blankets


that still smell like him and stare at his flower as I drift back


The daisy is the first thing I see when I


wake up a second time. The stem’s just beginning to droop in the


early morning light, and most of the water in the glass has


evaporated, no wonder the flower’s dying. I almost want to press


the petals between the pages of a book, or maybe in my folder full


of cowboy ads, anything to keep it. But I don’t need just the


flower: I have the boy who gave it to me, and he’ll give me a


hundred more if I only ask. As long as they’re not from Kent’s


garden,I think, smiling wryly at myself as I throw the covers


Luke’s shirt is still on my bedroom floor.


I’m tempted to pull it on, it’s mine and probably smells like him,


Chapter 55