Free Stars & Stripes by Abigail Roux

Clancy with a goofy leer. “’Cause I can sure see myself in your pants.”
    Clancy rolled her eyes as she checked her weapon and stuffed it into her holster.
    Ty looked the guy up and down. “Buddy, you don’t have the sack to wear her pants.”
    “Damn straight,” Clancy said.
    Ty held his hand up and she gave him a high-five as she strolled away. Alston was laughing as Ty pulled a twenty out of his wallet. He handed it to the taxi driver through the window. “For the car wash.”
    “Lunch is on Grady!”
     

     
    Zane lay awake in bed, listening to the sounds of the house settling and staring at the darkened ceiling.
    He looked at his phone, sitting on the bedside table, then picked it up to check the time. Nearly three in the morning; there was no way he could call Ty and not wake him. And wanting to hear his lover’s voice was not a good enough reason to wake him.
    He scrolled through the photo roll, surprised at the homesickness that came over him as he looked at picture after picture of him and Ty. Most of them were taken from arm’s length, with Ty in his aviators and Zane smiling like someone who hadn’t been broken by life.
    Some were of Ty alone, photos that Zane had taken without Ty’s knowledge. Only one was of Ty without clothes. Maybe. And, of course, there was the photo Clancy had sent him this afternoon, with no explanation for why Ty was covered in condiments and looking like he’d just run a marathon. Zane had to laugh, though. He couldn’t wait to hear that story. They hadn’t worked today, so whatever had happened was merely a result of Ty’s unspeakable ability to attract weird things.
    Zane stopped flipping through the photos when he came across his absolute favorite. He and Ty had taken a weekend trip to Virginia Beach to celebrate Ty’s birthday on Memorial Day weekend. They’d been standing on the beach in front of their hotel, watching a thunderstorm roll in from the sea. Everyone else had scrambled inside, and while Zane had tried to convince Ty to go in as well, Ty had chosen to stay and watch. The sky had been an impressive velvet blue, with rays of sunshine punching through as the blackness encroached. The look on Ty’s face had been serene and somehow melancholy as he watched the storm whip up the tide and thrash against the shore in front of them.
    Zane had snapped the picture with his phone without Ty knowing, leaving the phone near his hip and capturing Ty from below. Ty had never caught on that Zane was watching him instead of the storm, so wrapped up in whatever it was about storms out on the ocean that seemed to fascinate Ty like they did.
    When the rain had hit the beach and Zane had turned to retreat to their room, Ty grabbed him instead and started a waltz in the downpour. When they finished the dance, people applauded from their balconies. It had been the first taste of what life with Ty might be like when they came out.
    It had also been one of the most romantic moments of his life. He would never be able to top Ty’s off-the-cuff romance with anything he planned ahead of time. He intended to spend the rest of his life trying, though.
    His heart twisted as he looked at the photo, and a bittersweet feeling settled in his chest. It was still sinking in that he had a family in West Virginia now, a family that knew he and Ty loved each other and accepted that for what it was.
    And now he was back in Texas with so much uncertainty swirling around him that it made him nauseous just to think of it. His mother’s constant badgering, his father injured and on the warpath, the possibility that whatever was happening on the ranch was just starting instead of ending . . .
    And on top of all of that, Zane couldn’t help imagining what it would be like to be able to bring Ty here and introduce him to his family as the love of his life.
    Before he knew what he was doing, he’d clicked back over to his favorite numbers, hit Ty’s picture, and pressed the call button.
    It took