Free Outlast the Night by Ariel Tachna Page B

dinner.

Chapter 7

     
    B Y THE time they’d finished lunch, Jeremy was glad they’d decided not to stay in town overnight. If he had to answer one more question about what had happened with Devlin and why he was living at Lang Downs now, he thought he might hit someone.
    “The curse of small towns,” he muttered as they paid for their meal.
    “I don’t know,” Sam said, following Jeremy out of the restaurant. “People know you here. If you were in trouble, you’d have help.”
    “That’s probably true,” Jeremy agreed, although he suspected a revelation of his sexuality would impact who and how many would help. Macklin hadn’t been completely ostracized, but Jeremy had heard enough disapproving whispers to know some people would turn him away. “But it also means no privacy and no personal boundaries a lot of the time.”
    They reached the ute and started loading the supplies Paul had gathered for them on the loading dock of the store. By the time they were done, Jeremy had worked up enough of a sweat to roll up his sleeves. He considered taking off his work shirt and driving home in just his T-shirt, but he’d cool off soon enough and wish he’d left it on. “You ready to go?”
    Sam nodded mutely, the first time all day he hadn’t had a ready answer when Jeremy spoke to him, but Jeremy didn’t push. They’d gotten up early and had a busy day, and it was only midafternoon. They had a four-hour drive ahead of them still, possibly more if the clouds that had gathered let loose the threatened storm. Jeremy might cut directly across the paddocks rather than sticking to the roads if the weather was clear, but he wasn’t going to risk getting mired on Taylor Peak. He didn’t want to have another run-in with Devlin, especially with Sam in tow. Sam didn’t deserve to get caught up in the middle of their family dispute.
    They headed west out of town back toward the tablelands and the station. A couple of times, Jeremy thought he caught Sam staring at his forearms where the sleeves were still rolled up, but he couldn’t be sure, and he didn’t want to disturb the easy camaraderie between them by asking. He’d had guys in Sydney or Melbourne fawn over his arms before, but he’d never thought they were anything special, just the product of a lifetime of work on a sheep station, no different than any of the other stockmen around him. Sam wasn’t a stockman, though. Of course he also shouldn’t have been interested in Jeremy’s arms, not unless there was more to the business with the ex-wife than Sam had said.
    Jeremy wouldn’t blame him for not mentioning it if there was. He hadn’t exactly been forthcoming about his own secrets, so he couldn’t expect Sam to be any different, if in fact that was what was going on. Or maybe Sam was just staring blindly into space and the most comfortable position for his head happened to be with his eyes in the direction of Jeremy’s arms. Jeremy figured that was about as likely as someone like Sam being interested in a stockman from the tablelands.
    “It looks like we’re in for a storm,” Sam said about the time they reached the turn-off for Taylor Peak and Lang Downs.
    “Yeah. Let’s get through the gate, and then we’d better lash down the tarp over the supplies. If Caine’s order is anything like Devlin’s, none of it needs to get wet,” Jeremy said.
    Sam nodded and hopped out to open the gate. Jeremy drove through and parked. He met Sam at the back of the ute and wrestled with the huge tarp. “Before we put this on, you might want to get your Driza-Bone,” Jeremy said. “If it starts raining, you’ll be glad for it when we get to the gates.”
    Sam grabbed his coat from the package of his supplies, and then together they got the flatbed of the ute covered and the tarp lashed into place. The wind picked up while they worked, enough to make Jeremy glad of the extra pair of hands. He could have managed on his own, but having Sam’s help made it faster