Free Hard Sell by Kendall Morgan

Hard Sell
    Chapter One
    The road curved slightly to the left before it straightened out again, revealing a sign that read Stratford Acres . Every time Wes Mitchell saw that sign he smiled. This time was no different, and he turned his Hyundai Azera onto the gravel drive and followed it until the farmhouse, barn and outbuildings loomed into view. He parked next to a handful of other cars on a grassy area near the house. As he got out of his car, he could see coils of smoke emerging from the grills out back. He heard whoops of laughter and shouting. The Midsummer Sangria and Sausages Cookout was in full swing.
    Wes’ friends, Gary and Jeff, owned the farm and often held parties there. The cookout was a much-anticipated annual event. Wes, Gary and Jeff were Midwestern boys who had gone west—Gary and Jeff to San Francisco, Wes to Los Angeles—to live openly as gay men, but they had come home around the same time about fifteen years ago. They wanted to be with family and live a quieter life, while still being themselves as much as they could. Gary and Jeff, a longstanding couple, bought a farm from one of Jeff’s relatives on the outskirts of Urlack and had been raising Berkshire pigs for the last several years. Urlack, a small Midwestern city, may have lacked some of the amenities of San Francisco or Los Angeles, but it had enough for them.
    Wes walked around to the back and saw several guys who were regulars at Gary and Jeff’s parties. Jeff waved to him.
    “Hey, Wes! You got the sauce?” Jeff said.
    Wes took a jar out of his backpack and held it aloft. “Right here!”
    Wes was rightly proud of being one of the top real estate agents in the area, but it was his barbecue sauce that made his friends and family smile. Selling real estate paid the bills, but making barbecue sauces had recently become a passion that fed his creative side. He always brought a few jars with him to Gary and Jeff’s cookouts. Today, he brought one containing a white barbecue sauce. That’s what Jeff wanted to use to finish the chicken legs and homemade chicken sausages he was grilling. He also brought with him jars of sweet onion sauce, mustard sauce and a habanero-ghost chili pepper sauce. One of Wes’ friends described the latter as a fiery fiesta for your taste buds.
    After dropping off the sauce with Jeff, Wes headed to the buffet table set up on the patio. He loaded up his plate with a pulled pork sandwich, cole slaw and baked beans. He grabbed a beer from the cooler and scanned the crowd gathered in the backyard. Lately, maybe within the past year, whenever he came to one of Gary and Jeff’s parties, he had started to wonder—no, he was hoping he’d meet a really great guy. He’d been single, mostly by choice, for too long. The dating pool for gay men in Urlack was small, although there had been a few contenders. None of them had worked out. Maybe this time, he thought. He sat down at a picnic table next to a guy named Ben and caught of strong whiff of mosquito repellant that Ben had applied liberally. Ben was a new addition to their little clique that included Wes along with Gary and Jeff as well as a handful of other gay guys from in and around Urlack.
    Wes coughed dramatically. “Pretty heavy-handed there with the cologne, Ben.”
    “Oh, ha ha, such a comedian. I’ll be eaten alive out here if I don’t spray it on thick,” Ben said. “Welts from insect bites are not a good look for me.”
    “Well, if I weren’t immune to the dubious charms of mosquitoes I’d hope I could get some protection just by being in your vicinity.” Wes took a bite of the pulled pork sandwich. It was perfect. “My compliments to the chef!” He waved at Gary who was playing the good host, checking on his friends as they tucked in to the meal.
    “Thanks, man. I think it’s the best one I’ve ever done,” Gary said. He leaned down between Wes and Ben and whispered. “Sammy is especially succulent, don’t you think?”
    Wes chortled. He saw