Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 77980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
“Hey, man. How’s it going?” Holden asked.
“Good and you?” They walked together toward the porch of the house.
“Good. Tired. Had a long day at work. Roe’s going to be at the store late, so I’m just grabbing the boys before I head home. What’s Clint up to?”
August froze, unsure why Holden asked him that as if he magically knew something had changed between them today.
Holden laughed. “Okay, sensitive question, I see. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Oh, I just… It’s just… I’m just…” He was losing his mind was what he was doing. He wasn’t going to be good at this whole secret thing.
“Your smile tells me everything I need to know. Don’t worry. I know how to keep my mouth shut. It’s hard when kids are involved.”
Holden would know, wouldn’t he? When he and Roe had gotten together, Roe had Wyatt, and though Sean was Holden’s nephew, there were likely some feelings there to navigate too.
“It’s not a big thing,” August replied, even though it was. But he and Clint hadn’t talked about telling other people about them, so he didn’t want to corner Clint on defining them.
“That’s what me and Roe said. Probably Grady and Deke too.” He clapped a hand on August’s shoulder just as three teenage boys ran around from the back of the house.
“Dad!” Reese shouted with the kind of joy that filled August up. He hadn’t heard him so happy in a long time.
“You had fun, I take it?” he said when Reese skidded to a stop beside him.
“Yeah, it’s hard work too, but Miss Vicki let us hang out a lot. She said I can ride the horses sometime too, and Wyatt and Sean both drove a tractor.”
“What? I want to drive a tractor,” August teased, making everyone laugh.
“I can teach you,” Wyatt offered. “I mean, if you don’t know how. Reese too. My dad taught me when I was young, and we showed Sean.”
“I’ll leave that up to you guys. Thank you, though.” August was impressed with both Sean and Wyatt. He hoped Reese’s friendship with them continued.
“You guys are a mess.” Holden ruffled Sean’s hair. All three of them were sweaty and dirty.
“That’s because we’re hard workers,” Sean replied.
“Yep. Anyway, we need to head out. Sean’s mama will be getting off work soon, and I know she’s wanting a family dinner tonight,” Holden said, then turned to August. “I know Roe mentioned it, but we’d love to have you guys out sometime. We kinda stick together, if you know what I mean.”
August did. It had always been important to him to have a network of queer people in his life. He’d worried he wouldn’t have that in Harmony. “We’d love that. Just let us know when, and we’ll be there.”
“See ya later, Reese,” Sean said, before Wyatt told him goodbye too. Reese returned it, and then the two of them were headed for the SUV.
“They seem like cool guys,” August said when they were driving home.
“For sure. I like them both. I’m gonna go back and help this week, and they said maybe we can just hang out sometimes too. What’d you do today?”
“I hung out with Clint some,” he said, not wanting to lie. “Did some grocery shopping. It’s all in the back. Nothing nearly as exciting as your day.”
“Oh, speaking of Clint. Should we pick a day this week for the welding? I was telling Sean and Wyatt that he’s going to teach me, and they both thought that was really cool.”
So did August. He basically had to fight his own lips not to curl up into a smile at just the mention of Clint. He was already in over his head. “Yeah, I’ll message him tonight.”
“Oh, Pop’s calling!” Reese said, pulling his cell out of his pocket. “Hey, Pop. Guess what I did today?” August listened while Reese told his father about Wyatt and Sean, working on the farm, drawing goats, and everything else he had been up to. “Also, Dad’s got this friend Clint—he’s the guy whose house we went to, and we rode with him to Movies with Goats too—and Dad is going to talk to him tonight because he’s going to start teaching me how to weld. He makes all these really cool designs.”
August could tell from Reese’s side of the conversation that Lewis was showing all the excitement for Reese that he should, asking questions and listening. Lewis was good at that when he wanted to be. The sad truth was, he just didn’t always think about trying.
“We just got home, and I need to help Dad bring the groceries in. Can I call you later?” Reese asked when they pulled up at the house. Lewis must have said something, and then Reese replied with, “Love you too,” before they ended the call.
“You didn’t have to get off the phone with him. I could handle this.” August knew how important those conversations with Lewis were for Reese.