Long Tall Drink by L. C. Chase

marry anyway?”
    Ray raised an eyebrow at Dot’s cussing. That wasn’t something heard very often, and it usually meant someone had better start running—and running fast.
    “They need to wake up and let people be. Love is love. Man or woman. What business is it of anyone else’s anyway? And don’t even get me started on those damn churches. Spreading hate when they’re supposed to be spreading love. Bunch of narrow-minded, hypocritical, big—”
    “Dot!”
    Her back was ramrod straight, feet flat on the ground, skin flushed. Fire blazed in her eyes with an intensity that made Ray sink back into his chair. He rarely saw her riled up. Had no idea she’d thought that way, with such vehemence. And, quite frankly, it scared the hell out of him.
    Dot stood up abruptly and huffed. She smoothed her shirt down, tucked a stray strand of silver hair behind her ear, and shot Ray a piercing stare.
    “I’m sure you agree.”
    Panic exploded in his chest.
    She nodded her head in agreement with her silent deduction and gathered their mugs. She gave him a light kiss on the cheek and made her way to the door.
    “I’ll send back the RSVP tomorrow for all of us.”
     
    The first thing Travis noticed when he entered the dining room for breakfast was Ray’s empty chair—and Dot’s far too shrewd eyes on him.
    Quickly diverting his attention to the table, Travis said good morning to the men and took his seat between Ross and Jesse. Sam’s glares from across the table had become par for the course, but Travis and the rest of the hands simply ignored him. Fortunately Sam had been keeping his comments and opinions to himself. At least at the table.
    “Branding’s just about done,” Jesse said as Travis loaded fluffy scrambled eggs, honey-glazed ham, and crisp hash browns onto his plate. “So maybe tomorrow morning I could come over to the corrals? You could start teaching me?”
    Travis couldn’t help but smile at the eagerness in Jesse’s voice. The kid had been working cattle since he was old enough to command an animal ten times his size, but what he really wanted to do was train horses. Ray had offered to teach him, but with roundup and branding always short of hands, there’d never been a good opportunity. By the time Jesse was free to start, the training was done, most of the herd sold, and the working horses they stabled over winter were already seasoned.
    “Said I would, didn’t I?” Travis drawled.
    Jesse hooted a quiet “sweet,” drawing a hard, flinty stare from his dad.
    Travis’s attention was drawn back to the empty chair at the other end of the table almost against his will. Like passing by an accident he didn’t want to see but couldn’t stop from craning his neck to look anyway.
    Voices around the table faded into the background as Travis’s mind wandered. He wanted to know where Ray was, but damn if he was going to ask. The man not being there bothered him. And why that bothered him he didn’t care to examine. Yes, he liked Ray. Yes, he wanted Ray. Who wouldn’t? The man was sexy as hell. But he wasn’t staying. Couldn’t. Anything beyond physical enjoyment didn’t matter.
    Yet it did.
    Travis wasn’t quite sure when it had begun to matter. It might have been after dinner the other night when he’d caught Ray’s unguarded, heartfelt smile. That smile had done something to his insides, lifted him somehow. There was warmth and promise and hope in that smile, and for the first time in a long time, Travis had felt like someone cared about him . He’d found himself suddenly wanting to do whatever it took to earn that smile again and again, to be worthy of earning it.
    Or it might have happened yesterday at lunch when he’d caught Ray staring at his mouth as he ate his burrito. Ray’s gaze had been riveted to every small movement. And when he’d raised those deep brown eyes to meet Travis’s, they were dark chocolate flashing with lust and desire so intense he’d felt electricity spike