"Kathy's daughter went into labor and she left just before the meeting finished. And the rest of the team are on site today and tomorrow. It's just me. I'll lock up and we can just go home."

"You wanna play hooky?" Jack said. He waggled his eyebrows with a leer.

"Try and stop me."

CHAPTER 5

Robbie surveyed the room with no more than a cursory glance. There was a large, solid bed, a small bath with a shower, and a closet for his clothes. That was all he wanted really.

"It's not much, being as it's over the horses but it's clean and included in the job."

"It's good." Robbie said this more for something to say than as something he thought Jack Campbell-Hayes needed to hear. They had already talked money and the big gruff cowboy was more than generous. Robbie resolved to buy Neil a huge gift as soon as his first check cleared. His friend's recommendation meant that Robbie had been the only hand that was interviewed.

"So your current horses are kept in this barn. Will we be setting out the new barn for the horses we're working with?" he asked. The second barn looked smaller but sturdy enough and he wondered why it wasn't being used. From a cursory inspection it was watertight and warm but had the general air of disuse.

"Yeah, that's kind of our barn. Mine and Riley's." Jack looked away and Robbie didn't push for more. Their barn sounded important and he wasn't going to pry.

"So the new horses, the trainers, all three of them, are in this barn?" There was definitely room for three more horses, or trainers, as they were called.

"Hence the extension when we rebuilt."

"Makes sense to have the horses together."

"So, I was thinking of offering a four-week trial," Jack explained. He leaned against the doorjamb and he looked so at ease with his thumbs hooked into his belt loops and his hat tilted forward. There was nothing except friendly welcome in Jack's eyes. That and of course the excitement that buzzed around the man. It was a big thing that these quarter horses were coming to the Double D and Jack had explained it as being the chance he needed to build a training facility here that was the best.

"That sounds more than fair. Just to be sure you know, I need to be moving on at the end of the year."

"Is there a particular reason for that time?"

"No." Robbie didn't elaborate. He had tried two stations in Australia since losing Paul but ten or so months was the most he could ever manage in one place. He didn't imagine it would be any different here. No sense in getting tied down to one place when he had the whole world to see.

They had talked the technical side. The horses, the training, the schedules, and now Robbie was being shown where he would be sleeping. The place in Australia he had shared with Paul was smaller and shabbier, not new, and far from watertight, but it had been theirs on any downtime they had. At least here on the ranch he wouldn't get homophobic idiots stomping all over him. Jack was as gay as he was, the same as his sex-on-legs husband.

"Do you have any questions for me?" Jack asked.

Robbie loved the drawl in the other man's voice—a lot more cowboy than when they had met at the wedding. He really only had one concern; one major make-or-break question that burned inside him.

"Do you ever have any trouble?"

"Trouble?" Jack frowned and then looked to be considering the question. "We sometimes get reporters at the main gate. They don't come on the land. They're only here 'cause my family and the Hayes family have been through one hell of a ton of shit and my husband Riley is freaking Dallas aristocracy."

That wasn't what Robbie meant and he wondered how he could word this. He didn't want to be anything but the best man for the job but he had to be sure.

"I meant… being gay? Does it cause problems with other people? With traders and such?"

"No." Jack straightened. "First off, we're not far outside the city—we're not in the middle of nowhere. Secondly, if I even thought anyone I had dealings with was treating me or mine with anything other than respect then they are gone."

"Okay."

"Why do you ask? Have you got a problem with the way I live?" Jack's friendly demeanor was edged with steel.

"No. Shit no. I… look, there's something I should have told you in the interview." Which hadn't actually been an interview, more an excited discussion about horses over coffee in Jack's kitchen with his daughter coloring at their side.

"Go on."

"The reason I left Australia and came home was because I lost my boyfriend. A couple of years ago now."

"I'm sorry—"

"When I say boyfriend I mean—" He stopped as Jack quirked an eyebrow. Robbie decided there and then that maybe he shouldn't go into an awful lot more detail.

"He was my best friend and we worked together and lived together and there was this thing… this new guy, a cowboy out of Brisbane. Didn't take too kindly to 'fags'." Robbie near spat the word and compassion passed over Jack's face. "Upshot was that Paul got in the middle and got hurt. He was knocked unconscious and he just didn't wake up."

"I am really sorry Robert—" "Robbie, please call me Robbie."

"Robbie then. I'm not saying Texas is the safest place in the world to be out of the closet but hell, the ranch is pretty secure."

"Wyoming wasn't that good for the whole being out either."

Jack shrugged and then smiled. He changed the subject, which was probably a good thing. "So. The horses are here in just under three days and there's a whole raft of stuff we need to get done. We need to discuss incentive bonuses on training and so on, but like I said the job is yours on a four-week trial if you want it." Jack held out his hand in expectation and after only a moment's hesitation Robbie took the proffered hand and shook it firmly.

"I want it, sir."

"You want to start today?"

"Yes, sir."

"Call me Jack. Welcome to the Double D, Robbie. I'll let you get settled. Do you have to go and collect bags from anywhere?"

"Everything is in the car Neil lent me." He wasn't going to say out loud that he had cancelled his small rental a week ago and had been bunking down in a spare room over the veterinary practice. Even though Neil had offered a room in the large building to the side of the practice, Robbie really didn't want to outstay his welcome with his newly married best friend. If the interview today had gone badly then he had resolved to find a motel somewhere to sleep tonight before moving on. Perhaps up north to find a spread he could work on. Now, it seemed with the interview going well that he would have his own place.