Potee showed up with a blanket and pillow in hand. He had no problem remembering where Pardo's room was. Being on the range with Cookie and the chuck wagon gave him plenty of time to wonder about Pardo. Once he was alone in the bunk, he imagined it full of noisy cowboys. He knew what he wanted to do, but it took time to get up the courage to risk a rejection to his big ideas.

Potee remembered the comfortable bed and the comfortable cowboy. He lived in a room over the kitchen. When compared to the bunkhouse, Pardo's room was nice, and Pardo seemed concerned about him. Growing up, he felt like an accessory no one wanted. When the subject just popped up, Pardo knew what to do about it. Potee knew what to do about it. It often stood up like that, but Pardo knew how to solve this persistent problem, which was even more persistent than before once Pardo took care of it for him.

Potee had been sure they made a connection during their first close encounter. While at roundup, he knew he needed to see if Pardo felt the connection too. Cookie sent Potee back a day early to get the kitchen ready to feed the cowboys. While he cleaned, he thought about the cowboy living upstairs. He wasn't upstairs in the middle of the day, but he would be upstairs tonight.

He was definitely going upstairs and throw a lip lock on Pardo. Instead, when he was done in the kitchen, he wen to the bunk house. What if Pardo was like most men. He did what he did once, but he didn't make a habit of it. He's see Pardo tomorrow. That was soon enough, or so he told himself.

Potee went to the bunkhouse to sleep, but sleep didn't come. Tomorrow wasn't soon enough. He took what he calculated he'd need and he went to the cowboy's room.

That was like a scene out of a movie. He stood there with his pillow and blanket, leaning against the outside of the door jam. Pardo smiled, while he leaned against the inside of the door jam. Potee had on his cleanest pair of boxers and the socks he put on that morning. Potee didn't need to say anything. What does a teenage boy say to his prospective boyfriend?

His mouth went dry. Doubts flooded his brain, and he started to speak before Pardo pulled him into the room. All the doubts left him and the time between the last time he was in Pardo's room, and this time all blended together before fading away. He didn't know who started the kissing but neither of them wanted to put an end to the kissing.

It was all such a long shot. Potee had no reason to believe anyone wanted him, but he knew his wanting someone had only increased its grip on him. He always dreamed of having someone of his own, and Pardo would be just fine, since they already knew each other, and he was a good kisser.

He couldn't be sure how Pardo thought about it, but he seemed to go with the flow, and if either of them thought they'd get any sleep after Potee came to the door, they were wrong.

Potee had more than he'd ever had before. It happened quite by accident. If he hadn't been walking along the highway, if Pardo hadn't been riding fence, and if the cowboy hadn't decided to take him with him to the chow hall to get a nice meal, it was hard to say where Potee would be. None of it mattered now. He was with Pardo, and more importantly, Pardo was with him.

"Bring your things over tomorrow. You're going to live up here with me."

Potee didn't say anything. It was an offer he wouldn't refuse. It went beyond his wildest dreams.

Pardo missed Potee the days he wasn't in the chow hall. Potee was out on his own at an age that Pardo was working his first job on the Double T. He'd moved from childhood to manhood on ranches. Everyone he knew was a cowboy. He never had any other idea. Of course he'd be a cowboy.

It's what he knew and the idea of going to the city to work in some skyscraper never entered his thoughts. He was a cowboy. He'd always seen himself as a cowboy. The kid didn't have that. The kid didn't have anything. He worked right downstairs now, washing pots and pans.

Pardo smiled every time he saw him. He'd brought the kid to the Lazy R. He felt a responsibility that came with introducing Potee to the cowboy way. Potee wasn't a cowboy. He worked in the kitchen, washing up the pots and pans used to feed the Lazy R cowboys. It's essential to keep cowboys well fed if you run a ranch. Potee had found a place at Del Champion's ranch and Pardo helped him find it.

He liked the cranky Cookie. He didn't mind washing pots and pans. He was doing something the cook hated doing. That meant he was useful to the cook at least. He didn't mind the food that came with the job. Cookie did things with food Potee didn't know could be done. Each day, he ate his fill. Once he had the pots and pans stacked shining on the counter, Cookie made sure there was cake, or a piece of pie, or sometimes he had fresh baked cookies for him. What wasn't to like about that?

It was noisy in the bunkhouse from day one. Cowboys were loud, and after they came in off the range, after roundup, they forgot they were no longer outside and sleeping on the ground. None of it really bothered Potee. What bothered Potee was the thought of the cowboy who had treated him so well was on his own in that great big room over top of the kitchen. Maybe Pardo was lonely. Maybe he'd like some company. That's what got Potee out of his bunk with his blanket and pillow.

Pardo felt the connection to Potee. He took a risk and extended a hand of friendship. Potee was young and probably happy to solve an immediate problem once it arose, but that didn't mean he did it all the time or even again. He saw himself in the kid he carried to the chow hall with him. He admired the kid's grit, and using the liniment on him was cool. Using the lotion on him was cooler. The kid had been around and he didn't mind returning a favor. That was definitely cool, but how cool was it?

Would Potee want to repeat something that might have been a passing fancy. He dug his spurs into one young cowboy or another in the hayloft of his ranch or theirs while he was in school. Most quit wanting to take those rides once they had a girlfriend. Not all did and Pardo knew which one to see when he was itching for a roll in the hay. He was a stallion and he needed to do what stallions do.

Since he left high school and joined the working world, there weren't as many opportunities to meet boys who need to do what stallions do. At first, he followed his instincts with other cowboys on the Lazy R, but he liked his job and some guys said yes, and after the deed was done, they said, 'I meant no. I'm really not like that.'

Potee wasn't a cowboy and he'd said yes, please, and thank you. Pardo liked him and he liked being with him. He wanted to see more of him, even if a repeat of how they initially reacted to each other was not something they'd pursue. Potee needed someone who cared about him. Pardo sensed that and he wanted to be friends with the kid. Give him someone to talk to.

Pardo missed Potee while he was at roundup. It wasn't just the hot meals he missed while Del ran him all over God's little acre. He thought about the kid a lot, but if there was one place Del didn't send him, it was out to roundup with messages for Rowdy.

If Potee never came to the Lazy R, he'd never given a thought to being a cowboy. That was kid stuff. It was time he grew up and here he was working around cowboys and wanting to be one.

Thunder had his own ideas about someone riding him. He wasn't in favor of it, but if he found the right man, well, he might let the right cowboy ride him. He couldn't be mean. He couldn't weigh too much. Other than that, he'd know the right guy, once he came along. He'd throw him off a respectable number of times, and then he'd go along with riding herd like respectable horses did.

As the cowboys watched the joke unfold, they saw a boy who was far more determined than they were. After he'd been thrown off enough, and he kept getting back on, the joke stopped being funny. All the cowboys remembered being that age. They'd have stopped getting up by this time.

About then, Thunder realized, Potee was his kind of cowboy, and he wasn't that heavy.

No one thought Thunder would be ridden but Potee. He wanted a horse and he'd do what needed doing to own one, and Thunder took him for a nice smooth walk around the corral at the Lazy R.

Pardo often thought about the kid struggling to get back on his feet. Then, he went to get back on the stallion. Pardo chuckled. He didn't think the kid knew he actually rode Thunder. He was knocked silly from being tossed off, he was waiting to be tossed off again, but the horse stopped bucking.

The kid had spunk. He also had a horse, and Pardo laughed every time he thought about it.

Pardo watched the kid go out on hour long rides. Even riding his horse made him a little sore. It took a week or so to adapt to horse back riding. If you rode a horse regularly, that soreness left you and never came back. Your butt muscles adapted to a motion like no other.

Cowboys faced challenges most normal men wouldn't tolerate. In all kinds of weather, in winter, spring, summer and fall, the job was the same every day, rain or shine. If a cowboy was dry, well fed, and comfortable, he wasn't working, and it was probably payday and he was drunk in town.

No one gave much thought to Potee becoming a cowboy. Once he turned the joke around on Wrangler, the cowboys saw Potee differently. He may have been Cookies kitchen help, but the kid had grit. Cowboys knew about and respected grit. In the end, the joke turned out to be on Wrangler, and cowboys never stopped laughing about that.

Potee sensed an acceptance from the cowboys he served that wasn't noticeable before. Yes, they were happy when he carried food to the tables for Cookie. It was more than satisfying their hunger. They smiled and they thanked him for whatever he took to them. When he rode Thunder and met a cowboy on the trail, they tipped their hat and gave him a big, "Howdy, Potee."

Potee knew that Thunder was his ticket to becoming a cowboy. He thought the cowboys knew that too. Pardo didn't think about how the other cowboys saw Potee. He never forgot that the boy kept getting up each time Thunder threw him off. Pardo understood that a stallion like Thunder couldn't be ridden by some tenderfoot. It had to be a collaboration where Thunder accepted his fate, because he too noticed the kid kept getting back up. Gunner went off of Thunder twice.

"Horse can't be rode," Gunner declared, walking away.

Gunner could ride any horse he sat astride. Something about Thunder told him, 'this horse ain't letting me ride him. That's all there is to it.'

The boy rode Thunder because he allowed it. That didn't a cowboy make in Pardo's mind. Yes, Potee being trained to be a cowboy would give Pardo more time with the kid he liked. For Pardo, training Potee would be part of his job. For Potee, it would get him where he decided he was going.

Pardo realized the kid was too small for Del to consider having Pardo train him to be a cowboy on the Lazy R. If Potee grew at the rate he grew, in two to three years, Potee would be close to full size. Pardo wouldn't wait that long to start his training. The boy went horseback riding with him, Pardo could start showing the kid the cowboy way on the days they went riding together.

Del wouldn't be a problem. He'd watch the kid growing. He already was looking for a way to get Thunder working with a cowboy. He was one of the best stallions on Del's ranch. As long as he had to feed him, he wanted to put him to work, but Del knew Thunder was the kid's horse, and one day he'd look at Potee and think, Pardo can train him to work on the Lazy R.

While he already worked for the Lazy R, kitchen help usually didn't hang around long enough to think about being a cowboy, Pardo was hoping Potee stuck around to finish growing up. If he did, they'd find out what kind of cowboy Potee would be.

Potee didn't give much thought to how he'd become a cowboy. He made up his mind he'd be one before he rode Thunder. He wanted to be just like his hero. He wanted to be just like Pardo.

In the afternoons, on days Pardo ate in the chow hall, if Cookie was caught up, he'd give Potee the afternoon off to ride Thunder. Cookie set aside a treat Potee took to Thunder, because Cookie knew the fastest way to a horse's heart was through his belly.

By the time Pardo started Potee's basic training for cowboys, Thunder would do anything for the kid. Horses and cowboys were often best friends, but Thunder gave a new meaning to loyalty. While Potee was in basic training, his horse was there too. Thunder learned to do what a cowboy needed his horse to do. Potee and Thunder were a team. That was the cowboy way.

Even Pardo was surprised by how fast Thunder picked up the moves he needed to make to keep his cowboy out of trouble. Pardo knew Topper was smarter than most of his cowboys, but Thunder was as smart as Topper, maybe smarter. It was further proof that Thunder picked Potee to ride him.

Cookie had been a cowboy for thirty years. Rather than giving up the cowboy way, once he was too old to weather the cold and foul conditions, he took the job as the ranch cook, because the Lazy R was without a permanent cook. Cookie was a cook before he was a cowboy and he was a cook after he rode the range for as long as he could, but he still rode his horse, Anaconda.

Cookie didn't like the joke played on his pots and pans man. He knew from what he'd heard about Thunder, and Cookie heard everything, Thunder wasn't a horse a kid could ride, not unless he let Potee ride him for his own reasons. Cookie knew horses. The rest was common sense.

Cookie figured out where this was heading. Two years before he would lose Potee to the cowboy way. He was going to make it easy for Potee to do his work and do his training with Pardo. If Potee was going to be a cowboy, Cookie wanted him to be a damn good one, and that would take time. He'd let him off to train, even if that meant he needed to wash pots and pans once in a while.

Pardo's plan didn't involve making Potee into a cowboy's cowboy, he did that on his own. The fire was burning inside of Potee, and he was determined to be as good as he could be. Pardo would have accepted a half ass cowboy. He had plenty of those working the Lazy R, but Potee listened to his hero and went about doing things Pardo's way. As far as he was concerned, Pardo was the cowboy way.

As far as Pardo was concerned, Potee would be with him from now until the end of time, but if he ever hit a rough patch, he'd have cowboying to fall back on. He knew his way around the Lazy R kitchen and he was learning his way around the ranch. Potee didn't mind learning his lessons. Skills he'd need to secure his future. If he and Pardo were ever separated, and he couldn't imagine that, he'd have skills that would make it possible for him to survive.

Potee couldn't imagine become a cowboy two years before. Now, he was becoming one.

Del and Cookie were both cowboys when Pardo signed on with Del's daddy. Rowdy, the ranch foreman, was Del's boss, while he worked roundups and branding time. Pardo rode with Del and he didn't realize he was Mr Champion's son for a long time. Del wasn't a cowboy's cowboy, but he was dependable and he knew the job he'd been doing since he was ten and rode on his first roundup.

Cookie was already old when Pardo arrived, and he got caught in a stampede and got busted up, and after that his cowboy days were numbered. That's when Cookie became the cook, and not half bad, and he'd become better at feeding cowboys over the years.

These were men Pardo respected and knew he could trust, even when his idea of making Potee into a cowboy was already a part of Cookie's and Del's thinking. They didn't know what Pardo was up to, although Cookie suspected Pardo was training Potee, but when it was time, it would be important for them all to be on the same page at the same time for Pardo's plan to work.

Del was going to business school when he wasn't being a cowboy. His father was old school, and he pretty much let things run along at their own speed. His son was learning good business practices and how best to get the maximum benefit with the least amount of expenditures.

When Mr Champion died unexpectedly, it was Del who sat in the office in the ranch house where Del lived since he was a boy. His father used to sit in his office and watch the cowboys going out to work sometime around dawn, and Del did the same. The owner of the Lazy R still felt like a cowboy, but his cowboy days passed him by. He wasn't afraid to ride out to watch his cowboys work, but he rarely jumped in to do something he saw needed doing. This occurred less and less.

He was the owner of the Lazy R now, and he needed to act like it. Like all boys, Del wanted to be a cowboy while he grew up on his father's ranch. He was a bit old for the cowboy way, even if he still felt like a cowboy down inside.

Pardo became Del's right hand man, because there was bad blood between Rowdy and Del. Because Del's daddy hired him, Rowdy paid little attention to the owner's son. After the owner died, his son ran the show. Del refused to be vindictive. His father trusted Rowdy to do the job, and out of respect for his father, he wouldn't fire Rowdy, but he did use Pardo to be the buffer between himself and the foreman he didn't like. Pardo got along with everyone and Del liked him. He'd make Pardo his foreman, once Rowdy quit.

The range was a wild place to be. There were predators who lived near cow herds, and near cowboys who tended the cow herds. They also needed to get off their horse to pee. Cowboys slept near a fire when possible, and horses were the best alarms against predators that came closer in the night.

Few predators dare attack a man, because they are formidable foes. If hungry enough or if they'd gone mad enough, there was no guarantee a predator wouldn't come at a cowboy at any time. Horses of course could smell a predator who came anywhere near, and they alerted cowboys to the danger.

It's an old story that went back to the first cowboys. Most men wouldn't put up with the hardship no matter the pay. A cowboy is after the fresh air and the freedom. He didn't need to like cows, but most liked the horse they rode. It didn't hurt if you didn't care much for most people, because the only people were other cowboys, and cowboys might not always get along, but many times they depended on each other, and that meant not making an enemy of a guy who might pull your bacon out of the fire one day.

A cowboy will ride his horse into the middle of stampeding cows to slow them down so other cowboys can turn them. If a cowboy thinks he might not make this dangerous maneuver, he remembers that one day he might be doing the turning, and other cowboys would need to slow the stampede so he and his horse doesn't end up getting run down.

A sane man wouldn't be caught dead riding into a stampede. It's the cowboy way. It's not too difficult to see what needs to be done. Cowboys have been doing it for a long time. It's the way it's done on the Lazy R, and when a cowboy signs on to do the job, that's what he might need to do.

Once there is a stampede, the work doesn't stop when you stop the cows, because you'll end up with cows from here to there, and it becomes your job to gather them up by twos and threes and get them back to where the herd needs to be. This job might take days, depending how far the steers ran.

That is hard work and you might not get to eat anything but cold biscuits and dried meat for a day or two. That was a good enough reason to keep the cows where they belonged, which was easier said than done, but once things got out of control, it took a lot work to get back to where you're just sitting in the saddle keeping watch for trouble.

Potee was getting to see the ranch and cattle in all circumstances. As time passed he saw the ranch and the cowboys under most conditions. As time went on, Potee knew what Pardo knew. Pardo spent a lot of time telling Potee what he knew on horseback rides. There were always surprises that could interrupt a ranches routine. It would be difficult to equate life on a ranch with sanity or normalcy in the work-a-day-world.

A cowboy rarely conforms and he doesn't follow directions well. Things go best when you tell him what you want him to do. Let him figure out how he wants to do it. When you pay your cowboy, expect it to take him two, maybe three days to go through this month's wages, and he'll find his way back to start making the money for next month's binge.

Pardo didn't know Potee's story. If he gave him a chance to open up, he might find some things out. When the boy came to his door, he was glad to see him, because he wasn't sure Potee would come back. Once he did, Pardo let nature run its course. It didn't take a lot of time for Potee to tell him why he came back. Opportunity was knocking and Potee had nothing to hide. Pardo didn't need an engraved invitation to pick up where they left off. He was happy to do whatever Potee had it in mind to do.

Pardo's sexual experiences ran from bad to worse. He wasn't much of a lover and it didn't matter if it was a man or a woman. He paid a woman for love once but he never paid a man, He preferred men because he knew how men felt. Men weren't easy to hurt but they were easier to leave. A man would tell you what he wants. There was a great deal of resistance after the deed was done. He really wasn't here because his mind was on a girl he once knew. If you see me on the street, I might not speak. We'll do this again some time if we meet. Other than that, thanks, and you have a good night.

Potee told Pardo, "I been around."

He was one up on Pardo, who was rarely around. The kid made no bones about what he had to say. It was abrupt, and he made his way back to Pardo's room the first chance he got. The door was open, and Pardo wanted to take it as far as Potee wanted to go. He had feelings for the boy, and that would last as long as Potee liked.

What was there to say? Glad you dropped by. Can I jump your bones? I'll be gentle.

Pardo didn't need to say anything, because Potee had been around. Potee did all the talking. He showed Pardo how far around he'd gotten a few times. It gave new meaning to being made breathless. A man could learn to like a boy like Potee. He loved and hugged and loved some more. It was more than a thank you for the meal. If their minds met the week before, they got reacquainted and acquainted again the night Potee came to stay. Potee was going to ask to stay, and Pardo was going to insist on it.

Potee showed Pardo what they'd talk about if they had time to talk before breakfast. Pardo's mind had been full of Potee for the days he wasn't in the chow hall. He'd imagined being with Potee. He imagined training him to be a cowboy. He imagined Potee bringing him hot plates of food when he came in to eat, but that didn't take much imagination, because it's what Potee did every time he realized Pardo came within reach. It didn't change once he was living upstairs in Pardo's room.

Pardo told Del he was letting the kid sleep in his room. A bunk house was for cowboys. Del, not a man to waste a lot of time on minutia, moved on to the next subject that was on his mind when he sent for Pardo. Rowdy was foreman. Pardo was his right hand man. He was also Del's right hand man.

He was the one to carry messages from Del to Rowdy. From time to time, he took a message from Rowdy back to Del. They didn't speak the same language and Pardo was the translator.

Cookie knew where the kid slept and he had no comment on it. If Pardo came into the chow hall while Cookie was serving food. He went back to tell Potee, "Your cowboy just came in. Want to take him a plate? Take one for yourself and take lunch. We're fine back here. Take Thunder out for a ride, but be back before I start serving dinner. I'll have pots and pans for you by then."

Potee carried two steaming plates of food into the chow hall, going to where Pardo always sat.

"Hi," Potee would say.

"Hi," Pardo said. "One of those for me? Looks great."

"Oh, yeah, chip beef gravy over Cookie's fresh biscuits. It's tops," Potee said.

He sat across from Pardo who hadn't taken his eyes off him since he came out of the kitchen. They wasted no time digging in and enjoying a meal that sticks to your ribs.

"I can go out until four thirty. I thought maybe we'd go riding. I haven't had Thunder out today."

"Works for me. We can ride out toward the main herd. I have some information to give Rowdy."

"We could go up to the room for a few minutes and help each other out, Cowboy."

"Trouble is, a few minutes becomes a few hours and Thunder still wouldn't get ridden today."

"I like the way you think cowboy. I can ride Thunder tomorrow, good looking."

"And what do I do with Del's messages for Rowdy?" Pardo asked, smiling at his protege.

"They couldn't wait until tomorrow? I can't wait until tonight, Pardo," Potee tried. "Don't make me wait until tonight. I'm ready, Cowboy."

"Work comes first, hot stuff. We'll have all night to see how ready you are. We'll need to wait, but if it's any consolation, I'd like to throw you on the table and do you right here."

Potee giggled. Slipping his foot out of his shoe, he stuck it up between Pardo's legs.

"Just a quick one, Pardo. Please! For your hot stud."

"You're killing me. I need to go out to the main herd right after I leave here."

"You don't really love me. You'd give me a few minutes if you love me."

"You're getting a bit far out there. I have a job I need to do. Once it's done, I'm all yours. You can ride out with me, and maybe on the way back we'll find a spot where we can relax."

"Relax? Are you kidding. I'm so horny I couldn't relax before getting off a couple of times."

"Teenage boys have been having that problem since forever. You'll get through it, Stud."

They both felt like they belonged together. This wasn't the first time Potee was too horny for his own good, and it wouldn't be the last. Potee knew what Pardo would say, and no matter how bad he wanted to get Pardo upstairs, the answer was, his man had responsibilities that came before dalliances.

Potee loved his man, and he'd agree to ride out with him, even if he had to come back in time to help Cookie in the kitchen once cowboys started coming in to dinner. He did know there would be all the sex he wanted tonight, but sometimes tonight seemed like too long to wait.


Send Rick an email at quillswritersrealm@yahoo.com

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