Total pages in book: 52
Estimated words: 49178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 246(@200wpm)___ 197(@250wpm)___ 164(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 246(@200wpm)___ 197(@250wpm)___ 164(@300wpm)
That lifted an unseen weight off my shoulders. I’d been more nervous coming out to my mom than my dad, who’d always had a “go with the flow, love everyone” kind of attitude.
“Thank you, Mom. I love you with all my heart.”
“And I love you too, Sammy. With all—“
Then, like some cruel punctuation mark, the call dropped. Damn Johnson Springs service.
Still, I didn’t need her to say anything else. I heard it and I felt it. She loved me and she accepted me.
That’s all I needed.
By the time Benny came out to the porch in his boots and hat, looking hot as ever and ready for the race, I was smiling so wide it hurt.
“Everything good?” he asked.
I nodded. “Everything’s great.” I walked up to him and kissed him full on the mouth, out in the open. Not caring who saw.
“I just came out to my mom.”
“You did?! Holy cow, congratulations! It is a congratulations, right?”
“It is. She was amazing, I don’t know why I was ever scared in the first place.”
Benny cocked his head, eyes radiating joy. “Because coming out is a scary process. It’s revealing a part of yourself that could easily get skewered by the people you love the most. It shouldn’t even be a thing, obviously. There shouldn’t be a need to say ‘Hey, these are the kinds of people I like to be with.’ It just be accepted point-blank. You bring a girl to family event, ‘Cool, what’s her name?’ You bring a guy to family events, ‘Cool, what’s his name?’ It’s that simple, but this world—it runs on complications. And maybe Dunkin’.” Benny gave me a wink and another kiss, filling my heart and lungs with a flurry of butterflies.
That’s when the words drifted out of me, carried on the wings of those very same glittery butterflies. Words that weren’t complicated or difficult to say at all. “I love you, Benny. I’m so happy I came back to Rainbow Ranch. I’m so happy I got this second chance. I’m so happy I got my cowboy.”
Benny blinked a couple times, as if his processor had malfunctioned and he was restarting his system.
“Sam… I love you, too. I’ve never stopped loving you. And I’m so glad I can keep loving you.”
This, this was the definition of true happiness. Of rainbow-hued freedom. My future went from being miserable and stormy to a rolling green field of daisies and tulips.
Pure fucking happiness.
“Hey, you two, get a room!” It was Pris. She rolled a cooler behind her, toward Benny’s truck. “But at least wait until after the race is done.”
Benny and I both laughed. I felt my cheeks warming. I went to help Pris load up the truck. It didn’t take us much longer before everything was packed up.
On the way to the race, another bomb was dropped. This one coming from Boone, who sat in the back seat with an arm around Wylie. “You know, I’m really glad you stayed, Sam. You being around has made Benny’s cooking out of this world. He’s going to give me competition for my buns.”
“Your buns are in a league of their own,” Wylie said in his gruff, lumberjack voice.
“Seriously, though, I’m happy we never told you that will was fake. You may have run off.”
I whipped around in my seat. Benny huffed in surprise but kept his eyes on the road. “Hold up, you knew all this time?”
Boone scratched the back of his head. “Yeah. We found out a month ago. Spoke to the lawyer,” Beau added. “The whole inheritance thing was… not real.”
“Then why…”
“Because you both were as happy as two pigs in a very warm and cuddly blanket,” Boone cut in. “You were smiling. You were finally starting to breathe again. We didn’t want to scare you away by saying it didn’t count.”
I looked at all of them. My heart swelled.
“I didn’t stay because of the inheritance,” I said. “I stayed because of you. All of you. This place. The people. Heck, even Dennis.”
“Damn straight,” Boone said with a smirk. “That horse’s got charisma.”
Beau chuckled underneath his mask. “Along with uniqueness, nerve, and talent.”
We laughed, the air light and easy. There was zero tension, zero anxiety. The truck was filled with love and family, the open road stretching out before us, full of new possibilities and memories.
I reached across the central console and grabbed Benny’s hand, no longer worried that his family was around to see us touch. “Come on, let’s go get you a first-place trophy.”
“Don’t worry. No matter what happens at the race today, I already won.” Benny lifted my hand to his lips and kissed.
In that moment, I knew that Benny hadn’t just come out a winner.
So had I.