Excerpt Day: One Marriage & Three Weddings by Jenna Hilary Sinclair

[reviews_and_ramblings]

One Marriage & Three Weddings by Jenna Hilary Sinclair
Release Date: 07/2009
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Publisher Link: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/novellas.htm#One_Marriage

Amazon: One Marriage and Three Weddings

Blurb: Although Harry Sanderson has lived on a ranch in northern New Mexico with Mike Pruitt for many years, he still doesn’t know how to describe their relationship—even to himself. Are they live-in lovers? Partners? Boyfriends? There isn’t a word to adequately describe their mutual devotion and his quiet, deeply held feelings for Mike. Mike is no help. He thinks that what they share is a marriage, but Harry knows better. Weddings aren’t for the likes of men like them… until a gay bar, missing lube, and a drag queen show him that he might be wrong.

Excerpt:

"I sure could use a beer," Mike said as he drove the F-150 back toward their motel. The city lights not only threw their glare onto the asphalt road, but they leaked up into the sky, obscuring the stars the two of them saw most nights from their house on the shoulder of the mountains. "It´s been hot work."

Harry grunted. He was out with his horses most days whether it was cold enough to snap off his toes or hot enough to melt his balls. Mike helped some around the ranch, like Harry tried to help now and then with the equipment business, the way he was doing that weekend, but Mike did take Mother Nature seriously. He wrapped up good in the winter, made sure the AC was on when summer set in, and if there was a rumble of thunder? That man got indoors fast.

"Let´s find a bar," Mike said, already looking from one side of the street to the other. "Something that´s not too much of a dump."

The section of the city they were driving through was one that Harry knew, some; it was half-warehouse, half-industrial, with railroad tracks they´d driven over not half a mile behind them. But it was Mike who peered through the windshield like a hound that´d seen the fox. "How about that? Is that a bar? Hard to tell."

Harry saw it too. Who would think there´d be a bar around here? "Think so. Pull over there."

There wasn´t any parking lot, but there were enough cars and pick-ups along the street to prove that the storefront with the barely-lit sign saying "JT´s" was pulling in the customers. Harry made sure he got to the door first. He pushed it in slowly, but the sound of music and men´s voices reassured him even before he saw what was inside. Yep, a bar. JT´s looked okay. Nicer than Stubbie´s at home, bigger and newer with not-bad lighting, wood paneling, tables and booths, and the familiar yeasty smell of beer overlaying cigarette smoke. There was a small stage tucked to one corner, but it didn´t look like it was being used tonight. A crowd clustered around the bar straight ahead, with plenty of working men among them. The customers mostly wore jeans, and there were more than a few cowboy hats and boots like theirs. Some were well-worn boots, not meant for show but for real work every day.

Harry nodded to himself as he took the first few steps inside. Him and Mike fit in all right here, at what was a country-type bar, and he could handle it. He tried not to show that he was always careful going places with Mike, but he was. Mostly he´d finally got it into his head that they just looked like friends out together, and that was okay because they were that too. But sometimes he could tell somebody got another thought in their head, and him and Mike were looked at cross-wise. That was when he made sure they got out before trouble started. Harry hadn´t always walked away from trouble, but that was before he´d set up housekeeping with Mike. He had something to lose now. He´d miss it if he didn´t wake up next to his dark-haired, blue-eyed, pain-in-the-butt fella, miss it like not having air to breathe, so he was gonna make sure nothing happened that would mean he´d ever have to sleep alone.

He would´ve preferred a stool at the bar, but there wasn´t any room, so Harry led Mike over to where a table for two was free by the far wall. The jukebox was playing Johnny Cash´s "Ring of Fire" as they took their hats off and put them on hooks over their heads. He picked up a cardboard advertisement on the table for Coors beer and fiddled with it. There was a picture of the Rocky Mountains on the card that reminded him of home; he always liked it best staying home. Mike bugged him sometimes about how fixed he was to the ranch....

"Howdy and welcome to JT´s." A waiter who filled out his black polo shirt like he was aiming to be the next Mr. Universe stood next to their table. "What can I get you?"

Mike ordered Heineken, and Harry wanted his usual Corona-"with a lime," he reminded, `cause sometimes it didn´t come with. The waiter nodded and tucked the pencil behind his ear with a certain fancy move that caught Harry´s eye. Nah.... He glanced away uneasily and saw a couple more guys come through the front door with big grins, like they were real happy to arrive. They were greeted with shouts from across the room; seemed like at JT´s folks knew one another. Knew one another pretty good from the way they were hugging hello.

"We´re getting the crowd early tonight," Chad commented, because that´s what his nametag said.

Across the table, Mike was sitting up real straight all of a sudden, and he was chewing on the inside of his mouth. He let go, looked up at Chad, and asked, "You get a good Saturday night crowd?"

"Darling, you wouldn´t believe. There won´t be space to move in another hour."

Harry was pretty sure he must´ve heard that wrong, what with all the noise, the new guys being talked to, and the music and all. That wasn´t a word he heard much. He didn´t even call Mike darling, and he sure as hell hadn´t ever called Charlene anything like that, hoped his wife was resting in peace. Darling?

Harry wanted to look at Chad some more, to squint up at him, `cause there was something not right here. But he didn´t. He didn´t want anybody staring at him, so he sure wasn´t going to call attention to himself by getting into anybody´s face.

Chad didn´t seem to be in that big a hurry to leave. What, was he aiming for a bigger tip by being friendly? He shifted his weight to his right hip and asked them, "Is this your first time here?"

Mike was the one who answered. Harry couldn´t talk when he was thinking so hard. This really did look like an ordinary bar to him, except for.... And that hugging. "Uh, yeah," Mike said, "it is."

"How´d you get word?"

Mike shrugged. "We just drove by."

"Sure, whatever you say. I´ll get your beers."

Chad took himself off and Harry watched him take his tight-assed leave, but he quick caught himself and returned his gaze to the table. His thoughts were racing a mile a minute and his mouth was dry. He risked a quick look up and around, gulped, and went back to studying his fingers that were gripping the edge of the table. It couldn´t be. There wasn´t a woman in sight.

Mike leaned in toward him across the table. "Harry, I think-"

"Hold off there," Harry said roughly. He needed to get away fast, to where he could think clear. He stood up, pushing his chair back so it scraped against the wood floor. "I gotta go take a piss."

"Wait a minute, you need to know-"

"Gotta go, Mike."

He stalked across the bar, skirting the dance floor as if stepping on it would break his back, but then he gratefully noted the familiar shapes of two pool tables on the other side. He didn´t let himself look at the bodies of the men playing, didn´t let himself look at anyone at all. The music had changed to some guy singing "Love´s Got a Hold on You."

There wasn´t another soul in the men´s room when Harry stumbled inside. He went straight to a sink, bent over, and threw water in his face.

Jesus! They were in a goddamn gay bar!