The Ranch (Lorie)

[Kitten]

When Everett Jackson had heard that his childhood best friend had inherited a ranch he'd been ecstatic. The dark haired man had always been a great lover of the outdoors and had spent many summers working on his Uncle's ranch.

As his battered old black truck pulled up the long drive towards the ranch house Everett took some time to look out over the fields, and he was less than impressed with what he saw. There were ranch hands lazing in the over grown fields, the garden up against the house was barren and filled with weeds. Cows and horses grazed in the same pastures wandering over bits of broken fence and parts from broken equipment.

Instead of jumping right out of his truck and rushing up to the front door as he'd originally planned, Everett slowly unfolded his six-foot three frame and stood just looking out over his friends apparently neglected land. He pulled a black stetson over his dark brown hair and stuck his hands in his faded blue jeans.

Light blue eyes looked at the grass choking the duck pond as the man tapped his black cowboy boots against the cracked driveway. At least it looked like the animals were being fed and taken care of, even if they seemed to be running around as they pleased.

Everett drew in a deep breath and ran his hands down his dark shirt as he headed for the ranch house. It was supposed to be a fun surprise to come calling on his old friend, but now it seemed that they'd be having one heck of an uncomfortable discussion. The tall man shook his head as he knocked at the ranch house door.

[Lorie]

A ranch. Why would anyone, let alone a grandfather he’d never heard of, leave Tate Ryan a ranch. Yes, Tate knew he had family that lived rural lives but he grew up in a suburb. The most he had ever done outside, that didn’t involve his bestfriend Everett, was plant flowers from a nursery in pre-tended flowerbeds. So when grandpa Ryan passed and left his ranch to the least likely of his grandchildren Tate was overwhelmed from the get go.

The ranch hands worked for grandpa. They seemed to know what they were doing so Tate kept them on only to discover the pair wouldn’t take orders from the pretty boy. The ranch fell into disrepair very quickly once Tate took over but the pampered city boy wasn’t exactly looking to keep it. He just needed some rube to by the property so he could return to his free wheeling party life back in the city.

Hearing a vehicle stop on the cracked driveway then a knock on the front door Tate huffed with frustration. He didn’t need anyone of his circle knowing he was staying on a ranch that didn’t even have attractive men prancing around. With the hope that it was another jackass looking to buy the property the slender man rose from where he was laying on the couch.

“For fuck’s sake will one of you bastards show this crap hole to the idiot with the money.” he yelled out the window to the lazy ranch hands looking as though they were trying to hide from their new employer. Seeing Rudy and Hector, or whatever their names actually were, had no intention of doing as told again Tate pulled sandy blond hair from his face as he made his way to the front door.

Grabbing one of the pamphlets he’d spent the better part of a day making so he could sell this place Tate opened the front door. Glasz eyes landed on a tall hansom man that Tate would have surely hit on any other day, and might yet. Tucking a stand of blond hair behind thrice pierced ear Tate held out the piece of paper, “morning.” green blue eyes caught his watch and Tate realized he had slept off his hangover until afternoon and amended, “mean, afternoon. I’ve got all the details about this property right here.”

[Kitten]

Everett had been considering how he was going to break the ice with Tate about the state of the ranch when he'd heard the unmistakable sound of his sweet friend swearing and yelling at the men he was employing. The men had simply wandered off instead of paying any attention to the foulmouthed young man.

It was absolutely clear that on top of needing some TLC, what this ranch was really overdue for was someone in charge. Someone who would enforce some rules and bring back discipline.

Everett cleared his throat as the front door opened and Tate stepped out on to the porch and took the offered paper, crossing his arms with a stern look on his face. He tapped one dark boot on the dusty porch considering what he should say.

"Tate," he snapped his fingers to get the others attention since he seemed to not even recognize him. "What in Sam hell is going on around here?"

He narrowed his eyes and took in the others appearance, the petite blonde had clearly just woken up and it was almost one in the afternoon. He even clearly smelled like he'd been drinking, not cold beer at the end of a hard day drinking either. Tate must have been up until the wee morning hours to still stink of alcohol in the middle of the day.

[Lorie]

Having only gotten back to this shit hole by three AM Tate was still a little wasted. It took a moment, and hearing his voice, for the slight blond to recognize his longtime friend, “fuck.” he groaned putting the pamphlet back on the stack. “Everett, what are you even doing here?” Tate hadn’t seen his bestfriend since graduating high school. Opening the door to the ranch house Tate waved Everett into the house he hadn’t bothered cleaning since inheriting this albatross. There wasn’t even furniture beyond the couch in what Tate guessed was the livingroom and an old table that was left in the dinning room.

Crossing to the table cluttered with bottles, mostly empty, golden skinned hand reached for a half full vodka bottle so Tate could take a swig of the strong liquor. “Are you looking to buy this place or are you here for me?” the blond asked leaning against the sturdy wood table as there were no chairs. At least not in the house. Tate was pretty sure tweedle dumb and tweedle dumber had taken the dinning room chairs out to the barn to lounge on.

[Kitten]

Everett followed him into the house and his mouth drew into a thin line at what he saw. The ranch grounds were unkempt and overgrown, but the house was even worse! The sparse accommodations both angered and upset the man. Wasn't Tate taking care of himself at all? This wasn't the house of someone in over there head, it was the house of someone who had clearly given up in a big way.

Without thinking Everett snatched the bottle of vodka from Tate's hands, having the good grace to look slightly bashful at his instinctive move. He cleared his throat as he set the bottle down near himself and looked down at Tate with a mixture of stern disapproval and worry.

"You know it's barely afternoon right?" He asked finally, there was a time when the two of them had been inseparable and he hoped that old friendship would allow him to speak more freely than a stranger.

"Tate..." Everett drew a breath and tipped his cowboy hat back, putting his hands in his pockets. "What is going on here? When I heard you'd inherited this place I figured you might want a little help, maybe some guidance on how to run the ranch. But this is..." He opened his arms, gesturing to the neglected house and then to his friend.

"This place is totally run into the ground. And I mean..." He hesitated to say this last bit, but forged on. He cared about Tate, he'd always cared about him. "Look at yourself. It's barely afternoon, you've just woken up, I heard you yelling at the ranch hands... You've been drinking."

With a sigh he recrossed his arms and gave the other the sternest frown he could muster. "This is totally unacceptable."

[Lorie]

There was something unexpectedly attactive in the way Everett just took charge. Grabbing the bottle from Tate's hand. It was unsual as Tate didn't date dominate males. He didn't date so much as had one night flings for the most part but his type tended toward party boys like himself. No stings attached situations. Also bizarre because the twenty-three year old had never really thought of his bestfriend in anything remotely like a sexual manner. Everett had been like a brother to Tate.

So why was he suddenly stirring up desire? Shaking his head the blond crossed to the kitchen where he pulled out a carton of orange juice and pured himself a glass. Holding up the beverage so Everett could see it glazs eyes darted between his friend's face and an empty glass. Non-verbally asking the larger man if he wanted some. "I honestly have no intention of keeping this place." Tate informed casually sliding into the built in banket in the kitchen. "I have a great job in the city as an event planner and an apartment right downtown that I share with a fabulous girl, Grace, who goes out partying with me three nights a week." Tate explained.

He had never honestly hated his life. Tate had always been fairly easy going. Fluid one might say. But the pretty boy with silken gold hair and a Californa complextion really found his place when he moved away from the suburb and into the city. Or at least that was the lie he was telling himself. Tate had no real structure to his life. Aside from his work, which consumed much of his life, the petite man was just drifting.

[Kitten]

Everett frowned as he followed Tate into the kitchen, he held up a hand to indicate that he didn't want anything to drink and slid to sit in front of the other man. The pretty blonde looked... tired. Not just tired from his night of partying, but the deep bone tired of someone who wasn't happy with how their life was going.

"So let me get this straight, because you don't want the ranch you're letting it fall apart? Since you're doing something inconvenient it's alright to treat the men who work for you with anger and disrespect?"

He continued to list off the problems he was seeing, looking into Tate's lovely eyes and hoping to catch a glimpse of understanding; maybe even remorse.

"On top of that when you were working at a job you liked you spent most nights of the week out at parties? How is that affecting your job, not to even mention your health!" Everett took Tate's delicate hand in his own tanned one and cleared his throat as he realized he was lecturing his old friend instead of talking to him.

"All I mean is, that just because you're having to do something unpleasant doesn't mean that you don't care about it. By all accounts right now you're acting like..." he said this last part gently. "Like a spoiled brat."

[Lorie]

Leaning forward the slight man gave his longtime friend a tired sigh. Eyes aimed down at the hardwood floor between them a delicate hand slid through longish blond hair. Raising his light eyes back up to meet Everett’s Tate sighed again, “If I sink anymore money into this place I’ll have to stay.” he told feeling a sort of ease in the conversation despite the larger man’s unintentional scolding. For some reason Tate had always felt safe with Everett. Protected, that would be the word. Tate hadn’t felt like that in quiet a while.

The assertion that he was acting like a spoilt brat brought a smirk to the wild child’s face. “I’ve been called that once or twice since leaving school.” Tate half-laughed pulling hair from his face as he leaned back onto a more relaxed position. Meeting Everett’s light blue eyes again Tate shrugged slight shoulders, “it’s how I roll these days.” he wasn’t going to address Everett’s concern about how his late night lifestyle was affecting his job since most of the events Tate planned were for clubs and bars which required the effeminate man to be out at all hours and familiar with every drink under the sun and some drugs.

“As for screaming at the ‘help’? Those homophobes won’t respond to me anyway I address them.” with long drink from is juice Tate turned to look out the large window that stretched over the banquette. “Should have fired them right away.” he breathed. As glasz eyes lingered on the land Tate now owned the slender blond was quelled by the peace of the property now that he could let down his guard with Everett beside him. “It is beautiful though.” a longing whisper passed Tate’s lips.

[Kitten]

Light blue eyes closed and he sighed softly. Everett was torn as he looked at his childhood friend, gently sweeping his thumb over the back of the others hand. He wanted to shake Tate and bring him back to reality. He wanted to kiss the other man and tuck him into his shoulder, tell him everything was going to be just fine.

On the other hand Everett also wanted to liberally apply his hand to the diminutive blondes backside for allowing his life to get like this. Then he wanted to cook a hearty supper that might put some skin on Tate's delicate frame and send him to bed early in the hopes of healing the dark circles under his eyes.

"Why don't you get me the accounting books you have and I'll look them over. This used to be a successful ranch, you haven't lived here long enough to run it totally into the ground." He smiled to take the bite out of his words. "We can go into town and grab something to eat while we try and figure out how to dig you back out of this hole you're in." Not that Everett would mind it if Tate got stuck out here in country, where he could keep a closer eye on him.

"Then I'll talk to your employees," he emphasized the word with a significant look. "And if there's really no reconciling between the three of you I happen to know some good young men in town who are itching to get out from under their parents and who would love to do some honest work for a man who would... support their life choices."

[Lorie]

Another sigh released from Tate as Everett lay out a perfectly rational plan to help his friend. Smiling at the man across from him the blond shook his head slowly. “I’ll get you the books.” he agreed raising from his seat. It wasn’t just the money though. Keeping this place meant living out here at least part time and his apartment was over an hour’s drive one way. Completely impractical. Making his way through the house, a lovely Victorian that had seen little renovation, Tate entertained the idea of living here. It was a beautiful house that just needed a little care to be resplendent. And if Everett took up residence in the house as well all the better.

Shaking those ideas from his head Tate made it to the master suite where he kept the financial information for the ranch. Noting the time the slight man huffed, so much for lunch with his old friend, and jogged back down the stairs to meet Everett in the kitchen. Handing over the thick folders the petite blond nodded to them before raising glasz eyes to meet blue once more. “I’ve gotta run.” he told turning way from his friend to make for the front door, “have a meeting with Grace about what we’re doing with the apartment.” Tate informed pushing his feet into stylish shoes and grabbing up a coat to cover his concert tee.

Slowing down enough to button his coat closed the pretty boy regarded Everett with a soft smile. “Dinner. I’ll meet you for dinner.” he promised pulling his business card from a pocket and handing it over to Everett. “My number’s on there.” Tate said hesitating slightly. He wanted to give the larger man a hug but something didn’t feel quite right about that. After all Everett had come to help Tate after several years of next to no contact and all the blond had given him was attitude and excuses. “I’ll see you around six.”