Chapter 2

But Jake was correct in one respect. If it hadn’t been for the game, and the nominations it had received from one of Britain’s gaming magazines, they wouldn’t be flying to England.

* * * *

“Oh, wow,” Barry said one October afternoon, opening up an email he’d been about to consign to the trash folder.

“What?” Jimmy asked from the other side of the kitchen.

“This email.” Barry continued to read. “And don’t drink the milk out of the jug!”

“I wasn’t,” Jimmy protested.

Jake, who was sitting next to Barry at the kitchen table doing paperwork, snickered. “Liar. You have a milk mustache and you aren’t holding a glass.”

“Fuck you!”

“Boys!” Barry finally looked up from the screen.

“What did you oh, wow about?” Jake asked, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

Was his red cowboy getting a headache? If Jake read for too long it sometimes caused him to get a pain behind his eyes. Barry had told him to get his eyes checked, but Jake always insisted he was fine and didn’t need glasses. Barry tried to imagine Jake with glasses. He bet the cowboy would look really hot.

“Earth to Barry?” Jake asked.

“Oh, uh.” Barry forced his mind back to the present and pointed at the screen. “This email’s from BritBit magazine.”

Blank looks met this pronouncement.

“It’s a gaming magazine published in England. We’ve been invited to their awards ceremony. Ranch-O-Rama has been nominated for some awards.”

“All right!” Jimmy said, pumping a fist in the air.

“Congratulations,” Jake added, moving his chair closer and pulling Barry into a one-armed hug.

“They’re just nominations. The game hasn’t won.”

“Yet,” Jimmy insisted, setting down the milk and moving in to stand at Barry’s other side.

“And it’s in London, in January as part of the BritBitCon.”

“So?” Jake asked. “Not that much should be going on here then.”

“Exactly,” Jimmy added.

Barry looked up at his cowboys. “You’d go with me?” He hadn’t been sure if they’d either want or be able to.

Jake looked at him oddly. “Of course we would. I know you designed the game and everything but—”

“Like you always tell us, we’re a team,” Jimmy interrupted.

“Absolutely,” Jake said.

“Thank you.” Barry leaned over and kissed Jake and then stood to hug and kiss Jimmy. “I wouldn’t have gone on my own. I’d have missed the Double J, Rex, Shadow, and the hands too much.”

“And us?” Jake asked, a teasing smile playing at the corners of his lips.

“Well…” Barry tried not to smile. “I guess I’d have missed you two as well…Eventually.”

“Bastard.” Jimmy swatted Barry on the ass.

Barry kissed Jimmy again. “I wouldn’t have gone without my two cowboys.” He shook his head. “No, never.”

“Aw,” Jimmy said, kissing Barry back.

Barry grew serious. “The last time, heck, the only time I went to London, I hated it.” He shivered and tried not to remember the confusion and humiliation.

“What happened?” Jake asked softly, rubbing Barry’s hip.

Barry closed his eyes. He’d done his best to shut out those memories. “It was a school trip. We’d gone for a long weekend to take in the museums, a theatre, that sort of thing.”

“Uh huh,” Jimmy said, taking Barry’s hand in his.

“I was caught up in a crowd just outside Trafalgar Square. We’d just come up from the tube.” Barry swallowed. “Before I knew it, someone had stolen my wallet out of my back pocket. It had all my money in it. The teachers weren’t all that sympathetic. Meant I couldn’t go to all the places we’d planned on going because the tickets were in the wallet, too. God knows why we had the tickets rather than the teachers keeping them. Teach us responsibility I suppose.”

Jimmy’s arms immediately tightened around Barry. “Bastards!”

Jake stood and pressed himself to Barry’s back.

“Yeah. Wouldn’t have been surprised if it hadn’t been one of my so-called classmates who’d stolen it.”

“I’m sorry,” Jake said, wrapping Barry in a hug from behind.

“Thanks, guys.”

“No one’ll steal your wallet this time. Not with us there,” Jimmy said, though it came out more like a growl.

“Damn right,” Jake echoed.

Barry smiled and shook his head.

Jake asked, “Don’t you think we could protect you?”

Barry could feel Jake flexing his muscles. Jimmy followed suit almost immediately.

“Down, boys!” Barry chuckled. “I know you’d do everything you could to keep me safe.”

Although it could be trying at times because he was quite capable of taking care of himself, Barry loved when his men went all alpha cowboy on him.