Chapter 45

“We’re a team. We need each other,” Jake said, smiling over the table at his lovers.

“You three are awesome,” Davina said. “And don’t worry, none of this will go into my article. Not that your story wouldn’t make for a great human interest piece, but I’m a tech journalist, not a feature writer.”

“Thanks, we appreciate that,” Barry said.

Their food arrived and Jimmy and Jake dove right in. They’d expended a lot of physical energy the previous night and earlier that morning, a fact to which Barry’s tender arse could attest.

“You said earlier that you’d made your game real for a reason,” Davina said, firing up her netbook.

Barry swallowed his mouthful of fruit. “Yes. It’s what the hands all wanted. And also I guess it was easier to write about real things rather than making stuff up. But my next project will be mainly fictional, although based on a real time in history.”

“Oh?” Davina looked up from her screen.

Barry had discussed the idea with Jimmy and Jake several nights earlier to get their opinions. They loved it and expressed an eagerness to be involved. Barry had been relieved about that. These games were for all of them.

“A few nights back my cousin wanted us to read her a bedtime story. She’s seven going on thirty.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Jimmy said through a mouthful of sausage.

“She wanted to hear a story about a cowgirl. There weren’t any story books about that in her room, so, between the three of us, we made something up.” Conscious he didn’t want to give too much away, Barry added, “Think Lara Croft in the old west.”

“I’d buy that,” Davina said, tapping away at her keyboard.

“I’m worried though about having a female protagonist,” Barry admitted.

“I doubt it’d matter. But couldn’t you write it so the gamer could choose the gender of the game character?” Davina asked.

“Yeah, that could work.” Barry remembered the many calls to be able to choose game characters within Ranch-O-Rama. Maybe he could develop a small cast of possible game characters, each with a different personality. Heck, there were enough personalities on the Double J for him to draw upon, but no women. For that he’d have to imagine a more mature Katie.

The rest of the meal was spent discussing various other topics, starting with gaming, but eventually moving to different aspects of running a cattle ranch. Davina said her grandfather used to work on a dairy farm near Hereford, so was able to contribute more to the discussion than Barry.

“I agree, given your climate, spring calving is probably best,” Davina said.

“It’s what my father always did, so we just carried on doing it that way,” Jake said.

They then went on to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of winter, fall, and summer calving.

“And what method of castration do you favor?” Davina asked.

Barry set down his spoon and Jimmy took his hand.

“Banding,” Jake told her.

Davina nodded.

There then followed an in-depth discussion about the best time to do the procedure. Thankfully Barry had finished his breakfast by this point.

“And the best thing about banding is the Rocky mountain oysters,” Jimmy said, turning his head to grin at Barry.

Davina laughed. “Sounds disgusting. But then the local delicacy here is jellied eels.”

Barry shook his head. “It’s taken me months to get them to eat kidney. Still haven’t managed liver, tripe or black pudding. Although that last isn’t easily available in the US.”

“I’m surprised. One of my brothers emigrated to Canada and he can get it.”

“Really?” Barry smiled and sent a wicked grin to each of his men, who were making gagging noises. “Shut up. How can you be squeamish about black pudding when you readily eat bull testicles?”

“That’s ‘cause they’re traditional cowboy food and blood sausage and organ meat isn’t,” Jake said.

“Yeah right.” Barry had hated cooking the things the previous spring. Although they didn’t look too bad once coated in batter.

“It’s true,” Jake defended.

“Can we change the subject?” Barry asked.

“Sure.” Davina said, tapping a couple of keys on her netbook. “At the editorial meeting this morning we discussed next month’s cover story and chose to feature your triple victory at the awards.”

“Yes!” Jimmy said, raising his hand to Jake, who slapped it. Then he held out his hand for Barry to high five him.

“This is a mockup of the front cover.” Davina turned her netbook around so they could all see the picture of Barry being held aloft by his men, Barry clutching his three trophies.