Chapter 62
Maybe it hadn’t come out right. Barry took another couple stabs at it, but couldn’t remember the words correctly.
“Time to get you back to the hotel,” Jimmy said, grasping Barry’s left arm.
Jake took Barry’s half-full glass from him, put it on the shelf next to them, and took hold of Barry’s right arm.
“No, no, I’m talking with my new friends.” Barry tried to get free. “It’s nice having friends, ‘specially when they come in threes. Coming in threes is good.” He nodded to emphasize his point.
“It’s been great meeting you guys,” Zach said, hugging Jimmy then Jake.
Barry found he was free, so downed the rest of his drink. No point wasting it. “Once a Yorkshireman, always a Yorkshireman as Dad says.” Barry burped.
Jimmy took Barry’s empty glass from him. It was Barry’s turn to hug Zach.
“You’ve got a great set of guns,” Barry said, reaching up to give Zach’s leather-covered arms a closer inspection. “But then you’d need them to hold your big hose.”
Sammy, Eric, and Zach laughed, but Jimmy and Jake didn’t seem to get the joke, even when Barry explained it.
Barry moved in to give Eric a hug. “And you have nice guns, too. Hope you don’t have to fire them and—”
“Say goodnight, Barry” Jake said, pulling on Barry’s arm.
Barry laughed. “Goodnight, Gracie, uh, Sammy. We should stay in touch. Me and you’ve lots in common, keeping two sexy men in check for starters.”
“Yeah, man.” Sammy grinned. “I’ll email you in a couple days, okay?”
“Okay.”
Barry then let himself be guided by his big, strong, and protective cowboys toward the exit.
“Oh, forgot.” Barry dug his heals in. “Sammy doesn’t have my email address.” He tried to turn around to go back.
“It’s in the game,” Jimmy said. “Now come on, let’s get you back to the hotel.”
Barry found that funny. “You horny for my ass, cowboy?” He laughed some more. “Oh, no, I was cutting you off wasn’t I? No, that was Jake. Mean, naughty Jake.”
“Yeah, mean, naughty Jake,” Jake said, nodding at the bouncer. “Thank you.”
The bouncer returned the nod. “Have a great night.”
“I will,” Barry said. “Love your beard…really sexy. Muscles, too.”
The man smiled. He had great dimples.
“Come on, you,” Jake said, tugging on Barry’s arm.
“He can’t wait to get me home,” Barry told the bouncer. “But he’s been a bad cowboy and won’t be getting any tonight.”
“Oh, brother,” Jake groaned. “You realize we’ll tease you for weeks about this.”
Barry laughed.
* * * *
Out on the street, Barry took in a couple of deep lungfuls of air. “It was warm in there.”
“And cold out here, so let me zip up your jacket,” Jimmy said.
Barry liked the feel of Jimmy’s hands moving up his chest.
“Should we get a cab?” Jimmy asked.
“Maybe we should walk, he might sober up some,” Jake said.
“Got to be drunk to be sober,” Barry said. But that didn’t make sense. “I mean, to get sober you have to be drunk. No, that’s not right either.”
“Yeah, we’ll walk,” Jimmy said. “Then if he throws up, we won’t have a cab driver yelling at us.”
“You’re so smart,” Barry said, stopping and giving Jimmy a hug. “And you think Jake’s smarter than you. Well I’m here to tell you, mister, you’re smarter than the average bear, uh, cowboy.” He gave Jimmy a sound kiss on the lips, which Jimmy returned.
“Come on, let’s get moving,” Jake said, gently tugging on Barry’s arm.
“No, gotta kiss my red cowboy, too. Gotta show him I love him just as much as my blue cowboy.” Barry gave Jake his kiss.
“Can we go now?” Jake asked.
“Lead on McCowboy.” Barry hiccupped. “That’s Shakespeare you know.”
Barry talked for the next few blocks, his cowboys answering him now and again, but for the most part just letting him talk. They were good to him like that. Always listened to him when he had something important to tell them.
“I’ve never met anyone as nice, as kind, as gentle or as just plain amazing as you two.” Barry sniffed back tears. “You two are just…perfect.” He was openly crying now.
“Hey,” Jimmy said, wiping Barry’s eyes with a Kleenex. “Why you crying?”
“Because I love you so much.” Barry flung his arms around Jimmy and gave him the tightest hug he could manage. Then he broke away and hugged Jake. “I’ve kissed a lot of cowboy frogs. When I kissed you two, you both turned into cowboy princes.”
“Thanks, bud. We love you, too,” Jake said. “But we need to get you back to the hotel so you can drink some water and take some Tylenol or something.”
“Awe, you really do love me.” Barry caressed Jake’s cheek. “I didn’t mean what I said earlier about you being mean.”
“I know. But come on, let’s start walking again before you catch a chill.”
Barry hadn’t realized they’d stopped. “Is it far? I can’t remember where we live.” He started to panic. Jimmy and Jake had never been to New York before. They didn’t know where anything was. “We need a cop. Let’s call Eric. He’ll know where we live.”
“It’s okay, I know where we live,” Jimmy said.