A Cowboy's Dance

By Diana McKinley

As the old adage asserts, ‘When one door closes, another opens.’ For Texas rancher Cole Gentry, the realization that a major part of his life is unexpectedly coming to an end leads him to examine how he came to be so alone and mired in the closet, when in reality he wants so much more with a partner who’ll stick with him through thick and thin. On the eve of what seems to be a pivotal turning point in his life, Cole finds himself questioning the disastrous personal choices he’s made, all while he poured his heart and soul into saving the spread that was handed down to him by generations of Gentry men and women before him. Cole knows his choices haven’t garnered him anything more than an empty house and an empty bed and, at last, he can admit that it’s time to make a change.

Seasoned rancher Everest Cooper has waited patiently for many years for Cole to grow up and see him as more than a colleague, mentor, and friend. He has plans for the younger rancher which have absolutely nothing to do with their business relationship. Plans that center around making Cole his in every way he can bind the man to him – in body and in soul. When Everest attends the local ranchers’ monthly game night and realizes that Cole is finally alone and free for the taking, he doesn’t waste another second going after the only man he’s ever envisioned a future with.

When Cole learns of Everest’s desires, he finally has the opportunity for a deep and abiding relationship – the kind he’s always secretly yearned for. But will he brave enough to join Everest in the dance that could bring them both passion, solace, and a lifetime of love and laughter? Or will he slide back into previous entanglements that are known and comfortable, and miss out on all that Everest is offering him?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Diana McKinley
• Release date: Aug 23, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370483907

Diana McKinley

As a lover of the written word, in all its forms and variations, Diana McKinley is excited to enter the realm of authoring erotic novels. Through years of reading and looking for strong male and female characters alike, across a myriad of genres, she decided that sometimes you have to write the tale in your heart in order to finally see the kind of hero or heroine you've been searching for. She loves humor and a happy ending though sometimes her characters have to go through insurmountable odds together to achieve their bliss. She hopes that there will be something for everyone who relishes a satisfying erotic story in her books. Come along on the journeys and enjoy the ride! You can learn more about Diana's writing at http://dianamckinley.com/

Book preview

A Cowboy’s Dance

White Oak Ranch

Book 1

Diana McKinley

Copyright © 2017 Diana McKinley

Licensed material is being used for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted in the licensed material is a model.

All rights reserved.

ISBN-13: 9781370483907

Smashwords Edition

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author

DEDICATION

Thank you, Will and Julie, for cheering me on once again.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Cover Art:  Reese Dante   http://www.reesedante.com

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Actual locations are referenced solely to lend realism to the story. No negative connotations to real locations are implied or suggested

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"The only way to make sense out of change

is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance."

― Alan Watts

Chapter 1

Cole Gentry sat astride his favorite working mount, Pike, just outside his main barn and stared at his phone in utter disbelief. His eyes had lost focus for a moment or two before his horse shifted under him, bringing Cole back to reality and out of the stupor he’d fallen into so easily. A cold, hard reality by the looks of the text illuminating the tiny screen.

Was this how people broke other’s hearts now, he wondered with a detached sense of finality? They sent a text, rather than face their companion and tell them one-on-one that their time together was at an end? Hell, maybe it was, Cole thought with a disgusted sigh. Maybe… just maybe… he was so out of touch with how things were done in relationships that he was the odd man out in this situation. And if that were so… Well, Cole conceded he didn’t want any part in one.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes briefly, knowing that was a lie if ever he had heard one. Cole did want a relationship, more than he knew how to articulate. Only he hadn’t really found someone who would be the kind of partner he secretly hoped for in his corner of Texas. Instead, he held his wishes and dreams close to his vest and had settled for convenient rather than forever. And therein lay the problem.

Cole acknowledged that he had no one to blame for his current situation but himself, even if that truth stung in the worst sort of way. He had stood by stoically and watched as his first and only boyfriend, Robbie Paschal, moved away after high school to chase his dream of living in a large city, while Cole remained on his family’s ranch trying to keep the business afloat and their hands employed. Though Cole had wanted to beg Robbie to stay, he knew he couldn’t stifle the man if he really wanted to spread his wings elsewhere.

Cole had settled on taking the scraps Robbie offered – little interludes over the last five years whenever Robbie could get away from his increasingly busy schedule. As time progressed, those visits became fewer and fewer, until they only saw one another two or three times a year. Their phone calls and emails to each other had dwindled as well. Sometimes, they went months between chats, and that said a whole helluva lot, even to Cole’s heavy heart.

Cole knew that what they shared didn’t qualify as a relationship. And as much as he hated it, he also knew that though he had remained faithful, Robbie had not. Robbie had told Cole that he couldn’t promise fidelity if they weren’t living in the same state, and Cole had accepted that decree as well, not wanting to demand what he knew Robbie wasn’t willing to give him.

Man, but had he deviated from his core values and dreams over the years, and in some mighty big ways.

Cole exhaled and shook his head, admitting to himself that he wanted more from a partner – so much more – and that the only way he was going to get it was to stop accepting less from another man than he was willing to give. That, too, terrified him, because Cole had never admitted to anyone other than his parents and Robbie that he was gay.

He had been too afraid as a teen to come out, sure that bigotry would overshadow any of his neighbors’ friendships and warmth toward him. The world at large may have been changing and tolerance for gay people spreading, but where he came from there was still a lot of prejudice and judgment. A lot of hate too, which Cole didn’t want spilling over to his mother and his ranch hands, all of whom still lived on the sprawling farm that his father, grandfather and his father before him had built through blood, sweat and years of back-breaking work.

Yet Cole wondered how much longer he would be able to shoulder the burden alone, all because he chose to hide and bury himself in work with no one at his side to help him carry the load as a true partner would. Surely, he thought, by now his community knew him well enough to let him at least live in peace if he openly lived with a man, even if they didn’t accept his choice. Perhaps… just perhaps… he could live his life without fear of violence and reprisal because he had proven himself to be a good neighbor and a hard worker throughout the course of his twenty-six years.

Maybe it was finally time to man up and find out because the alternative was a lonely, cold existence of which Cole wanted no further part. He’d already had a taste of what that felt like during his long-distance association with Robbie. No way did Cole want that to be his future. Not when his parents had shown him what a happy marriage looked and felt like until his father’s untimely heart attack and death seven years earlier.

Yeah, something had to give, Cole admitted, and he was the only one who could initiate the change. It was long past time.

Cole lifted his dusty hat and ran his fingers through his thick chestnut locks, rubbing his scalp and then his tired eyes. Heaving another beleaguered sigh, he looked down at his phone and read the text again, trying to make himself accept what his lover was telling him so he could make a clean break with the man and move forward on his own.

Time to face facts, Gentry, he admonished himself softly.

Robbie’s words glowed on the screen, presenting those facts in clear, concise language so that there was no mistaking his intentions.

"I know you’re expecting me to come to the ranch next weekend, Cole, but I won’t be able to make it. Not this time and not next time either. I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but there’s nothing there for me anymore. I’m not sure there ever was. I’m better off staying in Chicago where I have friends who get me and like the same things I do. I’ll always cherish our time together, Cole, but I have to close the door on us if I’m ever going to be able to resist your invitations to come back there. Please understand that life has taken us in different directions, and I’m following my path. I hope you’ll do the same with yours. Love you always, Robbie."

Cole reread the text four times, and then he cleared his throat and slid the device in his breast pocket, effectively closing the door on them as Robbie had asked him to. He didn’t respond to the text because that just wasn’t his way. It would have been too damned impersonal. Plus, there was nothing left to say. Robbie had made the decision to move on, and Cole admitted it really was time for him to do the same.

He swung his leg over Pike and dismounted, patting the horse’s neck as Pike nickered at him. Clicking his tongue while holding the reins loosely, Cole led Pike inside the barn to brush and cool down his mount before leaving him in his paddock for the night.

You all right there, Gentry? Mike Watkins, his foreman, called out as he strode into the barn several paces behind Cole.

The man was almost old enough to be his father and stood only an inch or two shorter than Cole’s six-foot-two height, though Mike was broad like Cole and heavily muscled too from his years of manual labor.

Cole looked over his shoulder and offered Mike what he knew was a sad attempt at a smile. Yet, it was all he could seem to muster at the moment.

I will be, he said gruffly, knowing it was true, though still painful all the same.

Mike squinted as he dismounted from his mare and angled his head slightly at Cole. Anything you wanna talk about?

Nah. Cole shook his head and set about removing all of Pike’s tack. Just some stuff I gotta deal with.

Mike watched him for a few more seconds before he gave Cole a swift nod. Well, offer’s still open if and when you need an ear, boss.

Cole huffed out a soft laugh and gently tossed a brush at Mike. Mike grinned as he snagged it from the air and set it aside to use on his mount when he finished removing the mare’s tack.

It was a long-standing joke among Cole’s hands to call him boss, as Cole was younger than all of them save one young man who had come from Arizona to join the ranch two years before – a twenty-three-year-old buck named Andre. Cole had still been in high school when his father died suddenly, yet he had stepped up and assumed the mammoth responsibility, alongside his mother, of maintaining the forty thousand acre cattle ranch without one word of complaint. Cole knew that too many depended on him for their livelihood, and he took his responsibility to them and to his heritage seriously.

Cole also knew that, though the hands smirked and grinned when they uttered the title, it wasn’t given lightly. It was truly a sign of their respect – respect which he had well-earned over the last seven years. It was, after all, what they had called his dad.

Yeah, yeah, he muttered. Cole grinned as he worked, though, glad that Mike had given him a reason to smile a little.

So, Mike said after several minutes of silence. Looks like we’re gonna hafta replace that stretch of fence up along the northeastern ridge after all. Dennis and Walter found a good bit of damage today after that last storm, and Dennis said that it looked like some of the heifers had already been gettin’ too close to it for comfort. Gonna lose some if we don’t take down what’s there and put up new wire.

Then we’ll replace it, Cole said without hesitation. Maintaining the herd’s borders wasn’t something he played at, nor did any rancher worth his or her salt.

Cole turned from Pike and draped an arm over the horse’s back. He nodded at Mike. I know that Everest would return any wandering cattle without a word of irritation, but if we can prevent them from straying off our land, then let’s not delay.

Everest Cooper was not only his neighbor, but the slightly older rancher was also one of Cole’s best friends. He knew Everest wouldn’t do more than give him good-natured hell if some of his herd made it onto Everest’s land, but still, Cole didn’t want to get into the practice of sloppy ranchmanship and put a strain on one of the most reliable relationships he had developed in his life.

While everyone else called Everest, Ev, Cole used his full name. In part, because he liked the way the man’s name sounded, but also because Everest was literally like a mountain. Taller than Cole by at least two inches, strong, and solid like the peak he was named after, Everest seemed a formidable man to most who encountered him.

Cole, however, knew the truth. Everest might be a man of few words to those who didn’t know him personally, but he was actually open and friendly if someone took the time to know him. Funny as hell, too, with a quick wit that would leave a person laughing so hard their sides ached. Most importantly to Cole, though, Everest was a gentleman, which made Cole appreciate him even more. Cole hated a bully and, thankfully, Everest was the antithesis of that.

No matter what challenges Cole had faced since assuming the mantle of leadership his father had left behind, it had been Everest who had steadily remained there in the background to guide and steer him in the right direction with an encouraging hand and a gentle word. Even if his advice had initially been met with some skepticism by Mike and a few other seasoned hands, Cole had trusted that the successful cattle rancher wouldn’t lead him astray. Now, several years later, Mike and the others had admitted to Cole in private that they were glad Cole had stuck to his guns and allowed Everest to lead him.

Thanks to Everest’s ingenuity and forward thinking, Cole had managed to bring his ranch out of the red and place it firmly in the black. He did that all while pursuing a business degree online, so his dream of earning a college diploma didn’t get lost in