Hard Day's Ride

By J.D. Ryan

Roy Wortham is a spoiled rancher’s son who’s never done a day’s work in his life. When his father decides it’s time Roy grew up, he’s sent on a cattle drive with the ranch’s best hands.

Joe Gibbs expects Roy to demand special treatment on the drive, but to his surprise, Roy asks to be treated just like one of the hands. He wants to learn the ropes so he can take over his father’s empire.

Joe’s grudging respect for the boss’s son slowly turns into friendship. Is Roy interested in being friends -- or could he be after something more?

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Jun 2, 2018
• ISBN: 9781634866606

J.D. Ryan

J.D. Ryan is a smutsmith, a crafter of quality gay erotica, including the JT and Armand stories and the Spy Games stories. An avowed curmudgeon, Ryan lives in the Deep South in a little house full of books and photographs. His stories have appeared in Friction, Best Gay Erotica, and numerous anthologies and magazines. For more information, please visit jdryanbooks.com.

Book preview

10

Chapter 1

I guess that’s it then. You’re refusing??

Roy Wortham glared up at his father. The older man had that Lord-of-the-Manor expression on his face. That expression had started many an argument, especially when it accompanied one of his high-handed orders. Like the one he’d just handed down.

Roy crossed his arms. Yes, I’m refusing. I’m nearly twenty. You can’t make me do it.

You are nearly twenty. Thomas Wortham frowned. I’d just hoped you’d be a more mature nineteen after all that private schooling I paid for. Instead, you’re even more spoiled than when you went away. I don’t know what you did at that damned school, but it wasn’t growing up.

That he’d paid for— Roy resisted the urge to roll his eyes. As if dear old Dad hadn’t jumped at the opportunity to send Roy to the best Eastern boarding school, especially when Mrs. Foster explained that Roy had already mastered everything their rural Texas schoolhouse could offer. You’d think a man would be proud his son could graduate at such a young age instead of insulting him.

I didn’t go to school to be a cowboy, Roy countered. I’m plenty mature enough to start running the ranch.

And I say you’re not. Wortham, Senior turned his back on his son and crossed to stare out the parlor window, looking out over the rolling grass that covered the Tumbling W Ranch. I say you’ll go on this drive. You’ll learn about running the ranch from the bottom up, the same way I did.

You did it that way because you didn’t have a choice. You didn’t have enough help back when you started.

Because I didn’t have the money. I had to build up the herd before I hired hands.

Well, now you’ve got a good herd. And you can pass on the reins without worrying about me. That’s why I took all those business classes, after all.

Classes! Thomas Wortham snorted. You don’t learn about running a ranch by sitting at a school desk. You need to learn how to do more than add up a row of figures. You’ve got to earn the respect of your men, for one thing.

You were all for those classes four years ago. The men will respect me once they see what I can do for this place.

That’s not how it works, son. You can’t just sit around giving orders. Those men need to know you’ll work right alongside of them to make this ranch a success. Why do you think I still ride out as often as I can?

Roy didn’t say what he really thought, which was that the man just liked surveying his domain and seeing the peons bow before him, figuratively speaking. Not that any of the rough-and-tumble crew that worked the cattle would even know how to be respectful. They were just as apt to clap his father on the back with a filthy hand and offer him a five-cent beer.

His father didn’t seem to expect Roy to answer, which was just as well. The day I start sitting around barking orders is the day I’ll lose the respect of my men, he said. To them, you’re still a kid, still wet behind the ears. You’ll have to prove yourself.

Not by going on a cattle drive, I don’t. Frank is more than capable of handling the drive.

He wouldn’t be my foreman if he wasn’t capable. That’s not what I’m talking about.

I said I wouldn’t go, and I meant it.

Thomas Wortham turned a narrow-eyed glare on his son. I reckon I see what you’re getting at. You don’t think you can do the job. Why didn’t you just say so in the first place?

What? I did not say that at all.

"It’s no shame to admit your shortcomings, son. You’re worried you’ll mess up in front of Frank and