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.That’s gonna take a bigger man than me to let slide without some threats and a little bit of intimidation.”Luke blinked, startled, and took a step back from Andy, eyeing him like a crazy person.“What?”“You.” Andy spread his arms around him, presumably indicating Cherish as a whole rather than the immediate area.“This.It just takes one little thing to trigger some memories of ‘down home,’ and then suddenly I’ve got the world’s biggest toddler sniffing into his beer and muttering about his Luke and how he’s never gonna be able to love again and how’s he ever gonna get over you.” Andy snarled and poked a finger in Luke’s chest.“You owe me at least a year of solid Saturday nights involving a lot of whiskey and strippers before we’re even close to even, pal!”Luke opened his mouth, flushed a deep enough red that it was apparent even in the moonlight, and then closed his mouth again, looking stricken.Andy glared at him.“And let’s not even get into the fun times when Tom and Rudy happen to be there, because then I’m treated to all of them going on with the ‘remember whens’ and the ‘how about that times’ and I’m fucking sick of it! In fact, you know what?” He snatched his hat off his head and threw it to the ground and then held up his clenched fists.“I’m gonna give you a beat down anyway, just for being a total dick.”Luke stared from the hat to Andy and then back to the hat again.“Uh…”“Come on, put ’em up, you pussy!” Andy danced from foot to foot, swinging his hips ridiculously.“Let’s go a round!”Luke stared some more at the hat and then back up at Andy, speechlessly.“Come on, I’m gonna fight you for my boy’s honor!” Andy informed him with more ridiculous hip swinging and a little Texas two-step thrown in for good measure.“Dude, man up already!”Luke continued staring, saying faintly, “I think I preferred you when you were threatening to lock me up and have me gangbanged.”“Yeah?” Andy squinted over his raised fists.“Huh.” He dropped them slightly and squinted harder, clearly going for threatening but getting closer to looking constipated in Luke’s opinion.“You gonna stop being such a little bitch if I abort the smackdown?”Looking pained, Luke hesitated but then nodded.“Only if you promise to stop callin’ me names and dancin’ around like a jerk.”Andy dropped the fists, retrieved his hat, and jammed it on his head and then looked wounded.“Those were some of my best moves.”Despite himself Luke found his mouth wanting to twitch into a grin.“Yeah, no kiddin’? And how have you managed to stay alive this long?”Narrowing his eyes again, Andy said with lofty dignity, “I’m a lot better with a gun.” He grinned suddenly, utterly disarming and blinding.“And I had Cody.When all else fails, hide behind the guy that can double as a wall, man!”This time Luke was surprised into a burst of genuine laughter.“That is so wrong.” He looked at Andy thoughtfully and then flashed a slightly sheepish grin.“Although, that’s kinda why we keep Mac around, too.Not the wall part, but the really fucking scary part.They never see her comin’.”“Dude.” Andy clapped one understanding hand on Luke’s shoulder and nodded gravely.“I hear you.Your girl scares the shit out of me.” He pulled his hand back when Luke shifted under it uncomfortably, and said, “Now, how about that beer?”Luke’s expression melted back into one of wariness.“It’s late.”Heavily, Andy sighed.“Look, pretty as you are, I’m not the partner who wants in your pants, okay? And I don’t really want to talk about the case, either.All I got to look forward to when I head back is your three friends sitting around and moping and staring soulfully at their navels or feet or the fucking wall, and it would be really fucking great to put that off for a little while longer and just chill, you know? And seeing as my options are either you or the bowl of Jell-O that keeps trying to pass himself off as a law professional back at the sheriff’s office, then I’m gonna go with you…prickly little bitch that you are.”Looking slightly overwhelmed by the exasperated flood of words, Luke stared at Andy.“Do you have any kind of filter between your brain and mouth at all?” He glared.“And stop callin’ me bitch!”“Then stop being one!” Andy glared back.“Beer.Now.I will cry if I have to.” He tilted his head, considered, and then added thoughtfully, “Or sing.That seems to work with the boys, too.”“Oh, for chrissakes,” Luke capitulated ungracefully and with a pained expulsion of air.“Just for the record, if you’d have whined like this the day we’d met, I woulda confessed to pretty much anything up to and including shootin’ JFK.”Andy moved out of the way when Luke stomped forward and clapped his hands together with a victorious grin.“Duly noted.” He followed inside when Luke opened the door and looked around with interest when the other man flipped the light on.“Nice.Rustic.Very…rustic.”Luke shot him a withering look when he continued his stomping toward the refrigerator in the small kitchen area off the open-plan living room and dining area.“You said that.”“It bears repeating.” Andy looked around the comfortable and minimally furnished room, taking in the abundance of log walls, earthy colors, and wooden features on the fixtures and fittings.“Seriously, all you need is a yellow hound dog and bits of tractor spread out over the table, and you’re starring in the country song of your choice.”Luke crossed back across the room, slapped a cold bottle in Andy’s outstretched hand, and said dryly, “I’m embracing my heritage.”“Uh-huh.” Eyeing the colorful tapestry hanging on the wall over the woodburning stove, Andy nodded his thanks for the beer and sank gratefully into the wide and squishy couch that dominated the room.“Oh, God, that’s good.My ass thanks you.”Luke sat on the other end and looked pained.“Don’t mention it.Ever again.” They sat in silence for a few moments before he turned his head and looked at Andy with a genuinely curious expression [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]