Riding Tall Read Free

of his family. If he stayed still and let himself think, it would all start pressing down on him. The responsibilities he’d never asked for, the pressures he didn’t need, the goddamned cattle in the neighbor’s hayfield… it could be too much, unless he kept moving and refused to think about it. This was his life, and there was no escape, so he might as well just get on with it.
    Thinking about Mackenzie made things better. Sure, Joe was up here and Mackenzie was a couple hundred miles away, living the glamorous life, but he’d come back. Joe kept his brain moving past the little voice reminding him that one of these times Mackenzie wasn’t going to come back, because there was no point dwelling on that, either. This time, at least, Mackenzie would probably be back. Joe could just focus on that, and it made everything else a little easier to accept.

Chapter 2

     
    “N O WONDER you’re in such a hurry to get out of here,” the makeup artist gushed. She was looking at the photo in Mackenzie’s wallet: Joe sitting on top of Misery, the man grinning while the horse pinned her ears back. “He’s gorgeous . And he’s, like, a real cowboy?”
    “A rancher,” Mackenzie said with a nonchalant shrug. “I think technically the cowboys are the hired hands. He owns the place.”
    “Wow. That is so sexy!”
    “I know. It’s killing me to be down here.”
    “Why are you?” she asked with a furtive glance around them. “I mean, this isn’t exactly the cover of Vogue we’re shooting. Wouldn’t you be happier up with him?”
    “I would be,” Mackenzie admitted. “But it’s hard to make any money up there.”
    “So who cares? Let the rich rancher take care of you!”
    Possibly Mackenzie had overstated things, or at least allowed the woman to develop a slightly exaggerated understanding of Joe’s wealth. He wasn’t going to correct her, though. “I want to have my own money,” he said. “For independence, you know? I don’t want to be a kept boy.” He’d been that for too long, and even if he knew Joe wouldn’t be an asshole about it, he refused to go back to that dynamic.
    “Wow. You’re stronger than I would be.” She took one more wistful look at the photograph, then turned her attention back to Mackenzie. “And you’re looking pretty gorgeous yourself,” she said with satisfaction. She lowered her voice to say, “It’s a bit sad that we’re doing a vampire shoot this long after the trend crested, but you could suck my blood anytime.”
    “Thanks, I guess.” Mackenzie smiled at her. It was sad that they were doing a vampire shoot. It was sad that he’d pissed away the best years of his potential career just because Nathan didn’t like him working, and it was sad that he was now too old, according to his agent, to break into the top ranks of the modeling world. Well, it hadn’t just been the age, if Mackenzie was being honest with himself. Carson, his agent, had been kind, but clear: You’re a good-looking man, Mackenzie. Very, very handsome. But you’re not exotic. You’re not special. There are a thousand other Mackenzies out there, looking just like you do. All of you very, very handsome. I can get you catalogue work and local ad campaigns. You know the drill. It can be a career, but I’m being honest with you. I don’t think you’re going to the top. You’re already too old for your type, to be honest. People want eighteen-year-old twinks; they don’t necessarily want what they turn into ten years later.
    Carson had been talking about advertisers not wanting him anymore, but Mackenzie had still been tempted to pull out his wallet and flash Joe’s picture in the agent’s face. Joe wanted him. That was what mattered.
    And Joe hadn’t been impressed with Mackenzie’s past as a kept boy. I don’t want to date someone who chooses his fucks based on the size of their bank accounts . Sure, they’d been in the process of breaking up when Joe had said that, but that didn’t mean