As he crossed the street, he heard a horn honk. When he glanced to the right he saw Cooper Boon pull up to the curb in front of him. Cooper jumped out of the park ranger truck and smiled. "I thought it was you. I'm on my way to work. Can I give you a lift?"
Though they'd been in touch with social media since they'd met, this was the first time they'd actually seen each other since the day Cooper had rescued him in Lake Mead. Treston stopped short and returned the smile. He couldn't stop smiling. It seemed like destiny had intervened one more time, and just when Treston needed it the most. The last guy Treston thought he'd run into that day was Cooper Boon. But here he was, standing in the road in his park ranger uniform and cowboy hat, ready to rescue Treston one more time. As he ran to Cooper, he felt a sting in his eye. And when he put his arms around Cooper and hugged him, he started to cry so hard Cooper could barely get him into the truck.
Chapter Twelve
"I can't thank you enough for helping me get this job," Treston said. He was standing at a file cabinet in the park ranger's station at Lake Mead, wearing his new beige park ranger uniform. He felt so professional and so normal he could hardly contain his emotions. There would have been a time when the only way he would have worn a drab outfit like this was during a fantasy park ranger strip routine at Chickey's club. He'd been tempted to do this. He'd thought about wearing the uniform on stage, stripping, and shooting ping-pong balls out of his ass. But he didn't want to disappoint Cooper and dismissed the thought completely.
"Don't give it a second thought," Cooper said. "It's nice having you around. I like it." He was on his way out the door to ride the trails on horseback that afternoon. He wore those sexy cowboy boots and hat that always made Treston's heart flutter a little. Before he left, he crossed to the file cabinet, put his arms around Treston, and kissed him goodbye. "I'll see you later. We'll take our nap and order take-out as our Monday usual. I love you."
Cooper had set routines that couldn't be broken. Treston didn't need a watch or a calendar anymore. Cooper always napped for an hour after work. On Mondays they ordered Chinese take-out from the place that delivered a few blocks away from Cooper's apartment-kung pao chicken, an egg roll, and always three fortune cookies for Cooper. Treston could tell it was Tuesday if Cooper rode the trails in a pick-up truck, Wednesday if Cooper had chicken salad for lunch, and Thursday if Cooper wore his black cowboy boots. Treston would never have known it was Thursday if Cooper didn't vacuum the entire apartment at precisely eight o'clock in the evening, or Friday if he didn't have a small glass of prune juice after dinner. He even went to bed at ten every night and woke at six every morning without deviating from the pattern. They had sex between six and seven a.m. On Sundays, Treston always got spanked on the kitchen table.
Treston glanced over his shoulder to be sure Roger, the other ranger who worked at the desk full time, hadn't returned from lunch yet. Then he reached down, squeezed Cooper's dick, and said, "I love you, too. You're my hero."
It was about a month after Treston ran into Cooper near the used-car dealership where he'd gone to apply for a job. After Cooper helped Treston into the car, he drove him home and called in sick that day. He spent the rest of the afternoon listening to Treston talk about how frustrated he was with his life and how he wanted to change his circumstances. In the past when they'd communicated with each other online, Treston had held back and he'd never gone into any great details about what he did for a living, especially the part about being an escort sometimes. But that afternoon he told Cooper Boon everything, from his ping-pong ball act to the guys he saw in private sometimes after the shows. Treston figured if he wanted a relationship with this man he had to be honest and it had to be based on mutual trust.
Cooper sat and listened without saying much. At one point, he sat down on the sofa next to Treston and put his arms around him. He held him tightly and said, "I had a feeling your life wasn't exactly normal or perfect. But I had no idea it was this complicated. What you need is stability. You need a regular routine." He made a fist and pounded the sofa arm.
At the time, Treston felt secure confessing all this to Cooper. Though he was attracted to Cooper, he didn't think Cooper would ever want to get involved with him. Good guys like Cooper Boon didn't think about starting relationships with strippers who sometimes got paid to have sexual encounters with other men. Good guys like Cooper Boon found decent, respectable guys with whom to build relationships around set patterns and normal routines.
So no one could have been more surprised than Treston when Cooper grabbed him, threw him down on the sofa, and kissed him. And when Cooper stopped kissing and said, "I'll help you get a job because I'm in love with you and I want to marry you," Treston thought he'd lost his senses for a moment.