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Neal took his time driving back to the ranch. He stopped his pickup at the top of the hill before descending into the valley, and looked at the domain that Buzz was attempting to share with him. He thought about how they had come together. After going over Betsy's argument and still trying to rationalize his refusal, he gave up and conceded that Buzz and Betsy were right, although he still felt guilty - like he was allowing himself to be bought. He drove on into the valley and parked next to Buzz's Town Car.

He stopped and stared at the open office door while he argued with himself. Eventually, he stepped into the room and studied Buzz who was being very busy with a bunch of papers. When Buzz didn't look up, he sat down in the desk chair across the big old oak partner's desk from him.

"I'm such an idiot. So why do you love me?" He asked.

Buzz looked up and grinned. "Ah, that Betsy is such a gem. Don't ever let her get away." He picked up a file and walked around the desk. "Now … these papers all need your signature."

Neal looked up at Buzz standing over him. Buzz kissed him on the tip of his nose. "Here's a pen."

Neal breathed in his scent. God, he loved this man. He took the pen and signed each document where Buzz indicated. When he finished, Buzz tucked all the papers back into the folder, then knelt next to Neal.

"Now, Love of My Life, we are equals. And you get to pay half of all the bills."

Neal looked stricken. "What have I just done?" he asked.

Buzz laughed joyously as he pulled Neal out of the chair onto the thick Oriental carpet. He lay back and pulled Neal on top of him. "You have just married me. As legally as we can be, that is."

"I love you, Buzz," Neal said, staring into Buzz's liquid chocolate eyes. "You are just so overwhelming sometimes. What does all of this mean, exactly?"

"It means, my Young Satyr," Buzz lifted his head and kissed Neal's lips, "that you now own half of everything that I own. That means you and I own this ranch together. You are also now a full partner in OE. Oh, we need to discuss the adoptions, too."

Neal sat up resting his butt on Buzz's hips. He ignored the tumescence under him. "You're planning on adopting ME?"

Buzz chuckled. "Nooo, you're adopting Billy, Dori and Tim. If something were to happen to me, you need full parental rights. My lawyers are working on other documents, also, to give us complete consensual rights to each other, too. "

"Jeez, Buzz, you think of everything."

"No," he chuckled, "I pay my lawyers to do that."

Buzz pulled him back down, wrapped him in an amorous hug, and kissed him. Neal clung to him, kissing him with equal fervor. He could never get enough.

The door burst open. Billy stood there glaring at them, red faced and furious. "Good grief! It's really true. My own father is a fucking faggot! And Mr. Goody Two Shoes is his goddamned faggot lover!"

Buzz sat up and calmly asked, "Don't you know to knock before entering my office?" He pulled Neal against his chest when he sat up.

"And give you two time to act like a couple of sanctimonious saints?" Billy said. "Fuck you both." He turned and ran to his bedroom, slamming the door behind him.

Buzz let go of Neal who scrambled to his feet. Buzz stood and followed Billy to his room. He knocked on the door that Billy had slammed. "Billy, we need to talk."

"Go to hell."

Buzz turned the handle. It was locked. "Unlock the door, Son." After a few moments he heard the lock click. He turned the knob and entered the room. Billy flung himself across the bed burrowing his face in a pillow. Buzz sat on the edge of the bed and laid his hand on his back. Billy flinched.

"Son, turn over and listen to me, please."

"I'm not your son. I've never been your son. You don't love me. I just live here."

"What are you saying? Of course you are my son."

"You don't think I see the difference in the way you look at Tim and the way you look at me? Just once if you would look at me like you do him…"

"Billy, I love you as much as I love Tim."

"That's the first time I've ever heard you say it. All my life I've heard you tell Tim and Dori that you love them. Why not me? Aren't I worth loving?"

"Of course you are. I've always given you everything you want. What have I denied you?"

"Only your love, Dad. Only your love."

Buzz knew in the depths of his being that he had never wanted Billy from the day that he was born. He wished to this day that Claire had given the boy to his real father. His first sight of Billy was this tiny little black haired, blue eyed, red squalling thing. His wife, mother and mother-in-law had all wanted to name the baby after him. He had been adamant that the child would have only its maternal grandfathers' name. As Billy grew Buzz had forced himself to accept the boy and try to show him love. It was always difficult, but he kept trying. The sad thing was that Billy even as a baby perceived that there was no true bond with his daddy. And when the twins were born, Tim was a big baby, blonde and brown eyed like his daddy, Billy knew there was no hope of ever being loved like Buzz loved Tim.

"Billy, I'm sorry. I didn't realize you felt left out. You've always been so damned independent. Anyway, I came in here to discuss Neal."

"That fag!" Billy's voice was filled with disgust as he rolled off the bed and scrambled across the room, distancing himself from his father.

Buzz stood up, walked over to him and backhanded him. Billy fell into the chair. Buzz immediately felt guilty for hitting the boy, but felt that he had to stand firm. "Billy, you will not use that word again."

"What should I call him? Mommy?" he snarled as he rubbed his stinging cheek. "What are you going to do now? Beat me … throw me out … disown me?"

"Why is it I'm always on the defensive when I try to talk to you? I'm sorry I let you anger me to the point of hitting you and no, I'm not going to throw you out. You are my son. And as difficult as you make it, I do love you. And I want you to love me and show some respect."

"Respect? You drove my mother to her death. And now you've taken another man as your lover and you want me to respect you? That's funny, Da-a-a-ad. That's really funny."

"What do you mean I drove Claire to her death?"

"She worshiped the ground you walk on and you ignored her. All you ever really cared for was Ogden Enterprises. I heard the fights you had. I saw how lonely she was. She should have gone to my real dad, he still loved her."

"What are you talking about?"

"Jorge Lobos, the movie director. He's my real father."

"How did you find out?"

"Hell, Dad, I look just like him. He didn't deny it when I asked him."

"You actually talked to him?"

Buzz collapsed into the chair. Suddenly, he was again faced with the guilt he had managed to suppress over the years. His son expressing the same accusation that he had made to himself brought back the terrible grief that he had nearly killed him two years ago. He looked up at Billy, tears streaking down his face. "I loved your mother, more than life."

Billy felt guilty for having reduced his dad to tears. He knelt in front of Buzz and put his hand on his knee. "I'm sorry, Dad. I didn't mean it. Please don't cry."

Buzz hugged him. "Jorge made me choose. Him or your mother. I chose your mother. I worked to give her all the wealth she could want. I didn't see that she didn't want it. O.E. meant nothing to me without her. If I could have traded places with her, I would have."

"What do you mean he made you choose?" Billy asked.

Buzz realized that he'd never told another soul except Neal what he'd just admitted to Billy. Even Claire had never known that he and Jorge had had been lovers before Jorge introduce her to him. Well, it was something Billy would probably never tell to another person. "Jorge was my lover and your mother's best friend. When I fell in love with her, he couldn't continue being both. He made me chose."

"So he's a f....homosexual, too?" Billy was lost in thought. He'd just found his real father and he didn't want to accept that he was gay. Buzz must have made him that way. 'Yeah,' he thought, 'It was Buzz' fault, he must have seduced him.'

"I love you, Son. I loved your mother. And I love Neal. I need you to accept that."

Angry again, Billy pulled away and stood up. Buzz dried his face on his shirt sleeve.

"Billy?"

"No." He stood defiantly shaking his head.

Buzz stood up and took Billy by his shoulders and forced him look in to his eyes. He towered over the boy who had inherited his mother and biological father's small stature. He spoke in a calm quiet voice. "Neal is in this house to stay. You may have decided not to like him, but you will be respectful to him. I brought him into this house and made him my mate. And you will accept that fact. You'll soon be eighteen, and you start to college next fall. Until then you live in this house and abide by my rules."

"You're always making rules. I never see you telling the twins what they have to do. How come you always pick on me?"

His whining grated on Buzz. "Do you see them rebelling at every turn like you do? No, they are well-behaved. They don't go around looking to get in trouble constantly."

"And I do?"

"Don't you?'

"Well, if I got as much attention as they do, I wouldn't have to do things."

"If you stuck around and acted like you're part of this family things would be a lot different."

"I don't see it being any different when I am here."

"When you are here, you always stand back and just watch. I know that you know how to interact with people. So why don't you try it with us?"

Billy wanted this to be over. "It's too boring."

"I guess that is the problem. Here, you are only one of us. And when you're out tooling around in your red Mustang you are the center of attention. Someday, Billy, you're going to discover that it's the car, not you, that is the attention getter."

"Yeah? Well..."

"Back to the subject. Sit down and listen. First off, I haven't changed. I'm still your father. Second, I never asked to be gay. I was born this way. I've fought it all my life. Now I've found a man I love. And he loves me."

"Yeah, how about the way that affects me? What're my friends going to say?"

"Outside of this house Neal is my employee. He is here to tutor you and the twins. The only way anyone will know differently is if you tell them. You wouldn't have known if you'd had the decency to knock before bursting into my office. And you will not see any display of affection between the two of us again… as long as you knock first."

"I'll still know what you're doing."

"Only in your dirty little imagination."

"I don't have to like him."

"No, you don't… but you do have to respect him and be polite at all times. You liked him yesterday. Maybe you can again. I can't force it. So let's see what happens."

"What about Mom?"

"Your mother is dead, Billy. Besides I think she'd be happy for me. I think she'd approve."

"Well, I don't."

"I'm not asking your approval, only your acceptance."

"All right… I accept it. But I don't like it."

"Good enough. Now go in and apologize to Neal."

"Aaah, Dad," Billy whined. "Do I have to?"

"What you did, Billy, was rude and unacceptable behavior. Yes, you have to."

"Oh, all right."

"Billy?"

He turned and looked back at Buzz.

"I love you, Son."

Buzz didn't see the happy little smile on Billy's face as he walked away.

><

That night Buzz related to Neal the conversation that he'd had with the sheriff over lunch a couple of weeks before. Neal sat in thought for a few minutes.

"So the sheriff approves of us, huh?"

"He's my dearest and oldest friend." Buzz studied Neal for a few moments. "I am proud to have you as my mate, Neal."

"I feel the same, it's just that it takes getting accustomed to… you know."

"Well, hold your head up and don't let the bigots get to you."

"Yeah." He snuggled his head onto Buzz' chest. "As long as we're together."

* * *

George lay in his lonely bed in his sparsely furnished house. His ex-wife had taken what she wanted when she left, and he had not bothered trying to replace most of it. He stared at the ceiling and thought about his youth and the wonderful times he had shared with Buzz. He recalled how he would lay in bed after a football game and get himself off thinking about Buzz's fine body. He tried to imagine what it would be like now - him and Buzz together - naked. Nah, he chuckled, the image just didn't work.

He thought about that young deputy that had just joined the force a few months ago. He had been in the Marine Corps. George had seen him in shorts and a T-shirt, so he knew he had hairy arms and legs. He closed his eyes and imagined how his body would look; defined muscles in his chest and belly, not too much hair, just enough to make him look manly. The image of his lips and alert blue eyes got a rise. He imagined those eyes filled with lust and those lips touching his, and then descending to his chest, to his thighs and then back up to… he shuddered hard with his release, then relaxed and fell into a peaceful sleep.

>><<

On Friday morning Buzz asked Maria to fix a special dinner for four and to keep it a secret from Neal. When he got to the office he called the sheriff and invited him to dinner that evening, then he called Betsy and invited her.

When Neal pulled into the driveway that evening, he saw the sheriff's patrol call parked next to Buzz' black Lincoln. He immediately panicked - something must have happened. He grabbed his books and jumped out of his pickup and ran into the house calling for Buzz.

"In here, Neal." Buzz called from his office. Neal flew into the office dropping his books as he entered.

"What's wrong?" he asked before he registered that they were laid back, relaxing with drinks in hand. Both men stood up.

"Calm down, Babe. I want you to meet my ol' buddy George Bentley. He turned to George. "Geo, this is Neal Martin."

When the formality of handshaking and the 'glad to meet yous' were out of the way, Neal scrambled to pick up his scattered books and papers. Both men chuckled.

"I didn't mean to scare you," Buzz said. "Are you okay?"

Neal stood up embarrassed for having panicked. "Of course, I'm okay. Forgive me for making such an entrance. I wish we could start over."

George put an arm around his shoulder. "Nah, my car and I have that kind of effect on people all the time. I've wanted to meet you for some time now to see just who the fellow is that makes ol' Buzz here so happy."

Neal ducked his head and blushed. Buzz grinned at him and held out his hand, beckoning him. Neal stepped into a bear hug. Buzz kissed him on the forehead, then looked at George and said. "This is the man, Geo."

Neal left to put his books in his study. On the way back he detoured to the kitchen, greeted Maria with a kiss on her cheek, grabbed a coke out of the fridge and went in to join Buzz and the sheriff. He stopped outside the office door and listened to the conversation. George was asking how he'd broken his arm.

"He took a roll down that steep shale hill at the beach. You remember it, we used to ride our horses up there and sit and watch the surf crash at the bottom of the cliff."

"Oh, yes. I loved that place."

"You know you're welcome to go there any time."

"Thanks, Buzz."

"It took his rolling down that shale slope to put him into a vulnerable position where he'd open up to me. I knew it was time to tell him how I felt. After I did, everything was all right from then on.

"I made him soak in the Jacuzzi and then I put him in his own bed. He came to mine in the middle of the night. Things have been great since then. It is so natural feeling … being with him. I love him, Geo, with all my heart and soul."

"As I told you before, Buzz, he's a lucky young man."

"I'm the lucky one to have found him."

Neal took a deep breath, stepped into the room and sat on the arm of Buzz's chair. The two men looked at him. Neal grinned and said, "I get the feeling that I was the subject of the conversation I just interrupted."

Buzz pulled him over onto his lap. "Yes, you were. I was just telling Geo how stubborn, hardheaded, and obstinate you can be."

Neal laughed as he slid off Buzz's lap and sat back on the arm chair. "He right, Sherriff, especially about the hard head. I'm lucky I didn't break it instead of my arm when I tumbled down that slope."

The three men visited for several minutes before they were interrupted by a soft knock on the office door. Betsy stuck her head in and said, "Hello, the front door was open and there's a cop car out front. Is everything okay?"

Neal jumped up and hugged her. "Yeah, everything's fine. The sheriff is here for dinner, too."

"Far out."

George was usually put off by college kids, especially the hippy-types. Although Betsy wore a full ruffled ankle length tie-died skirt and a flouncy Mexican blouse, George found that he really like her. As they visited, he discovered that she wasn't the air-headed hippy he'd assumed her to be when he first met her. Buzz was delighted that everyone got along so well.

Buzz's office was a cozy comfortable place to sit and visit. Soon the twins wandered in and joined the adults. Dory sat sidesaddle on the arm of her dad's chair with her arm resting on the high back, while Tim managed to sit between Betsy and Neal on the sofa. Before long he was resting against Neal's side with Neal's arm around his shoulder.

George missed his own children who he didn't get to see but a couple of times a month. He felt a twinge of jealousy seeing the closeness between Tim and Neal. In the course of the conversation George mentioned how he missed his kids. The twins were taken with the sheriff. They'd heard their dad talk about him being his best friend, but they'd never been in a social situation with him before. Tim had been watching the sheriff's covert glances at him and Neal. He gave Dori a look and glanced at the sheriff. They got up, sat on each arm of his chair and hugged him. Dori kissed him on the cheek as Tim whispered in his ear that they would be his surrogate children anytime he needed a hug. That made George's evening.

When Maria called them to the table, Billy quietly slipped in without being noticed. He sat through the meal observing the friendly interaction between the sheriff, Neal and his dad. He momentarily wondered if the sheriff was queer, too, but sloughed off the idea. There was no one more macho than Sheriff Bentley. Slowly the thought that if the sheriff and Betsy were friends with his dad and Neal maybe their being queer wasn't as bad as he was making it out to be.

>><<

After saying goodnight and watching the sheriff and Betsy drive away, Buzz closed and locked the big oak door. Neal was waiting by the office door to escort him to bed. "Betsy and George really took a liking to each other. Do you think something might develop between them?" Neal asked as Buzz wrapped him in a hug.

Buzz kissed Neal's forehead and pulled back where he could see him. "Don't count on it, Babe."

"Are you saying that the sheriff is gay?"

"I'm not saying anything, except that you shouldn't count your chicks before they hatch."

"Why not? If I've got a dozen eggs I should get a dozen chicks. Right?"

"What if some of the eggs aren't fertile?"

"Oh… I guess being raised on a ranch you just knew that."

"It's just common sense."

"I guess I don't have much of that. If I did, I wouldn't be wearing this cast. Damn, I've got an itch just below my elbow."

"Why don't you let me distract you, so you'll forget about it?"

Buzz took Neal into his arms and started planting kisses on his neck. Neal groaned and then said, "But he was married and has two kids."

Buzz ignored the comment, and Neal quickly forgot all about George.