Wanted | Niam AU

Chapter 44: Greg

Fuck! I could not sleep at all. All I could think about was Louis. Louis in his swim trunks, Louis out of his swim trunks, Louis riding on that damn horse and racing with me, Louis smiling as he was just letting go while riding. It was clear to me he loved being on a horse and he was a damn good rider. We argued most of the damn day and I blamed myself for that. I just couldn't help it. He was so fucking cute when he was mad. Even though we fought most of the day, the normal conversation we had while we sat along the river letting our horses cool down was probably the best damn twenty minutes of my life. We didn't fight, didn't call each other names...we just talked. He told me he wanted to live in the country, on a place not as big as the ranch but with plenty of land for horses. My heart soared. I planned on buying the property that backed up the Paynes ranch. It wasn't anything like this ranch, only two hundred and fifty acres, but I'd been talking to Garrett tonight and the family that owned the small ranch was desperate to sell it. I guess their grandparents owned it and they just wanted it gone so they could keep up their city lives in Austin. There was a small ranch-style home on the property, two wells and three tanks. Perfect for horses and a few cattle, and Garrett already said I could let my cattle graze on the Paynes ranch as well as the horses. It was a dream come true. I hadn't even told Liam about it yet.

On the trip back from the stables, I decided I was going to talk to Louis. I needed to see if we could make a go at being something more than friends. Especially now that I knew he wanted the same life I did. I planned on talking to him after dinner. I was going to just tell him how I felt and pray he felt the same way. I dared to let myself get excited.

That was until I saw him bouncing downstairs right before dinner with Niall and get so excited when a text message from the cheating bastard Jason came through. His excitement sent a clear signal. He obviously loved him. Fucking prick didn't deserve Louis. He was way too good for him, and he would end up cheating on him, just like he did with all the other ones.

I tried to clear my thoughts so I could get to sleep. After tossing and turning damn near all night, the clock read 4:30 a.m. when my eyes finally closed.

The next morning I woke up to find Garrett and Louis sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee. Where the hell was everyone else?

"Where is everyone?" I asked as I poured a cup of coffee and sat down at the table.

"Emma ran into town to attend a church meeting, Liam mentioned something about giving Niall another first and they took off for town. Gramps here, he was just bitching to me about a fence that needs repairing."

I had to let out a chuckle at Louis's reference to Liam's grandfather as Gramps. Only Liam ever called him that.

"What fence needs fixin' Garrett? I can head out and fix it for you," I said as Louis quickly shot his head up and looked at me.

"Well it's on the north side of the ranch. Butts up against the property you're interested in buying," Garrett said with a wicked smile on his face.

Fuck me. Louis sat up straighter and gave me a look of pure shock.

"What? You're buying property out here? Since when did you decide this? Does Niall know? What about Liam, does he know? What in the world are you going to do out here? I can't believe you didn't tell us..."

"For Christ's sake Louis, please shut the fuck up!" I said as I shook my head. Goddamn it, that boy could just rattle on.

Louis shot me a dirty look and I could tell he wanted to say something back to me but didn't because Garrett was sitting right there.

"Anyway, back to the fence. I can take the truck and head on over there right now," I said as I saw Louis still staring at me. I'm sure he had a million questions he wanted to ask me. Thank the fuck I was leaving to mend a fence.