By Chance (7 page)

Dustin laughed, too. “It was the best shower I have ever had.”

Vince let his smile fade. “This might not be okay to ask, so you don’t have to answer… I was just wondering; how did you survive being homeless for two years?”

“By doing a lot of things I’m not proud of,” Dustin replied quietly, not looking at him. “I stole things when I had to. Let myself be raped when I had to. Ate out of trashcans. Drank filthy water. Things I had to do to survive.”

“You didn’t have to answer,” Vince told him, stunned and deeply disturbed. “Jesus. What about the homeless shelters?”

Dustin shrugged. “I stayed in a couple for a few days. But I felt confined, that I’d rather be on the streets. Plus the workers there are always asking questions, trying to catch runaways and get them back to their families. The only thing I am proud of is not taking up drugs or drinking. When I couldn’t stand living like that anymore, I moved out into the woods.”

“How did you live out there all winter?”

“I stole two tarps from someone’s backyard. Used those and a bunch of tree branches and dirt to build a shelter, used snow to reinforce it when it started. Stole food from a store down the road—mainly nuts. I felt like a fucking squirrel. I also got as many packages of hand warmers as I possibly could, whenever I could. I had some blankets and a winter coat I’d taken from my house before they changed the locks. I think they realized I’d come in and taken things like that, and a couple hundred dollars from my mom’s purse.”

“I’m sorry,” Vince whispered.

Dustin shook his head. “I’m pretty sure I owe you my life, so don’t be. In fact, thank you. Thank you,
a lot
.”

Vince smiled a little. “You’re welcome.”

W
HEN
THEY
had their traditional party for the Preakness Stakes race, Vince made sure he stayed well away from the beer. Not that he had much more personal information to divulge in a moment of drunkenness, at least not to Dustin. The last thing he needed was to spill his guts to someone else.

Dustin picked the same horse to win as he had before, and got lucky enough to win again. This time, though, he wasn’t the only winner.

“Don’t pick that horse to win the Belmont,” Mia warned him. “There hasn’t been a Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978. Won’t happen this year, either. Never does.”

Vince rolled his eyes. “Pick whoever you want to pick. Mia is going to pick him. She always does. She just wants less people to share the possible winnings with.”

“I can’t even plot my victory without you ruining it, can I?” Mia grumbled.

“Is this when I learn not to trust Mia?” Dustin questioned.

“Yes,” Vince answered at the same time that Mia said, “No.”

Dustin smiled. “Guess I’ll have to choose wisely.”

“H
EY
V
INCE
?”
Dustin asked one afternoon as Vince was standing at the arena fence watching Mia ride one of the horses in training.

“Yeah?” he replied, turning to look at Dustin as he took a spot at the fence beside him.

“If you’re free sometime, would you mind taking me to get a haircut?”

Vince smiled. “Sure. Actually, we can go once Mia is done here. Tired of the ponytail?”

Dustin nodded. “I hate having long hair. Can’t really cut your own hair very well, though.”

“I’ve never tried, so I’ll take your word on that,” Vince replied. “You want to try driving?”

Dustin looked slightly terrified. “Your truck?”

Vince shrugged. “Why not? I mean, you don’t have to, but I thought I would at least offer. I wouldn’t make you start off on the road. It’s Wednesday, I’m sure most church parking lots are empty.”

“Can I think about it?” Dustin asked.

“Yeah, we can get your hair cut first,” Vince agreed.

They were heading for the mall an hour later when Dustin looked over from the passenger seat and asked, “How hard is it to get a bank account?”

Vince shrugged. “You’re over eighteen, so I doubt it’s very hard.”

“I think it would be a good idea to get one,” Dustin told him, looking back out the windshield. “I feel bad that your dad pays me under the table because he knows I don’t have a bank account to deposit my paycheck into.”

Vince stopped for a red light and glanced over at him. “He actually suggested I take you to get one back when we got your ID and birth certificate. I didn’t want to overwhelm you then, and with everything in my own life, it slipped my mind. I’m sorry.”

Dustin shrugged. “Doesn’t matter to me. I can still get one now, though.”

The light turned green, and they started moving again. “We can do that. There’s a bank at the mall. It’s the same one my whole family uses, so I know it’s pretty good.”

“Thanks,” Dustin replied with a smile.

Vince thought the afternoon was quite successful. They got Dustin’s hair cut first, and it made him look totally different and more attractive. Vince tried not to think about the second observation—it wouldn’t be a good idea to start down that path. After that, they got him a checking account at the bank, bought some coffee for the road, and headed home. On the way, Dustin decided to try driving. So, in the parking lot of a local church, Vince parked the truck and traded seats with him.

Vince wasn’t sure of his teaching skills, but Dustin did fairly well, considering he’d never even driven so much as a go-cart in his life. By the time he’d been going around the parking lot for an hour, Dustin seemed a lot more relaxed and comfortable. But Vince still wasn’t about to have him drive on the road for quite a while.

W
HEN
IT
was time for the third race in the Triple Crown, Dustin apparently decided to trust Vince over Mia and made his bet on the same horse that had already won the first two races. It turned out to be a poor choice, as the horse finished closer to the back of the pack than the front. In fact, no one chose the winner, so everyone got their money back.

The next morning, Vince went to the barn shortly after the morning feeding to see if Dustin wanted to take Justin on another trail ride and found him in Justin’s stall as usual. But this time, Dustin was leaning against the wall just watching the big gelding as he searched his clean stall shavings for any scraps of hay or feed he might have missed when he ate breakfast. Dustin wasn’t smiling like he usually was around the horse. He looked miserable.

“What’s going on?” Vince asked as he leaned his arms on the stall door.

Dustin shrugged, his hands stuffed into the pockets of his jacket. “Your dad was just here. He put Justin up for sale.”

“
Already
?” Vince practically gasped. Justin was doing great, but Vince never expected him to be placed up for sale so soon.

Dustin just shrugged again. “I thought I’d have more time, too. But I knew it would happen eventually. I just have to start detaching myself now.”

“You never know how long it will be before anyone actually buys him,” Vince pointed out. “I doubt it’ll be tomorrow. Maybe not even by the end of the summer.”

Dustin sighed. “I know. I’m still going to miss him.”

Vince nodded. “I know,” he said quietly. “Come on, let’s take him for a trail ride.”

O
NCE
V
INCE
knew all the hands were at the barn for the evening feeding, he let himself in to his parents’ house and marched into his father’s home office. Wes looked up as his son walked up to him and stopped just before hitting the desk. Vince was on a mission; he’d made his decision hours ago, and he wasn’t going to give up easily.

“How much are you asking for Justin?” he asked.

Wes leaned back in his chair and raised an eyebrow. “You have a horse.”

“But Dustin doesn’t.”

Wes rubbed his forehead and sighed. “I know the kid loves that horse, but even if he didn’t spend a dime since I started paying him, he’d barely have enough to buy him.”

“I’m buying him,” Vince clarified. “For Dustin.”

His father sighed again. “Why?”

“Because he deserves to have some happiness in his life. And Justin loves him as much as Dustin loves Justin.”

“You should have told him I’d be selling this horse,” Wes stated. “Why did you let him get attached?”

Vince threw his hands up. “Why is it my responsibility to make sure no one out there bonds with a horse? I told him, and he said he still wanted to have what he had with Justin while he could. Dad, the last two years of his life have been more fucked up than you can imagine. If you’re worried he might leave at the end of the summer and can’t keep Justin, you shouldn’t. You have a buy-back clause in every sales contract. And if Dustin has his own horse, he won’t bond like this with any others. Let me give him
something
to be happy about. Really happy, not just grateful to have a house and a job to support himself.”

Wes looked at him thoughtfully. “Well,” he finally sighed, “if it’ll make you happy to do this, I won’t stop you. Go get your checkbook while I take his ad down. I’ll write up the contract tonight.”

Vince turned to go, then stopped and looked back at his father. “Make sure it’s a sales contract for zero dollars. I don’t want him to know I did this.”

“All right,” Wes replied, waving him out.

Vince was grinning before he even made it out the door.

H
E
WENT
back to his father’s office at lunchtime the next day and was handed the sales contract for Justin.

“I trust you when you say this is the right thing to do,” Wes said, looking him in the eye.

Vince nodded. “You know it is, too.”

His father smiled. “Maybe you’re right.”

Vince went straight to the barn and saw Dustin helping Joe to groom Star, who had apparently decided she wanted to become chestnut instead of gray and used the mud in the pasture to aid in the transformation.

“Sorry, Joe,” he said as he walked close to where they had the mare cross-tied in the aisle. “I have to steal Dustin for a minute.”

Joe waved a very muddy brush at him. “Go ahead. We were just talking about taking her to the hose out back and just spraying her off. I’ll get Chris to help me instead.”

Vince nodded and motioned to Dustin to come with him to the barn office. Dustin was silent, and Vince wondered if he was worried that Vince was going to tell him that Justin was leaving. When they got to the office, Vince unlocked the door, turned on the light, and closed the door behind them.

“I have something for you,” Vince announced before handing the sales papers over.

Dustin took them with a puzzled look on his face. “What is it?”

“Read it” was all Vince said. He had to fight his urge to smile as he waited for Dustin to realize what he held.

Dustin began reading, and his eyes got wide. He looked up at Vince abruptly and seemed to struggle to find words for a moment. Finally, he whispered, “Your dad’s
giving
me Justin? Why? How?”

Vince grinned. “I convinced him that you guys belonged together, and that Justin already has a strong bond with you.”

“He’s mine?” Dustin breathed, still looking like he was experiencing the biggest shock of his life.

Vince nodded. “Well, as soon as you sign these papers and I get them back to my dad.”

Dustin threw himself at Vince and hugged him so tightly that it actually hurt. It seemed all Dustin could say was “thank you” over and over again. Vince hugged him back the best he could and let Dustin decide when to let go, which took about two minutes.

Vince had never seen Dustin grinning so brightly, and it made him grin back. “Here, let’s get those papers signed. Then I’ll get them back to Dad while you go hug your horse.”

V
INCE
WAS
surprised to get a call from Jane that night. She’d been around the farm a couple of times since she had moved out, but she hadn’t stayed longer than her meetings with Wes about the financial side of things. She’d never checked in with him before, and he assumed she was trying to give him space to clear his mind. It was something she would do.

“Just thought I’d see how you’re doing,” she explained as soon as they said hello.

Vince started cleaning up the dishes from his meager dinner. “I’m all right.”

“How’s your friend Dustin?”

“Good,” Vince answered, rinsing his plate and fork in the sink. “Actually, I think he’s pretty high on life now. I bought Justin for him.”

“You
what
?” she practically yelled.

Vince winced and moved the phone to his other ear. “Dad was going to sell Justin already, but those two have a great bond, a lot like Xander and I do. I couldn’t stand to break them up, so Dad let me pay for Justin while putting Dustin’s name on the papers. I just don’t want him to ever figure out that Dad wasn’t really selling the horse to him for nothing,” he added in warning.

“Jesus, Vince,” Jane laughed. “You sure you’re not in love with him?”

He closed the dishwasher and rolled his eyes, not caring that she couldn’t see him. “He’s a good friend. He stayed with me when I got really drunk a few weeks ago. Though I will say Dad asked him to.” He cleared his throat and added. “And apparently, I told him about myself while I was drunk. He’s fine with it.”

“Is he, too?”

Vince paused. He’d told Dustin he wasn’t going to tell anyone, and he meant it. He was about to tell her he didn’t know the answer to that when she caught on anyway.

“Oh my god, that’s why he got kicked out of his house, isn’t it?”

Vince groaned. “Jane, please. I told him I wasn’t going to tell anyone.”

“You didn’t tell me,” she argued. “You’re just awkward at conversations that require you to lie like that. I will never let him know that I know before others do. I will say, though—you better go get ’im. You’re already basically in love with him.”

“Yeah, right,” he practically laughed. “He’s a kid, five years younger than me. He’s hot and all, but I think he’s more like a brother. Plus I’m technically his boss.”