Chapter 10

Austin heard a knock on his apartment door, so he answered it and found Zeb standing there with his hat in hand.

“We had a last-minute booking. A church group had planned to go to Clancy’s, but they had a fire that burned down some of their cabins.”

Clancy’s was their chief competition in the area; they did a lot of church work for summer camps and weekend outings. Mr. Clancy, a former pastor, had found a nice niche market for himself.

“What do you need?” Austin asked.

“Saddle the horses and take them to the small lake. Maverick, Travis, and I will grab the four-wheelers and bring food and fishing rods to help keep them entertained.”

“Sounds good. Give me five, and I’ll be right down.”

When Austin arrived downstairs, Maverick and Travis were talking to the youth pastor. He looked fresh out of college, and it looked like all the teen girls were interested in him. Bradley was a good-looking guy with one of those five-day-growth beards that got women excited.

The group consisted of twins, a brother and sister who appeared to be ten or eleven; two teen guys; and six teen girls.

“I promised you a real-life cowboy,” Maverick said with a twinkle in his eye. “This is Austin, who’ll help you pick out a horse and lead you on the ride to the lake.”

Austin suddenly had two little helpers who wanted to know all about being a cowboy. Unlike the rest of the group, Ashley and Andy rode horses at their grandparents’ ranch. They fell in love with the Haflingers.

Once he’d saddled about half the horses, Nora came out and helped. With her assistance, he finished with the twins in no time.

Bradley gathered everyone.

“Before we go, let’s say a prayer for the Clancys, thanking the Houstons for saving our retreat, and for a safe and enjoyable weekend.”

Once they’d said their prayer, and everyone added ‘amen,’ Austin helped those who needed it to get mounted. Red wanted to set a faster pace when he saw Bliss trot down the path in front of him. Austin held the stallion up because he didn’t want to alarm the novice riders.

When they arrived at the small lake, he saw that Zeb and his sons had transformed the area. They’d erected a ten-by-ten tent pavilion with two tables underneath it that held drinks and deli trays of assorted subs with individual bags of chips. Maverick had been put in charge of music, while Travis had the fishing poles ready. Nora, Ashley, and Andy helped Austin move the horses to the pasture. They unsaddled the horses since they planned to hang out at the lake for a couple of hours.

Austin had to get after Red because he still wasn’t pleased that Bliss beat him to the lake.

The teen boys and Bradley wanted to go fishing, so Travis and Austin took them to a good spot. The crappie were sitting on shallow beds, spawning. Since the pond was spring-fed, the water was almost crystal clear to five feet deep, making it easy to see fish.

While the group fished, Travis talked to Austin.

“My dad went to Mary’s and spoke to some of the regulars. They suggested he put in crappie beds to help the fish population,” Travis said.

Mary’s was a breakfast-and-lunch diner that many of the locals liked. The ‘regulars’ was code for old-timers with nothing better to do.

“Really?” Austin asked.

Travis pulled his phone out and showed him pictures of what they suggested. PVC pipes were attached to wooden pallets and weighed down with concrete blocks.

“What’s that going to set him back?” Austin asked.

“Only five hundred each.”

“In Montana, my dad and I would collect old Christmas trees and tie blocks to them. Then we’d put them on the ice, and they would drop down in place when it thawed. We only needed to pay for the rope and blocks. The trees gave the fish plenty of cover,” Austin said.

“But PVC will last a lot longer,” Travis said, which must’ve been what his dad had told him.

“Yeah—much longer than the pallets will. In a few years, you’ll have PVC pipes littering the bottom of the lakes.”

Travis thought about it for a moment.

“But there are no Christmas trees this time of year.”

“They don’t have to be Christmas trees; any tree branches or bushes will do. Over time, they’ll degrade, and you just drop more in the lake,” Austin said.

“Come to think of it, either way, we’ll still have a lot of concrete blocks littering the lake bottom.”

“That’s true, but these days, you can buy biodegradable garbage bags. Fill those with dirt and rocks, and use those as weights. Over a couple of years, the bags will degrade, too.”

“I need to talk to my dad. We’ve been hauling brush and stuff like that to the dump,” Travis said.

“You should have my dad talk to him. He’ll set him straight,” Austin said.

“That might be better.”

“I caught one!” Bradley called out.

“I better go help him get it off the hook,” Travis said, striding off to help the youth pastor.

’City folk,’ Austin thought as he walked away, shaking his head.

Maverick found him when he came back to grab some food.

The ranch rules said the clients got the first crack, but Austin could help himself once they were done. He wasn’t surprised to find everything gone but the tuna. Frankly, those sandwiches were disgusting. Austin liked homemade tuna sandwiches, but the place they ordered from put in far too much mayonnaise. The mayo itself was gross-tasting and had a watery consistency. Personally, he would have preferred the spicy Italian or roast beef, but those were all gone.

“Church kids are smarter than I would have guessed,” Austin said.

“I doubt that it’s actually tuna.”

They wisely just grabbed chips, though even those were bottom of the barrel. Austin’s choice was chili-cheese corn chips or some healthy baked chips. Maverick snatched the chili one out of Austin’s hand.

“Dude!” Austin complained.

“At least these have some flavor,” Maverick said with a big grin as he opened the bag and stuffed a handful into his mouth.

Austin could always eat a TV dinner when he got back to the apartment, making tossing back the baked offering easy.

“We have some prime tourists to snap up,” Maverick said.

The church girls weren’t anything special, but Mav did have a point. Austin fondly remembered the last time teen girls had come riding. How did that saying go? Save a horse, ride a cowboy? If they dimmed the lights...

“But they’re church girls. We won’t get past first base,” Austin predicted.

“Au contraire. My buddies attended church camp last year, and all claim to have gotten lucky. Supposedly, church girls go wild when they’re without supervision. It’s like those Amish kids who go out in the world before committing to the church. They all want to experience freedom and, more importantly, sex,” Maverick said.

Austin gave Mav a sideways glance of disbelief.

“You’re talking about all your butt buddies who are virgins, right? Do you actually think they got lucky at church camp? I mean, stop and think. ALL of them got laid?” Austin asked.

Mav punched him in the arm.

“Quit being a Debbie Downer. Do you want to dip the wick or not?”

“What about Travis or the church guys?” Austin asked.

“Travis wussed out on a sure thing last time. She touched his joint, and he lost it in his pants,” Maverick overshared.

Austin momentarily remembered Kelly as she ground her fine ass against his dick, and ... he snapped out of this fantasy before he got fully hard.