a quick story about dennis taking robby to amy’s farm and robby essentially gets horse therapy
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robby loves to make flirty remarks about farmboy dennis.
“i’ve seen you in your cute flannel shirts before, but i bet its a sight to see you wearing them in your natural habitat.”
so dennis takes him to amy’s farm one day so robby can get the full experience. he’s wearing one of robby’s flannels and it’s driving the older man crazy. but despite him daydreaming about a romp in the hayloft with his farmboy, robby has a really good time.
he watches dennis fix a fence at the front of the property, the flannel tied around his waist allowing robby to see the flexing of his biceps as the young man fastens the barbed wire into place. dennis takes him on a tour of the property in a beat up atv, and while his hips may protest from the bouncing around on the dirt path, robby can’t deny that it was fun going off roading on the way back to the house.
amy’s family is very welcoming, and robby feels silly having been jealous of her when he first found out about dennis’ trips to the farm. after seeing the two of them interact, he sees their dynamic is more like an sister and brother. the bicker and joke, and while not as biting as some of the quips he’s seen trinity and dennis exchange, robby can see that their is affection between the two.
what drives robby extra crazy is seeing dennis with theo. seeing him be such a doting ‘uncle’ for the 3-year-old is awakening an urge robby thought he had long since buried. robby thinks about the life he had envisioned himself living when he was younger, and while he wouldn’t trade the time he has spent with dennis for anything in the world, there is a small part of him that mourns the life that he never got to live.
dennis sees robby getting that distant look in his eyes, the one he knows means that the older man is getting wrapped up in melancholy thoughts. so dennis pivots and leads robby away from the house, telling him he’s got some important people he wants to introduce to the man.
robby is confused, he thought he’d met the whole family at the (extremely delicious) barbecue they threw for him for lunch. so when dennis slips his hand into robby’s and tugs him towards the barn robby is very confused. the walk through the barn and stop in front of a large paddock and robby is met with two stunning creatures.
“robby, this wise old man is cole, and the colt next to him is whiskey.” dennis whistled and they both came to see who he had brought with him. whiskey lived up to his name, his coat a glossy amber color, while cole was huge, a lovely mix of brown with a white streak down his face and white socks, and his black mane was combed nicely.
dennis reached out a hand to pet against whiskey, who was being rowdy against the paddock fence. he stroked his hand against the colt’s neck, laughing at how the young horse kept turning around to force dennis to scratch his rear. robby leaned against the railing, chuckling at the sight before him.
robby jumped when something nudged his shoulder. he hadn’t realized cole had approached him, he was too caught up watching his boy play with the colt.
dennis saw him startle, and he laid his hand on robby’s lower back. “don’t worry, he’s just curious about you. he may seem big and intimidating, but he’s a softy who loves getting petted.” the young resident laid a kiss on robby’s bearded cheek, “he reminds me of a certain someone in that regard.”
robby lifts his hand and reaches out the pet the horse, who calmly accepts the attention.
“see, he likes you.” dennis nudges robby’s shoulder lightly, not enough to disrupt him scratching the gentle giant.
“they’re both gorgeous.” robby said. “do they work on the farm?”
dennis reached out and petted cole’s muzzle, the older horse snuffling his fingers for any treat that might be hidden. “no, they’re both rescues, actually. cole was rescued in 2020. he was a work horse his whole life, draft horses usually are. well, apparently his owner died of a heart attack while they were hauling logs. he was still in his harness when rescuers found him.” dennis petted the white stripe, picking away crust from below cole’s eye. “he had gotten himself caught in a ditch and the log had wedged itself perfectly that the more he struggled the more he was trapped. a neighbor found him a couple of days later, dehydrated and injured from trying to free himself.
“the neighbor was one of amy’s mom’s friends, and she asked if she would be willing to take care of him. so she agreed and cole’s been here for almost 7 years now. after his injury he wasn’t fit to haul or ride, but he seems to be enjoying his retirement.” after sniffing around both of the men and finding them barren of treats, cole turned and made his way back into the field.
robby huffed out a laugh, “ha, must be nice.”
the two men watched the horses, whiskey running up, trying to instigate cole into chasing him, who just ignored the younger horse.
robby leaned into dennis, feeling at ease watching these majestic creatures. “and whiskey? what’s his story?”
“well, he was taken from an abusive home. he was maybe 5 months old when an animal rescue group came to the farm he was on and saw the conditions he was living in. he was extremely malnourished and sickly. they found him in a pen with the body of his mother, who had been dead for at least a couple of days.”
robby felt his stomach turn.
“someone from amy’s church was on the team that rescued him and they had heard about amy’s mom fostering cole, so they asked if she would be able to look after one more. she said yes and he’s been here for a few years. she was nervous to introduce the two of them, but cole is excellent with whiskey, even if whiskey can be a little shit sometimes.”
as if sensing that dennis was talking about him, whiskey came running back to them. feeling more confident, robby reached out and stroked along the amber horse’s neck.
robby had never been really into animals before, his grandmother had a cat that he loved growing up, but he hasn’t had a pet since his childhood; med school and later his career made time at home limited and he knew it would be unfair for any animal would bring home.
but standing here, the warmth of this creature and the intelligent eyes of the gentle giant he had met earlier calmed something in robby. it probably didn’t help that he also felt for these poor creatures and their trauma.
“you’re really good with them robby.“ dennis gave him a gentle smile. “who knows, maybe one day you’ll be rescuing horses too.”
robby laughed, pulling his hand away from whiskey and dragging dennis towards an empty stall in the barn. “yeah right, you’ve seen my townhouse; not exactly room for a barn in the backyard.”
dennis snickered back, “who knows you may be a city boy now, but i bet i could get a little country into you.”
“yeah, well right now this city boy wants to get some city into his country boy, if you know what i mean” robby said, waggling his brows.
dennis barked out a laugh, choking out, “that was awful, robby,” but soon was swept up in the older man’s kisses.
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and 5 years later, as he sat on his porch and watched their ducks swim on the small pond in the back and their horses and donkey run around the field, and looked around the small farm he had with dennis, populated with rescued animals, he would think back on that day and chuckle when he realized that dennis really had gotten a little country into this city boy
