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"What’s got him smiling like that?" Hen asks, side-eying Buck’s happy posture as he walks around behind the bar cleaning glasses.
Chimney lets her pass, not even trying to make it seem like he wants to help her move the crates from her cart into the back room.
"Ah," Chimney says, deliberately unhelpful, "we got news that the original cowboy is coming back today."
Buck grimaces. "I don’t get why you call him that. It makes no sense. Why is he of all people the original cowboy? He’s not even the oldest one in town."
"Oh, it’s easy," a grin splits Chimney’s face, "it’s because you are the knockoff cowboy of his original."
Buck sputters. "That’s- that’s not what I’m trying to do here."
"Huh, sure." Chimney turns to Hen and deliberately raises his eyebrows to hammer it in how much he does not believe him. Hen snorts.
"I do believe that’s the reason you gave five years ago for spending so much time with him," her smile is more indulgent, "You were all He’s got this cowboy thing figured out and I’m still new to it. Asking a non-local is less daunting and blah blah blah, like Bobby wouldn’t have taught you all you wanted to know."
Buck’s cheeks redden, as he’s keeping his eyes strictly on the glass in front of him. Hen and Chimney share a look. It takes a few moments of silence for Buck to finally look up at them again, but when he does, his cheeks get even redder.
"I’m over pretending that’s the reason I spend so much time with him whenever he’s here."
"And would that have anything to do with the rumor he’s coming here to stay?"
"We don’t know if that’s true," Buck denies.
"But you’ve heard about it," Hen asks, though it comes out more like a statement.
Buck rolls his eyes, calmer than a few seconds ago. "Yes, obviously." A pause. "Everyone seems to be wanting to talk to me about him lately."
"I wonder why that is." Chimney grins, and finally deigns to take a crate off Hen’s hands.
"It’s not-" Buck starts, but as Chimney follows Hen outside to help her where they can’t hear him, he just mumbles to himself and their retreating backs: "It’s not like that."
Finally, once he finished cleaning up the current batch of glasses, he rolls his eyes to himself, but leaves the still-empty barroom to itself to go help his coworkers. Bobby will like it if they get it all done and, well, the more they get done now, the less stressful their shifts will be later.
"What’s taking you guys so long?" He asks them, as he steps out front. He takes a look, surveying Hen’s cart and the two people next to it, as well as the two… wait, three, no, four horses. Buck looks up at who is riding the two additional horses and stops in his tracks.
"Hi," he says, softly, to the man on the taller horse, that, yes, Chimney is right, looks like the epitome of a cowboy. Buck could never compare.
Eddie lifts his hat in greeting, his face reddened from the sun on their road. With the other hand he holds both his reigns and the reigns of the smaller horse. Buck’s attention shifts to the second rider.
"Chris!" he exclaims, not having seen him in an even longer time than his father.
"Hi Buck," he says, lifting one of his hands from the knob on the saddle to wave at him.
Chimney and Hen share a look again that makes Buck’s cheeks redden again and that he very very consciously tries to ignore.
"Buck can accompany you to Athena’s," Hen says to Eddie, "we don’t need him right now."
Buck is about to protest, but… he’s not about to say no to more time spent with Eddie. Hen knows that. Buck knows that’s why she said it. He’s not sure if he’s thankful or offended.
"Yeah sure," Buck smiles up at the father and son duo, "I can do that if you got it all handled here."
"We sure do," Chimney says cheerfully, grabbing a crate, "See you later, Eddie." He disappears into the bar.
Hen follows him, throwing another "See you later" their way.
"I’ll get my horse," Buck says to cover up the awkwardness he suddenly feels at being left alone with the Diazes. He knows it’ll soon be gone once they get back into their groove, but this first moment when they stand in front of each other after they haven’t seen each other in a few months? It suddenly unearths all of Buck’s insecurities and makes him wonder if he didn’t misremember how close they are.
Eddie and Chris wait for him patiently as he saddles up and spurs on his horse to be at Eddie’s other side. Eddie greets him with a smile, and Buck thinks okay, they’ll be okay.
Athena’s guest house is on the other side of town. Eddie doesn’t actually need Buck’s guidance to find it, has slept there most of the times he’s joined them in this corner of the world. It’s a nice ride though, and since Athena started to like Buck (oh, those were some uncomfortable first months), she likes to have him visit too.
They chitchat idly for the first part of the way, Eddie asks about the townspeople and Buck’s job at the bar; Buck asks them what they’ve been up to since the last time they were here. Eddie doesn’t take Chris with him often, which means he’s grown so much since Buck has last seen him, but it also means that Buck is a little more willing to believe the rumors that they’re here to stay this time. More willing to believe doesn’t mean he’s sure, and his heart needs to know what’s happening, so he decides to ask.
He swallows. "Rumor has it-, rumor has it you’re not just here on a visit."
Eddie sends him a weird look that Buck doesn’t know the meaning of. It bothers him that he can’t tell.
Eddie’s hands twitch in a way that Buck knows means he wants to lift his hand — probably to scratch his neck — but can’t because he’s holding the reigns, his own and Christopher’s. For a second Buck wonders how much longer it’ll take before Chris takes offense to that and decides he’s old enough to ride on his own.
"Yeah," Eddie says, hoarsely, "I’ve gotten sick of always going between here and El Paso. I asked Athena to house us for a while until I found something more permanent to settle Christopher and me down. I think he’ll appreciate us being in the same place all the time." He grins over at his son, who smiles back, but is more interested in taking in his surroundings than their conversation. Buck can understand, since it’s been a while for him too. He doesn’t exactly know how memories work at that age — Christopher is probably too old to forget about everything like toddlers do — but he remembers that everything felt so much longer when he was a kid, so it might still be unfamiliar to Chris.
"You’re planning to stay at Athena’s for so long?" Buck asks. He doesn’t know why that bugs him.
"I didn’t really want to buy a house from afar," Eddie says, skittishly, like there’s more behind it. "And I’ve stayed at Athena’s every time so far. I don’t get what the big deal is."
"You," Buck starts, not really knowing where he’s going with it, "you’re paying for an inn, when-" He cuts himself off.
"When what, Buck?" Eddie asks. "What exactly do you propose I do instead?"
Buck swallows. Then, he blurts out: "Stay with me." Panicked, he swivels his head around, so he’s no longer looking at Eddie. He keeps his eyes strictly on the road in front of him but keeps on talking. "I have more space than I know what to do with, and you don’t have to worry about paying the inn."
There’s silence from Eddie’s end, no reply. Buck is getting nervous that he did something wrong. That it’s too much too soon, or— he chances a short glance at Eddie.
Eddie looks hesitant, but not like — not like he’ll say no on principle.
When he finally starts speaking, he measures his words slowly and carefully. Like it’s him who could scare Buck away, not the other way around. It makes Buck turn towards him while he speaks.
"Is this a short-term offer or are you offering something a little more permanent?" He sees Eddie swallow once he finishes, and Eddie keeps Buck’s gaze. They should look in front of them, maybe. They’re not looking at the road, just at each other. They’re lucky their horses will likely not walk blindly into an obstacle even if they aren’t checking what’s happening, Buck thinks vaguely, but most of his brain power is focused on Eddie’s face and Eddie’s words.
What did he mean when he made the offer? Buck asks himself. He thinks it was mostly an offer of a temporary stay, until Eddie bought a house of his own, not thinking he could hope for more, but now?
"Um, permanent, if you— if you want to." He’s stumbling over the words a little, but Eddie gets a little smile on his face as he says it — the little giddy smile that Buck only ever sees when he’s playing with Christopher or when Buck and him are chasing each other through the fields, their horses galloping, the wind in their hair — so Buck thinks it’ll be okay.
Eddie shoots a look at Christopher. "I think we’d like that."
Buck’s face splits in a grin. "Yeah?", he asks.
"Yeah. Let’s go home."