Help! My Male Employees Are Having Babies!-Chapter 155: Courting with Cooking Skills

During the afternoon break Doug took a chance. He saw Richie have a seat by himself and take a sip from his thermos.

"Mind if I sit by you? You look like you’re all by yourself over here. I’m new and you’re new today."

Richie looked up and saw the man standing in front of him. "It’s a free world, you can sit down."

"My name’s Doug, and what’s your name?"

"My name is Richie. I’m new here at this place working. I have been on the ranch for a little while. I live with my older brother who’s raising all four of us now since our dad decided to run the fuck off."

Doug settled into his seat. "Yeah, dads have a tendency to do that sometimes. They get overwhelmed and they pack their bags and run away. Mine did also, but at least there was only me. I was 12 years old then. Did some stupid stuff, got my butt in trouble, paid for it for three years, and then after a year by myself, I came here because I didn’t like what the new owners wanted me to do."

"What did you do so bad that you had to pay for it for three years?"

"I trusted the wrong person and believed what they said, then it was too late. And for the next three years I spent taking care of my obligation."

Richie shifted in his seat. "Well, I just recently transitioned. Before that I made a total ass of myself and a mess of my life. My younger brother will never forgive me for what happened, my older brother is still disappointed. I lost my best friend over it, but hey, I’m still alive."

"See there, Richie, nobody is perfect. We all make mistakes. It’s do we continue to make them or do we learn from them and move on with our life." Doug leaned forward slightly. "I don’t want to seem like I’m being forward, but maybe one day after work we could stop by and get a soda or an ice cream somewhere here on this ranch. I hope there’s something like that here."

"Well, not yet. It will be when the place opens up here—the new Museum and all, the snack bar and food court. My uncle Donnie’s going to have a restaurant there. He’s teaching my older brother how to cook too."

"That’s something you don’t have to worry about. I know how to cook, and I mean good food. Now I’m not a master chef, but if you want breakfast, I’m one of the best. You want pancakes, you want biscuits, you want waffles, eggs, bacon, whatever—I make it. Come for lunch, I can make just about anything. I want just give me a barbecue pit, hell, I’ll even cook a racknar and make it taste good."

The last statement made Richie laugh. "You must be good if you can make a racknar taste good. Those things stink."

Richie looked at his watch and realized that it was time to get up and go back to work. He told Doug it was nice meeting him, that maybe they could go out for something sometime.

"I’ll hold you to that, so it’s a date when you get ready."

Richie went back to work and Doug was very happy with himself.

---

By the end of the day Richie was exhausted, but that didn’t mean his suitor had forgotten about him. In fact, as Richie started toward home, he realized someone was walking beside him. He looked to his left and it was Doug with a big smile.

"Yep, looks like today was kind of hard on you. First days always are, but there’s always tomorrow and it’ll be better. Soon it’ll be just like a regular day."

Richie chuckled. "You are really something. You don’t give up, do you?"

"Nope, I don’t, especially when it’s somebody worth fighting for, and that you are. Don’t ever sell yourself short."

Doug stopped short of coming up to the house. He bid Richie goodbye and told him that he would see him in the morning if he was allowed to walk him to work.

"That would be nice. I’ll be ready at 6:45. Who knows, I might even pack an extra breakfast sandwich."

Richie walked toward the house, turning around a couple of times as Doug faded away in the evening light. Suddenly he ran next door and started knocking.

Chas opened the door and saw a dirty but tired Richie standing there. "Dang, dude, you’re dirty."

"Hey Chas, is your dad home? I need to talk to him."

"He’s in the kitchen cooking, as usual."

Richie walked into the edge of the kitchen and smiled at Donnie. "Uncle Donnie, you need to teach me how to make ice cream. I don’t know what I’m doing in the kitchen. I can’t even boil water, but I need to make somebody some ice cream."

Donnie smiled back. "Come to me for cakes, pies and main dishes, but if you need ice cream made, Uncle Steven’s the expert. In fact, he’s the aficionado of the frozen concoction."

"Uncle Steven, please can you teach me? I have to learn, and they said always learn from the best—then that separates you from the rest. I don’t care what flavor it is, I just have to make someone some ice cream."

Steven looked up with interest. "Wow, such enthusiasm. This must be somebody very special."

"We just met. He is a man from work, but he is nice and I don’t want to screw anything up. He asked me out for ice cream, but we don’t have an ice cream parlor here yet and trying to go to town is too difficult." Richie’s words came out in a rush. "So I thought maybe I could make it and we can sit on the front porch here, away from Eli, and we could eat it and get to know each other a little bit. Plus, I know between the three of you it won’t go any further than it’s allowed."

Donnie and Stephen both sat down and motioned for Richie to sit down also. "Spill the beans. Talk to us. What is going on and who has got you wanting to create a dish of food?" Donnie started.

"His name is Doug. Initially I tried to dissuade him and told him to walk away—I wasn’t worth anything. But he said nobody is perfect, we all have a past. Some of us put it in our past, but some of us constantly run from it, afraid it will catch up to us."

Richie took a breath before continuing. "He said when he first transitioned, he screwed up and it took him four years to get over it. For the first three years he had an obligation, and then he spent a year distraught until the owner gave him an ultimatum and he came here out of desperation. He has one grown child that he birthed after an incident that occurred."

"The child is not with him and wants nothing to do with his dad. As far as I’m concerned, I don’t know everything, but it’s his loss because Doug is a nice guy. I’m just 20 and he’s already 25, so he’s older and a little more settled."

Stephen started laughing. "Look at me—22 and my belly swollen for the third time. It’s my first time by my choice and it contains the offspring of the human. Carter is 37 years old, 15 years older than me, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. He’s settled. He’s not sniffing around anybody’s back door looking for another conquest to stick his dick in. I’m the only one who gets that part of his anatomy, and it’s a heck of a part." Stephen grinned. "So don’t worry about five years—maybe that’s what you were destined for. So I am going to teach you how to make ice cream so you can keep your man happy. And we can meet him as your honorary uncles—we have that right."

"Thank you guys. I knew that I could count on you to give me an honest opinion. Constantine tries to do his best, but still it’s hard for him to trust after what I did to Eli and Willie."

Richie stood up, feeling more hopeful. "I need to go home, clean up, and talk to Constantine. Maybe he’ll give me permission to see Doug on a regular basis as long as we keep away from anything sexual. I’m not ready for it and our relationship is not anywhere near that point. Maybe someday, but not anytime soon."