Page 35 of Bad Cowboy, Tennessee

Bravo, cowboy.

You ready to admit we’re going to fuck, yet?

You ready to finally tell me the real reason you’re in Tennessee now?

That’s third date material at least, Max.

If you think I’d ever date you, you’re crazier than I thought. Answer me. Why are you really in Tennessee?

I pulled in a slow breath.

There were too many things to explain to Max, even if Iwantedto tell him my secrets. The truth was that I fucking hated having secrets.

They burned inside me.

It felt like carrying hot coals along with me, every moment.

I wanted to scream out the truth to him. To everyone.

To make the whole world know who my father really was—both how he’d cheated on my mother, and the darker stuff, too.

How he abused me and my brother as kids, only sparing the girls. Finally laying off of Xander when he became my dad’s mini-me.

But heneverlaid off of me.

I knew that wasn’t what Max really wanted to hear. He wanted some salacious story, some piece of gossip. He didn’t want to hear that I spent a good portion of my time as a young teenager bruised up. That I learned to hide a black eye, then eventually stopped hiding them—but I never admitted who had given them to me.

I hated those secrets back then, too.

Because secrets were only a hard fucking burden on my back. On my soul.

The scar along my face wasn’t from my dad—but it was because of him. I’d fought someone I shouldn’t have, and I’d slipped up, because I was seeing red after an argument with my father.

The worst scars were all internal.

Therewasalso gossip, though.

The kind of gossip that other Montana families would have loved to know about mine.

That night, after I found Dad’s second cell phone?

Dad knew that I knew.

I’d proudly confronted him the moment he was sober the next morning. He’d kept a stiff upper lip, ignoring me until…

Until what happened a couple of months ago. I fucked up again, and almost ruined everything.

If it wasn’t for another one of Dad’s petty fucking business deals, everything would have been fine.

Maybe not fine. Butbetter.

Draven Lyons

You’re a nice person. You have a nice life here. Just keep living it. And for the love of God, install a security system.

Max Baby Blue

Don’t need one. Just need you to be honest with me.

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