Page 23 of Brett and Rowdy
And he had to admit now he felt a little dumb.
“She’s a sweetheart. I just want you to stop being so agitated.”
“So okay. You know what? Let’s start over. How was your daughter’s graduation? Amazing? Lots of orange?”
“I assume so, yes, but I bet there was more purple. She’s a very purple young lady. She was happy. She’s out with her friends this weekend saying goodbye. We leave next week to head to the ranch.”
“That’s adorable.” He gave up. Why was he mad? Rowdy was right. He had a life—maybe it wasn’t everything he wanted, but it wasn’t bad and it was getting better. “Does she have a steady?”
Rowdy nodded. “She does, back in New Mexico. He’s a bulldogger on the Turquoise Circuit. Nice kid. Good to his horses, good to my girl. Has a reasonable plan for after he retires.”
“Help Madison run your ranch?” He couldn’t help it; he had to tease.
Rowdy chuckled, but he dipped his chin once. “I imagine that that’s what’s going to end up happening. Right now, he’s bought a plot of land next door. Nothing serious—fifty acres. But it’llwork because if they do end up hooking up and starting a family, then we’ll just meld it into the ranch. If they don’t, then I’ll just buy it from him and he can go do something else. Either way, it’s perfect for me.”
He grinned at Rowdy and shook his head. “I feel like a kid next to you, like a guy without a plan.”
“So tell me about your plan. About your art. I think you said it was in Washington?”
He nodded, then rolled his eyes and spoke up. “Yes. DC, not state. I’ve been building a name. It’s been a lot of work. I have three pieces in Santa Fe, a couple in New York, one in Berlin.”
“No shit? I love Santa Fe. We run out there for lunch sometimes. I’ll have to make Madison show me.”
“Are you really close?” Close enough to visit, maybe?
“No, not super, but enough. You know, sometimes you just have to go to Santa Fe for lunch. Are you dating anybody?”
“No. I’ve had a few on again, off again, but nothing serious.” This wasn’t the kind of town where he felt comfortable being serious.
“Fair enough.”
Well, now he was curious. “What about you?”
Rowdy smiled, and the expression was fond, warm. “I had a long-term guy for a bit, but I think more than anything, I don’t think he could handle the idea that I had family.”
Okay, so that was odd. The blind thing wasn’t a deal breaker, but Madison was? “Well, he knew you had a kid when you started dating, right?”
“He did. He just didn’t realize it was an all summer, every spring break, we’re going to meet for Christmas, or when I have a free weekend and airline miles, best friends with her momma and stepdad type of situation. Or a, I love that little girl to death, and I live with my dad kind of situation, you know? The waythe house is set up, Dad and I have separate spaces, and so will Madison. But it doesn’t change the facts, right?”
“Well, I have to tell you that doesn’t make me think poorly of you, I mean?—”
Rowdy waved his hand, dismissing the words. “It really was no big deal. It was at the time, I’m sure. I was trying to figure out how I felt, but more than anything, it was really about her. You know, Madison, I mean, she’d liked him. We’d been together for six years. So I had this problem where I had this guy who she was thinking of as a stepfather, and suddenly he disappears. And I’m going, well, fuck. That doesn’t work for me. I figured I had to wait, you know, until she was ready and grown.”
It occurred to Brett that they were sitting here in this crowded bar, full of people who they’d gone to school with and all this stuff and yet? It was like they were in their own little world, just having this conversation, like they were totally alone. Rowdy didn’t seem to mind at all.
That never happened. Had never happened since Rowdy left. “Uh. I don’t suppose you want to go somewhere?”
“Where? Because I have to be honest with you, if you’re going to like, drop me off in the middle of nowhere, bald and yowling in agony, I’d rather just pass.”
“I was actually going to suggest going and sitting in my front room, where it’s quiet, and we can have a beer and not have to worry about anything.”
“Brett Kilpatrick, are you trying to hit on me? Are you trying to hook up with me?” Rowdy was laughing at him now, but it wasn’t a bit mean.
“Possibly, but really no. I just—” He really wanted a friend. That was it. He really, really wanted a friend.
Those he had in short supply.
Chapter Six
