Page 33 of Brett and Rowdy
Oh Lord. “She’s what? Twenty-one? She’s swinging, man, like Tarzan.”
“Shut up, Brett, don’t make me kill you because I would hate to have to. I really like you.” Rowdy’s chuckles filled the air, and he couldn’t help but smile.
This was a stupid idea, but then it had been a stupid idea to bring him here. It had been a stupid idea to have sex for hours. He was on a stupid idea roll, and so far, he hadn’t had so much fun in twenty years. So he was going to go for it and just stupid idea the fuck out of this thing. “I’d love to. What should I wear?”
“We’re going to hang out. That probably means axe throwing and barbecue, knowing my daughter.”
He knew he had this look on his face like he’d been hit in the head with a bat. “Axe throwing. You go and listen?”
Rowdy snorted like a fractious horse. “Are you kidding? We go in, we take bets from the marks on whether or not I can hit the target, and then we win a lot of money. My daughter is a shark.”
“You’re not serious.”
Rowdy grinned at him. “Oh, I am so serious. All you have to do is tell me where I’m hitting and I’m pretty good. I can rope a goddamn horse, man.”
He held his arms out in front of him, thumbs up. “Okay, you’re on. I gotta see this.”
He didn’t believe it, but then again, he kind of did.
He was beginning to figure that Rowdy was sort of like some kind of magical creature. He’d always thought that Rowdy had come out of Nowhere, New Mexico, like some weird plant. He’d struggled to survive in South Carolina, pulled up his roots and disappeared in a puff of Stetson cologne. And now, somehow, he was back and disturbing Brett’s life as much as he ever had. And the son of a bitch probably hadn’t even been in town twenty-four whole hours.
Still, his other option was to go to take the class picture at the high school, work, or cry in his beer. None of those sounded near as fun as watching Rowdy throw an axe.
Not to mention, he was desperately curious to get to know Madison. Sure, he had probably seen her a number of times. They did live in the same damn town and he was friends with her stepfather. But he and Dan were fishing buddies, bar buddies, and he didn’t have a kid to say, “Well, why don’t you bring your kids?” And honestly, he wasn’t the kind of high-dollar person that family usually rolled with. He thought that Dan just liked slumming.
“All right then, put on your best axe-throwing shirt. And remember that BBQ will absolutely be involved at some point, so don’t wear white.”
“Fair enough.” God, he hoped he had a clean decent shirt. Last thing he needed was to show up looking like trash. He wanted them to like him. Or at least he wanted Rowdy’s kid to think he was okay. “Be right back.”
He went to change his shirt, which was honestly easier than he’d thought. He had a decent front-snap one from a few years ago that was silver and burgundy plaid. It was still rustic enough for axe throwing, but wouldn’t show barbecue sauce…
And if he rolled the sleeves up, it would be cool enough. He worked with fire, so heat didn’t get to him too much.
He tugged on his own boots, then headed out to Rowdy. “Let’s hit it.”
“Sure. You want to bring the pooch?”
“You mean Mr. Mann? Seriously?”
“Why not? He and Barney get along. Now, Ash has a purse dog, so if he has a high prey drive for little pups…”
“No, he’s the least ambitious hunter on earth. He’ll sniff everything, but chase is only for play.”
“Well, bring him on. I’ll call Ash.”
He got Mr. Mann’s leash and harness, and his buddy went nuts, wagging and arooing. It was kind of hilarious.
Barney had led Rowdy to the door, where he was on the phone. “Yeah. He has a basset hound. No shit. Yeah. Cool. Thanks, Ash.” Rowdy ended the call, grinning.
“So it’s cool? Because if it’s not, we can take him around the block a few times and drop him back. He just likes to ride.”
“He’s in. Wagons ho!” Rowdy’s grin had him chuckling.
“Okay, come on, you bunch. You want me to put butthead here in the truck and come back for you so no one trips you?”
“Nah. I got this. You can just go ahead of me, and I’ll put my hand on your shoulder. Barney will take it from there.”
“Cool cool.” He would trust Rowdy to know his own body. “Let’s hit the road. We have axe throwing to do.”
