Page 4 of Brett and Rowdy
“Daddy, I am twenty-one years old. I’m an adult. I can drink—which I have not because I’m driving you home. But no, I drove out here by myself. I told Momma I could handle it.She had some deal at the real estate office. And besides that, I thought we could have fun driving back, maybe stop and get some onion rings, some fried pickles.”
It never ceased to amaze him how she could sound so grown up and still, somehow, sound just like she did when she was a kid. He could imagine her at five years old, all pigtails and great big eyes, and then at ten, where everything was gangly and weird, and she couldn’t quite decide if she was a tween or a little girl. Then there was thirteen, when she started her period and her everything started to change, and it was summer time, and she was at his ranch, and he didn’t know what to do any more than she did. Thank goodness his daddy was there because Pappy was the man with the plan.
It had been an hour ago when she’d graduated from high school.
Just yesterday, when she was his little cowgirl doing mutton bustin’ and winning her first trophy.
Possibly a week ago when she’d been born, and he’d held her for the first time, staring down at her and thinking “this is the smartest thing I’ve ever done in my entire short life.” Because she was.
She was the best thing he’d ever helped grow to maturity.
And he’d grown a lot of things to maturity.
“You in there, Daddy? Where’d you go?”
“I was thinking about how much I love you, girl.”
“I love you too, Daddy. Let me get your bags.”
“Thanks, kiddo. I appreciate it.” It was always easier to not have to navigate that shit himself even with the tactile luggage bands. A lot of times he just waited for them to pull his luggage off the carousel themselves and then went and got it.
Lord, he hated this airport. He’d tried to get a flight into Greenville-Spartanburg, but he hadn’t been able to, so he’d beenstuck going into Atlanta, and it was crazy busy and kinda stinky, and a lot wild with sound.
But he had his girl. She was going to get food with him, and he was gonna get to see the rest of the family by tonight, and that was pretty exceptional.
“There you go, Daddy. I got your suitcases and your hat carrier.”
“Thanks, baby. Last time I tried to wear my hat through security, they damn near mangled it.”
“Yeah, airport TSA guys don’t really understand how much a cowboy hat costs.”
“No, ma’am, they do not.” At three fifty, that hat was his good one, and he would be grumpy if he had to replace it. He heard her getting a cart for the luggage, metal groaning. “You got that okay, baby girl?”
“Daddy, I am a stud,” she called. “I got this. It’s okay.”
“All right, if you say so.” He wasn’t gonna argue with her. This way, he could just hang on to the cart rail and let Barney lead him. Rowdy worked pretty damn well with a seeing eye dog. By now, he was on his third one. Barney was well-trained.
“So, where are you gonna take me for lunch?” he asked.
“That depends on how far down the road we got before you get hungry.” She chuckled. “There’s a bunch of neat places in Clemson now. A lot more than when you were last there, I bet.”
He shook his head. “Oh, I reckon so. Last time I lived here, the best place to eat was still the ice cream thing on campus. We went with everybody your freshman year, and Wilma stole my ice cream. Remember that?”
“I do. That dog was the feistiest girl. I miss her face.” She reached out and touched his shoulder, just making a connection. “Obviously, I go to ag sales center a lot myself. They have the best ice cream.”
“Right.” He was so proud of her. He’d secretly hoped she’d come to UNM or NMSU, for that matter, but her Daddy Dan had gone to Clemson, and she’d had her heart set.
“What are you looking forward to most, Daddy?” She pushed that cart like a champ; he could hear one squeaky wheel just going to town, and he followed her at a pretty good clip, so she had to be really motivating.
“You mean aside from the fried pickles?” When she giggled, he laughed too. “Well, obviously the most important thing is to be there when you walk at graduation and get your degree. That’s really why I’m here, but I’m looking forward to hanging out with your mom and your stepdad and just doing all the things.”
“Momma says you’re gonna go to the reunion with her.” He would bet Madison was looking at him, trying to gauge his reaction to that. She liked to do that drop-a-little-bomb thing, and then see what he thought about it.
“You know how I feel about that, baby girl. I went to school with those people for what? A year? I don’t know anybody there, but your momma does, and it’s important to her because she still lives in the area. So I’ll show up.”
“Yeah.” Her voice took on a sly little note. “She likes the idea of shocking everybody with you on her arm instead of Daddy Dan.”
“I guess so. It doesn’t matter. It’s not like I’m gonna see anybody’s expression when they look at me.”
