Page 44 of Brett and Rowdy
She squeezed his hand, hard. “I know that it was hard and stuff, but I’m really glad you’re my daddy. I wouldn’t want to know what to do without you.”
“Well, you aren’t without me, so you don’t have to worry about it.” Rowdy had fucked up a number of things in his life, in fact. He was fairly sure that when push came to shove, that was what he was going to be famous for—fucking shit up.
But his little girl? That wasn’t one of them.
“I really think you should go to the dinner and dance, Daddy.”
“Why? Is this about your momma wanting to go? I mean, she could take Dan with her.” Because he didn’t want to.
“I mean, I think Momma wants to go. I think Momma wants to just kind of be like, ‘hey, you assholes, I’m not a fuckup.’”
“Watch your mouth.” He still hated hearing her drop the f-bomb.
He swore he could hear her eye roll. “Daddy, I’m twenty-one.”
“Yes, and I’m your father. Watch your mouth.”
“Okay.” She was pouting, he could hear it.
“And also, your momma is not messed up. Your momma is amazing. She doesn’t have anything to prove to these whack-a-doos. Nothing. You know, if she wants to go, we’ll go. You know me; I won’t be mad.” Bored, not mad.
“I do know you. Thanks, Daddy.”
“You’re welcome, baby girl.” He leaned on her, just like she leaned on him, and he hoped like hell Ash didn’t really want to go to the damn thing.
Chapter Ten
“You sure you really want to do this?” Brett asked, letting Rowdy take his arm. “I mean, God.” They were in the parking lot at the reunion.
Again.
This just seemed like a crap idea, but Dan and Ashley had promised a beer after, at least, and she wanted to bring Dan this time, so…
“Hell, no. But I’ll do it for Ash,” Rowdy murmured.
“And I’ll do it for you.”
“Mmhmm,” Rowdy grinned at him. “And if you’re a very, very, very good welder… Welder? What is your title? Metal artist? Forger? Blacksmith? Iron Whisperer?”
Brett arched an eyebrow, tickled that Rowdy was teasing, and he wasn’t getting all het up. “I will hurt you.”
Rowdy snorted. “You’ll try. It’ll never happen. At least not my body. Maybe my heart. Yeah, it could happen.”
Brett blinked, shocked at Rowdy’s admission. Whoa.
“At any rate, if you’re a good boy, you get a blow job.”
Oh, now that wasn’t fair. His entire body woke up, tingles shooting through him. “I’ll be good.”
“Yeah. I thought you might.” Rowdy took his hat from the dash, put it on. “So honestly, what is it that you like to say that you do?”
“Well, I used to say farrier and iron worker. Now I think I’m gonna go with sculptor.”
“Nice. Although I find farriers very useful out at the ranch.”
They got out of the car, Ashley and Dan following suit. Dan had on an honest-to-God pair of parachute pants and a matching purple polo shirt.
It was awful.
