Page 48 of Brett and Rowdy
Because he was a little embarrassed and a little bit put out. It wasn’t like he’d asked the son of a bitch to move in. He’d offered to let Brett come to visit the house. God for fucking bid.
So his choices were to ride back with Ash in their fancy Escalade, with Ash either crying or being stoically silent until she could talk to her husband. Ride back with Brett and try to find some reason he wasn’t going to spend the night. And then try to somehow sneak into Ash’s house, or spend the night with Brett and just pretend like he wasn’t pissed off and embarrassed and aggravated.
Maybe he could get an Uber? An Uber and a hotel room. Possibly he could call his daughter. Now that was an idea. She was a grown-up. They could go have a beer.
Although if they had a beer, then she couldn’t drive so maybe he could offer to buy a six-pack of beer and have her take him to a hotel, and they could both have that beer. Two different rooms, so no one would care. Hell, he had shared a hotel room with her for twenty-one years on and off. They only had one room with two beds; they could handle that, although she snored. You wouldn’t think that such a little girl would snore, but Jesus Christ.
He listened. Shit. How long had the table been perfectly silent? He had no idea when he’d stopped paying attention because he was trying to figure out what the hell he was going to do. Obviously, it had been a little bit because that silence felt really weighty and weird.
Again, it would be nice to see right about now. Then he could figure out things like whether or not he was in trouble or whether or not everybody was staring at him, and he was about ninety-nine point nine percent sure everybody was staring at him.
Ash sighed softly. “You weren’t listening, were you?”
“Nope, I was in my own little world.” His own little blind world where they knew him. He was so ready to go home. He just needed it to be Monday morning, when they were going to get on the road. They were gonna drive, spend the night somewhere just because. Possibly Dallas.
That was a nice halfway point. They could spend a day there with Miss Thing doing some shopping. And then, Wednesday night, they’d be home. Back at the ranch where he belonged, where she belonged, and where there were no weird ex-boyfriends to worry about.
“We were asking whether or not you were going to ride home with Brett or ride home with us. I said I’m tired, I have a headache, and I want to go home.”
“You go on ahead. If Mr. Brett here can’t give me a ride back to the house, I’ll call Maddie.”
“You’ll do what?”
“Maybe Maddie and I can go out on the town here.”
“You and Maddie are gonna have a night out on the town here,” Ash said, deadpan.
“It could happen.”
“You’re way too old to pick up college boys,” Ash pointed out, and he let himself roll his eyes, even though she couldn’t see him through the glasses.
“I’ll have you know, that I am choice. I am a catch. I am amazing in bed, and I am also an archetype. Just ask some queer twink what he thinks about going to bed with me, and he will tell you I’m a stud.”
“Right,” Dan said, “But Madison doesn’t go to gay bars.”
“Oh no, Madison hasn’t been to a gay bar. Madison is not gay. Madison is omnivorous. And also monogamous. So while she is not anti-boobs, she is totally into that bulldogger who just bought a piece of land next to mine. I’m way more worried about her having babies unexpectedly than I am about her coming home and saying ‘Daddy, I found a girl I like. Her name is Gertrude.’”
Ash started crying, and he rolled his eyes again. “Just go home, you two. I will figure my own shit out. I know how. I’m not stressed.”
“It’s all right,” Brett said. “I’ve got it. I’ll make sure you get home safe.”
After some more arguing, Ash and Dan headed out, and he got on the phone immediately, calling his daughter. “Hey, baby girl.”
“Hey, Daddy, what’s up?”
“Your mother is having a bit of a crying jag. She might need hugs when she gets home, and I might need a ride. I haven’t figured that out yet.”
“Hugs and a ride. I’m on it. I haven’t been drinking. I’m just sitting here with a couple of my girlfriends, and we’re watching old movies.”
“Like what?”
“We’re watching.GladiatorandMoulin Rouge.”
“Oh, yeah, old movies. Go team you.” Now he knew what his pappy felt like when he talked about watchingJaws. “All right, y’all be good. I’ll call you if I need you.”
“Sure thing, Daddy. Love you.”
“Love you too, baby girl.” Rowdy closed his eyes and searched for the coffee he’d ordered with dessert. His hand was starting to ache a little bit from hitting that feller. Nothing bad, nothing serious, just enough to irritate him. He hadn’t come here to have a fight.
