Page 49 of Brett and Rowdy
“I can take you home,” Brett murmured.
Rowdy nodded, shrugged. “I know. It just seemed awful uncomfortable, and I didn’t want to force you if you wouldn’t give me a ride. I’m probably going to just get a hotel room. Somewhere so that Ash can have her crying fit without me interfering.” Not to mention the fact that should dickhead wake up and decide to press charges, there was a good chance that the sheriff would come hunting him at Ash’s house, and if he wasn’t there and she didn’t know where he was, it was a win-win situation.
It would really, really screw with him to get arrested right now. Although obviously it was pretty easy to find where the toilet and the bed were. A cell situation he could draft a map out, in theory, relatively quickly. And if he had to, he could play thepoor, defeated blind dude complete with fumbling for Barney’s harness.
“I am going to have to run by Ash’s house anyway to feed my dog,” Brett said. “And I assume that yours needs food and water, too.”
“He had his dinner before we ever left, but yeah. That works.” He took a sip of the coffee, which had been much better hot than it was lukewarm, then put it aside. “We waiting for a bill?”
“No.” Brett chuckled softly. “No, Dan paid for it. Come on, let’s get you home. You got to be tired; you’ve had a busy night.”
“I have. I kicked that bastard’s ass. I’ve…” He let the words trail off because he really didn’t wanna say, he’d broken up with the guy who broke up with him years ago, because that would assume they were together, which wasn’t what had happened; it had been a hookup. A booty call. They’d bumped uglies. They hadn’t made any promises to each other. They hadn’t said anything to one another that could be construed as anything more than reunion, sex, and an invitation to come visit, which had been weirdly turned down.
He couldn’t even say calmly turned down. The situation had been weird, if he thought about it, and if he kept thinking about it, it was going to make him mad. Then he was going to be stuck in the truck with Brett angry, then on to be faced with rightfully upset woman.
He didn’t want to be mad. Hewaskind of angry, though, damn it.
“Are you ready to go?” Brett asked.
“God, yes.” He wasn’t sure where he was going, but he wasn’t going to stay here.
They made it to the car, and Barney settled in the back seat with a little bit of a complaining groan. “Oh, you hush. You be good and I’ll give you a treat when we get home. Hell, when we get home-home, I’m going to let you out in the back fortyand you can run around with all your other family and be a total hooligan. No one will even care. You just gotta be good for another day and a little bit.”
“You really are looking forward to getting home.”
Rowdy tried not to lose his temper, because Brett was being kind and he understood not everybody was going to be in love with New Mexico. Thank God, because otherwise the people would keep coming.
“I gotta tell you, the high today in the heat of the summer where I live was eighty-two fucking degrees. No humidity. There are horses, my pool, my dogs, my dad. There’s a lady who cooks for me who knows exactly what I like to eat. Hell, there’s probably fifty acres of the damn place that I could drive on my four-wheeler by myself, and I’m blind. So yeah, I’m looking forward to getting home. It’s my space.”
“Sure. Of course.” Brett sighed. “Look, I can tell I pissed you off, Rowdy. I didn’t mean to. Seriously. I just… Panicked.”
“Well, like I told you. No need to do that. Can you get me back to Ashley’s and in the back door?”
“If that’s what you want. Or we can get you some clothes, and you can come with me.” Brett took a deep breath. He heard it. “I still want to talk about that invitation, if it’s not closed down like a nun’s thighs.”
He tilted his head, thinking about it. “Well, but what if that goes poorly?”
“Then I drive you home and kiss you goodnight. You’re right when you say we’re both adults. I can handle it. And I won’t panic again, but I might ask a ton of questions. Or not. We might just watch movies and eat popcorn and sit until it’s time to go to bed and sleep off the sex hangover.”
That made him bust out laughing, the sound almost a bark. It made Barney sit up and whine again.
“Chill out, bud. We’ll go see your new friend again now.”
Brett breathed out again, but this time, Rowdy thought it was relief. “Good deal. I’m all over it.”
And he told Siri to text his little girl to tell her he’d gotten a ride.
Chapter Twelve
Brett liked making biscuits.
He loved the process of cutting butter into flour, and then adding milk and stirring it up in his great granny’s dough trough.
So he got out the cold butter and the flour and started making biscuits for Rowdy. He’d stir up some gravy, too. In fact, he would crumble up the sausage first. He put the butter back into the fridge to stay cold while he grabbed the Jimmy Dean.
Mr. Mann padded out from the bedroom, sniffing the air hopefully.
“I know, bud. Barney should be out soon too. I guess I woke up before the cowboy, huh? Not bad.” He chuckled, opening up the dog door for the basset. He didn’t leave it open all night anymore since an opossum had been on his stove one morning when he woke up.
