Page 41 of Brett and Rowdy
“Damn.” He sat with that for a moment, and then he started the truck. He wanted to be pissed and say that Rowdy had lied to him, but when had he? They’d never talked about it at the time. He’d never asked.
“You pissed?” Rowdy sat very still, and Barney whined from the back seat, so he figured the air must be thick with tension.
“More blown away, man. I just had no idea, and I feel… like I’m a little lost.”
“Well, I’ll be super clear. Madison knows I’m not her sperm donor. Dan and Ash and I don’t lie to her. I love her. She’s my baby girl.”
“She clearly adores you.” Brett took a deep breath. “And she’s a great kid, honey.” He had a lot to process, but he didn’t know that Rowdy did. And that might suck.
“She is. She’s a cowboy, through and through.” Rowdy beamed at him and reached out to pat his thigh. “Feel better?”
“Yeah.” He had no idea. But at least he knew what the joke was. “Yeah. And I’m starving.” He was good at compartmentalizing.
“God, me too. I intend to eat my way across the country too. Pie. Gumbo. Chicken-fried steak. Tex-Mex…”
“Where the hell do you put it?” He laced his fingers with Rowdy’s for a moment, glad he wasn’t driving a stick these days like he had in high school.
“I work my butt off, mostly, and I work out when I can’t. I like running on my treadmill a lot.”
“That I can see.” That did seem like it would be a good exercise for someone who had good muscle memory and situational awareness. And Rowdy definitely had that.
“You are built like a brick shithouse, on the other hand. I would pay to feed you.”
“I’m down. Not in front of your daughter though,” he teased. He did have a hell of a lot of thinking to do, but oddly, he did feel better. So he would take it.
“Lord no. I don’t need her to give me shit for that.”
“Oh, you might not need it, but?—”
Rowdy squeezed his hand.
“Seriously, I will give her no ammunition.”
“Good deal. Let’s power down some potato salad, man.”
“Sounds good.” And he was going to look Ashley in the eye and smile and let her wonder what Rowdy had told him for at least two or three hours.
He got that much satisfaction at least.
Chapter Nine
“Are you going to go to the dinner, Daddy? What if you get an award?”
Rowdy snorted and stretched out on the sofa. “For what, sweet pea? Farthest traveled? Oldest child?”
Brett was going to go home and change and shower, and then they were all going to figure out what to do for supper.
“Daddy! It’s your reunion; how can you not care?”
“Maddie! I have talked to every single person I liked in high school today.” He’d had sex with one of them.
“Well… That’s weird.”
“Nope.” He shook his head. “It’s weird for you because you went to school with all the same people all the way up. I didn’t.”
“Yeah. How mad were you when your mom moved here?”
He shrugged. He’d been absolutely livid. He’d walked away from her and her asshole of a husband twenty years ago and never looked back.
