Page 43 of Brett and Rowdy
“Yep, just like, no? They were beautiful, and she would just say, ohmijo, they’re just blankets. But they were special, you know?” And they made him a little misty to think about.
“So that’s cool, yeah? I’d like to bring something like that back, you know? Like, we could have people come in and do weaving exhibitions and stuff. That’d be a reason for people to come to the ranch.”
“I swear to God, girl, you are your pappy’s granddaughter, through and through.” Rowdy was more traditional. He didn’t think about all the different things that you could do to make money on the ranch. He just sort of ran things like they’d been run for years. He loved that she was interested in digging in deep and making things work.
“So this Brett guy…”
Oh, Lord.
“You’re so into him.”
“Am I?” Shit. He didn’t really want to go into this. It was all so weirdly old and new, and he didn’t know for sure how Brett was dealing.
“Yeah, it’s cool. Little weird, little creepy.”
“Well, thank you, I think.” Creepy?
“No, seriously, Daddy. You are totally allowed to be into an old guy from South Carolina. You know, I’m into a guy from New Mexico. I’m experienced in being in a long-distance relationship. I can give you a ton of advice.”
Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen… “No, you can’t. You’re going to be busy working and being careful, little girl, about getting yourself in a family way.”
“In a family way, Daddy? It’s pregnant.”
“Don’t say that word.” He knew that would distract her from Brett.
“What? You know I have sex. I have?—”
“Oh, no!” He covered his ears with his hands. “Don’t! Somebody help? My child is being mean to me.”
She started giggling.” You are a giant goofball.”
It still worked.
“Absolutely. Never ever-ever say the word pregnant to me again until you actually are, in like ten years. After you’ve been married for a long time, so that you know that you want to be with him forever. I’m not one hundred percent sure I approve of that boy, still.”
That earned him another whap. “Oh, Daddy, you like him and you know it.”
He did, but it was his job—to pretend that he didn’t in case one day she might get married to him and he wouldn’t want anybody to think he was all right with that whole situation.
“So now that you’ve changed the subject, what about Brett?”
She got the stubborn from him. “He and I were a thing back in high school, and we had a big fight, we broke up between our junior and senior year, and we never talked again.”
“Just boom, you just never—like you didn’t even hash it out.”
“We’re not girls.” What had there been to say? “No, we just?—”
“What do you fight about?”
That was an easy question to answer. “I wanted to go home to New Mexico. He didn’t want to come to New Mexico. He was mad that I wouldn’t think about staying in South Carolina, and he said he wanted to break up. I told him cool, and that was that.”
“And then Momma got pregnant.”
“Yes. And then your momma came to me afterward, later in that summer, and explained the situation. And then? Ta-da, we had a you.”
“Daddy. Do you know how wild that is?”
He shook his head, grinned. “Believe it or not, child, I do have an idea, yes, of exactly how wild that is.”
