Page 58 of Brett and Rowdy
“Daddy, everybody likes onion rings. You like onion rings, right?”
He nodded. Even if he hated onion rings, he would have said yes because he was not starting any shit with these two.
“See, he said yes.”
Rowdy shook his head. “No, he didn’t. I didn’t hear a yes.”
She rolled her eyes and spoke slowly. “This is the danger of dealing with blindolddudes. You’re constantly having to say things out loud because they can’t see anything, and it’ssoirritating.” Her smile as she looked at her father was beautiful, pure, unadulterated love.
“Well, yes, I love onion rings and yes, I love ranch.” And yeah, Brett really, really liked blind dudes and their sassy daughters.
“Do you hear how she abuses me?”
“I do. I think it must be love.” There was no doubt, actually.
“Of course it is. I’m her daddy. She is required by law to adore me in the same way that I adore her. We’re a set, my girl and me.” And wasn’t Rowdy sure of that?
“True. That drives Momma crazy, she says. It’s absolutely unfair?—”
“Hey, I gave her twenty-one years. I let her let you be in a sorority. You went to Clemson. I have seen you wear weird, weird pink things and get highlights in your hair and?—”
Madison whapped him gently. “Daddy, you haven’t seen a thing.”
“Well, I’ve heard about it.”
“Fair enough.”
Rowdy reached out one hand, and she took it, and he squeezed. “Your momma’s gonna be fine, I promise. Cross-country air trips are a thing, and your Daddy Dan wants to move to New Mexico as soon as he retires. You know that he wants to fish for the rest of his life.”
“I know. Momma will conquer New Mexico just like she has small-town South Carolina.”
Brett could see that. Ash was a wheeler-dealer.
“What about you, Brett?”
He was caught flat-footed by Madison’s question. “Huh?”
“Well, clearly you don’t have a lot of love for where you live. Seriously, you weren’t happy about the reunion, and you keep saying you don’t really know anybody, and you don’t really have any family there anymore. Are you gonna stay there?” Madison made it all so matter-of-fact.
His first instinct was to give her a flip response, but Brett really had to sit and think about that for a minute. He traced the cattle brands on the placemat in front of him, marking out things like the Rocking W and the Lazy S while he pondered it. “I’ve got my own land and a house. I’m not sure what I could get for what I could sell my place for, but I would consider leaving.”
“Oh, Momma could get you a fortune for that place. She would just make it all sound really good. Vintage house, workshop, horse acreage. Somebody would snap it up. It’s on a nice quiet road, too.”
Madison made it all sound so simple, but Brett wasn’t sure about that. There was a lot of history wrapped up in that land, and he felt the weight of it all the time.
“Honey, don’t push him,” Rowdy said. “She has all these ideas, Brett, but this is just a vacation. You don’t have to think about that kind of stuff when you’re on vacation.”
Brett chuckled. “No, I just have to think about selling commissions to the guy at the gallery here.”
“Yep, that’s different. That’s totally work.” Rowdy reached over to pat his hand with kind of distressing accuracy, actually.“And right now is totally about onion rings and steak and that damn ranch dressing, so let’s enjoy ourselves. Tell me what all you bought, girly girl,” Rowdy said to Madison. And she was off and running.
All Brett had to do was sit and marvel at the amazing food that they kept bringing them and wonder, if his chance came, would he be brave enough to just leave his whole life behind and start over?
Chapter Fourteen
Rowdy could smell it when they were back in his part of New Mexico. West Texas, once you got past the Permian basin, was dry in his nose. It had a deep smell of canyons and hardscrabble dirt, and it was cowboy country for sure, but it wasn’t home.
Southern New Mexico was the same way. It smelled like chiles to him and like parched earth and cactus, and the occasional rainstorm that swept across to fill the arroyos up and flood everything.
