Page 53 of Guitars and Cages

“Yeah, fine, but you better not drink it all, ya damn lush.”

“That’s Mr. Lush to you.”

I laughed. “Damn, I’ve missed you, Cole.”

“I’ve missed you, too, little brother. Now that I’m home, we should go camping or something, just you and me, like old times. Head up to the mountains, maybe even get a deer.”

“We’d have to get licenses, but yeah, we can do that when the season comes, if I’m still here.”

He nearly upended his plate, slamming his hand down the way he did. “What the hell do you mean if you’re still here? Where are you going?”

“Not sure yet, but I’ve been sitting in this city for well over a year. I was thinking of hitting the road, see where fate takes me.”

“You mean running away.”

“I...”

“Save it, Asher. I know all the lies and bullshit—remember, I taught ’em to you. Maybe too well; I don’t know sometimes.”

“Well, it’s not like you’re gonna stick around here long!”

“Wrong, little brother. I was thinking maybe I’d settle in and stay this time, maybe even open a business.”

I about choked on my crab rangoon. “You’re gonna open a business? And do what?”

“Hey, I was a damn good boxer before I started doing all that other stuff. There’re people out there who’d pay to be trained by a Golden Gloves champion. I could maybe open a gym or something. It’d be fun.”

“And where the hell would you get the kind of cash it would take to open a place like that?”

He laughed and leaned over, ruffling my hair the way he used to do when we were kids. “Do you really think I spent all that time fighting and gambling in Mexico without ever putting a dime away? I sent Michael money every month and had him invest it for me. I’ve got enough to do what I want and then some.”

“Then why the hell didn’t you just pay the soccer bets and be done with it?”

“’Cause the fucker wanted to charge me too much interest to wait for me to get it wired down, and I would have had to explain to Michael what I needed it for, and that was a lecture I wasn’t in the mood to listen to.”

“Damn.”

“Yeah, I know, I know.”

“So you’re serious, you’re gonna stay here and teach people to box?”

“I’m thinking about it. What would be the harm? Besides, I’m getting too old to be running up and down the highway like a vagabond.”

“Oh, come on, man, you’re not even a whole two years older than me.”

“Exactly! You, little brother, are also getting too old to be running up and down the highways on a whim. You know, in a perfect world, you never would have left Nebraska. You were the only one of us who ever loved that ranch enough to wanna run it, and you were amazing with the animals. With the old man doing all those years, you would have had people coming to you left and right to train their horses for them. Not to mention the breeding stock that was out there. You could have really turned a profit on that place.”

“Maybe, but none of that matters now. It’s empty, and that’s how it’ll stay. I ain’t ever going back to Nebraska.”

“That’s fine if you don’t wanna go, but you shouldn’t waste your God-given talents. You’re an amazing guitarist, Asher, and you’ve got mad skills when it comes to working with any kind of critter. You could be making good money doing either one, and instead you’re breaking your hands all to pieces being a meathead like me.”

“In all fairness, it was the wall that broke my hand to pieces.”

“That’s not what I heard; I heard there were some old breaks and fractures still healing before you introduced it to the wall. Look, just think about it, okay? And think about sticking around the city. With almost all of us here now it’ll be nice to have the family back together again.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Though in the back of my head I kept thinking about what was gonna happen when he saw Alex. I was guessing he hadn’t seen him on his trip in or out of the bar, likely because as soon as he’d heard Cole was here, Alex had gone into hiding. Too bad there weren’t enough places in the bar to hide from him forever. Cole was gonna see him sooner rather than later, and I was not looking forward to the fireworks to come.

Chapter Twenty