Page 1 of Brett and Rowdy (Gomillion High Reunion #5)

Chapter One

W hen “Dream Big” started playing, startling him from where he was lounging in the sunshine, reading his book, Rowdy Duran rolled his eyes. “Siri, answer the phone. Good Lord, woman, how many times can you call me today?”

Ashley’s laugh filled the air, low and husky, merry. “At least ten thousand times more. You know, if you got here already, then I could just talk to you instead of having to always call you.”

He never once pondered about how much work having a daughter graduate from Clemson would take.

After all, he was out here near Chama, so he was half of the country away in New Mexico, but apparently—especially if your momma was a biggie wow real estate broker in South Carolina, there were parties and to-dos and lunches and suppers and drama.

Graduating from NMSU had been a lot like graduating from Gomillion High School—get out the second the last final was sealed and delivered and head home to the ranch where he belonged.

“Are you listening to me, String?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. What do you need, honey?”

“Madison wants to know if she’s going to need a couch.”

“A couch.” He shook his head and counted to ten for the eightieth time today.

“Sweetheart. Madison has been at this ranch three times a year for her entire life. She knows full well what it looks like. She’s seen her room.

You’ve seen it. She’s got two big rooms, one that has her bed in it and one that has gone from doll houses to ballet room to ‘I’m going to raise dogs, Daddy’ in here.

If she wants a damn couch, tell her to bring the damn couch. I don’t care.”

“Don’t be mean. She’s nervous about moving, I think.” Ashley chuckled again. “I can’t believe she’s moving to be with you. I’m losing her to you forever. I may never get to see her again.”

“Oh, shut up, woman. One, you’re losing her to the yaks, churro sheep, and the finest herd of cattle in New Mexico. Two, you know you and Dan are welcome here any time. Me and Daddy love you dearly. So what are you going on about?”

“You forgot the horses and the alpacas.” She blew out a breath. “Nothing, I’m just fussing. I can’t wait for you to get here. We’ve got so much stuff planned, and I get you for what? Two weeks? Three?”

He bobbed his head, leaning back with a smile. “Yeah. Domingo’s going to deal with the ranch for me, so I don’t have to worry about it. Daddy’s in the good place, so I’ll be out there and at your disposal.”

“You going to see your momma?”

His nose wrinkled, instinctively. “Why on earth would I do that?”

The only thing she’d ever done for him was put him in the position for his happy ass to have his daughter.

“Oh, okay. Never mind. So, I have an idea.”

“Lord have mercy.” He knew that tone of voice. That tone of voice had gotten him in trouble off and on since he was seventeen years old.

I have an idea. Rowdy, let’s go fishing.

I got an idea. Let’s skip school and go get pizza.

I have an idea. Let’s take the baby camping on the Bosque.

I got an idea, Rowdy. Let’s learn to ski…

“Oh, you know that I live for your ideas.”

“Quit it. You sound just like Dan.”

“Dan’s a smart cookie, and we’ve both had to put up with you for a really long time, so…

” He grinned. Knowing that his smile would sound in his voice.

She really was one of his very best friends on earth, and she and Dan were the best family a guy could ask for.

Not only that, but they’ve given him a chance to be his Madison’s daddy, and he would be grateful for that for the rest of his life. Maybe longer.

His baby girl was the most perfect person he’d ever met. Wild and free, smart as a whip, and a cowgirl to the bone, he couldn’t ask for better.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. You want to hear, or what?”

“What?” he teased.

“Stop it. So listen. It’s our twentieth high school reunion, and it happens the week after Madison’s graduation.”

Whoa. “You are shitting me.”

“I shit you not. Listen. How fun does this sound? I propose that you and I go to the reunion together.”

“Oh?” Interesting. “What about Dan?”

“Well, Dan didn’t graduate. From Gomillion and you know it. Not only that, but he has to go to Tokyo for work. You know he’s happy to let you do this with me.”

“You are going to stir up all this stuff, aren’t you? You’re gonna hit the hornet’s nest with a stick.” Not that he blamed her, but damn.

“You know it. It sucks for these folks because I got money now. I got money and a beautiful baby and a husband and an amazing best friend. And you and me, we could just make them lose their minds.”

“All right, babe, if you want to, I’m in.

I’m gonna be there anyway.” What did it matter?

It wasn’t like he’d know anyone there, really.

He’d only been at the school long enough basically to have his senior year and finish school.

He hadn’t even stayed for the graduation ceremony.

None of these folks would even remember him except for being the guy who was Madison’s dad.

That worked for him.

There wouldn’t be a single person there he knew, except for Ashley, but if it made her happy?

She’d been ill-used. She deserved it.

“Barney and I will be there with bells on.”

“Wait, what do you mean you’re not going? Brett Kilpatrick, do not make me kick your ass.”

Brett sighed. His best friend, Crystal, meant well, but he really didn’t wanna talk about it. “Honey, I don’t have to be there at the actual reunion. I can just come to the dedication ceremony and let it go at that.”

“Are you kidding me? This is your statue! They’re putting it in the school lobby. You’ll have to come and do the whole weekend with me.”

“Babe, they’re putting it in the school lobby because I donated it and told them I wanted it dedicated to Principal Bushman. That’s the only reason. Otherwise they would probably just take it to the scrap metal center at the recycling place.”

“Brett, that is not true. Everyone thinks you’re a great artist.”

He tried really hard not to roll his eyes, even though he was on the phone with her and not talking to her in person.

That great artist thing wasn’t true, either.

Everybody who remembered him from high school thought he was that weird guy who liked metal shop more than he’d liked anything else, and now they considered him a laborer, someone who got sweaty for a living.

And in Gomillion, that really wasn’t considered the thing to do.

If the folks were townies, the people he’d gone to high school with were now restaurant owners or real estate agents.

If they weren’t townies, then they were from someplace fancy-assed like Keowee Key.

They didn’t want to associate with someone like him who shoed horses and made weird metal art for a living.

Honest to God, if he had anywhere else to go, he would have been gone by now, but he did have a little piece of land that his grandpa had left him, and that was better than nothing.

So he hung out there and did his metal art, which was starting to sell outside of BF Nowhere, South Carolina.

Hell, he had a piece at one of the national gallery sites in DC now, and he sold to a bunch of big galleries up north, like in Boston and New York.

“Anyway, you don’t need me hanging around making you feel sad because I’m not having a good time, hon.”

Now it was Crystal’s turn to sigh. “Look, if you don’t come with me, who am I going to dance with? I’m considered just as much of a weirdo as you are.”

He had to chuckle, because that was true, and it was why they were still friends twenty years after graduating from high school.

Twenty-five? Whatever the hell this reunion was, he couldn’t remember.

High school had been something he had been overjoyed to leave, and it wasn’t something he tried to remember with any clarity or fondness.

Mainly, when he did think about high school, he thought about Rowdy, and that just hurt his feelings so it was better to let it go like a Frozen song.

“Anyway, you have to go with me. I’ll put your name down.”

“I reckon if you have to.”

“I do.” She giggled, sounding just like she had in high school.

She was a hoot; she drove the library bookmobile, and she worked three part-time jobs to take care of her two kids.

Plus she made miniatures. Like his, her art was starting to take off, and her Etsy store was really making money, but she still had to pay the bills with not-so-great work.

“We’re going to have a ball,” she told him. “We’re gonna make those people regret that they were ever mean to us.”

“Oh, honey, they didn’t regret it then, and they ain’t gonna regret it now.” He chuckled. “And I suppose they weren’t any meaner to us than we were to them.”

“We did pull some really awesome pranks.”

“That we did.” Okay, so maybe there were a few people he wouldn’t mind seeing, and hell, there would be pimento cheese and some kind of weird deviled eggs and fun BBQ pulled meat or something, and at least he’d get a meal out of it.

“You think that guy you had a crush on will show?”

He snorted. “Rowdy Duran? Are you serious?”

Rowdy had gotten Ashley Graham pregnant and then skedaddled when the baby was what? Just tiny?

He was a piece of shit.

“I don’t know. Madison Duran is in the paper. She’s graduating from Clemson.”

“Well, good on her.” Her stepfather made more money than God. “I’m surprised they let the kid keep the asshole’s name.”

“I don’t know. Still, it’s going to be wild, seeing folks. Seeing who all got fat and who got famous.”

“Crystal, you know I love you, but you’re weird as hell. I’ve got to put a frozen pizza in the oven so I can get back to the forge. I sold a pair of andirons.”

And for enough money to pay the taxes on the property for another year.

“Love you. I’ll come over Saturday for a beer?”

“Sure. Bring the babies. We’ll grill.”

And he wouldn’t be thinking of a high school asshole with dark eyes and a wicked, knowing smile.

Fucking cowboys.