Page 14 of Brett and Rowdy (Gomillion High Reunion #5)
Chapter Eight
I f there was one thing Brett had figured out by the time that they’d won five hundred dollars at the axe-throwing venue and geared up to go have enough barbecue to fell a bison, it was this?—
There was not a single human being in Madison Duran’s life who didn’t love her. Not one. She was adored by her daddy, by her momma, by her stepfather, and literally by every person that she seemed to walk across.
“I’m going to head to the bathroom before we head out,” Rowdy said, and Madison stood as he did. “I have to go too, Daddy. I’ll lead the way.”
“Thanks, baby girl.”
They headed off, and Ashley snorted. “She worries about him, so much.”
“She does,” Dan chuckled, rubbing her arm. “They’re going to have a blast on the ranch together.”
Brett had also learned that—while Ashley obviously adored Rowdy, she didn’t so much as look at him in a sexual sort of way. Not at all. Not one bit. Nothing.
Not even in an old flame, fond, squishy sort of way.
And when they spoke about one another, there were no fond memories of anything from the past before Madison. It was a little odd. Because honestly, he talked about when they’d done this or how they’d done that quite a bit. After all, this was kind of a reminiscing sort of weekend, wasn’t it?
How come they didn’t reminisce? Was it weird that he did? Was it?—
“What are you thinking about so hard?” Ashley was grinning at him, peering at him over her compact.
“What?”
She rolled her eyes and snapped the makeup shut. “What are you thinking about so goddamn hard?”
She surprised him into answering honestly. “You and Rowdy.”
“Oh, well, he’s right here, and so am I. So, I guess it’s good that you think about us.”
Brett blinked at her, then decided that he was sick and tired of all the things he didn’t get. “I don’t understand why the two of you hooked up.”
There, he’d said it, and he meant it.
She tilted her head and blinked at him. “What?”
“I’m not trying to say that I don’t think you’re pretty and all. Of course you are. I mean, you’re… you’re fine, but. I mean?—”
“You do know Rowdy’s gay, right?” Dan asked.
“No. Really?” He made his best dipshit face, hoping for a laugh.
Dan snorted. “I really think so. Are you stupid?”
Well, he was starting to feel stupid now.
“You two were broken up. I didn’t think it would hurt anything.”
He rolled his eyes at Ash. “Well, I guess it didn’t hurt anything, I mean. Well, except for me. It hurt me pretty good.”
“Oh, good Lord and butter. I didn’t think you’d care.”
He turned around to face her. “That you slept with my boyfriend?”
She blinked at him so hard her fake eyelashes struggled. “Says who?”
Brett stopped and blinked, because that was either a stupid question or a really stupid question. “Um, well, last time I checked, you said you were the one who said so.”
“No, I didn’t.”
He didn’t follow. “No, you didn’t what?”
“Say so.”
Suddenly, he was in the middle of an Abbott and Costello skit. “I’m sorry but I’m really confused.”
She nodded, her curls bobbing. “I will accept that as an answer. You are absolutely confused. I never did sleep with him.”
“Honey, you have a child together, last time I checked.”
“Oh, Jesus Christ on a purple sparkly crutch. You and Rowdy need to talk. Like go somewhere private and have a talk because trust me. I just—You two need to talk.”
Brett was beginning to feel like the world’s biggest idiot, and he didn’t even know why.
“I’m serious, man. There are a couple of things that I can tell you unequivocally are the truth. One is that Rowdy never cheated on you with me, and the other one is that—well, I guess that’s really it, but you do need to talk to him because you two are having some issues.”
“I guess that’s pretty freaking obvious.” His ears were burning with a mixture of shame and embarrassment. “You know what? I’m just going to go home.”
He started to stand when she arched an eyebrow. “Wow. So you’re gonna wait until he’s in the bathroom, and then you’re just going to walk out and leave me to deal with all the fallout from that? And that’s good with you. You really are a fucker.”
“Ashley, honey?—”
“Don’t you Ashley honey me,” she snapped at Dan. “That man has been nothing but good to me. For more than twenty years, he has had my back—every fucking day for twenty-one years. So I am not going to watch my mouth. I am going to tell the truth.”
“And what is that?”
She glanced around as if to make sure no one was watching them, and then she looked at Dan who raised an eyebrow at her, his expression odd, maybe impatient, he wasn’t sure.
Ashley sighed. “Well, the truth is that the truth isn’t mine to tell you, even as much as I want to.
If Rowdy wants you to know, he’ll tell you himself.
But I swear to God, if you walk away right now, you better not wanna ever see him again, because I will take his ear, and I will bend it against you as hard as I possibly can.
If you’re gonna have a booty call and then give up right away because you don’t understand everything that’s going on in everybody else’s life, then you’re not the kind of guy I want him to be involved with. ”
Wow. Brett just sat there and blinked a little bit because, one, she was right, he thought, and two, nobody had taken him to task like that since his grandpa died. Well except for Rowdy last night.
“Look, I know it’s probably petty of me, but I don’t like feeling that everybody knows a secret but me, and that everybody’s just sort of laughing at me behind my back.”
“But see, that’s the problem. It’s not about you.
This is about Rowdy and about that little girl who loves him so much she’s fixing to go to New Mexico and move in with him.
And if he wants you to know the deal about that, then he’ll tell you.
But I can tell you, as I’ve already said more than once, he did not cheat on you with me, and he did not have to put his name on Madison’s birth certificate. ”
He took a full minute to ponder the implications of that. Maybe more than one, especially the way Dan and Ashley stared at him when he finally opened his mouth to talk. But there were a lot of outcomes there and a lot of possibilities.
“Okay, but no one has to. I guess he did the right thing.”
“No, he did more than the right thing. He did everything, and I’ll never forget it, and I’ll always be grateful to him. You put that in your pipe and smoke it for a while, and then you ask him what’s going on.”
Brett spread his hands in surrender. “Fair enough.”
She arched one perfectly plucked eyebrow. “So, are you gonna stick around for barbecue?”
Brett nodded. “Yeah, I think I am.” He kind of wanted to apologize for pissing her off, but at the same time, she hadn’t exactly been forthcoming and/or kind to him, so he just kind of put that in his pipe and smoked it, just like she’d said.
When Rowdy and Madison came back, Madison was looking back and forth between Brett and her mom with some sort of radar, like she knew something had happened. Rowdy couldn’t see their faces so maybe he couldn’t read the tension in the room, but Dan was overly cheerful when he spoke.
“You guys ready to go have some food?” Dan asked.
“You know I am,” Rowdy shot back. “I am starving. Throwing an axe to make as much money as I did today is hard work.”
“You did great, Daddy.” Madison looked so excited. “And I get my cut right? My usual cut?”
“You know it. Fifty percent for my girl.”
Madison boogied. “I love it. Now I can buy those boots that I want.”
“I think you ought to wait and buy them in New Mexico. They’re cheaper there.”
“Yeah, but are they that rad, because those ones I want here are pretty damn cool.”
“Well, baby, I don’t know what to tell you. I mean maybe—maybe—you would find some even cooler on the drive. We can stop someplace amazing, like taking the southern route through Texas. We can do that and look if you don’t trust small-town New Mexico.”
“Oh, that sounds so much more fun than Oklahoma and Arkansas! Let’s do that.”
“Good deal.” Rowdy turned his head toward Brett. “You doing okay? You’re awfully quiet.”
“I’m fine.” He didn’t mean to make it quite so sharp, but that was how it came out.
Rowdy frowned a little. “All right. Where do y’all wanna go?”
“Do you wanna head to big D’s?” Madison asked. “It’s my last chance for a while, so I would love to go get some.”
“Sounds good to me.” Brett actually liked the place. It had a good menu, and it had the distinction of being run by a former football player.
“They got anything besides pulled pork?” Rowdy asked. “I don’t remember y’all taking me there before.”
“They’ve got brisket and ribs. They’ve got pulled chicken, too, I think.” Madison grinned. “Daddy thinks that barbecue should be smoked beef, not pork. Or barbacoa or chicken. They’ve got real good mac and cheese, and their coleslaw is exceptional.”
“Well, if they got coleslaw and potato salad and something that’s not coming from a pig, then I’m in.”
“Awesome. Come on; let’s go.” Madison led the way, and her parents followed her, leaving him with Rowdy.
“You get into it with Ashley?” Rowdy asked.
“Some, yeah. She asked why I was thinking so hard. If she hadn’t asked, I wouldn’t have told her.”
“Is it something we need to talk about in a bit?”
“Yeah, if you don’t mind. I mean, you can always tell me to mind my own business, but I have some questions.”
“Huh. I’ll answer them if that’s what you want. Just be aware that you might not get the answers you need.” Rowdy took his arm and let him and Barney lead the man out of the Stumphouse.
They’d brought two vehicles, so Rowdy just went right to his truck instead of getting in with the others. Brett wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or a bad one, but he was gonna take it and run with it.
“So do we need to talk about it now?” Rowdy asked.