Page 18 of Brett and Rowdy (Gomillion High Reunion #5)

Chapter Eleven

M ost of the time, Rowdy didn’t think about being blind.

Well, he knew he was blind. He was aware that he couldn’t see, but he didn’t worry about it.

It was his life. Hell, at this point, he was an incredibly short period of time away from having been blind half his life.

However, in moments, just like right now, he really wished that he wasn’t blind because Ash and Dan were obviously wanting to be alone so Ash could deal with her own personal shit.

Brett… Yeah, he wasn’t sure if Brett wanted to be alone, but he wanted Brett to be alone right now.

Because he was a little embarrassed and a little bit put out. It wasn’t like he’d asked the son of a bitch to move in. He’d offered to let Brett come to visit the house. God for fucking bid.

So his choices were to ride back with Ash in their fancy Escalade, with Ash either crying or being stoically silent until she could talk to her husband.

Ride back with Brett and try to find some reason he wasn’t going to spend the night.

And then try to somehow sneak into Ash’s house, or spend the night with Brett and just pretend like he wasn’t pissed off and embarrassed and aggravated.

Maybe he could get an Uber? An Uber and a hotel room. Possibly he could call his daughter. Now that was an idea. She was a grown-up. They could go have a beer.

Although if they had a beer, then she couldn’t drive so maybe he could offer to buy a six-pack of beer and have her take him to a hotel, and they could both have that beer.

Two different rooms, so no one would care.

Hell, he had shared a hotel room with her for twenty-one years on and off.

They only had one room with two beds; they could handle that, although she snored.

You wouldn’t think that such a little girl would snore, but Jesus Christ.

He listened. Shit. How long had the table been perfectly silent? He had no idea when he’d stopped paying attention because he was trying to figure out what the hell he was going to do. Obviously, it had been a little bit because that silence felt really weighty and weird.

Again, it would be nice to see right about now. Then he could figure out things like whether or not he was in trouble or whether or not everybody was staring at him, and he was about ninety-nine point nine percent sure everybody was staring at him.

Ash sighed softly. “You weren’t listening, were you?”

“Nope, I was in my own little world.” His own little blind world where they knew him. He was so ready to go home. He just needed it to be Monday morning, when they were going to get on the road. They were gonna drive, spend the night somewhere just because. Possibly Dallas.

That was a nice halfway point. They could spend a day there with Miss Thing doing some shopping. And then, Wednesday night, they’d be home. Back at the ranch where he belonged, where she belonged, and where there were no weird ex-boyfriends to worry about.

“We were asking whether or not you were going to ride home with Brett or ride home with us. I said I’m tired, I have a headache, and I want to go home.”

“You go on ahead. If Mr. Brett here can’t give me a ride back to the house, I’ll call Maddie.”

“You’ll do what?”

“Maybe Maddie and I can go out on the town here.”

“You and Maddie are gonna have a night out on the town here,” Ash said, deadpan.

“It could happen.”

“You’re way too old to pick up college boys,” Ash pointed out, and he let himself roll his eyes, even though she couldn’t see him through the glasses.

“I’ll have you know, that I am choice. I am a catch. I am amazing in bed, and I am also an archetype. Just ask some queer twink what he thinks about going to bed with me, and he will tell you I’m a stud.”

“Right,” Dan said, “But Madison doesn’t go to gay bars.”

“Oh no, Madison hasn’t been to a gay bar.

Madison is not gay. Madison is omnivorous.

And also monogamous. So while she is not anti-boobs, she is totally into that bulldogger who just bought a piece of land next to mine.

I’m way more worried about her having babies unexpectedly than I am about her coming home and saying ‘Daddy, I found a girl I like. Her name is Gertrude.’”

Ash started crying, and he rolled his eyes again. “Just go home, you two. I will figure my own shit out. I know how. I’m not stressed.”

“It’s all right,” Brett said. “I’ve got it. I’ll make sure you get home safe.”

After some more arguing, Ash and Dan headed out, and he got on the phone immediately, calling his daughter. “Hey, baby girl.”

“Hey, Daddy, what’s up?”

“Your mother is having a bit of a crying jag. She might need hugs when she gets home, and I might need a ride. I haven’t figured that out yet.”

“Hugs and a ride. I’m on it. I haven’t been drinking. I’m just sitting here with a couple of my girlfriends, and we’re watching old movies.”

“Like what?”

“We’re watching. Gladiator and Moulin Rouge .”

“Oh, yeah, old movies. Go team you.” Now he knew what his pappy felt like when he talked about watching Jaws . “All right, y’all be good. I’ll call you if I need you.”

“Sure thing, Daddy. Love you.”

“Love you too, baby girl.” Rowdy closed his eyes and searched for the coffee he’d ordered with dessert. His hand was starting to ache a little bit from hitting that feller. Nothing bad, nothing serious, just enough to irritate him. He hadn’t come here to have a fight.

“I can take you home,” Brett murmured.

Rowdy nodded, shrugged. “I know. It just seemed awful uncomfortable, and I didn’t want to force you if you wouldn’t give me a ride.

I’m probably going to just get a hotel room.

Somewhere so that Ash can have her crying fit without me interfering.

” Not to mention the fact that should dickhead wake up and decide to press charges, there was a good chance that the sheriff would come hunting him at Ash’s house, and if he wasn’t there and she didn’t know where he was, it was a win-win situation.

It would really, really screw with him to get arrested right now.

Although obviously it was pretty easy to find where the toilet and the bed were.

A cell situation he could draft a map out, in theory, relatively quickly.

And if he had to, he could play the poor, defeated blind dude complete with fumbling for Barney’s harness.

“I am going to have to run by Ash’s house anyway to feed my dog,” Brett said. “And I assume that yours needs food and water, too.”

“He had his dinner before we ever left, but yeah. That works.” He took a sip of the coffee, which had been much better hot than it was lukewarm, then put it aside. “We waiting for a bill?”

“No.” Brett chuckled softly. “No, Dan paid for it. Come on, let’s get you home. You got to be tired; you’ve had a busy night.”

“I have. I kicked that bastard’s ass. I’ve…

” He let the words trail off because he really didn’t wanna say, he’d broken up with the guy who broke up with him years ago, because that would assume they were together, which wasn’t what had happened; it had been a hookup.

A booty call. They’d bumped uglies. They hadn’t made any promises to each other.

They hadn’t said anything to one another that could be construed as anything more than reunion, sex, and an invitation to come visit, which had been weirdly turned down.

He couldn’t even say calmly turned down. The situation had been weird, if he thought about it, and if he kept thinking about it, it was going to make him mad. Then he was going to be stuck in the truck with Brett angry, then on to be faced with rightfully upset woman.

He didn’t want to be mad. He was kind of angry, though, damn it.

“Are you ready to go?” Brett asked.

“God, yes.” He wasn’t sure where he was going, but he wasn’t going to stay here.

They made it to the car, and Barney settled in the back seat with a little bit of a complaining groan.

“Oh, you hush. You be good and I’ll give you a treat when we get home.

Hell, when we get home-home, I’m going to let you out in the back forty and you can run around with all your other family and be a total hooligan.

No one will even care. You just gotta be good for another day and a little bit. ”

“You really are looking forward to getting home.”

Rowdy tried not to lose his temper, because Brett was being kind and he understood not everybody was going to be in love with New Mexico. Thank God, because otherwise the people would keep coming.

“I gotta tell you, the high today in the heat of the summer where I live was eighty-two fucking degrees. No humidity. There are horses, my pool, my dogs, my dad. There’s a lady who cooks for me who knows exactly what I like to eat.

Hell, there’s probably fifty acres of the damn place that I could drive on my four-wheeler by myself, and I’m blind.

So yeah, I’m looking forward to getting home. It’s my space.”

“Sure. Of course.” Brett sighed. “Look, I can tell I pissed you off, Rowdy. I didn’t mean to. Seriously. I just… Panicked.”

“Well, like I told you. No need to do that. Can you get me back to Ashley’s and in the back door?”

“If that’s what you want. Or we can get you some clothes, and you can come with me.” Brett took a deep breath. He heard it. “I still want to talk about that invitation, if it’s not closed down like a nun’s thighs.”

He tilted his head, thinking about it. “Well, but what if that goes poorly?”

“Then I drive you home and kiss you goodnight. You’re right when you say we’re both adults. I can handle it. And I won’t panic again, but I might ask a ton of questions. Or not. We might just watch movies and eat popcorn and sit until it’s time to go to bed and sleep off the sex hangover.”

That made him bust out laughing, the sound almost a bark. It made Barney sit up and whine again.

“Chill out, bud. We’ll go see your new friend again now.”

Brett breathed out again, but this time, Rowdy thought it was relief. “Good deal. I’m all over it.”

And he told Siri to text his little girl to tell her he’d gotten a ride.