Page 27 of Brett and Rowdy (Gomillion High Reunion #5)

“You’re welcome to, man, or you can wander out here with me. Maybe take a drive in the four-wheeler?” He didn’t want Brett to be uncomfortable, and honestly, he wanted to spend some time, really show off his space.

Maybe prove that there was a place outside of South Carolina.

“I’ll come out with you, Rowdy. Maybe see your stuff tomorrow, Madison?”

“Sure! I’m happy to show off whenever.”

Hoo yeah. He loved that Brett wanted him right back.

“Cool. After breakfast, we’ll go take a wander. Maybe just grab some sandwiches. Or we could grab some hot dogs and grill out for lunch.”

“I love that.”

“So what are you gonna do today, Pappy?” Maddie asked, “Since Daddy’s gonna be lazy.”

Dad snorted. “You’re here to work, girl. I’m actually pondering about running down to see some horses.”

“Oh, you have to come out and meet my girl. You didn’t get to meet her before everybody got her settled.”

“Yeah, I saw you brought your dog,” Eduardo muttered around a mouthful of food. “She trained to a whistle?”

Maddie blew a raspberry. “I don’t know if yours sounds just like mine do, but she does a pretty good job. I’ve been trying, Uncle Ed, I promise.”

“You’re good with the critters. I mean, you’ll do fine. We’ll introduce her to the pack. See if she likes them or she just decides she wants to be a house dog.”

Everybody got to talking about the German Shepherds and the border collies and the hound dog and the horses, and Rowdy just let the sounds pour over him, because nobody was saying anything he needed to hear.

This was just the sound of everyday ranch life—cowboys, dishes, the slow swish of a dog’s tail on the floor.

Brett stood and took his plate, and he heard Rose chuckle and thank him.

“I like him, osito.”

“I do too, Rosarita.”

Sooner or later, everyone filed out, including Rose, who bustled off to do some laundry.

Brett refilled his coffee, then sat across from him again. The man seemed to have a hard time sitting when Rose or Madison were standing.

“This is a crazy place at breakfast. Is it that way all day?”

“Off and on.” He chuckled. “Supper is more just the family, and the hands have their own cook, but if someone comes up to do business with me or Pappy or Maddie, they stay for lunch.” It worked for him; he was never lonely.

But Brett was a different thing. This was something just for him. Someone he wanted to be with in bed and hopefully out. And he hoped Brett felt the same way.

“What about you, darlin’? Did you sleep all right?”

“I slept like a log,” Brett said, reaching over to touch the back of his hand.

His skin tingled, his whole body lighting up from it. “Good deal. I did too. Being in my own bed and all.”

“Your bed is pretty darn comfortable, man.” Brett scooted closer, his chair scraping on the floor a little. “I can’t wait to see the rest of everything.”

A soft woof sounded, and Mr. Mann came clicking over.

“But first, I have to escort my dog outside. He thinks he needs a bodyguard. The great llama and sheep incident, you know.” Brett rose, dropping a kiss on his forehead before he moved around to let Mr. Mann out the back door.

Brett hummed a tuneless little song, sounding very pleased with life, and he had to smile.

He didn’t think he’d spent any time with adult Brett so far where there wasn’t a kind of fine tension in him, but today, he read as relaxed and happy.

“How did Mr. Mann do last night?” he called. He didn’t think the long-eared weirdo had tried to get up in bed with them…

“He slept good. Never woke me up, anyway. And he’s pretty good about making me get up to let him out if he needs it.”

“Sounds great.” Barney was leaning on his leg suddenly, and he leaned down to rub those alert ears. “Am I talking about un otro dog, buddy. Not nice, huh?”

“Your Spanglish is showing,” Brett teased when he came to sit back down. “Mr. Mann has decided he can explore. Hey, Barney.”

“So, what all do you want to do today, darlin’?” Rowdy asked.

“I don’t know what there is to do, honey.” Brett chuckled, the sound warm. “Put me to work if you need to.”

“Oh, I reckon there will be a million weird little things people need from me all day, but that’s no problem.

I figure I can just spend the day showing you around.

And if you want to get some more stuff for Mr. Mann, we can either make an order from the feed store or we can run into town.

Even I can give you directions to drive that. ”

“I am supremely easy,” Brett said, and he thought the man might be stretching. He pictured that in his head, all that sweet muscle sliding under Brett’s skin.

Brett was stacked to the damn ceiling.

“Well, I don’t know about that…” he teased. “But you are kinda on vacay.”

“I am. Until you take me to the galleries in Santa Fe.”

They’d talked about that a lot after the Cattleman’s incident. Brett needed to go do some selling. “You need to get that portfolio together.” Brett was going to print some pictures of his stuff on good photo paper and make a little portfolio to carry to galleries.

“I know, I know. Portfolio. Got it. Also, I think I hate your end tables and your coffee table.”

“You do?”

“I do hate them.” Brett chuckled softly. And then. “So I’m going to make you some or bring you something that suits you better and reflect well on me. I can’t possibly be seen with someone with such shitty taste in tables.”

“Good to know.” He couldn’t stop laughing, a simple joy filling him, top to bottom. “All right. I would be more than happy to be the recipient of some of your art because, you know, it makes me stupidly happy.”

“I do. So now? Tell me about your ranch.”

“What do you want to know?” Rowdy could tell him everything—from who worked there and how many buildings there were, to how many head of cattle there were in the high meadows and what horses were running where.

He couldn’t tell Brett what it looked like anymore, probably, but?—

He stopped and it occurred to him, in two years, he would have been blind half of his life. That was wild. The sighted part of his life seemed like it had taken a lot longer. Maybe he was just really busy.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I just…” He shrugged and felt his cheeks heat. Lord have mercy, he was being stupid, just stupid. “I just realized all of a sudden how long it had been since I could see.”

“You said what, fifteen years?”

He nodded, not sure if he was mad or proud. “Give or take, yeah.”

Brett took his hand and squeezed it. “I can’t imagine; you were just a baby.”

“Yeah, two years older than Maddie. And it was just like turning out a light. I didn’t even think that was a thing, man.

” Rowdy twined their fingers together, both of them holding on, and it felt so damn good.

“I hit hard enough that it snapped my optical nerves, and literally, I went from not even wearing glasses to not being able to see in a millisecond.”

“Do you remember it?”

Rowdy shook his head. “No. I got hit hard enough that I was out for a while. I remember loading up on the bronc to ride, and I remember waking up more than a week later.”

“That’s the wildest thing I’ve ever heard of in my whole life.” Rowdy could tell Brett was listening, not simply hearing him, but listening. “It sucks, I’m sorry.”

“It did suck. I mean, it still sucks. But it’s like I told my gran—I can only be so mad for so long.

It eats at you, that kind of pain and fury, it just literally eats at you until you’ve got nothing left.

And I have a whole life left. My family, the ranch which you asked me to tell you about, and you just ask a question and I’ll answer it. ”

“How long has the ranch been in the family? Since this place has been settled?”

“My people are all native New Mexicans since like the 1600s.” The Durans had been given this place by people that didn’t own it to give.

“That’s… I can’t even imagine. No wonder you wanted to come back here so bad, way back when. You were born and bred to work this place.” There was an awe in Brett’s voice, and Rowdy nodded, because it sounded like maybe Brett got it now. “It wasn’t about me at all.”

“That’s it.” He traced all the familiar patterns and scars on the big table, letting himself be honest, really breathe into his truth.

“I mean, I didn’t leave because I didn’t care to stay with you, I didn’t even leave because I hated Gomillion.

I was a teenager, man. I was mad at my mom for marrying the asshole.

I was furious at her for moving us to South Carolina, but she could have moved us to Hollywood and I would have been pissed off.

Hell, she could have moved us to some magical place that was the most perfect place on heaven or earth, and I would have been pissed off and wanting to leave. ”

Brett settled next to him, staying close enough to feel his breath. “That more than makes sense, honey.”

“I’m glad. You have to understand, I was mad that I wasn’t with my dad. I felt lost and alone. Now I’m not. I’m home.”

“I wish—I wish I could have been enough to make you happy.”

But that wasn’t a thing. He’d been in a terrible place.

He’d been wild. Hell, he’d been the epitome of reckless.

“Like I said, it wasn’t about you. I believed all the pain and shit I was going through could be fixed by being here.

This is a good place, and I was born and raised here, and this is home.

I had to get out of Gomillion and to come here, come home, and be able to fix what was wrong with me. ”

“There wasn’t anything wrong with you, man.” Brett patted him, so careful, like he might shatter.

“I know that now, but I had to get away from her to see it.”

“Do you talk to her?”

Rowdy shook his head. “Nope.”

“Does she ever try to get hold of you? It’s not like she doesn’t know where you are.”

“No, and I’m not interested. She and I said awful things to each other the night I left.

She told me I was the biggest mistake of her life, that if I left, I could never come home.

I realize it was twenty years ago, but at best, we had a toxic relationship.

At worse, she’s just a bitch, and I’m not sure that I want to be the kind of person who thinks his mother’s a bitch.

” But he was. And he still thought she was atrocious.

“Do you think this whole thing with Madison and Ash, was that because of your mom?” Those words were almost a whisper.

“Did I do it to get back at her? To embarrass her and her husband? There’s a part of me that would like to say no, that I did it because I’m a good guy and I wanted to do something for my friend and because somehow in my soul, God spoke to me and told me that this was going to be my chance to have my baby girl.

And I do think all of those things were part of it, but do I think fucking her over and embarrassing her and her husband were a huge part of it?

I’m not a teenager anymore. I can admit that, yeah. ”

“Yeah, we all do shit we’re maybe not proud of, but at the time, it feels good.” Brett blew out a breath. “Look at me. I treated you like shit back in the day. All I really had to do was ask, right? But I couldn’t bring myself to do it.”

“Shit, darlin’, you were a teenager. You were hurting.” He sighed. “I don’t want to dredge that up unless you really need to. At least not today.”

“Nah. I was just making a teenager angst comparison, really. I think I am good with it. Like you said a few times, we’re adults now. It’s time to get on with whatever else we have a shot at. Or not, if it turns out we don’t.”

Goddamn, he really wanted to see Brett’s expression right now. Sometimes groping along in the dark with human relations was not the best way to go about things, but what choice did he have?

“I want us to have a shot, for sure.”

Brett squeezed his hand. “Me too. Now, how about a real tour of the house? I was totally out of it last night.”

“Sure, darlin’. That way you can figure out how many tables and art pieces I need.”

“You know it.” Brett’s chuckle was warm and happy. “You got way too much cash to have shitty art, and you’re tactile, not about serene, framed stuff.”

“I’ll let you lead, Mr. Artist. At least on that. Now, on the tour?”

Brett hooted. “I’m all yours.”

Lord have mercy. Rowdy could only hope that was true.