He freezes, glancing sideways. “What?”
“Alright,” I repeat. “If you feel like you need to go there to figure shit out, I’ll support you. I don’t love the idea, but I won’t stand in your way.”
He looks at me for a long time. Finally, he clears his throat.
“Thanks,” he says gruffly. “Not just for this. For being there and getting it.”
Neither of us talk for a while. We just stand by the fence. Raising Landis was a privilege. It healed a part of me that, no matter how hard I tried elsewhere, I couldn’t fix for myself. He taught me patience, how to be gentler, to have confidence in myself as a father. It’s going to be hard to close that chapter, but I want him to have a good life more than I care about what I feel.
“Reckon we should go in,” he says finally.
We start walking up the hill.
“There’s just a few things you’ll need to know to survive out there,” I say. “First, take your gun with you if you go east, because there’s places the law don’t touch.”
“What’s the rest?”
“Anybody asks you about sports, you tell themGo Catsand leave it at that. And all bourbon comes from Kentucky. Everything else is just whiskey.”
“I don’t think that’s true.”
“It is. Bourbon from outside Kentucky is fake bourbon. Anybody’ll tell you that. And mint juleps are for tourists and Derby day only. Most importantly, stay the fuck out of the organized crime. And the unorganized crime too.”
His throat bobs, like he’s overthinking.
“You trying to talk me out of it?” he asks.
“No, I’m trying to make you respect it,” I say. “I’ll support you if you decide to go, but I still want you coming back in one piece.”
His eyes soften. “I will, Dad. Promise.”
We’re almost to the porch when I notice Jon’s truck and Gage’s work vehicle are parked outside. The lights are on in the house, and I can see movement through the open front door.
“Kinda strange,” Landis says, checking his watch.
“Just another turn in the wheel of time,” I say, opening the door and heading inside.
Everybody is in the kitchen, and I can hear Delia and Julie-Mae talking a mile a minute over the sound of Toby yelling happily. I’ve got a pretty good idea what’s going on, because the day before yesterday, I was leaving Ryder Ranch after shooting the shit with Deacon, and I got the question I knew was coming. My truck was halfway down the drive when I saw Gage waving his arm from where he sat on the gate, waiting for me to drive out.
He was lying in wait, fixing to ask me about marrying Julie-Mae.
“Why’re you asking me? Ask Julie-Mae,” I said.
“I will. I was just hoping you, her parents, would kinda give me approval. I’m not saying Julie can’t make her own choice, that’snot what I’m saying,” he said. “I’m just saying I think she’d feel like I wasn’t doing this right if I didn’t ask you first.”
I thought about giving him shit, but damn, he was sweating bullets.
“What you got for her?” I asked.
He squinted up the hill, rocking on his heel. “I got the manager’s house, I got my job running the ranch. And I got a ring.”
“Not bad. Let’s see it.”
“I mean, it’s not on me. I was fixing the fence.”
“How big is it?” I was having trouble keeping a straight face.
“Like a carat,” he faltered.
