AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAD
Small towns are full of cliques and clichés. Seems everyone’s favorite pastime is passing information. Information about everyone else is the best form of entertainment, and bad news is as good as it gets. And that’s exactly why I’m not back in Meyer.
It’s been great to have Roger settled here. Far enough away from home, but with him here it feels rooted somehow still. Back when Leander, my half-brother, was on trial, you would have thought it was the O.J. case all over again. I remember people actually following us in their cars back home, chasing us down. That entire time in my life is something I’d rather forget. But I remember the pain on my mother’s face, the way my dad got thin and drawn, tired. He never recovered.
I remember being ashamed. Hell, that still hasn’t gone away.
But between my new Viking look, and the distance we’ve put between ourselves and my hometown, I’m feeling like I’m getting a fresh start. And besides, the years out west changes things. I’ve spent my time turning the helpless into the hopeful. The lost into the found. Sure, they had four legs and the smell of horse is not everyone’s idea of perfume, but to me, it’s as close to heaven as I can find here on planet Earth.
Roger barrels down unlit dirt roads chatting it up with the girls, I just keep my eyes forward until the lights of the big barn come into view.
The parking lot at Crutches is half filled with motorcycles and pickups. A baker’s dozen shining Harleys stand near the entrance, probably a local MC, but there are other bikes around the lot mixed up with flat beds still stacked with hay. There are other vehicles here too. Hondas and Priuses that have made their way in from the new suburbs out to the east. As Roger says, you can’t stop progress.
As we pull into the lot we can hear the music thumping, pulsing against the car windows. Roger palms the wheel and settles the Range Rover into a space by the line of trees where the vehicles are sparser.
“Why’d you park so far from the door?” Sally hits the high notes with her displeasure and the fillings in the back of my teeth feel it. “I don’t like to walk.” I glance in my side mirror to see them already refreshing their faces with more makeup.
“I’ll carry you.” Roger puts the car in park and turns to the back seat. “Just hop on.” He glances down toward his crotch then back at the girls. Their laughter isn’t convincing, but Roger doesn’t care.
As they open their doors and start to climb out I grab Roger’s arm. “You need to learn some manners my friend.” My tone is light, but it’s true and sometimes his disrespect to women pisses me off. I would never talk to a girl the way he does.
“Chad, man, you need to learn to lighten up and get laid.” Roger checks himself once in the rearview before grabbing the door handle and stuffing the key fob down in his pocket.
I shake my head without answering his gruff chuckle.
“You’re officially a virgin again, you know that, right? I know you; you didn’t even get yourself a slice of that sweet Oklahoma pie, did you?” He jumps down out the door and slams it behind him.
The girls are ten feet in front of us already as I slide myself out the passenger door and adjust my ball cap down a hitch. Being back has my gut knotted. I shouldn’t feel shitty about what’s happened —it had nothing to do with me. I somehow feel Leander’s mess is still on me.
Roger tips the brim of his hat up and kicks a rock in the dirt parking lot toward the girls making them spin around and yelp.
“Don’t y’all go wanderin’ off now. My friend here needs some lovin’.”
“Shut the fuck up, man. Enough.” The glare I shoot Roger settles his ass right down because his jokes are getting fucking old.
“Fine, fine.” He chuckles and shakes his head. We close the space toward the door and the girls slow down when they see the bouncer collecting cover charge. “Hey, you bringing Arabelle back?”
I’m surprised he’s interested —surprised he even remembers her name— but then that’s Roger. One moment he’s a cocky pain in the ass, the next he’s genuine and solid.
“Yeah, I am as a matter of fact. I gotta find a place first. I don’t think I can live without her. That’s my girl.” My heart tightens just thinking about her being back in Oklahoma without me. She and I haven’t been apart more than a handful of days since I got her. I’ve got a transport waiting to pick her up, I should just ask Roger to board her at his place. Not sure why I’m hesitating, maybe I’m still not a hundred percent sure coming back to Michigan is the right move.
“I remember when you picked her up over at that livestock auction. Poor filly was a tail hair away from dog food. You do have a way with the damaged ones. Something I’ve never seen before.”
Arabelle was all hip bones and hate when I led her out of that auction ring. Of all the horses in all the years I’d trained, she was the turning point for me. I saw the fire in her eyes; I knew she was special but she’d known nothing but sorrow and cruelty. Now, she’s a champion cutting horse but so much more to me. And as close to a relationship as I’ve ever had. She’s the center of my training program and goes with me to every clinic and seminar I teach.
The hulk guarding the bar door looks like he just stepped out of the old West. Cowboy boots and a Stetson, jeans so tight his left-hanging package draws a giggle and some admiration from the girls as they wait for us to catch up.
We both reach for our wallets at the same time, but Roger puts a hand on my wrist. “Whoa, dude, I got this.” He stops next to the girls and pulls out a crisp hundred. “Put your money away. Welcome home.”
“No, I got it.” My wallet is stuffed with far too many Benjamins to be in a bar, but I didn’
t think of that when I emptied out my checking account yesterday. I left most of my money in two investment accounts I’ve been playing with, but I didn’t want to leave a pile in Oklahoma State Bank & Trust. They don’t seem to have a branch anywhere in Michigan.
The Electric Slide has turned to Zac Brown and Sally starts snapping her fingers in the air and shaking her ass as we all step inside.
Roger shoves the hundred into the bouncer’s hand and doesn’t wait for change.
“Come on. I don’t have many redeemable qualities, so at least let me pay.”
