AllFreeNovel
Share Us
No contact.
No follow up.
No admittance to his hospital room.
No responses to my messages.
I have my answer. Great lay, not-so-great man. What a shame.
I put my phone on do not disturb after blocking Tommy’s new number. One thing he taught me was to cut my losses early.
When someone shows me who they are, I believe them now. No need in encouraging the fantasy in my head of who they could be. Call a spade a spade and move along.
I’m doing just that.
* * *
Layton
“What’s this?”
No. No. No.
No.
Nope.
“What’s what?” Pop asks, having woken up as we turned south toward the ranch instead of north toward my house.
“We’re going the wrong way.”
Exton looks at me from his place in the driver’s seat. “What are you talking about? Pop said you were going to his house.”
“Oh?” I turn to the back seat where my traitorous father yawns, before I turn back to my brother. “Take me home, Exton. Not the ranch. My house.”
“Not a chance.” Pop’s exasperation is palpable.
“What do you mean ‘not a chance’? I’m a grown man who wants to go home. I’m not a hostage.”
“You are tonight.”
I grind my molars in an effort not to react to his threat. He can think he’s won.Not a chance, my ass. He can watch my chance not be there in the morning and wonder where I am. Fuck this.
I absentmindedly scratch my cheeks through my beard and listen to the beard bristles as they fight the invasion.
I know better than to fight back with Pop. He’s been on a tear and he’s spent the whole drive a hair-trigger away from biting my head off.
I haven’t seen him like this since we were kids and one of us did something truly wrong. He’s so laid-back that the last twenty-four hours have been unusual. I’ll give him a pass. This time at least.
Besides, I can’t drive. I can barely walk. I’ll call a Lyft in the middle of the night and handle my shit at that time.
“Sorry, Lay,” Exton replies, quietly staring at the road ahead.
I shrug. “Not on you.”
Now if I find out it is, we’ll have words.
Thirty minutes later, the iron gate with the dueling horses carved into it opens, the R in the middle stands out starkly in the sunrise. The ranch is alive with activity. Hands move about the paddocks, and lights blaze in the barn.
