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Brant had been having such a great time with Talulah that being cut off from her much sooner than should’ve been necessary—because of Charlie—made him mad. It also upset him that Charlie would try to hurt her by throwing a rock through her window and messaging Paul.
After spending several hours fixing the feed for the cattle on the ranch to minimize the bloat problem they’d been having, he quit around noon, showered up and drove over to his ex-best friend’s.
Charlie lived on the opposite side of town in a double-wide mobile home on two acres. It was a nice piece of land he’d purchased himself, but he hadn’t spent any time or money improving it, which was ironic, given his profession. When Brant pulled in, he saw the same things he’d seen for the past five years—a stack of old tires cast to one side of a barn that needed a fresh coat of paint, if not some structural reinforcement, a used motorcycle Charlie had bought several years ago that hadn’t run from the beginning, an old El Camino he planned to restore one day and an ATV. Brant knew the ATV worked because he owned one himself and occasionally he and Charlie took them out for some fun.
He hadn’t been sure he’d find Charlie at home. Most people were at work this time of day. But Charlie didn’t put in a whole lot of hours, so Brant wasn’t all that surprised to see his car in the drive.
He pulled in behind the Explorer and got out, and Charlie’s front door opened before he could even reach the steps leading up to it.
“What are you doing here?” Charlie demanded, walking out onto the wooden landing.
Brant stopped on the grass that’d been worn down to bare dirt near the bottom step. “I certainly haven’t come to apologize.”
That Brant was still angry seemed to shock Charlie. “You’re really going to let a bitch like Talulah come between us?”
Brant flinched at Charlie’s words. He knew they probably shouldn’t bother him, but they did. “Don’t call her that.”
Charlie’s jaw sagged at the menace in his voice. “Are you kidding me? What’s gotten into you? Do youreallylike her that much? More than me?”
“This isn’t about who I like and who I don’t like. It’s about the bullshit way you’re behaving. I never saw you as the type of man who’d pick on a woman.”
Charlie looked confused. “Letting her boyfriend know she’s been cheating on him is picking on a woman?”
“They aren’t together.”
“Tellhimthat.”
“I don’t have to,” Brant bit out. “She already has.”
Charlie drilled him with a penetrating look, after which he started to laugh. “Oh my God. You’ve fallen for her! I kept telling myself that couldn’t be it. You never fall that hard for anybody, but that’s what’s happening here, isn’t it? That’s the only thing that could explain your behavior.”
“You’re reaching,” Brant said. “She’s hardly been here a week.”
“Doesn’t matter. You’ve already spent a lot of time with her.”
“Not really.”
Charlie’s eyebrows arched at the way Brant had immediately discounted the statement. “How many nights has it been?”
“That’s none of your business. I’m just here to tell you that you’d better not do anything else to her, or the little skirmishes you and I have had recently will turn into something a lot more serious.”
His eyes flew wide. “You’rethreateningme?”
“I’m being straight up with you,” Brant corrected.
“You think I threw that rock through her window, don’t you?”
“I do,” Brant stately flatly. “Because you did.”
Charlie’s face turned beet red. “How do you know? Were you there?”
“It’s a simple process of elimination. Who else would do it?”
“How am I supposed to know? But I’m telling you it wasn’t me. I admit I wrote Paul on Instagram. I already told you that. I think he should know what she’s doing while she’s here. I’d want to know if I were him—”
“That’s an excuse,” Brant interrupted with a wave of his hand. “You don’t give a shit about Paul. You’ve never even met him. You did it to mess with Talulah.”
“If she’s cheating, she deserves what she gets,” he said, as enragingly stubborn as ever. “And if she’s not cheating, I didn’t do anything wrong, because Paul won’t care.”
