Angel (25 page)

“Sorry, man.” His usual lighthearted tone is gone.  “I know it’s hard to come back.  With what happened with Leander and the farm and everything. But I’m glad you’re here.”  Roger twists his lips toward the side, then shakes his head and gives me a mischievous smile.  “You’re who I want to be when I grow up and get old!  Now get the fuck in the car and let’s go get drunk, you pussy.”

Yep, there’s no place like home. 

––––––––

Chapter Two

CHAD

S
mall 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.”

“You know, you’re not an asshole,” I mutter next to his ear.  “You just try really hard to make everyone think you are.”

“Yeah?  Tell that to Courtney.  I don’t even think she knows my real name anymore.  She calls me asshole like it’s on my birth certificate.”  Roger tips his hat at some ladies that pass by.  “She might come by later. Wants to say howdy to her brother-from-another-mother.”

Courtney is Roger’s sister.  She’s almost my sister.  She’s rough around the edges and keeps Roger’s ass in line.

“Sounds good.  She’s doin’ okay?”

“She’s fine.  Just broke up with her girlfriend, so she’s a little bitchy, but what’s new.  Just don’t be surprised tonight when she comes barreling through the door with a tackle hug for you.  Just sayin’, be prepared. She’s like a fucking hurricane in heels.”

With that, we’re in the door.  The bar is a massive space, even bigger than when I left.  Enormous vaulted ceilings with old barn beams holding up the peak of the roof.  The dance floor is covered with a variety of city and country types all fighting for space, and there’s a smell of beer, testosterone and too much perfume.

Unfortunately, I hate bars.  Even nice ones like Crutches. 

Back when Roger and I were sixteen, old man Reynolds who worked as a hand on Roger’s family farm bought us a fifth of Jack one Friday night. We proceeded to down the whole thing in a matter of a couple hours and I puked for the rest of the night. I’m telling you, puking in the ditch at the side of a cornfield with my best friend next to me moaning for his mamma isn’t my idea of a good time.

Since then, drinking never held any interest for me, and neither did meaningless hook-ups.  Roger, on the other hand, is perfectly at home in this establishment as we wind through the crowd to an abandoned table not far from the back bar and thankfully a good distance from the dance floor speakers.

“I want a rum and Diet Coke.”  Sally chirps us her order, flips her head around to Roger, then back scanning the crowd looking like an excited toddler. 

Brunette turns and holds up two fingers then leans down to whisper and giggle in Sally’s ear as they soak up the abundance of the male selection in the crowd.  I jerk the chair out from the table and sit my grumpy ass down.

Roger chuckles as he plops down in a wooden chair next to me. He sweeps the wide-brimmed hat from his head and settles it on the table, then rakes a hand through his close-cropped hair and grins at Sally as she wiggles herself into the chair next to me.

I puff out a deep breath I’ve been holding and press my fingers into my eye sockets. Making eye contact would only encourage her.

“Can we get some service over here?”  She snaps across the table into the crowd.  When I look up, I see her flapping her hand impatiently at someone.

I look where she’s looking but all I see is a tray filled with drinks being maneuvered through the crowd. I shift my body weight in an attempt to gain a few more inches of space between myself and Sally. 

Her hand shoots up higher in the air and this time her voice takes on a bitchy tone that makes me embarrassed to be sitting at the same table. 

“Girl!” Her gums flap along with her hand.  “Hey, are you working or not?  How long do we have to wait to get a damn drink?”  She’s shouting now and I shove my chair back popping up and away from her.  I’m not sitting next to this all fucking night and Roger catches the look in my eye. He gives me a sympathetic blink. Even for him, this is too much.

I turn to walk away from the table, but there’s no way I can let it pass. “Hey,” I snap, then I check myself, remembering Sally is a woman and even if she does look like a blond Oompa-Loompa, she deserves respect. I gather my restraint before I continue.  “Don’t talk to people like that.”  I rap my knuckles on the table in front of her, making sure she’s paying attention.  “Don’t be rude, it’s busy in here.” 

I heave a deep breath out and consider going outside and hitching a ride home.

“What the fuck do you care?”  Sally’s snarky tone tightens the muscles down my back.  “She’s a
waitress
, for crissake.”  Sally laughs and suddenly leaving is not on the agenda.

She needs to learn some manners. Part of me wants to tear into her, but the soft spoken, gentleman part of me takes a seat on the other side of the table, because few things piss me off more than people deciding how they should treat someone based on some false hierarchy of importance. 

And on top of that, from what I’d overheard of their jabbering in the Rover, Sally is unemployed.  The irony rakes on my nerves and my fuse is rapidly burning down.  My antsy ass is back on my feet ready to take that walk again but I have a few words before I go.

“Everyone deserves—”  I’m ready to lay into her with both barrels when I see the waitress’ tray start our way and I catch the first glimpse of her face. 

I never knew what people meant when they said they felt the ground shift under their feet, but sure as shit do right now. Don’t ask me to explain it, because I can’t, but there’s this soft jolt in my chest, pulling me up sharp. And when I lock my eyes on her I see something I’ve never seen before.

I’ve felt it before though.  Once.  The moment I laid my eyes on Arabelle in the auction ring that day, I knew something was about to happen, like I know something right now. I’m just not fucking sure exactly what it is.

“What can I get you folks?”  The voice of an angel rings in my head like chapel bells.

You can get yourself under me.

The words that rocket through my head shock me. The sweetest face I’ve ever seen is looking back at me.  Warm home grown innocence and curves that light up parts of me left dark for too long have me blinking trying to make sure this isn’t a dream.

Her name tag reads Lori, but she doesn’t look like a Lori.  Everything about her says
mine
and I shake my head trying to get a grip.

She’s staring at me and her eyes catch mine for a long moment.  They are not just looking at me, they’re tagging me, and my cock decides his long winter is over.

Sally and the brunette bark their drink orders her way and she acknowledges them with a quick smile, then her eyes are back on mine.

I’m the first one to admit I’m confused by what’s happening right now, but I’m powerless to stop it.  This girl has cast a spell on me in the matter of a few seconds and my mind quickly goes to the thought of her clothes laying on my bedroom floor and my fingers diggin’ into her hips.