The bartender got it for him so fast that I couldn’t help but be surprised.
Plus, he acted like the man wasn’t severely underdressed.
If I’d gone up there I would’ve gotten a sneer and a revolted look.
Without a backward glance, I got the hell out of my least favorite place, and headed back to my lonely apartment.
The moment I got there, I sat down at my computer and started to scour the classifieds again.
“One day, Brawny, I’ll find you.”
Two
Crackheads never say “I can’t go today I’m broke.” They always find a way. Don’t let a crackhead out hustle you.
—Apollo to Romeo
Romeo
“How’s it going?” Apollo, my brother-in-law, asked.
“About as good as to be expected,” I grumbled. “Fuckin’ cold.”
Apollo laughed. “I hear it’s pretty mild there for this time of year.”
He was right. At least, from what I’d heard some of the guys on my crew tell me.
It was early February, and there wasn’t snow in the forecast for at least twelve more hours.
Tomorrow it was supposed to hammer us, though.
Before I went to prison, I spent my entire life outside.
I was a logger in North Texas and spent the majority of my time cutting down thousands and thousands of trees a year. I’d never in my life done it in the middle of a foot of snow, though.
Everything about living in Montana was different.
Like, for instance, using lakes to travel across because they were frozen fucking solid.
Never in my life had I seen an eighteen-wheeler loaded down with trees cross a frozen lake before, but I found that it was a common occurrence here.
“It is,” I grumbled. “Everyone keeps telling me we’re in for a Nor’easter soon, but I guess I’ll just be happy it hasn’t happened yet.”
Not that I knew what the fuck a Nor’easter was.
I was sure I’d find out, though.
I’d been living in Montana for six months now, free from the prison life for seven.
In the beginning, it was really fucking great.
Montana was breathtaking.
Who wouldn’t like looking at the Crazy Mountains for the rest of their life.
The only problem was that the mountains came with snow, and I was a Texas boy through and through.
Though, anything was better than being locked up…
