“Woman, come on to the bed. The boys’ll figure it and you can cook in the morning.” Jack hauled Momma on out, leaving both him and Jason chuckling.
“You ready for a bath and bed, Mini? I could stand to sleep about a year.” He stroked Jason’s knee absently, his fingers drawing little barbed wire patterns.
“Yeah, Bax. You. I wouldn’t give for you, yeah?”
“I know that, stupid. Same here.” He laughed a little, patting Jason’s leg before hauling his sore ass up. “Come on, you. If you’re nice I’ll wash your back.”
“I don’t get things working again, it won’t be worth washing.”
“You shut your trap. You don’t ever talk like that. You’ll get that buckle yet.” He pulled Jason up more gently than he wanted to, leading Mini to the bathroom and some steam. It would make them both feel better.
They’d figure it, just like Jack said they would.
The alternative just wasn’t anything he’d accept.
Chapter Ten
God, he never noticed how many fucking noises this house made in the dark.
Jason sat on the edge of the bed, listening to all the things—from the wind to the snoring to the creaking. It was fucking insane. Really. He couldn’t sleep because waking up sucked. He couldn’t wander because, even if this was the house he’d grown up in, he didn’t know it well enough. He couldn’t listen to the TV because that’d wake everybody up.
If he had to sit here until the morning, though, he might lose what was left of his mind.
He still had his jeans on and it only took a few minutes to find his boots. He knew where Bax’s truck keys were. He had a good idea where the truck was parked. He’d just go sit and listen to the radio and have a couple of smokes where no one’d scream at him.
It took forever, and he kept his eyes squeezed tight, pretending that if he opened them he could see. He made it down the hallway, fingers dragging on the wallpaper. Then he stumbled a little until he found the back of the sofa, the sofa table behind.
That got him to the kitchen, the floor feeling slick as shit under his feet. He whapped his hip good and hard on the table, the sting enough to make him stop a second, bite back the scream that wanted out of him.
After that, getting the truck keys and getting down the steps was easy.
Of course, finding the truck? Not so much.
Everything was fucked there, from the wind distracting him to the weird sound of the grass on his jeans to the bugs flying on his bare chest. He was lathered in sweat by the time he hit the fence, and he grabbed a hold of it and just shook it, snarling and cussing under his breath.
Then he fucking turned around and tried again.
God damn it.
Jason didn’t have the foggiest fucking idea how long it took, but he finally did it. He found the motherfucking truck, he got the key in the door, climbed in.
And if he had himself a good long scream, complete with pounding the living shit out of the steering wheel before he got the radio going? There wasn’t nobody to fucking see it. The radio drowned out everything outside, and Jason could put his head back and pretend he was just waiting for Bax to come on out of the arena, avoiding all the kids who wanted autographs.
Jason sat for a good while. Maybe ten songs. Maybe twenty before the pounding on the driver’s window had him jumping out of his skin.
His eyes popped open and he turned to look, that panicky sickness hitting him again.Fuck. He scrabbled for the buttons, doors unlocking and locking, the passenger window sliding down and back up before he found the right one. “Whut?”
“Jason? Jesus, Jason, what the fuck are you doing?” Bax’s voice sounded different when a man couldn’t see that sharp-featured face. Right now it had that added note of panic, too.
“Listening to the radio. Is it morning already?” He wasn’t ready to go in yet.
“Well, technically, yeah. It’s almost four. I just… I was coming to check on you and you…” Panting. He could hear panting. Bax must’ve run.
“I’m cool. I couldn’t sleep. Go on back to bed, man. I’m just going to sit.”
“I cain’t just leave you out here, Mini.” Bax’s fingers stroked his elbow, right where it crooked against the door frame. “Come on. I’ll keep you company.”
“You got to be tired.” Hell, he was tired, and he kept dozing off in the truck.
