He needed to go home.
He needed his life back.
Now.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Beau watched Chris Taggart back the brand-new fifth wheel into the parking lot, way out of the way of any emergency vehicles. They’d attach it to the pickup to take Sam home. It was state of the art, and the Taggarts had gone up Wyoming way to pick it up from a kid named Bonner. Some friend of Coke’s.
Brian hopped out of the passenger side of the truck and bounced over, and Beau shook his head. The triplets all looked so damned much alike.
“Hey, Bri.”
“Howdy, Beauster. How’s he doing? Adam says it was rough.” He got a quick, one-armed hug, a noogie.
“Yeah. Yeah, it’s been a tough one.”
“He’s better now, though? Y’all really retiring, for real? You seen a picture of this trailer deal inside? It’s fucking awesome.”
Brian was the motormouth. Chrissy hardly talked, and Beau and Adam, well, they didn’t have to say much to understand each other. “Yes, yes and no. He’s napping, so I thought I’d see.”
“Cool. Adam’s in there.” Bri banged on the door. “Old man! I got the Cajun!”
Adam opened the door, grinning at him. “Hey, there. Come on in and see what you got.”
He got a hug, then the door opened. “Good to see you. How’s your man?”
“He’s better every day.” Shit, he knew full well how much it still stung for Adam to call Sam that, and it meant that much more to him that Adam was his friend. “Thanks for this.”
“Anything.” Adam squeezed his hand. “You’re all outfitted. Hospital bed, TV, bars near the commode. Kitchen.”
“Yeah?” Beau wandered into the trailer, staring at the gleaming wood and steel and all, just amazed. “Wow.”
“Yeah. Bonner’s daddy’s real fucking grateful to Pharris.”
“Looks like.” Oh, it had cost them, but the old man had gotten the trailer at damned near wholesale, which helped a lot. “Shit, this is bigger than the house.”
“Yeah. Y’all will like it, for traveling, even after he’s a hundred percent.” Adam stretched, and Bri pulled three beers from the mini fridge.
“Hey, me, too.” Chrissy came in, tugging his hat off to wipe his brow.
“Here, Sie.” Bri tossed one over.
“Thanks, Bubba.”
Beau grinned a little. There was something about the three boys together that was just a little fascinating. Maybe a lot, if he only admitted it to himself, and very privately. “So, are y’all gonna tourist or just head home?”
“Well, we didn’t know if you needed us to drive or not, honey.” Adam shrugged. “So we left it open.”
“Oh, y’all rock.” He could drive it, of course, but it would be nice as hell to have other folks to trade off with, to help look after Sammy.
“Then you two can take it easy and we’ll play in the truck. After we leave it for you, we’ll head on to New Orleans and party.”
“Thanks. I mean it.” He grinned and drank some beer, feeling his shoulders come down from around his ears for the first time in God knew how long.
“There’s a movie player and shit. We figure it’ll take a couple three days to get home.” Adam talked while Chrissy’s hands landed on his shoulders, thumbs pushing in hard. “You got folks dealing with house stuff for you?”
“Yeah. Granny and Granpappy and all. The nurse has been out already. All that shit.” Beau moaned a little, letting Chrissy work out the knots.
