“You mean you don’t appreciate him meddling in your love life?” Butter wouldn’t melt in Coke’s mouth.
“No, sir. I want him out of my bedroom, you know?” He patted Coke’s leg. “You? You, I like.”
“That’s good. I ain’t going nowhere.” Coke’s phone rang, and Coke sighed. “You want to guess which cowboy it could be?”
“Jason.” Dillon shook his head. Or AJ, or Nate, or, or, or.
“I’ll guess Tag.” Coke flipped his phone open without looking. “‘Lo?” Coke grinned wide. “Well, hello, Miss Brenda. How are you? You got them boys there with you?”
Brenda? Oh. Oh! Jason’s mom.
Missus Scott sounded like one of Charlie Brown’s teachers. Not that he was eavesdropping.
“No? They staying at AJ’s? What? Well, good Lord! Congratulations! It’s about time that man made you his.”
Dillon grinned a little. He wasn’t sure what was up, but it sounded good.
Coke looked over at him, smiled. “Jason’s momma’s getting married. Jack finally popped the question!”
“Oh, wow. That’s cool!” It was. He’d heard Jack was a good guy.
Coke nodded and started asking questions, jabbering away. Dillon grinned, shook his head. Brenda had to be ten years older than Coke, easy, but Coke was…Fearless Pharris, the cowboy confessor.
Everyone knew Coke. Sometimes he forgot that those folks didn’t all know each other, though. Still, it bugged Dillon that a man that was in everyone’s family didn’t seem to have ever had one of his own. It was just weird. It made him itch. That little thing he called his nosy bone wanted to dig and dig.
Coke hung up, grinned at him. “She’s getting married in December, between Christmas and New Year’s. We’ll have to head down for it.”
“We can do that. By then we’ll be tired of snow. Not to mention starting to talk about getting back to work.”
“Good deal.” Coke leaned back and grinned. “She sounds tickled as a pig in shit. I wonder how Jase is taking it.”
“I bet he’s fine.” Jason would be happy for his mom. Dillon knew it.
“I hope so. I need to get over there, too, get to working on him. I should have been doing more, but… Shit.” Right, because Coke could have done so much with his broken neck and broken hand.
“Babe.” Dillon turned into the bank parking lot, shaking his head. “You do what you can. We’ll get it done.”
Dillon was surprised that any of them had survived last year, what with Jason’s head injury, Coke’s broken neck, and them almost losing Sam Bell. Shit, he’d even dislocated a shoulder.
“Here we are.” The bank was deserted, so it wouldn’t take long.
“Cute wee bank. This where you go?”
“It is.” He’d been going there since he was a kid, and it had changed names three times.
“Cool. I like a place where they know you.” Coke headed in like he was walking into the arena.
Dillon watched happily for a bit, then followed along. Lord, he liked to look at Coke.
Coke went right up, smiling at the old lady who had worked the front desk for at least ten thousand years. “Howdy. I’m interested in starting a joint checking account, please, ma’am.”
“Sure.” What was her name? Alice? Alice smiled, then nodded at Dillon. “Mr. Walsh.”
He’d become Mr. Walsh when he started depositing over a million a year in paychecks. Alice handed over some paperwork and Coke peered over it, then handed it to him. “Make sure it’s in both our names, cowboy.”
“You bet.” They’d need Coke’s ID and all, but it would be easier to start a joint account as an add-on to his already-there services.
Alice watched with bright eyes while he filled out paperwork and went to sit with Coke to wait for a banker.
