Dillon plopped down next to him finally, more than a bit wore out. The kids did love him.
He handed over a beer, leaned a bit.
“Hey.” Dillon hummed, sounding happy as a clam.
“Hey, there.” Pansy and Jerome came over, wagging and cuddling. They didn’t love the cold air any more than Coke did.
He gave pets, though, and listened to Natty telling stories, teasing Tag and Chrissy about the little arenas they’d all started in.
“You remember that one, Hoss?” Natty said, hooting. “So small Tag’s horse wouldn’t fit and he had to rope on foot.”
“God, yes. Lord, that was where? Quinlan? Tawakoni? That was back in the olden times, huh?”
Tag hooted. “I like it better now I have money, y’all.”
“No shit on that.”
Coke nodded. “Oh, I don’t know. There were some good times, huh? I don’t miss having to wear makeup, though.”
“Really?” Dillon sounded surprised as hell. “Why?”
“Uh… It’s sticky.”
“Oh. I thought you said you missed it.” Dillon slapped his leg. “Here I was all thinking you were like Jimmy Stewart in that old circus movie, hiding a terrible past behind makeup.”
He glanced at Dillon, confused as fuck. “What?”
Was that what all the questions were about? Did Dillon think he was…creepy or something?
“You know. Jimmy Stewart. What was that movie?The Greatest Show on Earth. He was masterful.”
“You are a weird one, Dillweed.” Natty shook his head, snorted. “The man has a clown fetish.”
“Not so.” Dillon made a rude gesture. “You want to know about a clown fetish, ask me about a birthday party I did once for this oil baron in Dallas.”
They all stared at Dillon, wide-eyed.
“He and his dinner guests paid me five thousand bucks to put my makeup on while they watched.” Dillon shuddered. “Very odd.”
“Five thousand dollars? Really?” Tag blinked. “I guess there ain’t no accounting for taste.”
“Yeah. I was still an up-and-comer then. I should have had a live skunk in my act. I would have appealed to a wider audience.”
“Hoss wouldn’t have hired you. He don’t like skunks, after all.”
“Shit, y’all remember when the skunk got stuck in Cash’s cattle trailer and he didn’t find out until after the bulls trampled the thing to death and he’d driven three hundred miles?”
Natty nodded. “It was well over the century mark and he had to go another five hundred before he could unload.”
Coke hooted. “What I remember is the other Four Horsemen gave him skunk presents for two years after that. Birthdays, Christmas, Halloween.”
They all started cackling, the lot of them damn near hysterical. Even Balta woke up from his doze to chuckle.
“You ‘bout ready to head to bed, cowboy?” Coke asked. He sure was. He was wore.
“I am.” Dillon popped up like a Jack-in-the-Box.
He did like to see that. Dillon loved him, and obviously didn’t think he was creepy.
