“About time you paid for a legal round in here,” He snickers into his glass.
Colter takes his hat from his head, wipes his brow and places it on the bar.
“See you at home?” My brother asks, rearranging his belt buckle.
“I’ll see you at home.” I nod back to him.
Watching my brother walk out of the bar was almost humbling. Pulling at his belt, wranglers held tight, and legs bowed.
I wish I could walk like that again.
“So…” Colter begins as he takes a sip of his bottle of bud. I snap out of my trance from watching my brother walk away.
“So…” I reply.
“What are you doing back?” He questions, but I can only let out sigh. Trying hard to find an answer.
“Honestly man,” I start. “Haven’t quite figured that one out yet.” I signal Mack back over to refill our drinks.
Colter eyes me from the side, the silence pours over trying to work out if my answer is the truth. He nods, accepting that it is, for now. A silence pours onto us as Mack refills our whiskeys and hands us two tequila shots.
“On the house,” he says as we both give him a respectful nod.
Slinging our shots back, I wipe my mouth with my left hand, taking my whiskey with the other. We don’t say anything for a few minutes. Colter takes another swig, and I watch his shoulders sag.
“Have you seen her?” He asks, the pain clear as day in his eyes.
“Yeah, I- I stopped by your house before I came here.” My mind numbs at the thought.
Her scream…
My heart shatters at the memory.
He glances at me, wide eyed. “It didn’t go well,” I add, pulling my hand through my hair.
“No, I can’t imagine it did.” He gives me a warm-hearted smile, and I bring my glass to my lips.
“Hey, Mav?” Colter says, turning to face me on his bar stool.
My eyes look towards him with curiosity.
“Since your gonna be around a while,” He starts. “Fancy a job?”
“How d’ya know?” I ask, not knowing the answer myself.
Colter smirks into his glass of whiskey. “Can tell,” he shrugs.
I smirk at his question and response, a glint forming in my eye.
“Don’t need to ask me twice, brother,”I say, clinking his glass with my own.
Eleven
Mabel
Saturday morning rolls around far too quickly formy liking. When I got home from the bar last night, I took two bottles of wine out from my fridge and guzzled them with such force it was slightly concerning.
I knew my mind would race all night, chugging down the amount of liquor I did, should have made me sleep soundly or so I thought.
