He heard footsteps behind him, and he closed his eyes, forcing himself not to turn around and just kick the living shit out of whatever asshole was daring to bother his happy ass.
“Bubba? You okay?” Bri. The ‘sensitive’ one. Christ. He should have known from the clomp clomp of the walking boot.
“I’m just in a mood, bro.” Adam wasn’t going to growl. He wasn’t.
“Well, you want to fight? So long as you don’t kick, we’ll be okay. Or we can go out to the back forty, shoot some cans, drink some beer.”
“I like the second one.” That might be fun.
“Fucking A. Me too.”
Chrissy peeked around the door of the barn. “Me three?”
Adam chuckled before setting aside the shovel and giving Bri a back-pounding hug. “Yeah. We should raise some Cain.”
“I’ll get the four-wheeler and some snacks.” Chrissy grinned, pure evil in his eyes. “Bri, you get the ammo?”
“I got it.” Bri glanced at him. “You keep Granny from coming.”
“This is a solo adventure.” The old joke made them all smile. They were one soul, three brains.
They scattered, and Adam already felt better. Sometimes he forgot how he needed triplet time.
Andy was walking Jason out in the pasture, calling out directions as he ran. It was funny as fuck, and the saddest goddamn thing ever. Jason followed Bax’s voice real well, though. Like that was all he could hear.
Hopefully this whole stupid idea Pharris had about the boys would pan out, and no one would get killed. He just didn’t know how. He waved at Andy, who nodded, but he wasn’t gonna ask them to come.
He needed to be with the other two. Needed to. It was something he guessed Landon understood. The kid had gone to see his twin sister.
Like thinking of the kid conjured him, Adam’s phone buzzed, a picture of a pig in a pit showing up. Lord. He grinned, needing to call, to hear Landon’s voice. “Goin’ to shoot things with the boys.”
“Woo. I’m cooking for kin. Sister’s making rice and beans.”
“Yeah? I thought you didn’t have a lot of family left?” He was always learning shit about Landon.
“I don’t, but there’s Old Man Lupin and his woman, and one of the Gerard gals is fixin’ to bust out with a baby, and her oldman is gone out to Houston to make the hospital money. Then there’s Granny’s friend, Ouiser, and Unc’ Pierre and…”
“Sounds like you’re gonna be feeding a working, then.” He grinned. That sounded like when Granny Taggart decided they needed to smoke brisket. For a hundred.
“Yes, sir. I went huntin’ and got me a pig.” He loved hearing that word out of Landon’s mouth—’pee-ig’.
“Well, smoke the hell out of it, honey.”
“Oo-eee! You know it, cher. I’m gon’ make it sing.”
“Have some for me. Bri and Chris and I will heat up a King Ranch casserole.”
“Go see your other parts and have a good ’un. I miss your face, cowboy, swear to God.”
“You, too.” It was true, even if it made him flush bright to say it.
“Good. Je t’aime, cher.” Then the phone went dead.
Adam almost dropped his own phone, and he spent a good long while staring at it after Landon signed off. Landon loved him, huh.
Who the hell would have thought?
“Bubba?”
