“I will. I’ll make Sammy bring his slaw, too.”
“Hoo boy! A party.” Landon did a little jig. What Cajun didn’t love a party, even if they was down in the dumps a little? Or a lot…
“You betcha,” Beau agreed. “I’ll see you soon, lady.”
“Call me when you get your phone fixed, Bubba?”
“You know it.” He dropped his bag in Beau’s pickup and hugged Laurel goodbye, actually kinda glad to have something to do. Besides put a new water pump in his truck.
Stupid, new-fangled engines. Sometimes he thought Maw-Maw had been right. Things had been easier way back when.
Adam drove forever,right out into the swamps. Beau had given him a map at that last event, told him when he got the gumption to go that he should look for a red gate, a broken fence. He wanted to see Landon alone, to apologize for everything before they got working.
Missing Landon was like a hole in his belly.
Once all the folks were about, it was gonna be harder. He knew he might have to fight his way through Landon’s twin, but he would bet he could make her understand, too. He had to. He needed Landon like he’d never needed anyone before. Hell,his brothers might not approve, but Beau did, and that seemed important.
There. Red gate.
He stopped and stared. Jesus. The porch roof was sagging and the second story siding was red while the floor was bright blue. There was a shored-up window air conditioner unit that had to be at least twenty years old, and about twelve dogs idling around the front.
Chickens scratched at the swamp grass for twenty feet or so around the house. A ramshackle barn sat off to the right, listing madly to one side.
He tried to imagine being there, a twelve-year-old boy without money, without family, and a sister to take care of. Hell, at twelve he couldn’t wash a dish without shattering it. His momma had despaired of him ever learning to iron a shirt.
And these two kids were just left to cope out here in the swamp, trying to stay together, stay afloat.
Christ.
Adam was a little frozen, to be honest, just sitting there in his truck, which he’d pulled off without even thinking. He couldn’t go there, could he? Oh, not because he was scared, or because he thought Landon should be ashamed of his home.
But because he felt like an ass pulling up in his fifty thousand-dollar dualie when they couldn’t even put a new roof on.
A tiny, long-haired girl in cut-offs and a tied-up men’s shirt walked out onto the porch, her black hair wild as a night storm. Must be Laurel. Christ. She was pretty as a picture, brown as a nut, and she looked like she belonged there. Like the land and her were tied together.
That Adam got. He felt that kinship with his family ranch. He loved that land almost as much as he loved his brothers, his Granny. Taggarts belonged there.
He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t just go up there and talk to them. No way.
Adam backed his truck up almost to the bar ditch, then swung around, heading back to the main road. He’d just go to Beau’s and do what he did best. Rope bulls.
He fucking had to figure this. Somehow. It sure as shit wasn’t going to be now, though.
Fuck.
