Fuckin’ fantastic. Now he was the laughingstock of the town. Just what he needed for his already bruised and battered ego.
Reese downed the pills when Travis passed a glass of water.
“Sit,” Travis said, using the tone Reese suspected he used on his kids when they were in trouble.
Reese sat.
Travis topped off Reese’s coffee, then poured himself a cup and joined him at the small table in the middle of the kitchen.
“You back for good?”
Reese studied his mug, his hands, anything to keep from looking up at Travis. “I don’t know.”
“You apologize to him yet?”
Reese’s gaze snapped up at that. “To who?”
Travis gave him a look that said he was quite possibly the biggest idiot on the face of the planet to ask that.
“Yeah,” he admitted with defeat. “I tried. He’s not havin’ it.”
“Can you blame him?”
“No.”
Travis sipped from his cup, his steely gaze pinned on Reese, making him feel like a bug under a microscope. He did his best not to fidget even as his discomfort level rose.
Finally, Travis leaned toward him, his expression stern when he said, “You fucked that boy up but good, Reese.”
“I know.”
“But he loves you. That much is obvious.”
Was it? Reese wasn’t so sure.
“If he didn’t, Brantley would’ve fucked every willin’ man in three counties by now. He’s no saint.”
Reese stared back at Travis, not sure what to say. He wasn’t in denial. He took full responsibility for everything that’d happened, and he wanted to make it right with Brantley. Hell, that was the only thing he wanted; he just didn’t know how to do it.
“I can’t blame him if he tells me to get lost,” Reese grumbled.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Stop feelin’ sorry for yourself and man up.” Travis’s voice lowered another octave when he said, “Take it from a man who lost one of the loves of his life, Reese. This life is too goddamn short. Don’t throw yourself a fuckin’ pity party. You should be over there grovelin’ at his fuckin’ feet if that’s what it takes.”
“What if it doesn’t help?”
“Who fuckin’ cares?” Travis blasted. “Goddamn, Reese. Do you love him?”
Reese took a deep breath and said the most honest thing he’d ever admitted aloud: “With everything I am.”
“Then tell him that. And don’t waste a fuckin’ second. I’m serious. One day they’re here; the next they could be gone.” There were tears glistening in Travis’s eyes. “Don’t waste time with what-ifs.”
Reese swallowed hard.
Travis’s tone smoothed out, his frustration dialing down a notch. “Tell him, Reese. And make him believe it.”
With that advice penetrating his pounding skull as thoroughly as the headache, Reese got in his truck and headed for Brantley’s.
*
