Page 10 of My Redneck Baby Daddy

"Okay," I said.

"Okay?"

"That was better."

An hour later, I was still floating when he turned onto my street. Then his headlights, caught the white Chevy Tahoe sitting in my driveway.

"That's my parents' car…"

Bobby Jo parked. "You want me to stay in the truck?"

I glanced over at him. "That would look worse."

My mother was already coming out onto the porch with a Tupperware in her hands, and right behind her was my father. I watched my daddy's whole face change the second Bobby Jo stepped out of the truck.

"Mr. Ellis." Bobby Jo put his hand out. "Bobby Jo Maddox."

My father’s face drifted to Bobby Jo’s hand. "I know who you are."

He shook Bobby Jo's hand anyway. Somehow that was even worse than if he hadn't.

Bobby Jo told me goodnight, told my mother it was nice to meet her, and drove off with dignity.

I made it two steps into the house.

"Was that Bobby Jo Maddox?" my mother asked as if she hadn’t heard that man introduce himself.

"Mama..."

"Danny Joe's boy," my father said.

I put my keys down harder than I meant to, because Bobby Jo was thirty-six years old and still being introduced by a man who had been locked up for a decade.

"It was one date," I said.

My father looked at me over the top of his glasses. "One date turns into two mighty quick."

I thought about Bobby Jo's hand in my hair, and I didn’t say another words to my parents. I’d just loose the battle and it wasn’t worth it.

Later, in bed, my phone lit up.

BOBBY JO: Still think Regina set you up with the wrong man?

I stared at it for a long time.

RUE: Jury's still out.

BOBBY JO: Better take you out again then. Give 'em more evidence.

I smiled at my phone like an absolute idiot.

Lord, I thought. What are you getting yourself into.

Chapter 4

Bobby Jo

We were a man short on Thursday, so I spent most of the afternoon throwing forms onto a flatbed. It felt better than standing around with a clipboard like a man who had gotten soft. I had the Ridgeway pour scheduled for Monday, a supplier telling me his price had gone up again, and a load of rebar sitting in the wrong corner of the yard. What I did not have was a text from Rue, which I knew because I had checked my phone four times since lunch.