Page 6 of My Redneck Baby Daddy

I was at the shop by six thirty with a cup of coffee from the Red, White and Brew. I had a bid I needed to finish for a church parking lot out in Ridgeway. Hamilton walked into the office at ten till seven already grinning, and I didn't even look up.

"Aht aht!"

Hamilton pulled out a chair. "Didn't even say shit."

I glanced up for a moment. "Your face did."

"My face just naturally looks happy."

I sipped my coffee thinking about how the waitress had yapped about getting me to try some new flavor but I’d stuck with my usual."Your face naturally looks stupid."

He sat down anyway and stretched his legs out like he owned the place. "So…"

"So her car's still at the Barn Yard. You're running it up to her house before we head to the job."

That wiped some of the grin off. "She drink?"

I nodded and took another sip."Three glasses of wine on a woman the size of a mailbox."

"And you took her home?"

"I took her home, walked her to the door, and left." I set my pen down. "Nothing happened, Hamilton."

He studied me for a second too long, and I knew that look. He was Regina's husband, which meant he had been coached.

"She ask you anything?"

I thought about lying. "She asked me to kiss her."

Hamilton's eyebrows went up. "And?"

"She was drunk as a damn skunk."

He didn't say anything for a minute, and when I looked up, he was nodding slowly at the floor like I had just confirmed something he had bet money on.

"You know Regina and Rue been best friends since college," he said. "Regina talks about that woman like she's her sister. And Rue ain't like the women you used to run with, man. She don't know how any of this works. You mess with her for sport and I gotta live with it, and so does everybody in this town."

I sighed. "I ain't looking for sport."

It came out flat and fast, and it surprised me a little, hearing it out loud. I had gone into that dinner expecting to eat a steak, be polite, and go home to my dog. Instead, I’d spent three hours watching a woman light up talking about a boy crying over a John Steinbeck book. Hell, I’d been thinking about it since I woke up.

Hamilton grinned again. "Regina's gonna be insufferable."

"Regina's already insufferable."

"Yeah, but now she's right."

My phone buzzed a little after eight while I was walking the Ridgeway lot with a tape measure.

RUE: Thank you for getting me home safely.

I stood there in the middle of a gravel lot and smiled at my phone like a damn teenager.

BOBBY JO: You remember getting home?

The typing bubble came and went three times.

RUE: Unfortunately.