AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Then the topless cowboy puts his hand on Bryant's arm, and I stiffen, processing a lot of feelings at once.
"Keep your cool, man. Don't, like, start anything," Luke says, patting my shoulder.
I take a step into the bar to head over to him, and it's as though he senses me walking into the room. He looks up and his mouth moves. The cowboy, who still has his fucking hand on his arm, turns around and looks right at me. A genuine grin spreads across his face, and Bryant stands up.
CHAPTER 38
BRYANT
"What are you doing here?" I ask, but I don't actually care. I feel like the bottom dropped out of my chest. It's heavy, like I might be having a goddamn heart attack.
His eyebrow raises. "What are you doing here?"
That's a fair question. This place—gay or not—isn't exactly my scene. I shrug. "Somewhere to go. Needed someone to talk to," I say, gesturing to my topless friend.
He looks even more confused now.
"Hey, you must be the Jack," Troy chimes in.
Jack makes a face, clearly picking up on the way Troy says the Jack. So it's obvious I've been talking about him.
He holds out his hand to the man I used to think of as Cowboy Jack.
"My name's Troy. This is my bar. Can I buy you a drink?"
I try not to laugh when I notice Jack trying to covertly wipe his hand off after shaking Troy's hand. He's always covered in fucking tanning oil, or whatever it is.
"Well, I don't know about Luke here, but Jack isn't twenty-one yet—" Wait. "Shit. It's your birthday today, right?"
Luke, who seemed surprised that I knew his name, looks up at Jack. "I didn't know it was your birthday. Happy birthday, man!"
"Guess I forgot," Jack says awkwardly.
Troy puts his hands on his hips. "How the fuck do you forget your own birthday, especially your twenty-first!?"
Jack shrugs, clearly not enjoying the attention. His eyes lock with mine. "Been preoccupied, I guess."
Despite Lynyrd Skynyrd playing on the Jukebox, the giggling woman currently riding the mechanical bull, and all the loud chatter of people around us, my attention hones in on Jack, and everything gets quiet.
He swallows, and my eyes break from his gaze to watch the movement. Jack looks down at Luke, who is nudging him.
"What?" He rolls his eyes. "Oh, for fuck's sake. Troy, this is my friend Luke. He's super smart and hates monster truck rallies."
"Ugh, who doesn't?" Troy says, and reaches his hand out to Luke, who doesn't seem to mind the oily handshake one bit.
"Alright, we need shots! Hey y'all! Shots on the house for my friend Jack's twenty-first birthday!" Everyone in the place—less than a dozen people really, cheer. People come up to pat Jack on the back as Troy leads him up to the bar to pour the shots, yelling out and asking who wants to do a body shot off the hunky football player. Jack hates every minute of it. And I love every minute of watching him squirm.
"You doing a shot, Daddy?" Troy yells over to me, and I shake my head.
"I'll drive," I say, and he nods approvingly.
One of the things I came here for—a fucking bar, of all places—was talking about giving up drinking again. Because I wanted to be clearheaded if or when the authorities come to talk to me about my statement. I didn't expect that Jack would want to file charges, but maybe after talking to the counselor, he'd feel differently. Or maybe that bitch Aniyah would cause more problems. Either way, I wanted to be ready.
And eventually, I wanted to be able to make a clear decision about what to do next. Most of that relied on talking to Jack, but I was still working myself up to reaching out. I don't want him to feel like he has to have anything to do with me, but I wanted to let him know it's an option.
"Daddy?" Jack says incredulously, sitting down at the table next to me.
I chuckle and shrug. "He's a character."
