Cowgirls Don't Cry(73)

Brandt laughed. Ben always got straight to the point, which was probably why he’d shown up here.

He took a long pull off his beer. “To be honest, I ain’t exactly sure why I’m here. I just got done talkin’ to Samantha, Landon’s mom, and she left me with a feeling I can’t shake.”


“Like what?”


“Like…maybe she’s gotten used to bein’ away from Landon and would like to continue that when they let her out of jail.”


Ben whistled. “No shit?”


“That’s the thing. Samantha didn’t come right out and say it, I don’t even know if she was hinting around or if I somehow misread it. And it ain’t like I can talk to anybody in my family about it.”


“What about Jessie?”


“Her stipulation was no information on Samantha for the duration of this temporary situation. So if it turns out to be a longer temporary situation than four months, and if Samantha decides she’d rather let us raise Landon…” He sighed. “Us, meaning me raising Landon with some help from Dalton, Tell and my mom.” When Ben lifted a questioning brow, Brandt shook his head. “No f*ckin’ way will I let Landon live with my father.”


“And how does Aunt Joan feel about that?”


“We’re on the same page, since she’s sneaking outta the house one day a week to watch Landon as it is.”


“What?”


“She’s takin’ care of him at her house on Tuesdays, but on Thursdays she tells dad she’s volunteering for some church thing when she’s really at my place.”


“Why the lie?”


“Because my dad…” He took a drink of beer. “Mom told me she had to go out for an hour and when she got back, Landon was screaming bloody murder in his crib to the point he threw up all over himself.

Seems my dad just sat on his ass in the living room and ignored him. Dad’s excuse? The kid needed to learn early on that he wasn’t gonna get his way by screamin’ his fool head off.” His father’s justification was seriously scary shit. “Jesus. Landon is barely more than a baby. And my dad’s attitude is Landon is acting manipulative? At seventeen months?”


Ben pointed with his beer bottle. “How would it be bad if you ended up bein’ Landon’s guardian? I mean, it’s obvious you care about the kid.”


He didn’t answer. Didn’t know how to without coming across as a pansy ass whiner.

Ben whistled again. “This has to do with Jessie, doesn’t it?”


“Yeah. I’d have to choose, Ben. And how the f*ck do I do that? Choose between the only living part of Luke I’ll ever have or the only woman I’ve ever…” He scowled. Way to be a pansy-ass.

“I ain’t gonna point out the obvious end to that statement, but maybe you’d better tell me what’s goin’


on with you and Jessie? And how long has it been goin’ on?”


“Since the moment I saw her.” Brandt drained his beer. Ben uncapped a fresh one and set it in front of him. “Thanks.”


“No problem. Keep talking.”


“You sure you wanna hear this? It’s old news.”


“Maybe in your family it is, but I’ve never heard it.”


“Luke and I were at the Devil’s Tower Rodeo and Jessie was there. I noticed her first, something about her just…hit me. Anyway, like a total dumbass, I pointed her out to Luke. And Luke, bein’ the handsome f*ckin’ cowboy charmer he was, got to her first, which meant I didn’t stand a chance. So over the next month I had to listen to every goddamned detail of how Luke seduced her. Don’t get me wrong, Luke liked her, probably because she was so different from the type of women he usually dated.”