Redneck Romeo (Rough Riders #15)(12)

“So now you’re livin’ in Montana? What do you do up there?”


“Been a logger in the summer. I’ve been leading elk-hunting parties in the autumn during bow hunting season for the past two years.”


“So you really have become some kind of Montana mountain man? Hunting, logging, and livin’ off the land?”


“You say it like it’s a bad thing,” he answered Brandt a little testily.


“Just don’t seem like your kinda thing. Your social life was almost as busy as Tell’s. And now you’re just happily holed up in the middle of nowhere Montana?”


Tell leaned forward. “Ya ain’t on the run ’cause you killed somebody?”


“No. Enough with the questions about me. I’m here to talk about Casper, remember? I understood about half of what the doctor said yesterday.”


“Dad refuses to speak. But he won’t get better without therapy. So the doctor wonders if there’s anyone Dad will listen to about resuming therapy,” Tell said.


“What about the uncles?” Dalton had seen them briefly yesterday.


“He fakes sleep whenever they show up. They’d be the hardest ones for him to face with his stroke-altered speech issues.”


“Was the woman I saw darting in and out of the room a nurse or something?”


“No. That was Dad’s girlfriend. Barbara Jean.”


Dalton laughed. “Good one, Tell.”


“I’m serious. Barbara Jean and Dad have been together for over a year.”


“They met at church,” Georgia said. “She’s really sweet. She takes good care of him.”


“Casper has a girlfriend,” he repeated. “Is she deaf so she doesn’t care if he yells his head off at her?”


“Jesus, Dalton, that’s not funny.”


He looked between his brothers. Then his brother’s wives. “Am I missing something? Or did I stumble into an alternate reality where Casper isn’t a flaming *?”


“No, but—”


“But what? He made some kind of amends with you guys, given how horrible he’s always been?”


“It’s not like that,” Tell said.


“Then maybe you oughta tell me what it is like.”


“It’s gotten easier.”


“Like you’re havin’ him over for supper kind of easy?”


Brandt shook his head. “He asks to see the boys and we meet. During that time he doesn’t give us ranch advice, or try to convince us to join his church. He ain’t allowed to run down Mom, or say nasty shit to our wives.”


“So the meetings last…under four minutes? Because that’s about as long as he can go without bein’ insulting.”


“Guess you wouldn’t know, huh? Since you ain’t been around him for three goddamned years?” Tell shot back.


Thank God for that. Dalton changed the subject. “Can he stay in the rehab wing indefinitely?”


“Guess that’s a week by week thing and we’re back to it bein’ dependent on how his therapy is goin’.”


“There’s no reason for them to keep him if he isn’t making progress,” Tell said. “So they’ll turn him out and make it someone else’s problem.”


“Meaning our problem,” Brandt said.


“Whoa.” Dalton’s gaze winged between his brothers. “Are you actually considering moving him into one of your houses?”



Uncomfortable silence.


How in the hell could either of them even consider that?


“Brandt. Do you need me to remind you that after Luke died he kicked Jessie out? Off the ranch? Out of our lives? He didn’t give a shit if she was homeless. What goes around comes around.”


“Don’t you think I know that?”


Dalton looked at Tell. “You’re willing to have that man in your house, around your kids day after day even knowing what he’s capable of? For who knows how f*ckin’ long because we all know the man is too goddamned mean to die?”


“Dalton. That’s not helping,” Jessie said quietly.


“Well, it needed to be said because it doesn’t seem like any of you are lookin’ at this from any angle besides guilt.”


“Fine. How would you handle it?” Tell asked.


Their skeptical looks didn’t deter him. “Casper still gets financial compensation from the ranch although he’s retired. If he gets kicked outta the rehab place then he’ll need to be set up in a long-term care facility where he’s not paying for expensive therapy he has no intention of doin’. The place might eat up every bit of his ranch income and anything he might’ve saved up, but it’s the most logical choice.”


“Finally the voice of reason,” Georgia said and reached over to squeeze Dalton’s hand.


Jessie nodded. “It’d be a different situation if Casper was a guy everyone loved. Heck, I’d be fine havin’ him live with us. But he’s not that man. And he’s not gonna change now. Like Dalton said, I suspect Casper will act a whole lot worse.”