Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Adam sat back in his chair, watching a bunch of the cowboys playing a pick-up game of football. The whole place smelled like smoked meat, the brisket and ribs and sausage making his mouth water. He threw back the last of his first beer and pondered going into the trailer for another one.
Sometimes the little outdoor events had a lot to recommend them.
Pharris and the clown were sitting, playing cribbage with Beau and Sammy, with Sam cussing a blue streak. At least he thought that was what the little fuddled Texan was doing. He could be chanting some kind of weird mantra. Who the hell knew?
A cold beer pressed into his hand. “La, cher.”
“Hey, you.” Landon looked good. Happy. Smiling. Adam loved that sunny grin.
“Been talking to Sister. She’s having a good one.” Landon plopped down, legs all sprawled, giving him ideas.
“Is she?” He still had yet to meet Laurel. Adam wasn’t sure what to think about that.
“She wants y’all to come. We got the fridge fixed.”
“Yeah?” He couldn’t imagine not having a fridge in his trailer, let alone his house. Sometimes it stunned him, how Landon had grown up. Made him ashamed for taking things for granted, too. He should always be grateful for what he had.
“Yes, sir.” Landon grinned at him. “She says she needs to see your face.”
“I’d like to see her, too.” He was so curious to see what Landon’s twin might be like. Was she like Landon in spirit as well as body?
“She’s fierce, a traiteur.”
“What does that mean, exactly?” He knew they thought Laurel was some kind of healer, but he really didn’t know the word.
“She got a line to God to heal folks up, horses, too.”
Adam tilted his head. “Like faith healing?”
“Like she prays on things and they stop hurting. She does the herbs and stuff, too, but mostly God moves through her.” Landon sounded like he didn’t know how fucking ridiculous that sounded.
Adam stared, trying to bite his lip. Wasn’t no sense in getting into a philosophical discussion. Of course, that was when Bri and his buddy Callum showed up, pulling up a chair.
“That’s all bullshit,” Brian said.
“No, it’s not. I seen it. She made Miss Ouisie’s arthritis pain go after just one session.”
“She ought to be ashamed, taking money from old folks.” Callum’s nose wrinkled.
“She don’t take money. You cain’t. It’s a gift from God. You cain’t buy that.”
God, Landon, just hush, he thought. His brother didn’t react well to anything that smacked of cheating or even of magic.
Beau and them were watching now, too, all curious. Adam tried to change the subject. “So when are you going down there again?”
“I’m heading home after this weekend. I was hopin’ y’all would come too, meet Laurel.”
“I think Adam ought to watch that laying on of hands. Could fuck him up for life.” God, Bri was brutal. Adam glared at his brother, really not wanting to go there.
“She wouldn’t hurt him. I was telling her about your Granny’s aches. I ought to bring Sister to help there.”
“No way is any faith healer touching Granny Taggart. Tell him, Adam.” Brian stared at him, and he could hear Brian saying, ‘Nothing can come of it,’ in his head.
Adam shot another hard glare at Brian before shrugging at Landon, who watched him with trusting eyes. Lord. He didn’t know what to say except, “I doubt it would help much, honey.”
“Oh, she’s the best in the whole Parrish, I swear. One time, when we were twelve, I got throwed and busted my arm and she helped me fix it, just like if we’d took it to the doctor.”
Brian rolled his eyes. “Jesus, kid. You can’t fix things like broke arms without a doctor. It needs casts, setting. Look at you. There’s nothing wrong with your arms.”
Landon frowned, forehead wrinkling up. “That’s what I just said, me.”
The more agitated Landon got, the harder the kid was to understand, his patois coming out. Landon got…louder, too.
Adam’s cheeks went hot, and he glanced around, the cowboy in him not liking all the attention from the other guys. Maybe he ought to just go get another beer. It wasn’t sneaking away if he just got up and did it, was it?
“Then don’t lie.” Brian’s voice cut through the air like a knife. “Shit, there’s no shame in needing a doctor. You’re saying no one at school noticed your arm was broke?”
Landon’s cheeks went dark red, lips tight. “We didn’t go.”
Callum stared at him. “What? Not at all? Can you read?”
Brian snorted. “Of course he went to school. Everyone goes to school, even in the bayou. You don’t have to get all weird, kid.”
“I ain’t no liar.” Landon stood, fists clenched tight. “C’est la franche vérité, every word I said. Cher, you tell ’em I ain’t no liar.”
Adam sat there like a deer caught in the headlights. He knew Landon wasn’t dishonest, but what did he say to that? I know you’re uneducated and into weird hoodoo, so no, you’re not lying? Christ.
“I don’t want to get into this,” was what he finally came up with.
Landon looked at him, dark eyes holding his for a long minute.
What was he supposed to do? If Landon was fibbing some, then Bri was just calling him on it.
If not, then shit, what? Adam was fucking some bayou baby and taking advantage of a kid who didn’t even have the schooling to make it in the world?
He felt like the worst kind of dirty old man, thinking about it that way.
It was like time stopped for a second—damn near like he was working the arena, weirdly enough, then Landon deflated on him, just seemed to shrink, right there in front of him. “C’est bon. I reckon I’d best get on, me, with my lies and my facons vieilles. Y’all have a good one.”
Adam watched Landon turn on the wore-out heel of one boot, but he was rooted in place, simply unable to get up and follow the kid.
It wasn’t his pride that kept him from going after Landon, not at all.
It was his shame. Landon needed someone who understood him, not some lonely old asshole who would take advantage of him, which was exactly what Adam felt like.
Coke Pharris looked at him, at Landon, then put his cards down. “I ain’t playing no more, y’all.” With no more than that, the bullfighter walked away, heading right to his truck without even waiting for the clown.
Adam’s ears felt like they might go up in flames. Brian just shook his head. “What’s the big deal? All the new kids exaggerate. He’s just trying to make his story better, is all.”
Sammy Bell came out of his lawn chair so fast that it went flying and the man was in Brian’s face before he could blink. “Landon ain’t no lion. He been grow in nowhere and lonely with walking hard!”
“Jesus, Sammy.” Bri held up his hands. “Back off, huh? I just think Adam can do better, that’s all.”
Sam sneered at him, eyes dragging up and down, then spit on the ground near his feet. “Fucking idiot. Twice over.” The words were slow, deliberate, and there was no doubt Sam meant it.
Adam stared at the spot where Landon had disappeared and wondered if Sammy was right. He had a bad feeling that he’d lost something he’d never get back, just like he had with Beau Lafitte.
Oh, hell, who was he kidding? He wasn’t meant to be with one person. God knew he was the slut of the family. Always had been. Adam climbed to his feet, sick to death of the whole passel of them. Brothers included.
“Night, y’all.” He turned away just like Landon had, headed for his trailer.
It was time to switch to something harder than beer.
He made it there, not surprised to see Landon’s ancient truck gone already. He went inside, rolling his shoulders, which felt like frozen rope. There was a note on the table, along with a pile of rumpled cash.
All it said was,
Here’s my part for the food for the last while. Just so y’all know, I can read just fine. Take care of you.
Shit.
He crumpled the note, knowing he’d hurt Landon bad. His only consolation was that the damned kid was probably better off without him.
His phone rang before he’d been on the road even an hour, Sister’s voice right there. “Qu’est-ce qu’il y a? What is it? Maw-Maw’s hand mirror done broke in two.”
“I’m coming home.”
“With your man and his people?”
“No. They think we’s nasty and low.” He could feel it, the way Adam was ashamed of him, of being with someone like him. It burned at him, the fire getting brighter and hotter with every passing minute. He hadn’t thought he was low before.
Maybe he was too stupid to think of it. Lord.
“Then fuck ’em. We don’t need them. I’ll curse that motherfucker ‘til he plumb glows in the dark and draws the devil.”
“Sister!” Her sharp words made him hoot, though, Laurel always having his back.
“What? What, you done been here for me our whole lives. You make us money, you fix the house, you kept the state from taking us away after Maw-Maw went to the Lord. You did that. How’s that low? You tell me that.”
“These folks, Sister, they got big old houses, they got money. Shit, all them boys went to college, all the way through.” Adam was the first man he’d ever really known that had done that.
“Well, la-dee-da.” She snorted. “Don’t you let that make you feel like less.”
“’Course not.” How could he feel any less than right now? “I won the event, did I tell you? Pay two years’ worth of taxes.”
“Did you? Oh, that’s fine. Real fine.” He could hear it in her voice, the need to heal him, to make him all better. “Come home. I’ll make you beignets.”
“I’m coming. I’ll be there when you wake up in the morning and I’m reckoning to stick a while.
” Maybe a long while. Maybe he wouldn’t ride bulls much no more.
Roping was where his heart was, anyway. One day, he’d find someone like Sam Bell to rope with, since Mr. Beau said Sam wouldn’t be doing it no more, either.
Someone who could be proud of him, a little.
“You take care of you, huh? I need you.”
“Toujours et toujours, oui? For always.” His head was starting to hurt and he welcomed it. He reckoned the soreness in the center of his soul would be bothering him some longer.