Chapter 15 #2
“Sounds great. Thank you, ma’am.” Bax’s phone clicked off, and they sat there for a long moment.
Then Bax whooped, pulling him to his feet and dancing him around the room.
He couldn’t believe it. He just couldn’t. They’d bought a house.
“Lord, Jase. Our house. Ours. Let’s get a bed before we leave town.”
“Okay. Yes. Tomorrow. God, Bax. Tomorrow.” He was floating…just fucking floating.
“I know!” Bax kissed his mouth hard. “I’m so proud I’m about to bust. You should call Momma.”
“Yeah. Yeah, You ought to call Aje. We’ll tell Gramps and Dillweed together.” He grabbed his phone and told it to call Momma.
“Hello? What’s wrong? Are y’all okay?” Lord, mommas would always be mommas.
“They accepted the offer. We got it, Momma.” Please be happy for me. I need that like anything, ‘cause I’m trying so hard not to be a tittybaby. Please have my back.
“Jason! Congratulations, baby. I can’t believe you found the one you wanted so fast, but you always know what you want. Well, I just can’t wait to see it.”
Oh. Yeah, she was tickled.
“There’s room for guests, the water is right there, we’ll be able to have horses… It’s a good place, Momma.” He couldn’t stop grinning. “I told you there’s a suite with its own little kitchenette and sitting room and everything, right?”
“You did! You’re never going to get the cowboys out of there. You’ll have to make a calendar.”
“You know it. And it’s an easy drive for you and Jack.” He loved the idea of her coming to see him. He would feel less like a little kid going home.
“Shit, son, you just tell me when and we’ll bring a trailer’s worth of goodies! Me and Jack had tons of extras and we’ve just been holding them in storage.”
“Oh, Momma. Thank you.” He could hear Bax jabbering to AJ, and he had to smile. It meant everything to him that Momma was gonna get on this bandwagon. “We start the process tomorrow, then we’re gonna go buy a few things.”
“When do you close?”
“The lady says a week to ten days, but we’ll just lease until the paperwork is done, so we’ll be in sooner.”
“You want us to come over the weekend? We can bring y’all some stuff, help you get things put up and celebrate your new place?”
“That would rock. Then we wouldn’t have to drive back up yet.” Jason jittered his leg, thinking hard. Bax would want to get in there and look at electrical and plumbing. Jason wanted to get a grill, maybe a couch.
“Good deal. It’ll give y’all a couple days in your house alone too. Y’all need that.” She sniffled softly. “I’m so excited, baby.”
“So am I.” This way they could make sure the place was clean enough for Momma, too. She would get the white glove out when no one was looking. She worried so. “Y’all bring bathing suits and beach shoes.”
“We will. Fishing poles? Is there a deck?”
“There is. A wood one. Nothing fancy.” Nothing about the house was fancy, and that worked for him. He didn’t need that. They were boys with sand and fish guts and cow shit.
“Oh, that’s fine. We’ll bring you a bunch of old towels and all for the deck, and fishing poles we got a ton of. Jack loves to ocean fish.”
“Well, y’all come on. We’ll have lots to do, and we’ll figure it.” Hell, Momma might have fun.
“We will. We’ll see you Saturday midmorning.”
He’d bet they would be up before the sun and there by nine. “Yes, ma’am.”
“See you then, son.” They hung up just as Bax was saying, “Okay, Aje. Cool. Thanks, man. Bye.”
They sat together and breathed before Bax asked, “You ready for me to call Gramps?”
“Let me just grin a minute.”
“Was Momma good?”
“Yeah.” Yeah, he thought she genuinely was. She was worried about him, but she was happy. She trusted him, which was a huge thing. “She’s coming this weekend and bringing us a trailer of shit.”
“Well, then we’ll just get some furniture and some basics and see what all she brings.” Bax sat next to him again. “No sense buying anything she can give us.”
“Right? We’ll find us a bedroom and a couch and a big-assed TV.” There was so much to do—utilities and shit, Internet. All of it. Starting tomorrow.
“All right, babe. I’m calling the bullfighter and the clown.” Bax’s phone engaged on speaker, and it rang once. “Hello?”
“Everything okay, son?” Gramps sounded tired.
“Put us on speakerphone, Gramps!” he called out, hoping this would perk his oldest friend up.
“Sure.” There was a clatter, a “Shit,” then a crackle that meant they were live. “Shoot.”
Bax grabbed his hand. “We bought a house!”
“You what?”
Dillon was right there. “When? How? What the hell?”
“We did.” Jason couldn’t stop grinning. “Just out of Corpus. Got enough land for some horses. A few outbuildings. Water is right there.”
“No shit?” Gramps sounded utterly shocked, then he started to hoot. “Really? Tell! Tell!”
So they did it again—telling about the sunroom and the dock, the guest suite and the balconies.
Dillon laughed right out loud at that. “You’ll have to make sure you don’t go over, Jase.”
“I’m going to take care of it. I was hoping Gramps would help me add another set of rails to the upper balcony, and we’re going to run a rope down to the dock.” Bax had this planned out, didn’t he?
“Sounds like a plan,” Dillon said. “There’s all sorts of things we can do to the outbuildings, too. Maybe gravel on one walkway and something else on another.”
Jason loved how Dillon thought of them as family now. ‘They’ did shit, not ‘y’all’.
“We’ll come down for the week before you ride again, fair? I’m taking a few days off here.” Damn, Gramps was pooped.
“That’s more than fair, Gramps.” He smiled toward Bax. “More than.”
“Hell, Momma and Jack are invading this weekend, and Jack will want to help,” Bax agreed. “Don’t you worry on it.”
“We’ll be there. We may fly in then ride with y’all. We’ll figure it.” Dillon wasn’t worried. “Send pictures!”
“We’re heading back over in the morning for the walk-through, so I’ll take good ones,” Bax said.
“Good. Congratulations, kids! I can’t wait to see it.”
“I’ll send you a bed for the guest suite as a housewarming, guys. Just send me an address tomorrow.” Dillon didn’t sound like he was going to entertain an argument at all.
“You’re the million-dollar clown, man,” Jason agreed. Coke needed the best, damn it.
“I am. Tomorrow. Address. Go celebrate, boys.”
Like it was meant, a knock came to the door.
“That’s our food,” Bax said, rising. “Later, Gramps.”
“Bye, y’all.” He hung up and sat there, listening to Bax bring in the table.
They’d bought a house.
The food smelled amazing, and his belly rumbled. “Thanks, Bax.”
“Anytime.” Bax walked him through his plate, but didn’t momma him, letting him do his thing.
“We bought a house. Does it feel fucking weird to you?”
“Hell, yes. Tickles me to death how surprised everyone is too, like we don’t know how to do shit.”
“Well, we are fuckups of the highest order, man.”
“We are. I mean, did you know you was blind?” Bax hooted, slapping the table hard enough to make it creak.
“I am?” He slapped himself on the forehead, then they both cracked up.
The steak was so perfect, and Jason knew he had to savor it. Days like this were few and far between.
Most days were hamburger, and some he just had to drink his milkshake through a straw.
Not today. Today was sirloin, all the way.
Bax made the happiest noise, and he knew Bax was right there with him. And there would be ice cream for dessert.
That was a damn fine thing.