Borrowing Trouble (2 page)

Chapter 2

              Jay hugged his daughter and told her goodnight before wandering to Clint’s room. He knocked and stuck his head in. “Hey, Clint.”

              Clint looked up from his laptop with a smile. “What’s up, Dad? Have a good time?”

              Jay tried his best to contain the grimace that tried to steal over his face. “Was your sister good for you?” he deflected.

              “Yeah. Expected you to be later, honestly.” Clint rolled his eyes when Jay harrumphed.

              “No, I gotta work early tomorrow. Thanks for watching Millie.”

              “No problem. Glad you got out for a while. It’s been too long.”

              “Yeah, well.” Jay didn’t want to touch that, but he felt lucky to have such great kids. They’d taken his first foray into dating life in stride. They’d had three years to get used to the idea, but he still felt weird telling them where he was going tonight. “Thanks anyways. Lights out in thirty, okay?”

              Clint nodded his assent and went back to whatever he was doing on his laptop. His kids were great. They could have been much harder on him for moving them back down to Webster county or making them switch schools, but after three years, he’d needed a little more help than he could get in Columbus and his ex’s parents had mentioned that the Pettys had an opening for a manager at their mill. The new job meant more time at home. The pay wasn’t quite as much, but it was comparable, and the cost of living was half what he’d been paying. The kids were glad to have more dad time and to see their grandparents. Since Jay’s parents were dead and their mother was in Atlanta, they’d missed having family around so it hadn’t been a hard sell. Yeah, they’d balked at moving to the sticks at first, but it had gone much more smoothly than Jay had expected.

              Jay made his way downstairs to the kitchen and grabbed a beer and his cell phone before stepping on the back porch. As he dialed his ex-wife, he breathed in the fresh air and enjoyed the silence that came with not having neighbors for miles. He’d missed having a whole corner of the earth to himself.

              “Jay!” Bethany’s happy voice chirped through the earpiece of his phone.

              “Hey, Beths. Kids said you called. Sorry to return it so late.”

              “How’d your date go?” He fell silent, surprised she’d asked, because he hadn’t mentioned the date. He should have known one of the kids might, though. He couldn’t tell if Bethany was happy he’d started seeing other people or not, though like Clint, she thought it was about time after three years.

              His only response was to groan good naturedly, attempting to keep the mood light.

              Bethany laughed her familiar, tinkling laugh that made Jay smile. He was happy they’d stayed close. Their divorce had been extremely amicable, she’d been his best friend practically his whole life, after all.

              “She spent the whole night trying to talk me into bringing the kids to her church.”

              Now it was Bethany’s turn to groan. They’d been a fairly liberal couple for being born-and-bred country kids from Montgomery County, Mississippi. But the town—or unincorporated community if you wanted to be all official—they’d grown up in didn’t even appear on a map and shared both a zip code and phone prefix with a nearby one-stop-sign town. With a population of just a little over four-hundred, their hometown still boasted around eight rural protestant churches, and more than thirty in the county itself, so it’d been part of every resident’s Sunday growing up. So the fact that Jay and Beth had moved to a larger town and had not forced their kids into Sunday school, vacation bible school, and at least one youth group, had been a bone of contention with Bethany’s parents.

              “She even said she could ‘look past’ the divorce issue.”

              “Oh, good lord. Where’d you find this woman?”

              “You know Stewart,” he sighed, referring to their hometown. “Near as soon as I moved in, they asked when we’d work our issues out. And when I said there were no issues to work out, they started pushing girls from their churches on me.”

              “Good grief. Good to know some things never change.”

              “No kidding.”

              “I had a date tonight too, but that was about as unsuccessful. When I said I was from Mississippi, he acted like he was surprised I knew how to use silverware and wear shoes.”

              Jay snorted. “Nice.”

              “How’s the new job?”

              Jay had no complaints there. Over the last three weeks, he’d grown to enjoy his new job. The work was hard, but that was nothing new to him. He didn’t like how much time he spent over a desk doing bullshit payroll and logging mileage, but the boss seemed to like him and Landon was a competent trainer. He was still impressed that a man as young as Landon was so responsible, seeing how he had taken care of things for his dad at the expense of his own time and social life. The guy had admitted to not getting out much himself.

              “It’s good. Ricky’s a good man to work for. The crew works hard and has been pretty accepting of me as their new boss since I’m a local boy. Most of ‘em know your dad, so I’m sure that helps.”

              “That’s real good. I talked to the kids. They said they’re liking school.”

              “They’ve been great. They can’t wait to see you, though.”

              “Oh right, I meant to tell you, my fall break is the same week as theirs, so if you don’t mind them coming up that week, I’d love to have them.”

              “Of course.” Jay loved his kids, but a week to kick back at home with just himself and the crickets would be nice. Since the kids came back from staying with Bethany for the summer, it had been chaos between moving, the new job, and typical teenage dramas. They missed their mom as much as he missed his best friend, but he knew they’d made the best decision.

              “Great, well, I ought to get off the phone. I have work early. You have a good night, Jay. Sorry your date didn’t go well.”

              “Sorry about yours too, Beths. Have a good night.”

              When they hung up, he stayed on the back porch, finishing off his beer. He was glad he and Bethany had appeared to have made the right decisions. At least, he felt like they had. He knew the original reason for the kids to stay with him during the school year was because they were supposed to keep things status-quo, but over time and with Bethany’s new job, he knew she missed them terribly, but everything continued to fall in place as it should and they all seemed to be moving on well. He couldn’t help but wonder if the other shoe might drop. Seemed things had always gone a little too well. The only thing that had been awkward was when people were shitty to Bethany for leaving her kids “just to go to school.”

              Jay didn’t begrudge her the need to go back. They’d married so young, fresh from high school, because that was what you did. With time and maturity, they’d grown to be great friends but no longer lovers, and the need to make their ways in the world beyond what they’d been expected to do had grown to be a heavy weight on their marriage. It had hurt at first for everyone, but they were all settled now after all these years and the kids seemed to be doing well, so they hadn’t done any irreparable damage.

He hoped.

****

“Ugh. That’s why I don’t let them set me up,” Landon teased. “They mean well, but my God, the church invitations get so fuckin’ old.” Landon had overheard Jay telling Ms. Lynne about his abysmal date.

              “I told them thanks for tryin’, but I’m gonna find my own dates from here on out.” Jay only half meant it. He didn’t really have much interest in trying to date any more than he’d done. It was awkward. He didn’t miss his ex that way, at all. He missed the companionship and sure, he missed sex, it’d been almost six months without it before Bethany announced she might go back to school. Almost four years with his hand was definitely a hardship, but he’d had enough to focus on that the only time it sucked was when he went to bed alone, yet again, when the kids were gone.

              “Well, I better head on out. Looks like my trailer is ready to go,” Landon announced. They’d been friendly as one could expect, but Jay thought Landon always seemed to avoid much personal conversation and seemed to try not to spend more time than necessary in Jay’s company. It sucked, really, because out of all the people he’d reconnected with since he’d come back home, Landon seemed like the person he had the most in common with. When the man wasn’t being too guarded, he was pretty funny.

              And for the life of Jay, he couldn’t figure out why he gave a damn if the man was guarded. That sounded like something Bethany said about him to the marriage counselor when they talked about the last few years of their marriage at therapy. Now he was off worrying about someone else’s inability to communicate.

              While Landon trained Jay, they’d discovered they both liked the same football team and had a similar sense of humor. Landon also seemed oddly alone for a guy surrounded by people he’d known his whole life. Jay wasn’t sure how he knew that, but it was a vibe he got. And Jay could sympathize. He’d never really fit in around home, Bethany having been his best and only friend before they’d gotten married and moved off. Somehow, though, he sensed a kindred spirit in Landon and it’d be nice to be in the company of an adult. He was getting tired of drinking beer on his back porch alone. The novelty was beginning to wear off.

              “Hey, Landon, what’re you up to this Saturday?” Jay wasn’t sure what exactly made him want to invite Landon to hang out with him, especially since the man seemed not to want to fraternize, but damn if he wanted to spend his first kid free weekend in a while alone. And yeah, Landon was younger and probably had little interest in hanging out with someone almost ten years older than him, but Jay couldn’t stop himself.

              Landon raised an eyebrow and shrugged. “Nothin’, I don’t suspect. Was gonna go down to Jackson, but my friends backed out and I don’t wanna go by myself.”

              Jay wondered what Landon did in Jackson. The city was bigger than their little town and probably offered better entertainment than anything a twenty-eight year old could get into here, but Landon never recounted tales of his times, even though he drove three hours just to go out. The other guys drove a little over an hour to go out and always came in on Mondays with tales of their weekends in the little honky tonk they frequented, so you’d think Landon would have tales to share of, what would have to be, more interesting bars. Or maybe Jay was being presumptuous in assuming Landon drove down to go to bars.

              “I was thinking about catching the Ole Miss game at Woody’s over in Winona,” Jay offered. Landon’s blue eyes blinked owlishly. He seemed to make that face a lot. Jay never could read the expression and it always made him feel like maybe he’d done something wrong. “It’s no big deal. The kids are out of town at their mom’s come Friday, so I thought I’d get out of the house.”

              Landon was silent for another moment before nodding, his expression giving away nothing. Finally, he shrugged one shoulder and an easy smile tugged up one side of his face, and Jay felt a funny feeling he couldn’t put a finger on. “Sure. Better than getting drunk by myself.”

              Well, wasn’t that heart-warming. “Glad you can be bothered.”

              “Oh, that’s not what I meant.” Landon held his hands up, neck flushing in the adorable way it did when he was flustered or embarrassed.
Adorable
? Jay was pretty sure that thought made him blink in a similarly owlish fashion.
What the hell?

“Sorry,” Landon apologized. “I’d like that. Haven’t been to Woody’s in a good minute.”

“Uh, yeah.” Jay looked down at his desk and shuffled papers, trying to cover his reaction to thinking another man was adorable
.
When Jay looked back up, he noticed Landon was looking like maybe Jay’d lost his mind.

“You okay?” Landon asked warily.

“Yeah. Sorry.” Jay cleared his throat and fussed at himself to get it together. “State game starts at 7:15.”

Landon gave a nod. “A’ight. See ya then.”

Jay watched Landon leave, then caught Ms. Lynne’s speculative gaze. He didn’t like the narrowed eyes as they studied him. The last five minutes had been possibly the weirdest of his life.

“Real nice of you to invite Landon. He don’t get out much,” Ms. Lynne said with a feigned nonchalance.

Jay shrugged. “Seems to get out plenty to me.”

“I s’pose,” was all she had to offer. He didn’t have anything to say to that either.

Chapter 3

To say Landon was surprised by Jay’s invitation to Woody’s would have been an understatement. He was afraid he’d come off as an asshole over the last few weeks since he’d tried hard to stay away from the man. He’d done his damnedest to reign in his body’s reaction to Jay Hill, but damn if the man wasn’t like a flame to Landon’s moth.

There wasn’t much about Jay Landon didn’t like. Physically, Jay was amazing, but as a man, Jay was even better. He worked hard, had Landon’s father’s respect, was a wonderful father, to hear most people tell it. But the man was straight. He had kids. He also had an ex-wife that he was still close with, who people thought he would get back together with.

Landon almost said no when Jay invited him out, but the man had seemed to genuinely want a friend to hang out with, though Landon couldn’t figure out why Jay had thought of
him
. What could it hurt, though? Aside from his two best friends he only got to see sparingly, Landon didn’t exactly have a burgeoning social life. His social life lacked even more when he stuck around his hometown for a while. What would one football game hurt?

He could put aside his lusty bullshit and ease two people’s need for friendship by being a fucking adult and going for a beer and football. That seemed much more fulfilling than another weekend of bitchy twinks at the gay bar he frequented in Jackson anyways. He was too damned old and lived a totally different life than the other twenty-somethings he met there.

Landon noticed Jay immediately after walking into Woody’s. Woody’s was an institution locally. A country grill and bar where you ate catfish and threw peanut hulls on the floor seemed to sum up the local color quite well.

“What’s up?” Landon asked as he plopped down in the booth with Jay.

Jay smiled his kind smile and Landon was glad he’d decided to take the man up on his offer. He really was a nice guy. He couldn’t imagine how shitty it must be to be surrounded by all the guys who didn’t exactly want to party with the boss man, no matter how well they knew him. Landon welcomed that social divide, while Jay was probably suffering because of it since he seemed to spend all his time working or with his kids.

“Not much, man.” Jay pulled a bottle of Bud Light from the bucket of beer he’d ordered and offered it to Landon. Landon accepted it with a thanks. “Just in time. I ordered some wings and cheese sticks just now.”

“Perfect.” Landon was famished. Even his first pull of the beer had him feeling buzzy, so he needed some food pronto. “Thanks for inviting me. I really was lookin’ at another night of staring at four walls.”

“Not much to do around here.”

Landon snorted.
You have no idea.
“My friends live in Jackson now, but our schedules don’t exactly line up all the time. Plus, it gets expensive fueling up my truck for a trip down once a week.”

“I imagine so. What do y’all get up to down there?” Jay asked the question innocently enough, Landon would feel like an asshole not to answer. But he couldn’t exactly say “
oh I go get my dick sucked by college boys so I don’t horn up every time I’m around you
.”

“Oh, not much. Hit the bars. More interesting people than Buddy’s. I’m sure you’ve noticed the guys don’t exactly want us to hang out with ‘em anyways, so me showing up in Grenada wouldn’t thrill ‘em.”

Jay smiled sympathetically. “Older crowd there. Hell, that crowd is too old for me.”

              “You’re right about that.”

              “Anyways, thank you for coming out tonight. Too many nights being dad. Nice to get out for a beer with a buddy. Been a while.”

              “I bet. Must be hard, just you.”

              “Nah. It’s not so bad. Beths and I have a pretty good set-up, and her parents help out a lot now that I’m back home.”

              Landon wasn’t sure what made him say it, but he suddenly had the urge. “Sorry to hear about you and Bethany splitting up. Good y’all are still friends, though.”

              Jay shrugged again. “It just made sense. It wasn’t a bad break up. Just grew up and grew apart.”

              “Well, it’s nice of you to let her go off to school like you did.”

              “Nothin’ nice about it. It was the right thing. She’s gonna be able to provide a better life for herself and the kids. She’s got a damn good job now. After she’s done with her first year, she’ll come back to be with the kids again.”

              There. Settled. She’d come back and it’d be just like the oldtimers said, Jay and Bethany would get back together. Nothing could make Landon kill his silly crush on the damn straight man like cold, hard reality. Not that there had been a chance before, anyhow.

              “Okay, well that’s a heavy subject.”

              “Oh. Sorry, man. Just been meaning to mention it since you came back, but didn’t think it’d be right to bring it up at the office.”

              “No, it’s alright,” Jay said, offering another of his kind smiles. The cold water that had been dumped on his crush made the effect of that smile not burn as brightly as it had earlier.
Good. A friend
. Another he couldn’t be out to, but a friend nonetheless.

              “Oh look. Game’s on.” Jay pointed to the TV.

              After a few more beers and some wings, they’d both relaxed and had a decent conversation. They’d talked about their days at the local high school, Jay’s kids, and things as trivial as good places for hunting. Landon found himself having a great time. Jay was easy to talk to and didn’t seem to have the good ol’ boy attitude Landon expected from the man at first. Jay had talked about how they’d not forced the kids into church and how he and Bethany had spent a lot of time with a gay couple who lived on their street. That made Landon squirm a little, but it also made him think he might like having Jay around.

              They ordered another bucket of beer and Landon excused himself to go to the bathroom. “Gotta break the seal.” When he came back to the table, he was annoyed to find one of the women from the bar had eased over during his absence to squeeze onto the booth seat next to Jay. When he sat back down, Jay shot him an apologetic look, which was incredibly endearing.

              “Heya, Landon.” Jay sounded tipsy and his face was wide and happy when Landon sat back down. “This is Felicia.”

              “Landon and I are old friends,” Felicia cooed, practically ignoring that Landon had returned. They were indeed old friends. She was only a year older than him and was a notorious bar fly. She’d slept with a few of Landon’s friends and seeing her on Jay didn’t surprise him in the least. Although, he had to give it to her, she had good taste, seeing as she was setting her sights on his new friend.

              Landon didn’t respond because it wasn’t necessary, judging by the way Felicia was whispering in Jay’s ear. He rolled his eyes, but couldn’t help smiling at the goofy look on Jay’s face. Too bad Landon couldn’t get that response out of the man. But good for Jay. Someone deserved to get laid and, from the sound of things, it had been a while for Jay. And that moment served as yet another bright, blinking, neon reminder that Jay was very straight.

              “Well,” Landon said with a stretch. “I’m actually pretty whooped, Jay.” Landon pulled his wallet out and dropped a couple twenties on the table before standing. “Think I’ll head out.”

              Jay jerked his head away from Felicia and frowned. “Wait. Don’t leave. The game’s not even over.” Felicia did not look pleased.

              “Naw, don’t worry about it. I’m just tired as hell. May as well head on back to the house.” Landon wasn’t exactly lying. He was tired as hell. It’d been a long week and he’d gone and helped his daddy work on his tractor early that morning. Felicia almost looked like she’d thank Landon for leaving if it wouldn’t be entirely tacky. “Good to see you, Felicia.” She waved dismissively as Landon left.

              Landon made it to his truck before he heard his name being called. He turned to see Jay sauntering toward him. “You left your phone.”

              “Oh, thanks,” Landon said, taking the proffered device. “Sorry ‘bout that.”

              “Don’t worry about it.” Jay definitely sounded toasted, his speech a little slurred.

              “You alright, big guy?”

              “I don’t think so. It’s been a while since I drank away from the house. Or more than a couple beers, for that matter.” Judging by how tipsy he was, a while probably measured in years rather than months.

              “I’m sure Felicia’s gon’ take real good care of you, hoss,” Landon teased. Hoss?
You hang around the saw mill too much.

              Jay frowned and looked down at himself. “I think Little Jay is too drunk to have any fun tonight.”

              Landon laughed. “That sucks. You need a ride?” It did suck. Landon had been there a few times. The mind was willing, but the body wanted no part of it.

              “Fuckin’ whiskey dick,” Jay bitched. “Yeah, I prob’ly oughtta get a ride.” And judging by the stumble to the side, Landon had to agree. Felicia suddenly appeared behind them.

              “Y’all alright?”

              “Felicia, I think my boy’s had too much to drink.”

              Jay nodded sullenly.

              “That’s alright,” she said. “I can give him a ride home.”

              Landon looked at Jay. “You want her to give you a ride?”

              She wrapped a hand around Jay’s bicep, pulling her keys from her purse. “Maybe you’ll sober up and we can hang out for a while.”

              Jay looked uncertain, so Landon swallowed the tiny, eeny-weeny bit of jealousy that still remained and encouraged Jay to let Felicia take him. He didn’t know bro-code etiquette on this situation. It’d seem like you’d help your friend get laid, but in this state, maybe not.

              “No. Thanks anyway, Fiona.” Jay gave her a too-bright, dimpled smile, obviously not realizing how pissed off Felicia looked. The
no
had already made her purse her lips, but forgetting her name had made her go red in the face. Landon covered his mouth so she couldn’t see the smile.

              Felicia snapped a
whatever
and went back inside. “Did you settle up the tab?” Landon asked around his chuckling.

              “Wassfunny?” Jay honestly had no clue what faux-paz he’d made, and that made Landon laugh harder.

              “Nothin’, man. Just, get in my truck. Lemme go check that you paid out.” He watched to make sure that Jay stumbled into the right truck, then went to check that the bill had been settled. He apologized to Felicia, who was very understanding when he mentioned Jay didn’t go out much since he usually had the kids. She gave him a napkin with her number.

              Landon tossed the napkin at Jay when he hopped into the cab of his F-250. “Here. My job as a wing-man has been fulfilled.”

              Jay took the napkin and blinked hard to focus on it. Landon could only shake his head and chuckle. After he dropped Jay off with a promise to come around in the morning to take him to his truck, Landon noticed the napkin was crumpled on the seat next to him. He couldn’t help but be happy about that, though he didn’t imagine it was more than a drunken mistake.