Page 12 of For the Love of the Broken Man

Jase opened the back door and released Kayley from her booster. “What’s your favorite?” He settled her on his hip.

The girl wiggled until he put her down. She smiled at him and took his hand. “Blueberry pancakes. They’re sooo good. Meggie likes apple ones, just so you know.” Kayley removed her hand from his and tightened her crooked ponytail.

The three of them got a table and settled in. Jase and Kayley ordered breakfast while Dan ordered a dinner of fried chicken. Jase and Kayley played tic-tac-toe with crayons on place mats while they waited for their food.

When the waitress brought their plates, she smiled at them. “We have two blueberry short stacks with bacon. An order of scrambled eggs and home fries, and fried chicken with mashed potatoes and green beans. Can I get you anything else?”

Without glancing up, Jase began cutting Kayley’s pancakes and pouring syrup over them. After she was settled, he looked after his own food. He glanced up to see Danny assessing him. “You got any brothers or sisters?”

Jase chewed and swallowed a mouth full of food before he stared Danny in the eye. “I wish I did, but I guess it’s best I don’t. I’m an only. You?”

Danny squirmed before he tore into a chicken breast, offering Kayley some on what appeared to be instinct. “I have a younger brother who is a self-centered… We, uh, we’re not exactly on the same page right now. I had a sister, who was Kayley’s mother.”

Kayley’s gaze met Jase’s and she gave him a blueberry-smeared smile. “My momma’s in heaven.”

Unfortunately for Jason, he’d just taken a bite of his blueberry pancakes. When the cutest little girl he’d ever met responded casually her mother was in heaven, he choked on his food. Had a policeman with emergency medical training not been sitting three tables over, he’d have likely died right there at Bubba & Shirley’s Family Diner.

An hour later, they were settled in the truck and on their way again when Jase saw Dan check over his shoulder. Kayley was asleep. When he glanced back at Jase, he cleared his throat. “I wanna know exactly what happened at the Circle C and the Katydid that made you wanna leave.”

Jase did a double take and swallowed. “You were there when Matt came around. He didn’t want me working there, and the rest of you guys seemed to follow his lead. I felt about as welcome there as a whore in church. Things at the Katydid were a little better at first, but Ethan Sachs must have told the guys there that nobody at the ranch liked me because when Josh wasn’t around, they were assholes. I could go back to El Paso and be treated the same if I was fine with being treated like shit.” Jase’s confession left him raw.

Danny didn’t respond, so Jase closed his eyes and leaned his head against the head rest, hoping to fall asleep again. It would make the hell of being locked in a truck with Danny’s scent circling his head pass quicker. The way he’d situated his shirt over his jeans, he prayed Dan couldn’t see his hard-on through his Levi’s button fly. That would be the ultimate humiliation.

“Well, I’m sorry if we did that. We’re not used to newcomers. Mick can probably give ya more insight into it than I can. He was new to the Katydid once, and I expect it took time before the other guys respected him. It’s just that they don’t know what to make of ya. Hell, I remember when Tim started doin’ the bookwork at the Circle C. I don’t think we were too welcomin’ to him at first, either. Now, he’s runnin’ the place with Matt. We come around eventually, Jase. It takes some time.” Dan seemed to brush off Jase’s treatment as not important, but it was important to Jase.

Jase opened his eyes and turned his head. “I could take it from the others without much care, but a couple of the people were ones I thought I could look up to and maybe have as friends. I guess we were all wrong on that.”

Jase hoped he wasn’t giving away too much regarding his feelings for Danny. He closed his eyes and eventually drifted to sleep, praying he’d wake up in a better place,literally.

The sound of singing woke him sometime later. It was Kayley, and she was singing along with the music playing in the truck, adding all the singer’s nuances and ad libs like a pro. Jase grinned because he’d heard the song several times, and it surprised him Dan was a Taylor Swift fan.

“You a Swiftee?” Jase’s tone was teasing as he turned to see Danny concentrating on the two-lane road they were traversing. Jase had no idea where they were, but it was beautiful countryside with lots of trees and flowers in full bloom.

Dan glanced over. “What?”

“I asked if you were a Swiftee? That’s what her fans call themselves. Didn’t picture a cowboy like you to be a fan of girl power, man-hater songs.” Jase smirked.

Dan finally chuckled. “Kayley likes her. She gets restless on long rides, so I turn on this CD and she sings and entertains herself. You ain’t been sleepin’ well, have ya?”

Jase was surprised by the assessment, but he wondered how the man knew. “Bags under my eyes that visible?”

Dan didn’t answer for a minute. Finally, “Naw, you look fine, but I know a troubled k… man when I seem him. You don’t relax in your sleep, and from one troubled sleeper to another, I feel your pain.”

Jase doubted they were losing sleep for the same reasons. “Why don’t you sleep well?”

The amber-eyed, sandy-blond cowboy seemed to contemplate for a moment before he adjusted the stereo controls to move the sound to the back of the large truck’s cab. He glanced in the rearview before he turned his gaze to Jase.

“I went into the Army right outta high school. After basic, I was sent to Ft. Riley, Kansas, to join the 1st Infantry Division. I was training to be deployed to the Middle East as a combat soldier, and I liked bein’ in the military.

“I was there for four months before I met a guy, Teddy Kendall. He was eighteen and scared, just like me, and we were both lonely, I ‘spect. We kinda started datin’ on the sly when we had a pass or even leave. ‘Bout two months after we started seein’ each other, Teddy and me went for a walk one evenin’ and ended up in the woods outside the barracks. We didn’t know it was where some of the more senior guys went to gamble and get high, and they caught us with our pants down around our knees jackin’ each other.”

“Oh, shit. What happened after they caught you?” Jase swallowed a lump in his throat.

“The monsters tied Teddy to a tree and took turns whippin’ him with a belt. I tried to fight back for Teddy, but two of ‘em stomped on my leg and broke it in three places before they went off and left us there. Teddy was able to untie himself and took off and left me out there by myself. One of the guys in my unit saw I hadn’t come back to barracks that night, so the next mornin’ after PT, he reported me AWOL to our Sergeant. I ended up crawlin’ back toward camp and one of the cooks in the chow hall found me when he was out havin’ a cigarette.”

“Damn, Dan. I’m sorry to hear that happened. My father’s military, so I know how some soldiers can be. What about your leg?” Jase didn’t explain his father would have probably applauded the attack. The idea of it made Jase sick to his stomach.

“I woke up in the hospital with a pin in it, which bought me a ticket home and right back to the small-minded ways of Holloway, Virginia, and the cattle farm my dad was barely keepin’ away from the bank. I had to go through rehab to get full use of my leg, and it took me a long time to get to the point where I don’t think about it every day. Got a job with Matt, runnin’ his place after my dad died from a heart attack. Had to sell the farm and cows to pay the bills, and now I take care of my mom and Kayley. I guess, for the most part, I’m over it, but I still have nightmares.”

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