Page 26 of Bad to the Bone
The kitchen area didn’t have a table, just several high stools around the counter, which was already set with plates, napkins, and silverware. Alex took a seat on the opposite side from Ricky Lee and opened the pizza boxes, filling the room with the aroma of sausage and pepperoni.
They ate in silence other than an occasional comment about the food until they’d finished the better part of both pizzas. Alex combined the remaining slices into one carton and tossed the other into the trash can he found under the sink. Since there were no dirty dishes—neither of them had bothered using a plate—Alex walked back around the counter and took another swallow of his beer.
Ricky Lee tossed down his napkin and stood to reach for his wallet. “Can I—?”
Just like that, the uneasy détente between them shattered. “If you offer to pay for dinner, I swear I’ll hit you,” Alex growled. “I might not own a damn software company, but I can afford a couple of lousy pizzas.”
“I didn’t mean to—look, Alex, I get that you’re angry, and I’m sorry. Just hear me out, okay?” He gestured toward the seating area.
Alex drained his Corona and set the empty on the countertop. Remembering what happened the first time he’d come to Ricky Lee’s hotel room, there was no way in hell he was sitting on that couch again. He walked around the coffee table and took one of the chairs on the opposite side instead.
Ricky Lee hesitated at the edge of the kitchen area. “Can I get you another beer?”
“No, I don’t want another beer,” Alex snapped. “I want to know why you hid the fact that you’re apparently worth millions of dollars.”
“You make it sound like it’s something I should be ashamed of,” Ricky Lee countered before dropping onto the couch.
“Because you’re acting like it is. Why would you keep something like that a secret?”
“This whole reunion thing was never my idea to begin with. Crae insisted it would be the final step to putting my past behind me once and for all. And I have to admit, the idea of flaunting my success in front of people who’d never seen past my parents and my reputation sounded appealing.”
“So why hide it?”
Ricky Lee grimaced. “Because literally the first thing that happened when I got back to town was being pulled over by a cop for no other reason than the way I looked. Not a damn thing had changed. I was still that skinny breed kid from the wrong side of the tracks, and people were still going to assume the worst about me without any facts.”
“Not everyone,” Alex protested, though he’d overheard too much scurrilous gossip, some of it to his face, to deny it completely.
“I didn’t give a damn what people thought back in high school, and I don’t give a damn now. I don’t owe them any explanation for who or what I am. They can think whatever the fuck they want.” Alex had to admire that level of confident indifference, even if he could never share it. “I don’t need people who hated me in high school fawning over me now just because I have money. Anyway, the only person in town I wanted to see again was you.”
“Then why lie to me?” Alex demanded. “I can maybe accept why you wouldn’t want to tell anyone else, but I was honest about what’s happened in my life since you left.”Even when it meant sharing how much of a failure I’ve been.
“I didn’t lie. I just didn’t offer the full truth.”
“That’s bullshit,” Alex spat. “We never had any secrets from each other as kids. If you’ve changed that much, I wonder if I ever knew you at all. Or did you think I’d be hitting you up for money too?” And somehow that hurt more than anything else.
“No!” Ricky Lee’s hair flew around his shoulders as he shook his head. “I never thought that for a minute. Look, I admit I fucked up, and I’m sorry. Can we forget about this and start again?”
“How can you be so sure I won’t say yes just because I know you’re rich now?”
“The fact that you didn’t know when you blew me on Saturday night, for one thing, and the fact that you’re arguing with me about it now, for another.” Ricky Lee leaned forward, and Alex had to resist the urge to move closer himself. “There’s still a connection between us, Alex, and I’d like to see where it goes, even if I have to settle for just your friendship.”
As much as he wanted to hold on to his anger, Alex couldn’t refuse, though he knew he couldn’t expect anything beyond a little more time with Ricky Lee.Whatever I can get for as long as I can get it, he reminded himself. “You’ve always had that.”
“Then maybe, as a friend, you can tell me where I can rent a car around here? Crae has let me know in no uncertain terms that if I intend to stay in town any longer, we need another mode of transportation besides the Harley.”
Refusing to ask how much longer Ricky Lee was planning to stay, Alex said instead, “Did you ride the Harley all the way from Portland?”
“I did,” Ricky Lee said with a grin. “The road trip was great, but we couldn’t both be out of touch for that long. Besides, Crae refused to hang on behind me for almost two thousand miles.” It sounded great to Alex, but he couldn’t help being glad that Crae didn’t agree. “So Crae flew into Oklahoma City, and we met up there. I would have rented a car then if I’d known we’d need one, but I thought I’d be leaving as soon as the reunion was over.”
Alex could only be glad that hadn’t happened. “Unfortunately the only place closer than Lawton to rent a car is through Tillman Motors.”
“Not that I want to give Odell Tillman any business, but I’d like to get something arranged as soon as possible. Could you drive me over to Tillman’s tomorrow morning? Crae’s going to be tied up on a call with a distributor in Singapore, and if I ride the Harley, I’ll have no way to get it and the car back here.”
Alex wasn’t eager himself to support giving Odell more money toward his bid on the library land, but he could hardly make Ricky Lee travel all the way to Lawton for something that wasn’t his fight. “Sure. I’m meeting Sam for breakfast after my run, but Tillman’s doesn’t open until ten anyway. Why don’t you meet me at the Danish Coffee Pot a little before ten, and we’ll go from there?”
“I appreciate it.”
Ricky Lee’s mention of Crae triggered the thought he’d pondered earlier. “Would you rather I call you Lee now?”
A scowl crossed Ricky Lee’s face. “That was another way of giving the finger to everyone in my past who thought ‘Ricky Lee’ was nothing but a half-breed juvie. I thought I’d never have anything to do with them again. But you can never really escape your past, can you? Anyway, you’re the one person I knew never felt that way. I like you still calling me Ricky Lee.”
The silence that fell between them this time was a little less awkward, but Alex wasn’t going to test his resolve to resist Ricky Lee’s seductive pull any longer. He rose from the chair and turned toward the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning, then.”
Ricky Lee stood as well. “Thanks for the pizza, and for giving me another chance to show you I’m not such a bad guy after all.”
As he headed home, Alex wasn’t sure he could agree. Ricky Lee was bad in all the best ways.
