Page 28 of My Cowboy Freedom
I’d followed that exchange while trying to look like I wasn’t listening in. When the boss was out of earshot I asked, “What was that all about?”
“Family stuff. Nothing to worry about.” Tad rinsed his mug. “I’m going to get the keys.”
“All right.”
I let the subject go then, but when we were in the Bronco heading for town, I asked about the boss’s sharp words. “What’s the boss’s problem with Dent’s?”
“Boss is still pissed off. He don’t want to buy at Dent’s no more because Ryder Dent is Andi’s husband, and the boss just found out Ryder’s gay.”
“That’s why he’s angry?”
“Wouldn’t you be angry if you found out your son-in-law is gay?”
“I guess it would depend on the situation.”
“In what situation would that be okay?” Tad asked, as though he really couldn’t think of one.
“Is that one of those questions you don’t need an answer to? Or—”
“Boss just found out, is all. He doesn’t know who his grandson’s daddy is anymore. That’ll make a man hit the roof.”
“So the boy isn’t Ryder’s?”
“Andi says no.”
That seemed clear enough. “She’d be in a position to know, right?”
Tad glared at me. “Everyone wondered, because Andi is Chandler’s daughter and Ryder ain’t all that. But she up and married him anyway.” He leaned over and lowered his voice. “Come to find out, it was just some bargain they made. And now he’s fallen for the new doc and the boss is all kinds of fit-to-be-tied because he wanted her to settle down and give him more grandbabies. Andi ain’t the type to settle down. Never was.”
“So it isn’t only the fact that Ryder’s gay that bothers him?” I crossed my fingers that I wouldn’t be getting my ass kicked anytime soon.
“No, it ain’t.”
Well, all right, then. Things were looking up.
Then Tad dashed my hopes. “But ain’t thatenough?”
