Page 61 of Wandering in Darkness
“I’m not looking to get laid, thank you very much.”
“Bet I’ve had sex since you have.”
Grayson is laughing up a storm back there and it makes me want to push him out of the golf cart. I should have known better than to let him around Arthur.
“Did you two even date before you got to the post-marriage part of your relationship? You know you’re supposed to at least wait until after the wedding to start the bickering.”
“We kissed a couple of times. Does that count?” Grayson asks.
I turn my head to give him a look. “Don’t you dare join in on this.”
Grayson is all smiles. “Of course not.”
I glower at them both. “None of this shit is happening, you hear me?”
Arthur nods. “I hear ya yapping, but I’ve known you long enough to not listen. And did you forget that I’m mad at you?”
“I thought we were over that.”
“Not in the slightest. You sicced my son on me, so I’m going to be mad at you until the day I die. He played it sweet for a couple of days. I saw the way he’d caress anything in my house worth any money. He’d say things like, ‘Oh, I’d love this. And this would look fantastic in my house,’ as though he was just waiting for me to croak! That was until I showed him my will. He knows I have money but he’s getting none of it. Good test to see if he was there for the money or for me. Clearly, it was the money.”
“What are you going to do? Burn it all in front of him and your ex-wife as you leave this world?” I tease.
“Don’t even act like you don’t know you get it all.”
I freeze before I slowly look over at Arthur. “What do you mean I get it all? I don’t get any of it.”
“Why the hell not? You’ve been a better kid to me than my own kids ever have.”
“Have I? I left you when you needed me the most.”
“Needed you the most? You think I let a little cancer get me down? I’m in perfect health now, thank you very much. That’s not to say that I’m not pissed at you. I’m plenty pissed at you.”
“You were born pissed at me.”
“Nah, I was born mad at you. I became pissed at you.”
I stop the golf cart out in the middle of the field and he stuffs the rifle in my hands. I carry it out and set up his chair and then the spotting scope in front of it just like the old days. He used to be able to scout things out from on the ground behind me, but as he got older, a chair made it easier for him.
“I made my shithead of a son move the targets for when you came next,” he says.
“Yeah?” I ask, feeling oddly emotional that he was so convinced I was coming back and wanted me to come back so badly.
“Get your ass in position.”
“I’m getting,” I say as I set my rifle up and lie on the ground in front of him, legs spread.
“I like being close enough I can kick him in the balls if he gets it wrong,” Arthur comments, reminding me why I hate having my legs spread out so he can be close enough to me.
“This is why he’s so damn good with a gun? You kicked him in the balls until he got it right?” Grayson asks.
I don’t have to be looking at Arthur to know that he’s grinning up a storm. “Sure as fuck did.”
“You were in the military?” Grayson asks curiously.
“Sure was.”
“Were you a spotter?”
