Page 105 of Until Landon
“You’d be willing to do that?”
He nods and takes my face in his hands.
“But when the job ends, we’re coming back to Smyrna.”
Tears glisten in his eyes. I respond with my own and add a quivering lip.
“For good? Oh my God. Really, Landon?”
He lifts my chin.
“There’s work here for me. Asher knows I’m good at what I do. He told me a while back, I’d have all the work I could handle. I can live at Dad’s, rent out the Memphis house and build equity. Everything I love is here.”
“I think you’re a genius.”
He smiles with a kind of pride and look of confidence.
“You know we can take whatever life throws at us. Right?”
I match his confident expression.
“Right.”
“Let’s always keep that attitude. We’re badasses, you and me. I mean come on, we’ve already dealt with a fucking heart attack, a serial rapist, a home robbery, and your kid being drugged and conned by two women.”
We speak at once.
“And it’s only been three months.”
Laughing, my hand reaches back and pulls the quilt to the front seat. I open my door, set a foot on the ground and look back to his smiling face.
“Wanna end your losing streak.”
His smile answers.
Out of my peripheral vision a shooting star streaks across the sky, marking the moment.
EPILOGUE
Landon
One Year Later
Hunter walks into Momma’s and Bing follows. There is a pale flush of embarrassment on his cheeks, and a big smile on his face, when he sees who came to celebrate the milestone. Well, some are here for him. The rest of the patrons are enjoying their own celebrations. Hot August nights in Smyrna bring out the thirst for Patron and partying.
The guys make their way through the crowd, while Country music plays. It makes for dancers and singers. If you can call it that. Most are shitty at both. People get lost in the song’s stories, like reading set to rhythm. They want to sing out their own struggles and loss or relive their love stories. Arms raise and legs move in their expressions.
“Happy twenty-first, big guy!”
Dad brings up a bottle of Johnny Walker from under the bar and holds it high. A cigar is attached with a ribbon.
“You’re a man now!”
“Thanks, Ronnie!”
A drink is poured as he sits his ass down. Bing slides onto the next stool and swivels like a kid does. I guess there is still a few drops of the boy.
“The first one’s on the house, kid.”
