Texas Pride

Austin scheduled a third private jet to fly them from Arizona to Texas after they got Cara safely admitted into the rehab facility. This time, they flew into Houston, and went straight from the plane to the waiting car. They drove the five hours to Austin’s farm by themselves. Austin had promised to be home twenty-four hours ago. He could only imagine what Kitt let himself believe about him not returning on time.

Last night, or early that morning, Austin had stayed on the phone for close to two hours, listening to Kitt breathe as he slept. He’d kicked back, just thinking about what Kitt looked like while he slept, and the sweet sounding apology he gave right before he fell asleep. It was at those moments when Kitt was tired, Austin found he fully let his guard down. Those were the best moments of them all. Austin had hung up when he heard Kitt’s alarm sounding off. He didn’t want to be caught doing something as girly as listening to the object of his desire sleep. That would just never hold weight in keeping his mancard strong and in good standing.

Austin drove most of the way home with nothing more on his mind than Kitt. Seth was zero company. He was on his smart phone doing business or writing messages to Cara the entire way back. Austin could have used the distraction. After several days of contemplating Kitt’s on again, off again attitude, Austin had come to the conclusion he wasn’t quite sure where he stood. It seemed so easy for Kitt to distance himself, and that scared the hell out of him. When they were together, Austin really felt like they were together, but when they were apart, it was like Austin didn’t exist to Kitt at all.

As he drove, his thoughts strayed to a memory of Kitt’s dad, something from his youth. It was wrong to think so badly of a dead man, but Austin hated the stories Kitt would tell. This one faded memory wouldn’t fully form in his mind, and he reached for his phone to call his father.

“Dad, it’s Austin,” he said on the simple yell’ow his father gave.

“I know, Son. Caller ID’s a great new tool.” His dad chuckled at his own joke.

“Listen, I won’t keep you, but do you remember the story with the Kelly’s when I was younger?”

“Okay Son, that’s vague even for you… There were many Kelly stories. He was always stirrin’ something up,” his dad answered back.

“I can’t really remember. It was the one with the ice cream and Kitt,” Austin said trying to dig into the recesses of his mind.

“Yeah, that’s a bad one. I don’t know how he didn’t ruin that boy. I heard the Kelly boy went off to college and did alright for himself. We all thought he’d turn out to be a complete wreck with a father like his.”

“He isn’t at all. He’s a good man, very respected down here from what I can tell.” Funny how the need to defend Kitt superseded the need to know whatever memory his mind tried to come up with.

“Well, that’s a total surprise. Kitt, right? Kitt had a lot against him growin’ up,” Austin’s dad said.

“Tell me the story I’m thinking about.” Austin tried to speed his father up.

“Let’s see…Mr. Kelly, none of us were allowed to call him anything other than Mr. Kelly. He was so full of himself, which was nothin’ but full of shit. He’d be so proud to take his son out and discipline him in front of everyone. Said it made him a man, and we needed to learn from him. It was like he was tryin’ to teach us how to raise our own children. At least, that’s what your mom always thought. This one time, he bought Kitt an ice cream and himself lunch. He sat the ice cream in front of Kitt, who couldn’t have been older than five. So, Mr. Kelly ate his lunch. Every time Kitt went for that ice cream, he got smacked hard, and then Mr. Kelly would encourage Kitt again to eat the ice cream. It went on like this for the entire lunch. The kid never got the ice cream, but got beat up pretty bad. When he started cryin’, he got spanked in front of everyone for embarrassing Mr. Kelly and sent to the truck. You know back then you didn’t get in the way of a parent disciplinin’ his child, but if I remember correctly, several of the mom’s in the area still called the sheriff that day.”

“That’s how he was raised his whole life?” Austin asked.

“Yeah, the best I remember. It didn’t matter what the kid did or thought, he was always wrong, and Mr. Kelly had a temper. His dad would whip him wherever they were and Kitt took it. One time on the football field, Mr. Kelly got mad at a play Kitt called. He stormed out on to that field, jerkin’ Kitt around by the face mask until he shoved the boy down on his knees right there in the middle of the field, in front of everyone. He kicked him and stormed off, tellin’ the coach to pull Kitt if they wanted to win. It wasn’t right.”

“Kitt’s a good guy,” Austin said quietly. His heart did more than hurt for the little boy and now the grown man. Kitt deserved so much better than he got.

“You’ve seen him?”

“Yeah. What happened to his mom?” Austin had always wondered why she was never talked about.

“Mr. Kelly married some city girl. She came down to the ranch. It lasted about two years before she was gone. Young and pretty, but not a dime to her name. She couldn’t stand up against Kelly. He kept the boy, she left. As far as I know, it broke all contact between them.”

Austin listened to his dad and drove thinking it all over. It helped explain a lot.

“Dad, I’m gonna buy a couple of quarter horses. I might need them to come up to you,” Austin said.