Turn and Burn (Blacktop Cowboys 5)

“Missed you too, boy.” He patted him on the back. “Would you like a glass of the whiskey I brought back from Ireland?”

“Of course. And don’t be stingy with it.”

Drinks in hand, they settled in the living room, Fletch on the couch, his dad in the easy chair.

“Tell me all about it.”

“Well, we started out in London.” He talked for the next hour, and had Fletch laughing and groaning at some of his senior group experiences.

“Did you take pictures?”

“Not a damn one. Couldn’t figure out how to use the camera and I had too much pride to ask for help. Besides, what would I do with pictures anyway? Wallpaper the bathroom?”

He chuckled. “Good point.”

“Now you wanna tell me how you spent six weeks of vacation time?”

“I stayed at the Split Rock and did some research for Renner Jackson on a project he has in mind. Caught up on my reading. Wrote and submitted a paper to a veterinary journal.”

“You worked the entire time?”

Fletch shook his head. “I had plenty of downtime.”

His dad’s eyes narrowed. “What else? And please tell me you didn’t take a single animal call while you were on vacation.”

“Dad—”

“Dammit, boy, what is wrong with you? You were given a gift and a chance and you—”

“Fell in love, all right? I fell in love with the most perfect, beautiful, funny, sexy woman on earth and there’s not a goddamned thing I can do to stop her from leaving me.” He drained his drink and walked to the kitchen for a refill.

Fletch hadn’t meant to say any of that. He’d been away from Tanna less than four hours and he was already moping.

A heavy hand clapped him on the back. “How about if we start this conversation over?”

He nodded.

His dad refilled his own glass. “This woman. She’s the one you told me about before I left?”

“Yeah. The last two months have been the best of my life.” Fletch talked. And talked some more. He hadn’t realized how much he’d needed someone to listen to him. He’d always had Eli as his sounding board. But since Eli was also counseling Tanna, he didn’t feel comfortable being so brutally honest about her with him. His other guy friends, well, this wasn’t the sort of shit he shared with anyone besides his dad.

“She sounds wonderful. Do I get to meet her?”

“I asked her last night and she said yes, but only if you’re as good-lookin’ and charming as me.”

His dad laughed. “I like her already. Got a day or night in mind?”

“That’s the thing. I go back to the unpredictable schedule this week. I could set something up, but guaranteed if I do, I’ll be called to some emergency in Rock Springs.”

“Have you considered that maybe your job might be one thing that’s holding her back from making a commitment to you?”

“Of course. But it’s not like I’m independently wealthy and can quit.”

“No. But you do have options. Maybe it’s time you seriously looked into them.” He held up his hand to quell Fletch’s protest. “Having the life you want is about sacrifices.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I know you think I’m a rambling old man—”

“Dad, I do not think that. Not at all.”

“Then listen up. Back in my day . . .” He grinned. “Kidding. I will say from the time I was a kid I wanted to be an oil rigger. My folks insisted I get an education first so I took business classes for two years and earned an associate’s degree. Then directly after graduation I started working in the oil fields in the Southwest as a roughneck, not a pansy-assed suit and tie management guy.”

Fletch raised an eyebrow. “So how’d you end up doin’ exactly that?”

“Because of you. After your birth, it was obvious Darla wouldn’t take to being a mother. I had a child who needed at least one stable parent. Instead of working three weeks on at a remote location and one week off at home, I chose the eight to five, Monday through Friday job.” His dad looked at him. “You think I wanted to be management? You think it was easy showing up at the job sites questioning my friends about labor cost and accident ratios after we’d been coworkers for years? No. But I had no choice except to take a different position in the company with less money to start out, but more stability. Would I trade those years for a fatter bank account right now? Not on your life. That change was good for me. Good for my life because I got to spend it raising you. So don’t automatically discount a change. Maybe it’s time.”

In the last couple of weeks, working normal hours with Tobin and having some freedom, Fletch had been thinking along those same lines. So he wasn’t as averse to change as he’d once been. And since his dad had brought this up, it was the perfect time to turn this back on him. “So are you mentioning this because there’ll be changes in your life?”

His dad frowned. “What?”

“You. And Cora. Are you two dating? Is there a chance you’ll be moving in together?”

“No. I like Cora. We had a great time on the trip, but we’re both too old, too set in our ways, and too used to living alone to ever combine households. Our independence is important to both of us.” He shook his finger. “You, on the other hand, are young. There’s a woman in your life now. That should play into any decision you make.”