He smirked and nodded.
“That’s a Beals woman thing,” he said. “They can all kick ass in the kitchen.”
I rolled my eyes, and he tossed the cigarette off into the gravel before looking at me again. I was about to challenge him on that last remark, but he spoke up first.
“Is she okay?” he asked again. “I mean, does she like living there?”
“She’s doing good,” I told him. “She’s awesome in school, and she’s looking to get a job on campus for a little extra money.”
“Good,” Brandon said with a nod. “Well, Nikki’s in the shower, and we’re both heading to bed. Sorry about earlier.”
I shrugged.
“Didn’t bother me,” I responded. “Tria might have freaked a little.”
“Hmm?” her sleepy voice came from my arms. “What?”
Brandon snickered.
“Come on, baby,” I said as I started to lift her off of me. “Let’s get you to couch.”
*****
The remainder of our trip was quick and thankfully uneventful. In the morning, once Nikki and Brandon finally emerged from the bedroom, we ate pancakes made by Tria and gathered our things to put into the travel bag and the Attaché of Attila the Hun before saying our goodbyes on the porch.
I slipped a couple cigs to Brandon when I shook his hand, and he carefully slipped them into a pocket when Nikki wasn’t looking.
“Thanks, dude.”
“No problem,” I said.
“I mean…for everything,” he went on. “I think you got a crap view of what we’re like here—saw us at our worst—but it’s not all like that. And ultimately…well, you got me thinking, you know? Set some things straight for me.”
“I call bullshit when I see it,” I replied.
“And when I needed it,” he said. “I’m grateful. Maybe you can come back again for a better reason sometime.”
The whole bro-gratitude thing made me feel weird, so I just shrugged and called to Tria. We needed to get on the road if we were going to make it far enough before Tria got too tired to ride any longer. She hugged Nikki, who also came over and insisted on hugging me as well. Tria wished them both luck in their baby-making endeavors, and we were off.
Nine hours later, we made it to a decent-sized city, and I spotted the familiar circling silver rings high up in the sky, advertising our best bet for accommodations. The routine was similar though
the manager at this place put Michael on speaker phone when my uncle made the request, and I ended up promising to call him next weekend to keep him from showing up at the door again.
It seemed to make Tria happy, so I agreed to it. Besides, Michael wasn’t a bad guy, and I had been pretty shitty to him. I probably owed it to him to at least call and tell him all was okay now. After the little talk, Tria gave me the remainder of the money—which was just about half of the rent we would need in about ten days—and I sighed heavily but took it and shoved it into my wallet.
The manager set us up in the nicest suite they had, though this one wasn’t quite as grand as the place in Portland had been. It still had a nice living area and separate bedroom and bath. The bed was huge compared to the couch we had shared two nights ago and really comfortable after the floor we had slept on last night. Tria was completely wigged out by Brandon and Nikki fucking on the couch and wouldn’t go near it again. I said something about how they had probably fucked on every piece of furniture in the house, so we had ended up on the floor.
“Oh, I can’t wait to sleep in that bed!” Tria exclaimed as she came out of the bathroom with her hair wrapped in a towel and wearing her favorite T-shirt and sweats.
“Lie down,” I said, “but don’t drop off too quick.”
She raised an eyebrow at me as she stepped across the floor and sat on the end of the mattress.
“You have plans, Mr. Teague?”
“I just spent an insane amount of mental energy not beating the shit out of your douchebag ex,” I told her. “I believe there was a certain…reward?”
“Hmm…” Tria reached up and tapped the tip of her finger against her chin. “I recall there was something…but the details are escaping me.”