Read Online Look Before You Jump by D. A. Bale - Free Book Online

echoed loudly in the stunned silence as we got in my car
and drove away before the rest of the Vernet family could raise any
objection.
    The gossiping gaggle could kiss my lily-white
ass.
    ***
    Years ago when Bobby and I would get together
to talk – yes, we did that too – we always made sure to finish off
the six-pack and get a good buzz going before he’d drop me near the
family gates to sneak into the house. About the only buzz I’d get
tonight would be when the need to pee hit. I always could hold my
liquor better than my soda pop.
    The wind slaked through the pasture grass,
carrying with it the faint scent of manure, while cows lowed in the
distance. My little car didn’t handle washboard dirt roads very
well, but the need to get away from crowds trumped the need to
protect my prized possession. Friends held more value than stuff –
at least for me.
    After finishing off a second can and
crunching it in his hands, Bobby broke the silence. “I owe you a
long overdue apology.”
    “For what?” I asked before taking a swig of
cola.
    “For what happened eleven years ago.”
    I stifled the memories of that F-150. So not
the time. So inappropriate in this situation, especially because
that’s what the remaining company of believers back at the Vernet
mansion probably thought when we’d left together.
    “Wasn’t like I was an unwilling participant
or anything,” I admitted.
    Bobby took a deep breath. “But then I went
away to college, leaving you to face the wrath alone.”
    “I survived.”
    “I was a coward who ran off with my tail
between my legs.”
    “Well, I wouldn’t call it a tail
exactly.”
    His head jerked my direction so fast, I
thought Bobby would end up with whiplash. It felt like the whole
countryside sucked in a collective gasp and held it until laughter
burst from his lips. It was good to hear the deep and rumbling
guffaw. Lord knows there’d been little to be jovial about the last
few days.
    “Did you know,” I continued, “that my father
even contemplated bringing statutory rape charges against you?”
    That shut him up right quick. “You
serious?”
    I nodded. “But that threat dissipated pretty
quick after I reminded him about a certain stack of photos.”
    My opinion of the sperm donor reached its
how-low-can-you-go, point-of-no-return just before my fourteenth
birthday. The envelope of pictures I’d discovered beneath a loose
plank in the attic of the Galveston family vacation home soon
taught me the real meaning of the phrase business trip . In
private my father had always treated me and my mom with unveiled
contempt like the heartless bastard he is. But that day I learned
the graphic truth about his secret life – and the power of a named
and dated Polaroid.
    “Still using blackmail against the old man,
are we?” Bobby asked.
    “Nah. Moving out on my own works better...for
both of us. Keeps at bay the possibility of the cops cleaning up a
double homicide.”
    We both flinched. See, there’s this disease I
have commonly known around these parts as foot-in-mouth disease. My
taste for shoe leather and toe jam hadn’t improved with time or
age.
    “Poor choice of words,” I said. “I’m so
sorry.”
    Warmth enveloped my hand as his covered mine.
“It’s okay.”
    Now it was my turn to choke up as Bobby held
my hand and laid back against the windshield to stare into the sky.
The Corvette hood didn’t hold us as well as his truck bed had, but
it didn’t stop us from again sharing the experience of watching the
horizon turn from yellow to orange, then pink to periwinkle. The
only place you could really enjoy the expanse of a Texas sunset was
outside the metropolis that was Dallas. Tonight we’d had to drive a
lot farther than we used to in order to escape the suburban
sprawl.
    A deep sigh before Bobby interrupted the
opening strains of the cricket chorus. “This is what I missed most
about Texas.”
    “The sunsets?”
    “Mm-hmm. The sky just goes on and on
forever.”