Toben looked at him. “Keeping tabs on me?”
Deacon shook his head. “Hell, no. That’d be a full-time job.”
They drove in silence, the rain falling in hard sheets by the time they were on the highway. The rain kicked up, requiring them to pull off onto the wide shoulder of the road and wait. Deacon turned o
ff the windshield wipers and found a weather report on the radio.
The radio announcer’s voice filled the truck cabin. “Expect hail and heavy rains on and off through the rest of the morning, then things will warm up into the triple digits. For now, batten down the hatches and hold on tight—things are going to get bumpy.”
“Well, this sucks,” Deacon said, leaning forward to peer out the front windshield. “Not gonna make Archer happy.” He turned the engine off, sighing heavily.
“Even he can’t control the weather.” Toben chuckled.
Deacon laughed, too, then tilted his seat back and pushed his hat down over his face.
“Sleeping?” Toben asked.
“Thinking about it.” His voice was muffled under his hat.
“I kissed her,” he said. “This morning.”
Deacon lifted his hat. “That where you slept last night?”
“In a guest bed, alone,” Toben elaborated.
Deacon grinned. “So you’re not mad at her anymore?”
Toben looked at his lock screen. It was a picture from last night: Rowdy with ice cream on the tip of his nose, smiling like crazy. And in the background was Poppy. “No.”
“You ever been faithful?” Deacon asked.
Toben glared at him. “Never had someone to be faithful to.”
Deacon pushed his hat back, leveling him with a hard stare. “Now you do?”
Toben respected Deacon. He was the sort of man who lived by his word and didn’t tolerate any shit. The sort of man Toben wanted to be. For Rowdy. For himself. And, if there was even the slightest chance, for Poppy. “Now I do,” he said.
Deacon grinned. “Take a lesson from Fester, then.”
Toben frowned.
“He’s not biting people and causing drama anymore. Making his little lady happy makes him happy. Simple.” Deacon yawned.
Toben nodded.
“This is gonna be fun to watch.”
Toben scowled at his cousin. It wasn’t going to be simple, but nothing worth getting was ever easy. To Toben, there was nothing worth getting more than his family.
Chapter Nine
Over the last two days, Toben had sent them pictures. Funny captions, he and his cousin Deacon making all sorts of silly faces, and some incredible scenery. When her phone went off, all three kids gathered to see what he’d sent next.
A picture of Deacon asleep in the driver’s seat read “Wishing I’d offered to drive.” Another of Toben and Deacon standing in front of the painted hills in West Texas said “Nature’s beauty at its finest. And the hills are nice, too.” The picture of Toben at the end of a lasso, being dragged in a cloud of dirt, read “Toben at work.” Followed by one of Deacon, sitting in the shade dozing. “Deacon at work.”
The last picture he’d sent was thirty minutes ago. A picture of Toben. His jaw was stubbled and his eyes were red rimmed with dark circles. He was leaning out the passenger window, taking a picture of himself with the Boone Refuge sign in the background.
“He’s back,” Otis said.