Baby, it's Cold by Josh Lanyon

Author:Josh Lanyon [Lanyon, Josh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-937909-76-5
Publisher: JustJoshin Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2014-12-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Four

“God damn it.” Louis sounded genuinely pissed off.

“No sweat,” Rocky said to him. “We got everything we need right here. You were going to spend the night anyway.”

You were going to spend the night anyway.

That answered that. Louis looked meaningfully at me.

I said, “I wasn’t. And now I’ve got to drive through a blizzard.”

“That’s easy too,” Rocky said. “You’re not driving.”

I put the bowls down on the table. “Yeah, I most certainly am. I’ve got to go.”

“That would be really dumb, Jesse. You don’t know the road, you’ve never driven in snow, and you’ve had a few drinks.”

“I can’t stay here tonight,” I said a little desperately.

“Why not? There’s plenty of room. There sure as hell is plenty of food. Plenty of booze.” He shrugged. “Grab a dish and let’s eat.”

For Rocky it was that simple. We’re all friends. Let’s eat. But Louis was looking at me with an expression that suggested if he’d been doing the cooking, I’d never live to see morning. Which, as it turned out, I understood pretty well. I could even sympathize with Louis a little because I had been there and done that and broken up with Rocky over it. Louis was actually talking to the right guy. I got it. I’d watched jealousy destroy my parents’ marriage and yet I’d turned around and made all the same mistakes in my relationship with Rocky.

“Thanks. I appreciate it,” I said. “But really. I’ve got to go. If I leave now I can still get back in time for Midnight Mass.”

“He’s right,” Louis said. “If he goes now, he’ll make it to mass.”

“Right,” I said. “If I go now I can get there in plenty of time.”

“When was the last time you went to mass?” Rocky demanded.

“I don’t know. That’s not the point.”

Rocky said irritably, “Yes, it is. What the hell is with the sudden religious mania? Say an extra prayer tonight. Jesus will forgive you.”

“You’re such an ass, Senate.”

Rocky’s face darkened, took on a piratical cast. “No, you know who’s an ass? The guy who wants to flounce out of here and throw himself off the mountain because he feels stupid for ever getting into such a ridiculous situation.”

He was sort of kidding, and sort of not kidding. He was always blunt and we’d been zinging each other all afternoon—hell, all our lives—so why that flicked me on the raw, I don’t know. But suddenly I was boiling mad.

“Oh fuck you very much. I was trying to do something nice here.”

“Was that what it was, Jesse?” The look of superiority on Rocky’s face made me want to sock him.

Louis said, “If Jesse wants to leave, I don’t know why you don’t let him leave while it’s still safe.”

“Because it’s not safe, Louis!”

Louis looked hurt at Rocky’s roar. Hurt and startled.

“Neither of you can leave here tonight. You don’t know the roads and even if you did, only a fool would try driving through that unless it was an emergency.”

I said, “As far as I’m concerned it’s an emergency.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.