Page 11 of Leading the Blind
He sucked in a deep breath, hoping it didn’t show. He thought they were doing a whole season down here…
Wasn’t that the plan? Had Jase been planning shit without him?
He bit his tongue. Bax would jump Jason in the elevator.
“Good deal. You’re a natural. I always put money on you when you ride.” The old man was sharp, eyes watching everything.
“Thank you, sir. You ready to take the bags up, Bax? AJ wants to buy us that beer.”
“Nice meeting you,” Bax told the others. “Brian, see you in a bit.”
“I’ll holler and come up.”
Jason stood, nodded, and grabbed the bags.
Bax moved in, he hoped unobtrusively, to help guide Jason on the way to the elevators.
“Did I do okay?” Jase whispered.
“You did.” That was the truth. Jason had rocked it.
Jason beamed at him, and the elevator dinged open. Jason waited until the doors opened, tilting his head as he listened. Bax let Jason go through, thankful no one else was with them, and Jason seemed confident as hell, heading into the elevator.
The door slid closed, though, and Jason sighed. “That was good, right?”
“Uh-huh. You really planning to level up?”
“I think I’m going to have to try soon. I can’t keep fooling folks for years. I’m not there yet, though.”
“No.” That was true enough, he supposed. He needed to talk to Coke.
“We need to be able to get help, Bax. You know? We have to, so that I can be with you, where I’m worth something.”
What?“You’re everything to me.” He guessed he got it, though. A man had his pride.
“I know, but you didn’t take me to raise. I want you to be able to…have fun. I want us to be able to relax together.”
“Okay. I can get that, Mini. Not to mention, you win a few and Ace Porter will call.”
Jason rolled his eyes, which Bax had to admit he’d guessed by the eyebrows, because he couldn’t tell in the dark glasses. “Yeah. Gramps says it’s already come up a couple of times.”
“Shit.” Okay, so they had to step up the plan. They could do this.
The elevator beeped and they headed out. There were people in the hall, talking loudly, and Jason’s steps faltered.
“Excuse us.” Bax let Jason focus on his voice, which made it easier to track, and thank God, Jason nodded and followed. “We’re in six-o-four, man. I hope that’s near the ice machine.”
“Me, too. I hate to trek for an hour.”
“Jason! Hey.” The voice was familiar, but Bax had to turn to look to see who. Bonner. The kid had helped Coke out a lot back when he’d broke his neck.Right.
Jason tilted his head. “Hey, Bonner?”
“Yeah. How goes it? I haven’t seen your ass in a month of Sundays.”
“I been working my way back up.”
“Good deal. We’ve missed you. You, too, Andy.”
