Page 14 of Leading the Blind
“Yep.” He kissed Jason’s temple. “Dance with me a little more?”
“Until you’re tired of it.”
“Never that.” He swung Mini around. His bad knee could go fuck itself.
Chapter Four
Coke and Dillon showed up early the next morning. Jason liked that they’d gotten to the hotel before the rest, giving him the lay of the land before things got serious.
He felt like he’d done pretty fucking well yesterday. He hadn’t snarled at the fans in the lobby or fallen out of the elevator. Then there’d been the dancing—both the horizontal and vertical kind. That hadn’t been bad at all. Jason grinned, thinking how acrobatic Bax had been feeling.
Sometimes it was worth it, renting a hotel room where the whole of the world wasn’t on springs and tires.
Bax pinched his arm. “Gramps texted. Wanna go have second breakfast?” They’d had some coffee and granola bars in the room.
“Yeah. In the restaurant?” He could do coffee and a sausage biscuit pretty easy.
“Yep.” Bax took his hand. “Gramps says Dillon is buying.”
“Rock on.” The clown made more than any of them.Silly man.Dillon was a good guy, though, and God knew Gramps loved the son of a bitch like no one else.
“Yeah. I like when he buys. I can get steak and eggs.”
“Spoiled brat.” He got his shirt tucked in, his belt fastened. “I look okay?”
“Perfect. You’ve always been snazzy.” Bax kissed him, then mussed his hair. “Come on.”
“Listen to you.” Of course, that was exactly what he did these days. He listened.
“True. That’s why I mussed your hair. Too perfect and folks will look harder.”
“I’m fixin’ to put my hat on anyway.”
“Right.” Bax’s chuckle made him smile again. Someone just liked to fuck with him.
“Be good. So we go left out the door and down the hall a ways?”
“Yeah. I’ll poke you when we’re at the elevator. Count the steps?”
“Yeah.” They did that, and he could remember forty-five and right. “Forty-five, man.”
“Forty-five,” Bax echoed. It helped to say stuff out loud.
He nodded and found the down button, tracing the braille with his fingers. He wanted to know how to do that, how to read it. He wasn’t a big reader like Gramps, but he would love to be able to navigate the world better, and he missed Louis L’Amour. Surely he could learn, right? He wasn’t the brightest lightning bug in the swarm, but he wasn’t all that stupid.
The elevator dinged.Slow thing.
“You ready for this, Mini?”
“I’m ready. Let’s do this thing.”
Bax tugged him into the elevator, and he kept his eyes open determinedly, not wanting to get queasy.
They made it downstairs, hearing Gramps’ booming voice before the doors even opened.
“—shit, Marthy! I swear to God y’all are something else. You kids best be good or I’ll set Coop on you.”
“Coop is like a zombie rooster,” Dillon chimed in. “That’s serious shit.”
