Page 54 of Leading the Blind
That was a little too silly to say out loud, but he meant it.
Bax patted his leg, then went back to singing, and he didn’t exactly count the minutes, but he figured it was another thirty or so before Bax turned on the GPS, muttering about weird goat path roads.
“You love an old dirt road.”Isn’t that a song?
“I do, but not when I’m trying to find a place for the first time,” Bax bitched.
“No stress. Are we late?”
“Nah. We’ll be fifteen minutes early, if’n I can find it on the first try.”
“You’ll do it.” Bax was the king of finding hotels and arenas and weird-assed things in the middle of nowhere. It was a skill.
Thank goodness, or he’d never go anywhere.
Jason snorted. This was the age of Uber. He was fine.
Shit, he was more than fine. He had managed to fool the world into thinking he was just a grumpy shit. Which, okay, he always had been.Thank God for that now, huh?He’d never been one to do the autograph events.
“You’re bouncing again, Mini. It’s gonna be okay.”
“Not scared. Excited.” Energy just buzzed through him. He knew they weren’t going to find the perfect house on the first try, but they were getting to do their damndest.
“Ah. Hold on.” Bax turned suddenly, and one arm came out across Jason’s chest. “Sorry. This should be the road it’s on. At the end. Nice. Not much else out here.”
“Oh, good deal.” That was one of the things he and Bax both needed. They weren’t city folks.
Hell, they weren’t even suburban folks.
“I wonder if more of the land would be available—just a few more acres.” They slowed, turned again and Bax parked. “Looks like she’s here, so maybe we can just go on in.”
“Okay. I— How do we do this, Bax? Without her finding out about my eyes?” He was suddenly scared of jumping.
“Get your sunglasses on. I’ll give you all the visual clues, and we tell her you’re sensitive to light due to a head injury. She’s a Texan, so God knows she should understand bull riding.” Bax sounded so certain, so he took a deep breath and nodded.
“Right. I hadn’t even worried about it, and…” Pure, stupid panic. He grabbed his glasses and put them on. “Let’s go find us a home, Andy Baxter.”
Chapter Fourteen
“So, let me know if y’all need me, and I’ll just let you wander.”
Bax smiled and nodded at the real estate lady, glad she was fixing to leave them alone. Jason was tense next to him, jaw set, because she’d just gone on and on about all the features of the house, and they were still standing in the big front room.
It was big and empty, all tile and wood everywhere. The kitchen was decent-sized enough, with one of them island deals to sit at, along with room for a kitchen table, which was good.
“Where do you want to start, Mini?” he asked.
“Show me what’s what?”
“Well, this is the front room.” He glanced at Monica, who had stepped outside to the decking and was on her phone. “It’s got just a few pieces of stuff in it right now. What do they call it? Staged? But you could have a dance in here.” Hell, their voices echoed.
“Is it nice?”
“Normal, not fancy like a hotel lobby. It looks like a house, somewhere you could live.” Bax liked it. It was a place where there’d been water and sand and wind. “The wholedamn downstairs has this wraparound decking with these huge windows and screens and fans. That’s nice as hell.”
“Oh, that’s cool. We’ll use that.”
“Hell, yeah.” He took Jason by the arm. “Kitchen is open concept at the end of this room. There’s a big island then a U-shape.” He led Jason down there, let him feel his way around, starting at a huge pantry cupboard, then the stove, a big double sink, counter space and ending on the other side with the fridge.
