Landon almost said no when Jay invited him out, but the man had seemed to genuinely want a friend to hang out with, though Landon couldn’t figure out why Jay had thought of him. What could it hurt, though? Aside from his two best friends he only got to see sparingly, Landon didn’t exactly have a burgeoning social life. His social life lacked even more when he stuck around his hometown for a while. What would one football game hurt?
He could put aside his lusty bullshit and ease two people’s need for friendship by being a fucking adult and going for a beer and football. That seemed much more fulfilling than another weekend of bitchy twinks at the gay bar he frequented in Jackson anyways. He was too damned old and lived a totally different life than the other twenty-somethings he met there.
Landon noticed Jay immediately after walking into Woody’s. Woody’s was an institution locally. A country grill and bar where you ate catfish and threw peanut hulls on the floor seemed to sum up the local color quite well.
“What’s up?” Landon asked as he plopped down in the booth with Jay.
Jay smiled his kind smile and Landon was glad he’d decided to take the man up on his offer. He really was a nice guy. He couldn’t imagine how shitty it must be to be surrounded by all the guys who didn’t exactly want to party with the boss man, no matter how well they knew him. Landon welcomed that social divide, while Jay was probably suffering because of it since he seemed to spend all his time working or with his kids.
“Not much, man.” Jay pulled a bottle of Bud Light from the bucket of beer he’d ordered and offered it to Landon. Landon accepted it with a thanks. “Just in time. I ordered some wings and cheese sticks just now.”
“Perfect.” Landon was famished. Even his first pull of the beer had him feeling buzzy, so he needed some food pronto. “Thanks for inviting me. I really was lookin’ at another night of staring at four walls.”
“Not much to do around here.”
Landon snorted. You have no idea. “My friends live in Jackson now, but our schedules don’t exactly line up all the time. Plus, it gets expensive fueling up my truck for a trip down once a week.”
“I imagine so. What do y’all get up to down there?” Jay asked the question innocently enough, Landon would feel like an asshole not to answer. But he couldn’t exactly say “oh I go get my dick sucked by college boys so I don’t horn up every time I’m around you.”
“Oh, not much. Hit the bars. More interesting people than Buddy’s. I’m sure you’ve noticed the guys don’t exactly want us to hang out with ‘em anyways, so me showing up in Grenada wouldn’t thrill ‘em.”
Jay smiled sympathetically. “Older crowd there. Hell, that crowd is too old for me.”
“You’re right about that.”
“Anyways, thank you for coming out tonight. Too many nights being dad. Nice to get out for a beer with a buddy. Been a while.”
“I bet. Must be hard, just you.”
“Nah. It’s not so bad. Beths and I have a pretty good set-up, and her parents help out a lot now that I’m back home.”
Landon wasn’t sure what made him say it, but he suddenly had the urge. “Sorry to hear about you and Bethany splitting up. Good y’all are still friends, though.”
Jay shrugged again. “It just made sense. It wasn’t a bad break up. Just grew up and grew apart.”
“Well, it’s nice of you to let her go off to school like you did.”
“Nothin’ nice about it. It was the right thing. She’s gonna be able to provide a better life for herself and the kids. She’s got a damn good job now. After she’s done with her first year, she’ll come back to be with the kids again.”
There. Settled. She’d come back and it’d be just like the oldtimers said, Jay and Bethany would get back together. Nothing could make Landon kill his silly crush on the damn straight man like cold, hard reality. Not that there had been a chance before, anyhow.
“Okay, well that’s a heavy subject.”
“Oh. Sorry, man. Just been meaning to mention it since you came back, but didn’t think it’d be right to bring it up at the office.”