Free Riding and Regrets by Bailey Bradford Page A

for sure, right? And with Frankie doing what he did, you could use a little break, and it’ll be great practice for—”
    Jody got it then, the conversation from days ago with Carlos and Troy talking about Will wanting kids. “You wanna use Prissy as a trial run?”
    “Don’t sound so grumpy.” Will bounced on his toes. “You know what I mean, and it’s not exactly the same thing, because we’d maybe probably possibly be starting from the beginning with ours, like completely newborn, I mean.” Will pointed at him. “You aren’t going to be all hovery-smothery over her, are you? You’re going to share all of that love and let us poor guys have a god-daughter to spoil, right?”
    Jody was quickly finding himself backed into a corner, and he wasn’t sure what to do about it. “But she needs stability, and she just got her whole life shuffled around on her. Shouldn’t I be here? All the time, at least for a while?”
    Will tapped a finger against his bottom lip and hummed. “Well, I tell you what. I don’t know the answer to that, for sure, and she is in daycare already. However, I don’t think it’s a bad thing to have plenty of people for a child to lean on and trust in. The more love she gets from the adults in her life, surely the better adjusted she’ll be? Right?”
    “I think so.” Jody was going to get online and buy every good parenting book he could afford. “I miss her too, when she has to go to daycare. I didn’t know I would. I mean, she hasn’t been in my life but a little over a week, and already I… I love that kid. I’d do anything for her.”
    “Aw, you are such a good daddy.” Will hugged him then, a quick action that was over almost as soon as it had begun. “You need time to be a young man, too, though. Why don’t we do this. See if Noel is available tonight. Y’all come over here for dinner with Prissy, and hang out for a while. When she’s ready for bed, we’ll put her down on the couch and Carlos, Troy and I will stay with her while you two go do…things.” Will smirked at him and Jody heard the unspoken ‘very dirty things’ in his own mind.
    He gulped.
    “Sounds like a brilliant plan,” Will said before patting him on the back. “Go eat while I tell the guys.”
    “He can make your head spin, huh?”
    Jody glanced over at Ian, Drake’s guy. Ian had Prissy on one knee and was holding her juice cup while she ate.
    “I— Yeah, he can.” Jody sat down and thanked Drake for the platter of food that was set in front of him. “I don’t even know if I want to ask Noel out and all, but I’m pretty sure Will is going to get his way.”
    Ian snorted and Drake laughed. Prissy reached out for Jody. “Daddy, take me.”
    “Why don’t you let Daddy eat first, honey?” Drake asked. He held his arms out to Prissy. “If you’re done, you can help me set the food out for the cowboys. They’ll be here any minute now.”
    “Oh, help!” Prissy squirmed and Ian set her down. “I wanna help.”
    “Is that okay with you, Jody?” Drake asked.
    Jody bobbed his head since he had a mouthful of pancakes he was chewing on. Prissy blew him a kiss then took Drake’s hand.
    Ian stood up. “Think I’ll help too. Enjoy your breakfast, Jody.”
    Everyone was so much friendlier to him now, Jody mused as he ate. Was it because of Prissy, or because of him? It didn’t take a whole lot of thinking on it to answer the question. Jody had been pouting since he’d made the snarky comment about Ramsey. He’d got put on shit duty for it, which was fine in retrospect. Cowhands living in the same quarters all needed to get along, and Jody being a jealous little bitch hadn’t been conducive to that.
    Then he’d done the pouting thing, and the hiding from his guilt thing, and Prissy had come along. He’d done a lot of growing up in a very short time, but he still had a hell of a long way to go.
    “Hey, Jody, how’s everything going?”
    Jody waved at Carlos then was surprised when