let alone

For starters Lon Love had never been in a car this small before. After all, he'd crashed his own pick up truck. Still no one wanted to believe it was an accident. But it was. An owl hit his windshield and that was just the beginning of that story.

He'd had so many starts and restarts in his reckless youth, it was hard to say where one ended and another began. But as luck would have it. What little luck there was left, here he was, and he wasn't in any hurry to see where this went with Ellie.

They'd already made a trip to Corpus Christie. She'd never seen the beach before. Honestly, he hadn't remembered the last time he'd seen it, either. It was new to the both of them. Her brother almost gave Lon his blessings. Almost.

"Don't you even think it." Ben told him. Her brother didn't have time for a vacation. Ben was a veterinarian, after all. And as of late, he'd given Lon some work on his ranch and even at his animal clinic. Lon liked hard work. It kept him grounded and that's what he needed until now.

"Think what?" Lon had smiled from ear to ear when Ben warned him about Ellie. Maybe she was a virgin of some sort. Well, he'd act like he thought so. All he did know, this was lot better than thinking about Sarah and wondering where she'd gone.

It all sort of unraveled with Sarah after Lon's Dad wanted him to have a paternity test after Charlie was born. It was a shock when he found out the truth. And now she'd packed up. Said she didn't need him, anymore. On the upside, Charlie wasn't his half brother's baby, either. But Lon missed the little tike just the same, and part of the time he wished she'd left without Charlie. Why was she doing this now? He loved Charlie, no matter what.

And he guessed that's why he'd moved back home. There was no home to go to anymore. Even then it hadn't quite panned out like he'd hoped. Somehow, everything he tried came out more as his suicidal tendencies.

Of course, he swore up and down he didn't have any. Although, he'd fallen off a roof, got kicked by a bull in a rodeo competition and almost struck by lightening. Somehow, he came through all that with hardly a scratch.

It still stumped him when his Dad actually said to Ellie right before they left for the beach. "Are you sure you want to be stuck with this good for nothing boy?"

She thought it was a joke. He was serious, and Lon knew it. If he fucked this up, he just better disappear.

And now she was asking about cats, he didn't think she meant mountain lion, cougars and bob cats. "I've seen my share," he shrugged. Lon took his drink and got in the car. It was her turn to drive. After all, she knew where they were going.