“Wrong answer again. Did you two have a thing and I didn’t know it? I don’t remember her looking like that when she did live here, that’s for sure.”
I blow out a long breath and look back at Benny. He’s been a ranch hand on our land for as long as I can remember. He’s practically a second dad to me.
“When I went to pick up Caleb in Texas. I ran into her at a bar, except I didn’t know who she was.”
“She didn’t tell you her name?”
“It was stupid…I don’t know, but when she came over to me at the bar, I didn’t recognize her, and then I introduced myself with the wrong name. Everything felt like it was imploding on me. I didn’t think I was going to be able to raise Caleb on my own and…I can think of a hundred reasons why I lied, but it just happened. Turns out, she and her friends were playing a game where they were pretending to be someone else, too. We had this incredible night, and when I told her my real name, she told me who she was and then ran out of the room like it was on fire.”
“Why?”
I snort and shake my head. “I can assume because I’m a Callahan, and she’s a bishop. She probably figured her daddy would disown her if she brought me home to meet him. I was too shocked to say anything, and she left. I even reached out and tried to talk to her on social media, and she blocked me.”
“Ouch.”
“It didn’t warrant that grudge she still seems to be holding onto.”
“Newsflash: you were definitely holding a grudge, too.”
“No, I was—”
“Don’t bullshit a bullshitter, son,” he laughs. “You two need to get over whatever is going on, though, because just from the little I saw, I think she’s the answer to our problem.”
He walks off, and I stand there dumbly, nodding.
She’s still the daughter of Frank Bishop, and I’m not about to go down that path willingly.
Dad will probably call the law if he realizes she’s on the property.
The ranch hands have everything taken care of out here. I walk inside the house and go straight into my office. I start up the desktop computer and sit there for a few moments. I’ve gotan entire Google Drive full of pertinent research, case studies, and possible solutions to this epidemic.
It’s like nothing we’ve ever seen before as far as the symptoms and how quickly it’s spreading. We’ve been through this enough to know how to contain and treat it, but our normal measures don’t seem to be working.
Was she asking if I was married because she was checking if I was single?
Damn it, it doesn’t matter.
She’s a self-righteous, judgmental woman who has no loyalty. She proved that already. She’s not going to stick around here either, and I’m not about to get close to someone who’ll head back to their precious city and turn their back on their family and legacy.
I don’t need another woman abandoning Caleb.
Nah, Sutton Bishop isn’t someone I want in my life.
I guess that means I should dig into this research even harder. The sooner I get rid of her, the better.
I start typing in the search bar, trying to find more research done regarding the symptoms my cattle are having. It’s like going down the rabbit hole as I get bounced from one article to the next. It’s a long process, hence why I haven’t been sleeping.
By the time I look up to stretch, it’s already dark outside. I walk out into the living room to see Caleb napping on the couch. I walk out onto the porch for some fresh air.
My brain is buzzing with everything I found, but it doesn’t feel like I’m any closer to an answer. Despite what Sutton alluded to, I have a pretty controlled area for the cattle in the pasture. We’ve been using the same feed for thirty years. Everything we’re doing is the same thing we’ve always done. All our preventative measures and actions with any other outbreak have worked in the past, so why aren’t they working now? What’s different?
I start walking out across the driveway and to the fence that surrounds the pasture. The cows are milling about, as they always do. I rest my arms up on the gate and watch them.
There’s got to be something I’m missing.
A truck pulls into the driveway, and I glance back to see that it’s Sutton. I watch as she puts her head on her steering wheel as though she’s stressed out, and I feel a pang in my chest. Her body starts to tremble like she’s crying.
Shit, she must not see me over here. Now, I feel like a creep as I watch her.
