“This isn’t a good time to get a lecture from you.”
“You’re going to lose her, Lucas. And I know you don’t want to.”
She’s right on both counts.
Shoving the phone into my T-shirt chest pocket, I heave another bale over my shoulder with a grunt. “You do, do ya?”
“Don’t be a dick.”
“I’m listing the ranch, all right? Happy now?”
My words are met with rare silence from my younger sister.
“Trust me when I say I wanted nothing more than to see Eira last weekend—and every fucking weekend. But my realtor and lawyer need to go over a bunch of shit with me so we can list it, since the cattle operation is going with it.”
I drop the bale to the ground then use the unending silence as an opportunity to shove armfuls of scratchy loose hay into a hay net, kicking the leftovers under the fence rail to my old mare.
“You said you’d never sell it,” she eventually says, skepticism layered in her tone. “Are you just listing it to get everyone off your back about it?”
“No. I’m listing it with the intent to sell.” I look out at the fog-blanketed mountains, blindly scratching a horse’s neck. Sure, I’ve thought long and hard about this decision for weeks, but it still scares the shit out of me. “It’s time for a change of pace.”
Chapter twenty-four
Eira
March 25
Eira:
Skipping coffee tomorrow
Please forgive me
Holly
Bitch, I’ve got thallium on order for next week already
If everything goes to plan, I won’t be there next week either. But I’m not telling her that quite yet.
The Fur-Ever Home Animal Rescue manager, Dolly, slides a mug shaped like a cat across her desk to me. “I’m so glad you could meet me in person. I feel bad you drove all the way here, though.”
“It was no problem,” I say with a smile. “I was planning to be in the neighbourhood anyway.”
I grab the calico tail handle and take a hearty sip while she outlines the project she has in mind. Doing business rebrands, comics, and animal-care graphics aren’t my usual project choice, but after creating an illustrated children’s book for Fox Ridge Therapeutic Riding a few weeks ago, I’ve had three animal rescues and a 4-H club reach out.
It’s a nice palette cleanser between the alien cocks I’ve been drawing almost non-stop, thanks to a prolific author going viral with one of my cover designs in January.
I smile up at her as I finish taking notes, underlining the completion date she’s requesting. “Thanks so much for asking me to do this. I love cats and helping them in any way I can. But you guys have a special place in my heart… You probably see so many animals, you don’t remember them all, but Lucas McKinney brought in a kitten a couple months ago. Any idea how she’s doing now?”
Dolly purses her lips in thought. “I don’t remember Lucas bringing in any animals recently. He dropped off a dog he found back in the fall, but that’s the last I remember.”
“Just a small black kitten.” I cup my hands together to demonstrate the tininess. “We found her over the holidays, but you were closed, and he said he was going to bring her in afterward.”
She shrugs casually. “We haven’t had any kittens lately.”
Did he bring her back to the barn even though he swore he wouldn’t?
Shaking my head to clear it, I smile and reach out for a handshake. “I have to run, or I’ll be late meeting my realtor. But thank you again for the opportunity, Dolly. I’m excited to get started on this.”
