“Go on into the dining room, guys.There’s some bread and salad already on the table.Landon?Help me with the hot dishes?”She smiled oddly at him—a little too bright, but he moved over to the oven with Aly while Nate, Sam, and Cal went into the dining room.
He grabbed the platter with the ham while Aly hefted the bowl of green beans.She jutted her chin out toward the dining room.From their vantage point in the kitchen all he could see was Nate’s and Sam’s backs.
He looked back at Aly.She jutted her chin again.First at Nate, then at Sam.She made her eyes really wide.Landon looked at them.They were seated next to each other, just like they always were.Nate was leaning toward Sam, saying something to her, his arm resting on the back of her chair.Landon couldn’t see either of their faces to know what they were saying.
He looked back at Aly again and shrugged.“What?”
“Ugh.Men.”She shook her head and sailed into the dining room.
Not like she was mad at him, just like he was dense.Which was a little insulting but probably true.She’d fill him in on whatever he was dense about later.So he followed her into the dining room and put the food on the table.As they settled into their seats and began to fill their plates, Aly conducted a lot of small talk about the snow, the ranch, and so on.It was getting to be almost normal, these little family dinners.
Of course, they often revolved around something terrible, and Landon had no doubt Sam and Nate were here with more of that.But it was nice to pretend that wasn’t the case for a little bit.
“I’d say it was nice not to have to go to court today, but we had some… other things crop up,” Nate said, introducing the topic that would change the tenor of things, no doubt.
Landon watched as Nate and Cal exchanged a look Landon couldn’t read.Except that Cal seemed pissed.What else was new?Landon thought Cal had been making progress, but he’d been an asshole ever since… he’d gone to the Harringtons’.
Which made sense as Nate and Sam laid it all out—Cal’s call to Nate, Detective Hayes’s visit to Honor’s Edge.
Cal didn’t interject, just looked more and more mutinous.But he ate.That was some kind of improvement to the last time they’d had one of these meals where he hadn’t touched his food.
So maybe even if the shit that had gone down with Glenda had sent him spiraling a little backward, it wasn’t a full step backward.Maybe just a skid.
Landon didn’tlovethat he blamed himself for that.How could he have known?But if hehadknown, he wouldn’t have sent Cal up there.And he couldn’t help but wish he hadn’t.
Cal looked more and more miserable as Nate related what Cal had told him this morning.Landon tried not to be frustrated Cal had gone to Nate and not him.It wasn’t personal.It wasn’t anything.
If Cal had told Landon, Landon would have told Aly, and that would have gotten back to Jill.Which maybe was therightcourse of action in Landon’s estimation, but he couldn’t blame Cal for his own estimations.
He was trying really hard to learn that lesson.
“I think it was the right call to fill us all in,” Landon said after Nate finished up and the table had sat in an awkward, hurting silence for too long.
“Of course you fucking do,” Cal muttered.
“Cal,” Aly admonished quietly.“We’re all on the same team here.We should all know what’s going on.”
Cal didn’t argue with Aly.But he didn’t agree with her either.He just sat there.Glaring at Landon.
Landon wasn’t going to devolve into a glaring match.He was going to figure out how tofixthis.The way he saw it, there was a clear solution.Or if not a solution, asteptoward one.
“I think there are two things we should do.”Landon didn’t miss the belligerent look Cal scowled his way, but he ignored it.“Or maybe just one.Invite Glenda for dinner.And Bo Lake.And see what happens.”
No one jumped on that idea at first.It seemed to sit in the middle of the table, something both distasteful and yet intriguing for everyone to stare at.Worry over.And not fully form an opinion on.
The fact of the matter was, they didn’t know who Bo Lake was.But he very well could besomekind of relation according to Nate—and even Sam couldn’t refute that.Maybe they could sit around twiddling their thumbs waiting for the results of this DNA test Sam had mentioned, but what was the harm in reaching out now?It would either be a net positive, or they’d have kept a potential enemy in their sights.
If the five of them worked together, what could Bo Lake do to them?Wasn’t that what this summer had taught them?They could weather the shitstorm of Bennet lifeifthey worked together.
Because he’d spent the past fifteen years before this spring burying his head in the sand.Any problem not directly related to the ranch he’d avoided until he couldn’t.Even Dad’s drinking after Sandy’s death he’d let slide for way too long.
It had been the wrong tactic.Waiting.Hoping it went away.A tactic no doubt influenced by Dad impressing upon him it was the right choice.To be careful.To look the other way.To ignore the rifts and cracks and problems and focus on what worked.
Landon wanted to do the opposite of all those old choices influenced by his father.His father hadn’t been able to kill the desire to do the right thing inside Landon, but he’d influenced enough all the same.
If they were proactive, movedtowardthe problem rather than run away from it, maybe they could avoid someone gettingshotthis time around.
Cal was the first one to break the silence.“So, to be clear, your suggestion is ambushing an old, traumatized woman?”
