Mary winces at his words, knowing just how much they’ll piss me off before I even scoff. I throw my hands up in frustration, tempted to toss my shit in my car and go right back to California. Anything would be better than this shitshow.
“Look, just… fire the guy, help him get a job somewhere he mightactuallybe useful, wherever that is,” I say, a sneer on my lips. “I’ll find you someone who’s qualified and has real experience so the ranch doesn’t fall apart again.”
Dad’s face falls slack, every ounce of emotion wiped clean as he stares at me blankly. I expect to see anger bubbling in his eyes, but there’s just that same goddamn glimmer of pity underneath the apathy.
It makes me want to shake him and scream.
He shakes his head slowly, a frown forming beneath his bushy mustache. “Well, I guess it’s a good thing this ismyranch and not yours, because I won’t be doing anything of the sort. That boy isn’t going anywhere, and if you don’t want to see him, you’ll just have to do your best to avoid him.”
“You can’t be serious!” I’m using every ounce of self-control I have not to yell right now, but it’s a near fucking thing. “This isn’t about myfeelings, this is about keeping the ranch running. You can’t just hire whoever you feel bad for! This is an actual business, in case you forgot.”
Dad just shrugs, halfway between careless and sympathetic like he’s trying to be a hardass but doesn’t want to be mean. This would be so much easier if he would actuallyarguewith me, but he seems intent on taking the moral high ground.
“I didn’t forget, kiddo,” he says easily. “But it’s still mine, and I’m going to run it how I see fit.”
Well. So much for taking a vacation to get my head on straight after everything.
It looks like things around here are only going to get even more stressful.
LUCAS
“Damn, she lookspissed.” Wayne whistles under his breath as we watch Jenny lay into her dad in front of their house. “I was hoping she’d give him at least a day before she started yelling at him.”
She definitely does look pissed, but she also looks fuckinggorgeous.
Her hair was longer in high school. Now, it’s cut in a bob that ends just over her shoulders, and the color is different — a little closer to auburn than the brown I remember. She’s just as petite as she used to be, though, all long legs and narrow waist. And she clearly hasn’t lost any of her fire.
“They still do this a lot?” I ask with a grin.
It’s a blast from the past to see her up in Everett’s face like this again. Good to know she’s just as stubborn as ever.
“Constantly.”
I didn’t actually expect Jenny to be here at all. We didn’t really have a funeral for my dad — I couldn’t afford much more than the burial plot and a cheap bouquet of flowers — but I didn’t see her when I got back into town, or when Everett offered me this job. She talked about moving away so much when we were younger, so I figured that’s what she did.
Bit of a blast from the past to see her in action again.
“It’ll be worse now that you’re here,” Wayne says, jabbing his elbow into my ribs teasingly.
I wince, a little ashamed at the thought of her brother knowing about our past. It wasn’t a secret, exactly. I was over at the house all the time, but Jenny and I mostly just hung out. It wasn’t until junior year that we even started dating, and it was casual the whole time. She always knew what she wanted, and our paths just weren’t going to align. I stopped letting that thought hurt before we even graduated.
“Yeah, well, she’s always been a hothead. I won’t hold it against her,” I joke.
We didn’t end on good terms, and Jenny’s always been a pro at holding grudges. I’m sure she’ll corner me and ream me out at some point, if the way she’s laying into Everett is any indication.
“Good luck, man, she’s going to have it out for you.” Wayne shakes his head, both fond and exasperated as we watch Jenny storm into the house and slam the door behind her. “She only got meaner after you left.”
He laughs at his own words, but there’s a thread of truth to them. She was always hard on everyone — herself included — but Dad told me how rough it got in the past few years. I pause on this thought for a moment to remember Dad’s smile. Rough — that’s how it feels now. It was good to share a few laughs with him before he passed, even if just to ignore all the stress and fear for a moment. But it wasn’t long enough.
“I’ll just keep my distance. Safer that way.” With everything I’ve got going on between paying off Dad’s medical debts and trying to pay off my own damn student loans, the last thing I need is to deal with Jenny’s anger over how things ended. “How long is she visiting for?”
Wayne shoots me a confused look, tilting his head to the side. “She lives here, man. She was just away for a side job, but she does the books for the ranch.”
That’s surprising. I figured she’d be out of here the second she graduated, never to return, just like she planned. “Side job, huh?” I muse, more to fill the silence than anything.
“Yeah, she takes gigs here and there when things are slow around here. Looks like the bigwigs in California paid for a new car. Think she’ll let us take it out for a test drive?”
God, same old Wayne. I can’t help but laugh, even as I shake my head.
