She stared at me for a long beat. "New Beau is weird."
"New Beau is evolved."
"New Beau still has to shovel shit for the next hour. Grab the wheelbarrow, evolved boy."
***
By "second breakfast" (a concept I was fully embracing), my phone was blowing up.
I sat on the porch steps, eating a cold piece of bacon, watching the notifications roll in. 50,000 likes in an hour. The comments were losing their minds.
"IS THAT BEAU STERLING IN A COWBOY HAT??"
"I am deceased."
"Okay but why can he actually sing?"
"The flannel. The boots. The vibe. I’m pregnant."
I scrolled through, half-amused, half-detached. It was weird. A month ago, I lived for this engagement. Now? It felt... distant.
"Your phone’s gonna vibrate off the table," Winnie observed, sitting down next to me with her own coffee.
"The video went viral," I said. "Apparently, people really like the 'disgraced heir goes country' aesthetic."
"To be fair, you do look pretty good in a hat."
"And there’s the ego boost I was missing."
"Don't get used to it." She stood up, dusting crumbs off her jeans. "Come on, influencer. We got fences to check."
The rest of the morning passed in a blur of wire cutters and post-hole diggers. By noon, I was drenched in sweat, my shirt stuck to my back, my hands throbbing. But I’d fixed three sections of fence without asking for help once.
We were heading back for lunch when my phone rang.
Z.
Finally.
I answered immediately. "You’re alive! I was about to file a missing persons report."
"I’m alive," Z said, his voice sounding harried. I heard traffic in the background. "Just barely. Your father has been on a warpath about the Sterling Corp expansion, and I’ve been running damage control for three days straight."
"Wait, you actually noticed I didn't text?"
"Usually you go days without responding to me, Beau. I assumed you were on a bender."
"I was not on a bender. I was working. Manual labor. Also, I have news. You know the rooster? I think he has marked me to death.."
Z paused. Then he burst out laughing. "I’m sorry, you were for real? About the rooster?"
"He’s a terrorist, Z. He attacked me this morning. He has spurs and rage issues."
"That is the best thing I’ve heard all week. Please tell me there’s video."
"There is not, and thank God for that. But seriously... you good?"
"Yeah. Just busy. Your dad asked about you, though."
