Fuck my life.
Outside the barn, Wade, Wyatt, and Cash are all standing around gossiping like the old biddies who run the Red River Canyon Report—a social media group created to tattle on other people’s business.
“Wade, I’m taking off for the rest of the day.”
“Well, hells bells.”My brother slaps his knee like some redneck hillbilly.Jesus.What is it with everyone fixin’ to piss me off today?“Satan’s lair just froze over, fellas.”
“Yeah, yeah.Funny.”I say gruffly.“No slacking off while I’m gone.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Yes, Sir,” Cash and Wyatt both say at once, saluting me.
Wade chuckles.“Exactly where are you going, brother?”
“None of your goddamn business.”
“You know Daisy’s working at the B&B today, right?”Cash asks, as if I wasn’t the one to pick her up this morning.
“You got a point, Cash?”
He shrugs.“Just an observation, is all.”
“Not everything has to do with Daisy-Mae.”
“If you say so, boss,” Wyatt says, elbowing our brother and then Cash, not so subtly.
The three of them gloat.I never take a damn day off, and with my foreman limping like a whipped mule, I don’t like leaving at all, but I like the idea of Daisy being unprotected even less.“Besides, I gotta get out of that barn.If I see Lemon and Colt going at it one more time, I’m gonna lose the biscuits I ate for breakfast.”
“Speaking of being eaten for breakfast.”Cash tips his chin toward the stables.Colt waddles across the threshold and staggers up the rise toward us.
The four of us laugh, but I walk away before he reaches the fence.“Get back to work.All of y’all.”
***
Miss Mabel sets a pitcherof sweet tea on the garden table alongside a bundt cake drizzled with glossy white glaze.“Come on out of that sun, Mr.Winchester, and get yourself some refreshments.”
“West is fine, Miss Mabel.”I dust the dirt from my knees and stand.“Mr.Winchester was my daddy’s name.It makes me feel old.”
“West, then.Why don’t you go on inside and freshen up a little?Then we’ll have some tea.”
I think about protesting, because I really want to get this fence finished before I have to pick up Daisy-Mae and she learns I’ve been eating other women’s baked goods behind her back.But I am only a man, and even I can’t resist the temptation of perfectly glazed bundt cake when it’s calling my name, so I do as the lady says.When I’m back from the rest room, Miss Mabel hands me a plate and pours me an iced cold sweet tea from the pitcher.“Thank you, ma’am.”
“Oh, please, it’s the least I could do.You know I had been asking Eddie to fix that fence for years.I never trusted that man.He pulled the wool over poor Daisy-Mae’s eyes, but he didn’t have me fooled.I always knew he was rotten to the core.That’s why I’m so glad she has a new beau like you.”
“I’m just a friend, Miss Mabel,” I say around a mouthful of what is possibly the best bundt cake I’ve ever had in my life.“This is delicious.”
She grins, and I swallow hard.Unease prickles down my spine, and I feel like I often do when I’m around these shrewd old biddies, they see everything.“There’s plenty more where that came from, young man.I do wonder though, what do a newly single pregnant woman and a ‘friend’do so late at night?I could have sworn I heard your truck pull away from the curb well after ten the other night.”
“I assure you, ma’am, I ain’t about to hurt Daisy.We’re just friends.I’m just helping her out.”Did it get hotter out here?
“Lotta ‘justs’ in that sentence, boy.”
I nearly choke on my sweet tea and clear my throat.Then I shovel more cake in my mouth and swallow down every last crumb.It sticks in my throat like all the words I can’t say.I cough and beat my fist against my chest, as if I could dislodge my chagrin.When I’ve recovered, I glance at Miss Mabel, no doubt all squirrelly eyed.“Well, I best get back to it.”
“Yes, I suppose you should.”
I head over to the fence and resume nailing the new pickets to the support beams, all the while wondering how I let this old biddy get under my skin, and why I care so much about the world knowing that Dais and I are just friends.As if I wouldn’t give my left nut to be more.I think it’s time I face reality here; I’m in deep shit, and I don’t know how I didn’t realize it sooner.
