“I told you we had it,” he grumbled as I looked around for everyone else.
“It looks like you're alone,” I said, not seeing anyone else.
“Colt just left and Forest left about two hours ago.” He stretched. “I’m taking the first shift.”
“Well, go home with your family.” I grabbed his thermos and the shotgun.
“Jude.” He gave me a pointed look.
“Theodore.” I gave him a bored expression “Go home and enjoy your family. I’ll be fine here.”
“When are you going to stop taking care of me?” He cocked his brow. “You don’t have to keep rushing to help me or take care of me. You should be home resting. I shouldn’t have messaged you.”
I shrugged. “I’ll always take care of you, Theo.”
“You don’t have to anymore,” he mumbled. “I need to stop relying on you and let you live your own life, it's a knee-jerk reaction to ask for your help.”
“Well, it's a knee-jerk reaction to help you,” I said. “I might be younger, but I’ll always help you, Theo.”
“I should be taking care of you,” he sighed. “I’m not in trouble anymore and I have people I can rely on.”
I nodded. “It’s hard to stop this cycle. Even when you had Colt and Atlas, my first reaction was to help you, to move out here in case you needed help. I mean, what was I supposed to do, stay with mom and dad?”
Theo shook his head. “I’m sorry you never had a good relationship with them because of me.”
“What?” I turned so fast towards Theo, I’m surprised my neck didn’t crack.
“I sometimes wondered if I had been born different, maybe our family dynamics would have been different,” he said, looking down as he tapped his fingers.
“No. Mom and Dad were so blinded by that farm, that's all that mattered,” I growled. “Look at Luke. He left because he didn’t want anything to do with the farm. Football was his ticket out of the farm and he took it. When Archie would visit or ask us to visit and he saw how amazing you were with animals, I’m so glad he thought to leave this to you. He was more of a parental figure than Mom and Dad together.”
Just thinking about our parents upset me so much. I hated that I carried so much animosity towards them.
“They lived and breathed that farm. We were just workers for them. Do you ever remember Mom being motherly to us? Or our father being a father to us? I sure as hell don’t,” I said with a little too much bite in my tone.
Theo nodded. “I don’t remember much other than having to wake up and do chores night and day while we also went to school. Then in the summers we worked all day.”
“We’ve been working since we could walk and frankly, I’m going to be tired of working before I can retire,” I chuckled, trying to lighten the situation that I had made so serious.
“I sometimes worry that maybe you could have had a different?—”
“Theo, stop,” I said, getting worried. “Where the hell is this coming from?”
He shrugged. “I realized today that I always reach out to you without thinking of what you have going on. I need to stop doing that. You should do whatever you want without worrying if I’ll need help. That’s one of the reasons I hired Forest. It’s time you start living life Jude.”
“Iamliving life.” I scowled when he gave me a pointed look. “I was visiting Webber a lot this last year and?—”
“And then you stopped when Atlas and I got lost,” he said quickly. “What happened to you and Webber? And give me a real answer, not some bullshit story you're feeding everyone else. Why didn’t you move out to Denver?”
I looked away as the last rays of light were leaving. They were beautiful shades of pinks and oranges.
“I’m in love with Sam,” I said quietly. “I have been since we went to college together.”
Theo stayed quiet and when he didn’t say anything I looked back quickly wondering if he had heard me. He had a small smile on his face.
“Am I supposed to be surprised?” he smirked. “I think the only one who doesn’t know your feelings is Webber and even then, I think that might be a maybe, you guys act like an old married couple.”
“What?” I snapped. “What do you mean everyone knows?”
