Letting go of the horse’s leg, I stand and sigh. “Harper, you’re the one who wanted the job of running the front office so that you could keep an eye on him.”
“Yes, well, as the front office manager and babysitter of the old man who refuses to be an old man, I’m trying. He said he was going out to the coop since Sadie is gone. That was two hours ago.”
“Two hours?” I ask on a groan. “He could be doing anything.”
She raises her brows and throws her hands out. “That’s what I’m saying.”
“Well, we’d better go fucking find him and pray he hasn’t destroyed something or killed anyone.”
The two of us split up, figuring we can call the other if we find him. We have hundreds of acres, and he could be anywhere. I go into the barn, calling his name, but he’s not there. Next I check the training area. Maybe he’s with Roni or Fallon.
And a big fat nope on that.
My phone pings, and I pray it’s my sister who found him.
Harper
Any luck?
Nope.
Harper
Great. Okay, I’m going to get the four-wheeler and go out farther.
I’ll get the side-by-side.
Time to expand the search area.
Once in the vehicle, I go to the coop again—it really would be the more likely spot—with no luck. Then I tell my other sisters to check the house and buildings around it, just in case.
With the entire ranch now searching, surely he’ll turn up.
I get a little farther into one of the fields where the horses graze, and then I see it.
The damn tractor moving.
I grab my phone and text Harper.
I found him. He’s on the tractor in the pasture. I might kill him.
Harper
We have plenty of land to bury the body. Godspeed.
I take a few deep breaths and then drive out there. When I get alongside him, he turns his head the other way, as though he doesn’t see me.
“Dad!” I yell, knowing he probably can’t hear me over the noise of the tractor and the music he’s blaring because he’s half deaf.
He keeps going, as John Denver sings about being a country boy.
Ugh. I slow down, going behind and coming up on the other side, where, again, he pretends he doesn’t see me.
That’s it. I’m going to jail today for a crime I actually will commit.
The only option is to get in the tractor’s damn cab. I pull the side-by-side off along the fence a bit in front of him and wait. He’s got the bushhog going, so he has to at least mow in a certain direction.
Or so I thought.
