Page 11 of An Endless Memory

Eliot

Cody stopped next to me by the grill. He and his second wife, Tova, hadn’t been married for that long, but it was nice to see him looking like the brother I’d grown up with. His jeans were a little nicer than mine and he wore a polo instead of a T-shirt, but it fit him better than a suit and tie.

“You’re staying away from Sutton’s new hire, aren’t you?” he asked in a quiet tone.

I glared at him. I wasn’t a horned-up teen anymore, and sometimes he forgot that. “I’m not hitting on Lily.”

She was cute. The way she flushed when she saw me and then avoided me hadn’t gone unnoticed. The dark circles were still there, but there was a heaviness in her eyes that hadn’t been there when I’d first seen her.

“Just making sure,” Cody said easily. “I saw you talking to her, and she looked like she was going to light on fire from her blush. I wasn’t sure if you knew that she’s got a lot going on.”

“Like what?” I made it sound challenging, but I really wanted to know. I could tell immediately her life wasn’t easy. She had to bring her kids to work, and she clearly hadn’t asked Sutton to forgo being on call. Sutton would’ve done it.

“Weston’s talked about her a little.”

I shoved burgers around on the grill. Everyone had their first serving and I was cooking seconds. I searched my brain for Weston. Cody had mentioned the guy. Weston Duke did business with Cody for Knight’s Oil Wells. Weston was her dad? “Wilder never said she’s a Duke.”

Cody shrugged like this small of a world was no big deal. “One time, Weston grumbled about his youngest’s pathetic husband, said it seemed like he was keeping her away from her family, but that she was also hardheaded and did her own thing.”

Good thing she was away from that pathetic husband, but I steered clear of stubborn women.

“Ruiz hasn’t talked to you about downsizing?” Cody asked.

My mind rerouted at the subject change from Lily’s family to our family lawyer. Lorenzo Ruiz had been our father’s lawyer, but thanks to the way he’d kept the trust from being ironclad, he was ours.

I shook my head. “I told him I was selling another five mares this year and only breeding five.”

Cody’s brows lifted. “Five?”

My brothers and I couldn’t sell the land, and we had to keep the three portions of the Knights’ businesses going—the oil wells, breeding purebred Arabians, and the cattle ranch. But our father, Barnaby Knight, had never said we couldn’t downsize the numbers we ranched or sold.

I nodded. “I can’t keep good help for long enough to care for the horses. The cattle make more money and require less travel and marketing.”

“You don’t have to train cattle to be ridden,” Cody agreed.

I couldn’t work with the horses like they needed while overseeing the cattle. I was in the middle of nowhere in eastern Montana. The location didn’t have the draw the western side of the state did. The guys I hired to work for the ranch were transitory at best. If they wanted to work long term, there was usually a reason they preferred to stay off the grid, and they weren’t always the people you wanted around. Sometimes, I found a real one, but the physical demand of the work often limited their career.

My phone started vibrating. I groaned. My family was with me. If I was getting a call, then something was wrong.

Cody waved his hand. I gave him the spatula and went farther into the garage to take the call.

“Knight,” I answered.

“Eliot.” My bookkeeper Chambers’s voice cracked on my name. Adrenaline pulsed into my veins. I paced the garage. “Silas nailed the corner of the barn with the Kubota.”

“What?” I turned my back to the open doors and lowered my voice. “He’s fine, right?”

“He’s, uh…drunk.”

“Fuck.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. Chambers wasn’t in charge. He’d never ranched on his own, just grew up in the life, but he was the honorary second-in-command while I was gone. He worked from the house and liked to be in everyone’s business. I trusted his wisdom, probably because he’d been my history teacher and football coach. He shouldn’t have to deal with this. “He’s fired.”

“I gathered as much. I think he did, too, because he quit. I told Alexander to watch him pack and drive his truck to the motel where he can sleep it off. I’m heading out to follow him and pick Alexander up. Are you going to press charges?”

Silas was a guy whose wife left him, his kids didn’t want to speak to him because he fucked around on their mom, and he didn’t know how to handle a life without a wife doing everything for him. He probably tried calling his ex, hit the bottle, then decided to be useful…by fucking up my barn and tractor and making the other guys work extra.

I would probably be more pissed if I was there. Silas was a sad sack on his best days, but involving the police would only give us all headaches. “Nah. We’ll file with the insurance company. Make sure to charge me for the extra time and mileage.”

Chambers only grunted. “I’ll start the insurance paperwork when I get back, but…I’m not sure about the barn.”

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