Page 9 of Midnight Surrounds Us

But I’d known Aubrey since I was ten years old, so I also knew she was stubborn, and if Your Local Bookie was struggling, she wouldn’t ask anyone for help.

Which gave me an idea.

What if the help was offered freely? And from someone she wouldn’t have to worry about paying back or that it might offend her pride. Plus, it would get me alone with her.

Oh the things I wanted to do to her alone in the dark.

“Seriously, kid,”Uncle Red pressed when we grabbed a booth at José’s Diner and the server had brought our waters. “What’s goin’ on with you? I’ve never seen you this down.”

The place was packed for lunch, but we’d nabbed the last open booth before a loud group of tourists crowded into the diner and stood watching us while they waited. Setting my hat on the bench next to me, I dragged a hand through my hair, listening to the happy chatter from the other diners and the clinking of their silverware against their plates.

“Dad and I just don’t agree a lot these days. And…” Sighing heavily, I said, “And I guess, lately I’ve been thinkin’ about the future.”

“What about it?”

“I dunno. Maybe I’m on the wrong path.”

Red stretched his arm over the back of the booth bench. “I thought you loved workin’ the ranch. You’d mastered your horse and could rassle cows to the ground by the time you were twelve. You got stars in your eyes before the cattle drives every year.”

“I love it,” I admitted, “that freedom I feel out on the range, and the knowledge that what I’m doin’ helps people. Feeds people. Doesn’t get much better than that. But I got ideas, Red, and it just so happens that my ideas piss Dad off.

“I don’t get him. Junior and Shelby are off livin’ their lives. They want nothin’ to do with the ranch. I’m the one who’s been here the whole time. I’m the one gettin’ up before the crack of dawn to do the old man’s biddin’. I do the work without complaint every day. So why won’t he listen to me? I know that land better than anyone. Maybe even him.”

“Ryder, your dad has always been set in his ways, but I know he loves and values you. Have you ever thought that maybe he’s just scared to try somethin’ new? We Graves men grow more stubborn the older we get. I got lucky and had my incompetencies pointed out to me, and then I made changes in my life, but not everyone is so lucky to have friends like I do.”

Red sighed, and a sad, faraway look settled on his face. “I tell you what, though, if your cousin would return my phone calls, I’d listen to anything he has to say. So you’re frustrated with your dad, but I know he loves you, and I know he appreciates you.”

It had been something like twenty years since Red and my cousin RJ had spoken. Red had tried to reach out many times recently, but maybe the damage had been done and RJ wouldnever call his dad back. I wished he would, though. He’d be surprised at what he’d find if he did.

Shaking my head, I fiddled with the bundle of silverware wrapped in a napkin on the table in front of me. “I wish I believed that.”

“What about your mama? What’s she say?”

“She says nothin’. Ever. At least not anything positive to Dad about me. And to me, she says she wants me settled down. She wants more grandbabies. She can’t understand why I ‘can’t keep a woman.’”

“Yeah, what’s up with that?”

I laughed at my uncle talking like a college kid. “Really, Red? ‘What’s up with that?’”

“Well, what about that pretty brunette you were seein’? The one you brought to Red Wild? She seemed nice.”

“That was almost two years ago. Her name was Vivian, and she dumped me at the fall brandin’ barbecue. She was pissed I’d been gone ten days on the drive, and she still hadn’t gotten over the fact that I could never take her dancin’ ’cause I have to get up so early for work, but she wanted to party till the wee hours in Jackson.

“She was always mad about somethin’, and then to prove it, she smashed a paper plate full of potato salad to my face in front of everyone. I’m still livin’ that shit down with the ranch hands.”

Holding in his laughter, Red unrolled his silverware, looking hard at the old resin tabletop.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,” I said, and my uncle let out a little snicker. “It was for the best anyway. She wasn’t the one. Not even close.”

I hadn’t realized I’d done it, but I found myself gazing out the diner window, wondering where Aubrey was. Maybe she’d walk by after her book club and I’d get a glimpse of her infectioussmile, her amber eyes, and the way her hips always swayed seductively when she walked.

You ain’t that lucky, dumbass. Besides, she’d probably dump a plate full of Jello salad or somethin’ over your head if she knew you memorized her schedule, down to what time she gets done at book club.

I kept coming up to Wisper, hoping for… I wasn’t sure. An opportunity? A chance encounter? I had no idea. Aubrey George had never given me the time of day. I was just some kid in the background of her younger memories. Why would she? We barely even spoke.

But then, there were plenty of looks.

I hadn’t missed how her lips would part when she watched me. I caught her in the mirror at the new hat and boot shop in town a couple months ago. And sometimes, when I walked by her store, she’d actually smile at me. Not every time, but still, it proved she had considered me. The day I asked her out, I’d forced her to see me as something other than her dead husband’s friend’s little brother.

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