Page 27 of Trickster King

“Jessica’s rampaging, isn’t she?” I bet she was stalking the helipad, waiting for the arrival of her supper.

“She’s not quite rampaging, but she’s doing a little dance. Then she realized you were making yams and chicken, which will be delivered by Senator Padrino. This caused questions. Over the phone, upon being called by Her Majesty, Senator Padrino informed her he is housing your cattle so all of your pastures could be redone. With a nudge from myself, he told her you had sold several rescues to pay for the entire ranch to be renovated. She’s stunned, for the record. She can’t figure out how your rescues could possibly be paying for the whole ranch to be renovated. The last I heard, she was talking to the bank, who only confirmed the purchase of her new trailers and trucks so you could move the cattle. They told her the makes and models, which caused more dancing. I may have texted your bank representative to question the purchase of large bows for the trailer. You are now in her good graces until she realizes you are doing more than fixing your fields.” Randy stepped into Eddie’s bedroom long enough to herd the boy out, who had haphazardly stuffed clothing into his duffel. Over Eddie’s head, he mouthed, “I’ll get the stuffed animals.”

I nodded, and to make sure Eddie wasn’t aware we were onto his need to cling to his stuffed animals, all of which had been given to him by Deidre over the years, I asked him to set the duffel bag down. We went through it together, repacking it and checking he had everything. When I confirmed he’d done a good job, he beamed at the praise.

In the time it had taken us, Randy had made his escape with the collection of stuffed horses, cows, bears, and snakes, most of them stuffed into one of Eddie’s duffels. His favorite, a floppy black horse, was tucked under Randy’s arm.

We had a collection of ten identical horses, two of which were hidden in Frankfurt’s room while the rest were at the palace, which we gave to Deidre to give to Eddie when they were no longer serviceable. We’d already pulled the trick once, as the first one had gotten nabbed by a horse and played with to death. Jessica still had the battered horse, which lived in a box in our closet.

Eddie had put on a brave face, Deidre had cried because it’d been her horse who’d nabbed the beloved toy, and we’d managed to calm everyone within twenty minutes of providing the replacement along with a promise we’d repair the old one and put it in a safe place. One day, I expected Deidre to sneak into our room to steal the horse.

She still adored Prince Leonid, but I’d noticed a few worrisome little things—the kind of worrisome things that might drive her to find comfort in Eddie’s first stuffed animal, replaced because Spartacus loved toys almost as much as my children.

Deidre spoke to Prince Leonid most nights, but she talked about Eddie’s calls for days after. While she always insisted on those calls with her foreign prince, I worried she made them out of duty more than anything else.

I wanted a lot more for her than fulfilling some duty. I wanted her to avoid the heartache her mother had faced. I wanted her to avoid the trials my parents had faced.

I wanted her to have what I cherished with her mother, and not because of any of the reasons our families had been thrown together from generation to generation.

What I wanted came second to giving my children the freedom to make their own mistakes.

I carried Eddie’s bag and asked him to go check on Bullmanchu, gathering his things to take to Senator Padrino’s ranch. The boy ran off, and I sighed.

“That is not the contented sigh of a father who has an obedient boy off to do his chores,” Frankfurt pointed out.

“He was afraid of people making fun of him because of his stuffed animals, so he left them behind. I’m concerned it contributed to him not feeling well,” I replied, running a hand through my hair and giving my scalp a scratch. “I’m going to have a talk with him and make sure he takes his favorites with him when he goes back to school.”

“Send him with an extra pillowcase and have him put the animals inside when he’s at classes or someone is in his room if he’s not comfortable with others seeing them. That’s what I did as a kid. It’s an option.”

“I’d prefer if he felt like he didn’t have to hide his favorite things.”

The older rancher clapped my shoulder. “He’ll figure it out soon enough. With the whole lot of you keeping an eye out on him? He’ll be fine. Try not to worry yourself sick. Having one of you stressed is bad enough, and the last thing we need is you having yet another relapse. We’ll have the whole farmhouse and barn treated with antifungals since we’re doing everything else. Off you go. You have a busy evening ahead of you.”

As there was no way in hell anyone else was transporting my prized bulls and my favorite cows, I loaded them into the trailer I’d claimed as mine and engaged Randy in a twenty minute argument over the matter. I walked away triumphant when Geoff tossed Frankfurt the keys to the trailer he’d intended to drive so he could accompany me and help with the trickier parts of handling a heavy load.

“The issue was you making the trip alone,” Geoff pointed out while climbing into the passenger seat of the new truck. “Randy forgot the plan had been for us all to split up.”

“I’m not mad at Randy,” I informed my wife’s agent. “I just refuse to let anyone else drive my babies.”

“I will insist you maintain the towing speed limit.”

“I was thinking five under to give me some wiggle room.”

Geoff eyed me, but then he nodded. “Five under is acceptable. As you’ve never backed a trailer before, I’ll give you instructions, and if needed, serve as your eyes.”

To get my truck and trailer out of the ranch, I’d have to back it up, but unlike Geoff’s belief I’d never backed a trailer, I’d gotten in practice with one of the RPS instructors on the sly. Charlie hadn’t liked the idea of me being armed with enough knowledge and practical experience to cause the RPS even more trouble, but he’d gone with my plan to master hauling my own animals at my whim.

I’d threatened to cry to my wife and refuse to make yams and chicken for at least a month.

Nobody had wanted to test the consequences of my wife without her beloved yams and chicken for at least a month.

As such, I enjoyed surprising the hell out of Geoff when I handled the trial like a proper Texan, backing up and bailing when it was my turn to join the convey headed to Senator Padrino’s place. To preserve the peace of mind of the RPS, I’d been placed not quite in center, and Randy drove the trailer behind me so he could monitor me at all times.

He had Eddie as he didn’t want our boy to suffer from a heart attack over my lackluster driving skills.

Geoff called the lead driver and informed him we would be paced to five under to accommodate my special needs. Laughter on the other end of the line reached me, and I shook my head over the insanity of it all. “At least tell me whoever is leading is happy I’m not doing fifteen under.”

“It’s my wife, and she’s impressed because she expected twenty under and tears to get you behind the wheel.”

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