Page 42 of Baker
Family is dumb.
You’d think you had killed a person when you were found in a tool shed working away at a plaster cast. Bella nearly fainted when she strolled in looking for a hammer and found me cutting a nice, straight line on the damn cast. No one seemed to be impressed with the cut I had made left-handed when I’d been ratted out by a petite thing in culottes. Granny had put her boot down then and had sent me off to the hospital with Linc and Dodge as escorts to have my arm looked at right. Aiden should be offended, but he would agree. He’d been cranky about me not doing that weeks ago, but he’d relented when I’d threatened to use a hacksaw to remove the cast from my arm. As we sat in the waiting room on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, I had to wonder if my buddy the vet had possibly lied to me about how slow my bone was healing.
I got up to stretch. My brothers glanced at me from their phones. “Just stretching,” I grumbled as my nannies tutted at me. I figured I could possibly take on Dodge if I made a run for the exit. Linc? Nope, he was too big to wrassle with, but on the other hand, that bulk probably made him slow and—
“Studebaker Bastian,” a weary nurse called out, and I shuffled off with her to waste time and money that would be better spenton cabin renovations or the shots that all those cute little goat kids were going to need.
An hour and a half later, I was discharged and free of the cast. The bone had healed neatly, the ER doc had said, then scolded me for not coming back for an X-ray as I had been instructed to do. I didn’t tell him I had Aiden do it. Feeling lighter on the outside than I had since the night of the storm, I took my brothers to the small diner on the highway for lunch. My treat. Anything to help keep my mind off Hanley. He’d been gone for weeks now and had mentioned that he might spend more time in Canada as the moose were starting to calve. I’d been polite and understanding. After all, we were taking this time apart to suss out if our feelings were big enough to bring him back to the ranch. It seemed that they weren’t which hurt—a lot—and made me feel stupid for being jealous of moose. Mooses? Whatever.
I was free of plaster of Paris. And that was what I was going to focus on for this long holiday weekend. It looked to be a busy one with a house filled with men, women, and a kid that was hellbent for leather to become the world’s best majorette. His other dad, the ex-footballer, had had a fit when Dahn asked to go to a twirling class in California. Dodge, being a cool dad who wasn’t hung up on macho stupidity—how sad was it that a queer man was being a dick to his son about wanting to twirl a baton instead of playing something more masculine, help me understand—had found a small class led by the music teacher at the Brighton Grange elementary school. As soon as summer break came around, Dahn would be at the ranch and twirling his little heart out if Dodge had his way. Seeing as how Chris—the bonehead other dad—was being all sorts of dodgy about summer vacation, I was preparing myself for another round of battle of the exes to take place soon. There were goats to tend to, cattle to check on out on the range, cabins to continue working on, andof course, the daily chores. If someone who lived on a farm or ranch ever got bored, I’d never heard tell.
I was on Prissy’s back as soon as I got home. Freed from the cast I rode her hard, giving her the run that she had been craving, all the way out to the twister cabin—or High Winds Cabin as Bella called it—to find Ford hard at work. The man was a dynamo and with our help, when we were free, we’d managed to get the walls up, the roof in place, and the windows in. No small feat with the roof trusses, let me tell you, but with some muscle, some ingenuity, and a damn good tractor, we’d hoisted those bitches into place with only a few bumps and bruises. There may have been a hit taken to a healing forearm bone that may have set things back a week or two, but a man made sacrifices for his land.
I visited for a bit, then rode on to check on the cattle. On my way back, I would stop and work on installing the new windows until dark. Then I’d go home, eat, watch some family-type movie, and collapse into bed exhausted. Hopefully sleep would be instant. As I slowly rode up to the redbud clump, I felt a lurch in my chest as I gazed on the space where Hanley’s tent had rested. I missed him terribly. His extension of his time in Canada spoke volumes, even when he had been texting me every third day or so. He was happy being that carefree wanderer. If he weren’t, he’d have come back to Oklahoma a week ago. I didn’t have to ask if he was feeling hemmed in. It was obvious to me.
It had been foolish of me to open my heart to him so quickly. Even though we both were scarred from past mistakes, we’d let ourselves leap headfirst in the raging waters. Now I had a lungful of remorse and hurt to cough up.
I turned my horse around, unable to really cope with the memories this cluster of brushy trees stirred up. Better to keep myself busy at the ranch and hope like hell the fireworks over Lake Brewster in Lowing County were spectacular tomorrownight. They’d have to be to keep me from spending the night curled around a bottle. The urge was strong. Real strong. When I got home tonight, I’d call my sponsor. I’d be damned if one foolish romance was going to wipe out years of sobriety. Fuck that. So yeah, work hard, sleep like the dead, and one foot in front of the other. Recoil from the temptation as if it were a flame I’d heard more than once in meetings. Seemed I was already burned but not engulfed. Perhaps that singe was needed. Maybe I’d gotten complacent and those blisters would serve to remind me of why I’d vowed to never drink or give my heart to anyone else ever again.
***
“If you don’t turn that machine off, you’re going to get blisters on your pedal toes,” I called into the sewing room the following night. Bella glanced up from the overused Singer, her platinum hair falling out of her bun, to gaze at me as if I had just informed her that satin was silly. “We’re all ready to head to the lake for the fireworks.”
“Oh.” She wet her lips. Lips void of any coloration or gloss. “You guys go ahead. I have a week before the grand opening of my shop and I have to get some stock ready in case the ladies need a wider variety of sizes.”
“Bella,” I said as I made my way to her, sitting bowed over Granny’s old machine. “You can’t work all day and all night.” I kneeled down beside her as Dahn could be heard thundering about from room to room, asking a thousand questions about the lake, the fireworks, and if there were other kids at the celebration. “You need to take some downtime.”
“Pot meet kettle,” she softly replied and rubbed at her jade eyes with the tips of her fingers. Fingers that had sewn dozens of frocks this week.
“Right, well, yeah,” I agreed as I dropped to one knee. “But I’m working myself into a coma for other reasons. And, you’ll notice, I am going to the lake to watch pretty explosions in the sky and eat overpriced hot dogs that the ladies’ auxiliary will be selling. Come with us.”
She smiled then bit her bottom lip, her usually bright eyes showing her fatigue and worry. “I’m not sure the good people of Bastian Grange will appreciate—”
“You showing up looking like a movie star? Probably not, but once the ladies see you in one of your pretty creations, they’ll be forming a line to get into the boutique for the grand opening next Saturday.” I gathered her hand and gave it a pat. “And if anyone gets out of line, Linc will chew them up and spit them into the lake like a fishbone.”
That made her giggle softly. “He is a rather protective bear.”
“Only with you,” I teased and saw her blush. It was pretty obvious to everyone on the ranch that Linc was enamored with Bella Dee. He was too shy to make a move and Bella seemed reluctant to invite any sort of courtship. They seemed like they would be a good match. But then again, I thought Hanley and I were really well-suited but he was still up north and seemed quite happy to be there, so what did I know about romance? “Come with us. I promise I’ll come to the boutique tomorrow morning early and help hang those curtains Granny made for the shop.”
“Well, if you promise to hang curtains, then I’ll come.” She rolled her bowed shoulders back, then tucked a stray hair behind her ear. “Give me ten minutes to freshen up.”
***
As we had all learned—with the exception of Ford who already had known this I was sure—ten minutes in Bella-speak meantforty minutes minimum in everyone else speak. Tonight it was a mere fifty minutes, and that was well spent because she drifted down the stairs in a shimmery pink summer dress with little white sandals on her feet. I snuck a peek at Lincoln, who was, and this was literally the truth, standing at the bottom of the stairs with his mouth open.
“Catching flies?” I asked in a soft whisper and reached over to chuck Linc’s bearded chin. He shook off his stupid look. Ford took her hand and tucked it into the crook of his arm. Poor Linc looked crestfallen. The urge to boot him in his ass was strong, but I was the very last person who should be handing out relationship advice, or kicks in the asses. Trust me, I was kicking my own ass steadily. Dodge helped Granny get her favorite green sweater on and then escorted her to his brand new used extended cab pickup. I suspected buying a used vehicle had been a first for the well-to-do dentist, but he seemed pleased enough with it. We’d needed another truck and Ollie’s cousin had given him a hell of a deal, so all had worked out.
Linc climbed in with me, putting some distance between himself and Bella, who was riding with Dodge, Ford, Granny, and Dahn, I suspected.
“Lonely hearts club,” I muttered and got a sullen grunt from the big man at my right. “You know if you just said something to her…” I rolled my hand in a circle while we waited for the truck behind us to get everyone settled and buckled up. He stared straight ahead as if searching the twilight sky for answers. I felt bad for the guy. Sure, I felt bad for me too. Unrequited love was the pits. Guess me and my brother were more alike than I had suspected. I’d been seeing traits that I thought were solely Baker characteristics appearing in my brothers the longer we lived together. Like how Ford chewed his lip while concentrating, or Dodge fiddled with his fingers when he was nervous, or how Linc tended to tug on the thick hoop in his ear when he was deepin thought. Not sure if those were attributes from Cash or not. Probably. Hopefully, we only inherited that bastard’s harmless quirks.
“She’s not really ready for that sort of thing. Not sure I am either. I’m here to learn to avoid stress and anxiety.”
“And caring for someone is stressful?”
He threw a sharp look my way. “Have you seen the strain you’ve been wearing on your head like a sombrero since Hanley left?”
Fuck. Okay, he sort of had me there. Caring hurt. I’d known that and still I’d tumbled, so I couldn’t rightfully preach to this man when I had blown yet another relationship to bits. I was pretty sure it was over. I’d not heard a word in three days. Nothing. Zip. Zero. Not even a picture of a moose or an eagle or any of the other amazing wild things he’d been capturing with his damn camera so damn far away. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. I’d taken that as a sign he had moved on and was ghosting me.
