Page 6 of Baker
“Nope, read it aloud. Whatever he has to say to us is probably bullshit anyway,” I blurted out, instantly feeling like a jerk as my grandmother, eyes still dewy, morosely nodded along. The other three with half my blood bobbed their heads. Whether it was in agreement with Milt reading the final words from Cash or to my saying whatever Cashman had to say was a steaming pile of crap, I didn’t know for sure, but the vibe was strong for the bullshit comment.
“As you wish,” Milt took another sip of coffee. “To my four sons. I guess if you’re all gathered together with Milt, I’ve died. Your mothers are probably dancing in the streets as are you boys. I know I was a shit father, husband, and partner to all of you and your moms, but I hope you can understand that some men just aren’t made to be tied down.”
“Jesus fucking Christ,” Dodge muttered. Yeah, that was my thinking exactly. Linc grumbled something under his breath. Ford sat silently beside Bella, his expression tight and hard to read. “What a load of utter shit.”
“Now, Dodge, let Milt finish so he can get home before it gets dark,” Granny said, and the ginger bowed his head and whispered an apology. “Go on, Milt. I know Edith is keeping your dinner warm for you.”
“Yes, she is. Pork chops and applesauce,” Milt informed us. We all muttered something about yummy food and waited for him to get back to reading. “Right. Yes.” He pushed his glasses up his nose. “Where was I?”
“Men being tied down,” Linc spoke up in that deep bass voice of his.
“Oh yes, tied down. There it is. Ahem, so, men aren’t meant to be tied down. I did my best to be the father that you all needed, but I failed miserably, just like I failed your mothers. I know you all couldn’t care less about a final request from me, but if you four could find it in your hearts to mend the family ranch that I left in Baker’s hands, I would appreciate it. If you can’t bring yourselves to help make the ranch what it used to be for me, do it for my mom. I did love you all, and I hope you can come to love each other. Goodbye, boys. Dad.”
We sat in stilted silence for a few minutes. The timer went off on the oven, spurring us to all shake off the dump truck of emotion that had been parked on our shoulders. Ford seemed the most upset, his face a mask of sadness that the rest of us seemed to be lacking.
“That’s the chicken,” Granny said after clearing her throat. “Milton, thank you for handling all of this for us.”
“My pleasure. There are some odds and ends to be attended to by the boys. Bills and such that Cash left behind, that sort of thing. I’ll leave them here in the folder with your copy of the will.” We all stood.
I escorted Milt out the door and to his car after slipping him a check for half of his legal fees. I hated to even look in that folder to see what kind of bills Cash had left behind for me to take care of. Just like everything else here on the ranch, he just threw his responsibilities onto me. Mom, Granny, the ranch, and now whatever asinine bills he had run up since he had run off on Ford’s mother ten years ago. If it were possible to hate some more, I couldn’t see how.
“Thanks for handling all of that for us, Milt. I’ll have the final half of your fee to you next month,” I said as I opened his cardoor for him. He sat down with a huff, his tan tie sporting a fresh coffee stain.
“No rush, Baker. I’m sorry there wasn’t more for you boys and your grandmother. Cash wasn’t good for much, but he was good at making others clean up his messes.”
I couldn’t argue with that. I gave him a wan smile, thumped the roof of his car, and then closed the door. He took off like a bat out of hell. I watched with trepidation as he sped down the driveway, praying he wouldn’t take out the paddock fencing. He’d been known to wipe out mailboxes now and again. Once he was off my property, I took a moment to tip my head back to stare at the stars just starting to appear in the sky. The horizon behind the mountains was purple and indigo, tinged with pink, the moon not yet in sight. It was times like these that I really missed having someone at my side to hold my hand as we worked through the garbage life heaped on you. A wife, a husband. Hell, just a boyfriend would be nice. Right about now, I would take a dog to sleep at my feet. It got damn lonely on this ranch with only a gun-toting octogenarian for company.
“Hey,” a man called, startling me out of at least a full year of life.
“Fuck,” I gasped as Hanley ambled out of the shadows of the stables into the soft glow of the front porch light. “Whistle or something.” A jaunty smile pulled at his lips before he puckered. I stood there in shock as he warbled just like an indigo bunting, one of Mom’s favorite birds. “Very good. Maybe make it something that lets a soul know a man is leaping out of the dark at them.”
“I’m not sure I leaped, but fair enough. Next time you’ll know it’s me coming.”
“Appreciate that.” I leaned on the post, arms folded, and crossed my right foot over my left as the sound of laughter from inside leaked around the screen door. It needed new weatherstripping badly. Job ten thousand two on the Baker Bastian To-Do List. “What can I do you for?”
“Ollie strongly suggested that I come visit you this evening to ensure that permission to range your lands to take pictures was given before I started snapping. To be honest, I was going to do that tomorrow after I scouted a bit, but when a lawman the size of Sheriff Ahoka recommends you do something, I tend to do as proposed. Saves me a lot of time calling my agent to get me out of a local lockup.”
“You get locked up often?” I asked, the tip of my nose and ears growing chilly as we conversed as if I didn’t have something important to do inside. Something about this wandering wildlife photographer made me feel settled. Perhaps it was his lazy way of speaking as if he had all the time in the world. Must be nice.
“Not so much since I hit thirty. I had a few nights in various cells for non-violent civil disobedience. Power to the people.” He placed a dirty hiking boot on the bottom step. I liked the way the soft white of the bare bulb warmed his face. Fine lines were starting to branch out from the corners of his evergreen eyes. Obviously he smiled a lot. “Nowadays I get my message out about conversing wildlife via means that do not require me to piss in a dirty crapper while a dozen other guys watch.”
“Understandable. So you’re here to ask permission to meander my land to take pictures?”
“That I am.” He shifted forward slightly to rest a forearm on his knee, which made the large pack and tightly-wound tent on his back shimmy to the side slightly. The man must be strong to tote around that much on his back daily. “If you’re okay with me being here for a few weeks to a month, depending on how agreeable the wildlife is, I’ll forward your information to my publisher and they’ll email you about the property release.”
“You planning to camp out there?” He nodded, a lock of dirty blond hair falling over one slim eyebrow. “It gets damn coldhere at night yet. We just had snow recently. ?Course, that being said, it could shoot up to eighty tomorrow. Granny says the only dependable way to prognosticate the weather in Oklahoma is to wake up and look out the window.”
A soft laugh rolled out of him. “I’m prepared for either, but thanks for the warning. I’ve been doing this since I graduated college, and there’s not much in the way of ugly weather I’ve not run into, but I will take Granny’s advice and peek out the tent flap every morning.”
“Okay then go forth and photograph. You got a gun?” I asked and got a short nod. “Good. We got all kinds of wildlife here that would be happy to have you for lunch. Since it’s chilly yet, you might not need to worry too much about the cottonmouths, western rattlers, or copperheads, but the cougars are a constant threat and the bears are just coming out of hibernation. Oh, and if you run into a bison, do as the park rangers say and avoid petting the fluffy cows.”
“Right, they’re mostly on government pastures, right?”
“Yep, that’s right. And while they do have a designated space, if they choose to go walkabout, they go. Most are content to stay on their range, but there have been a few that wanted to see more of the world.”
“Duly noted. Thanks for that info. I had most of it on my phone, but it’s always nice to get the real deal from the locals. So, if it’s okay with you since it’s now dark, I’ll just bunk in your barn.”
“Yeah, sure, that’s fine.” I wasn’t about to send him out into a cold, dark night to try to set up a camp. “Just no fire, obviously.”
