Page 18 of Just (Fake) Married
THREE
ETHAN
I pulledup to the gravel in front of the three-car garage, which sat adjacent to the lodge.
The lodge was what we called the main house on the property, although there were several more houses built over the years. Including the house where Carter lived with his kids.
Originally built by our ancestors back in the late 19thcentury, it survived about fifty years, before my great-great grandfather got bigger dreams and mining money. He’d knocked down what was there, and created the Craftsman mansion that had been the McGraw home ever since.
The main house had six bedrooms, five bathrooms and four fireplaces. My mom had knocked down a few walls to create a more modern kitchen and dining space, with floor to ceiling windows to enjoy the view of the valley.
The dining table sat twenty, and over the course of the years, at least four men had been operated on on that table after a gunfight, knife fight or bar brawl.
Three of them died.
The last one survived, and had worked as the Swinging D’s chief foreman for almost thirty years. Now his son had the job, and he used to be my best friend. But like most things attached to this land and this place, I’d let the friendship go.
As soon as I stepped into the house, I was knocked sideways by the smell.
Cedar fire.
The smell of a cedar fire was the smell of my childhood.
“Ethan?” Taggert Durham’s voice pulled me out of the past and made me smile.
My old best friend. Tag came out of the study, into the hallway, on the other side of the fireplace that smelled so good. He looked the same. Dark hair, dark beard. Tall and thick chested. He’d gotten me out of a dozen scrapes over our lives, and I’d set three of his bones and stitched a head wound closed a time or two. Outside of my brothers, he’d been my first and only friend, and even though I was looking right at him, it occurred to me how much I missed him.
I missed all of them. My brothers. My mom, even. This house.
Everyone but my dad.
I stood in the entryway that was full of benches so people could take off their gear and dry off by the fire before going into the rest of the house. I felt a little stuck there, like I needed an invitation. I was such an outsider in my own family.
“Hey, Tag,” I said, as my old friend came over and we hugged each other hard with manly back claps. “It’s good to see you.”
“Glad you could make it,” he said.
“Am I such an asshole you think I’d miss my dad’s funeral or…whatever the hell this is?”
“No,” Tag smiled. Or rather gave the impression of a smile. His beard hid his mouth, but his eyes crinkled slightly. Whichwas about all the emotion Tag would show. “Not an asshole. Just a busy man.”
“Not too busy,” I said, taking off my not-warm-enough coat and hanging it on one of the hooks above the bench. I’d decided to keep the possible firing/suspension to myself. That wasn’t anything my family needed to worry about right now. “What about you? How are things here?”
Tag rubbed a big hand over his beard. “We’re all right for now. Had some decent success with our insemination program, we’ll see how that translates in early spring.”
“Ethan, that you?” Another man stepped out of the office, and there he was, my big brother, Carter. He was fair like Mom had been, with blonde hair that curled when it got long. We used to tease him about that. But other than the hair, he was all Dad. Built like a whip, tall and lean. Tough as a son of a bitch.
Carter hugged me and I squeezed him tight. Dad and I had our issues, but Carter was Leroy’s pride and joy. Which meant my brother was hurting today, and he’d already hurt so much in his life.
“How are you holding up?” I asked.
“We’re okay.”
“Daddy?”
Carter’s oldest daughter, Taylor, came up behind him and eyed me like she wasn’t sure how she knew me, which was fair. The last time she’d seen me, she’d been seven and devastated by the loss of her mom. Now she was tall and coltish with long blonde hair parted down the middle.
“Taylor? No, you can’t be,” I said with a teasing smile. “You’re way too tall to be her. You must be at least eighteen.”
