Page 4 of Spur of the Moment
After being hounded most of her life, I didn’t blame her if she wanted to move to the other side of Idaho to get away from her family. They worried about her because they loved her, but that didn’t stop the concern from becoming overwhelming at times.
“I wouldn’t get in the same car with you if you paid me,” Brandy shouted back from where she was perched at the top of the ladder, hammer in hand.
I shook my head, stacking another bale.
“Good thing I have atruck, then,” he yelled across the driveway before turning back to me. “Stubborn woman,” Reed muttered under his breath.
Their bickering was pretty comical, but more often than not, they took it too far, slinging insults that would hurt anyone’s feelings. But it was Reed and Brandy. They’d battle all night if you let them. Reed may say he hated her, but I knew he seeked out those battles. One could think it was because he liked her attention, negative or not. I wouldn’t be caught dead saying that to either of them, though.
“You can say that twice,” I mumbled in agreeance.
“If it makes you feel any better, she let Brandy know she was heading home before telling any of us.”
“Best friend privileges!” Brandy yelled over at us, clearly eavesdropping on ourconversation.
Reed rolled his eyes as he stacked the last bale. I pulled my gloves off, my hands already clammy from the heat. I shoved the deerskin gloves in my back pocket before taking a piece of straw from one of the bales, sticking it in my mouth.
Reed sat on one of the bales, his elbows resting on his knees with his arms hanging in front of him. “She won’t tell us why she came back.”
“Sounds like Lettie.” Her obstinate ways hadn’t changed since she’d been gone. That much was clear.
I chewed on the piece of straw, watching the horses gather by the water trough under the shade of a pine tree.
Reed eyed the straw in between my teeth. “How is that shit enjoyable?”
I shrugged. “Cowboy’s gum.”
“Pretty sure you mean farmer's gum.”
I waved a hand at him. “Semantics.”
“Maybe she’ll tell you,” he said, getting back to the topic at hand.
I chuckled, shaking my head before kicking at the dirt with my boot. “Doubt that. She didn’t even tell me she was home. This is the first I’ve seen of her.”
“She damn sure loves her secrets. But it couldn’t hurt to ask.”
“She’d tell Brandy before she’d tell me, Reed. Why don’t you ask her?”
“You mean ask a favor of Brandy? Hard pass.”
I turned to find him watching Brandy where she hammered atop the ladder, her brunette hair tied in a high ponytail atopher head, swinging with the movement. “Why? It’s not like you guys don’t talk. You’ve been bickering back and forth since I pulled up.”
He drew his gaze away from her and stood, changing the subject. “Better go see what chaos Lettie created with Dad.”
He brushed past me as Rouge came out from around the side of the barn with feathers hanging out of his mouth. He ran up to me, panting as he sat next to my boot. I stroked his ears, shaking my head. “Always getting into trouble, you and your mom.”
I followed after Reed, Rouge at my heels as we made our way to the main house.
3
Lettie
“No one told you to go to college, Lettie.” My dad’s rough voice grumbled from where he sat at the table, the newspaper he’d been reading laying flat in front of him.
I stood in the entryway to the house, not having made it more than a few feet inside before I let my frustration be heard. “No one needs totellme to do anything, Dad. I made the choice to leave because I had nothing for me here.”
“And now you do - fixing the old barn up for me.”
