Page 47 of Rough
Clearing his throat, Wilder does what he does best and tries to calm the tempers between us and get us back on topic. “Bets, how many samples were in there?”
“Twenty-two. Want me to do the math for ya?”
“At five hundred a straw, you’re out between a hundred and eleven to a hundred and thirty-two thousand. Obviously double that if you’re valuin’ it at a thousand a straw.”
Betsy’s head whips over to me and her blank, emotionless face falters for a moment when I speak up, dropping the numbers for us.
“That’s right,” she says slowly. “But ‘cuz I’m real nice, I’m gonna round down to a hundred thousand.” Dragging her eyes from my face, she studies the other two who’ve gone pale at the number she’s given. “Ya’ll can stay quiet for the rest of this.”
Swallowing against my dry throat, I nod once, not seeing if my friends do the same.
“I told ya’ll I’d give you two options. The other is coverin’ the cost I covered to raise those bulls until they reached adulthood before their owners came and got ‘em. Two years I had every single one of ‘em. Again, I’m figurin’ low, not that ya’ll deserveit. But let’s say a thousand a year for twenty-two bulls. Two years each, that’s forty-four thousand. I’m roundin’ up to fifty.”
Betsy stands up, flips through her binder to the front few pages and pulls out a single sheet of paper. Sliding it to the center of the table, facing us, she keeps her finger on it and leans over to sneer at all of us.
“Here’s the bill. Let me know which option ya’ll choose, and we can discuss repayment timelines. Until then, ya’ll aren’t welcome on the Harper farm.” Standing tall, she picks up the binder and hugs it to her chest. “Just consider this. With that program I was tryin’ to do, we could’ve had at aminimumfifty to seventy-five new head of cattle within a few years. Ya’ll ruined that. Not me.”
I watch her as she walks out of the kitchen, head held high and a slight swing to her hips.
“Well, Rustic Romeo, Blushin’ Bill, and Wild Life… hope ya’ll got some savin’s.” Renee’s voice is filled with an odd mix of disappointment and glee.
“Christ,” Wilder groans, dropping his head to the table. I’d agree, but my tongue is stuck to the roof of my mouth, sick over what we’ve done. It doesn’t matter that we were drunk. We fucked up worse than we’ve ever done over the past ten years.
Remy must agree because he shoves himself from the table and runs to the waste can and proceeds to unload his stomach over and over until he falls to his ass, his head hanging between his knees.
The one thing Idoknow is that we’re not taking option two. We’re giving her every penny she’s owed.
Chapter Nineteen
Remy
As soon as I can speak without puking, I immediately start outlining a plan with the guys.
“I don’t care if she’s givin’ us low-ball numbers. We’re gonna pay her back based on the high end.” I don’t get a chance to check in with the guys to see if they agree, because my mother is quick to respond.
“Youabsolutelywill. I don’t think it even needs to be said. You three have a lot of work to do to even come close to comin’ up with that kind of cash.Yearsof work. Shoot, that’s like buyin’ a dang house!What were you all thinkin’?”
Her voice is shouting by the end, and I stop myself from covering my ears to protect my head from the drumming that’s rocking out in my brain.
“We weren’t thinkin’, momma,” Wilder says, thankfully in a much softer tone.
Crossing her arms, she glares at all of us. “Do ya’ll haveanyidea how much that girl has done for us?For you?The moment your daddy got sick, Remy, she was at our side askin’ how she could help. How she could make our lives easier so we could focus on gettin’ him through this. We needed money? She got usset up with the USDA grant. We needed more hands to help out? She took over the farm and merged it with hers. If I was too tired to cook? She was here with a homemade meal.”
Mom is breathing heavily, emotion clogging her throat from both anger and sadness. Voice cracking, she keeps laying it out for us. “Betsy Harper was here, every single day, helpin’ get your daddy’s chores done around the house. Bringin’ over dinners when we had late appointments. She took over the care and boardin’ of your damn horses! Didn’t ask for a penny, either. Then, when your daddy was on his last leg, she handed over everythin’ she had in her savin’s to buy the farm so I wouldn’t have to sell. She did that for me and for all ofyou!”
Throwing myself back to the trash can, I vomit again, but this time because of the roiling guilt eating away at my stomach.We had everythin’ so wrong.
“We’ll go over right now, see if we can help her out at all.” Clyde’s idea is good, but mom slashes her hand in the air with a shake of her head.
“No. You will leave that girl alone for the day. Let her lick her wounds in peace. Besides, I need ya’ll here. We got Donny’s funeral, then luncheon after here at the house.” Wiping her hands off on her jeans so she has something to do, she shoos us to leave the kitchen. “Oh, and if that…womandecides to show her face around my house today, she best be workin’ right next to you three. Otherwise, I don’t wanna see her. I especially don’t wanna see her phone. I want her gone from here by Monday. You hear me?”
“Yeah, ma, I hear you.” I feel like I’m two feet tall right now, not like the man I thought I was.
Wilder quickly types out a text, then pockets his phone. Leaning toward me as my mom pushes us from the room, he whispers, “I texted her. Told her to stay up there. Don’t know about you, but I’d rather not deal with anyone else right now.”
“Good.” Clyde’s short answer is all that needs to be said, since I agree.
We head outside to set up the tents mom rented, along with the tables and chairs. Working in silence does wonders for my headache, and by the afternoon, I can tell we’re all feeling more human. Physically, at least.
