Page 90 of Knock Knock

“Gonna be daddies or something?”

“Fuck no.” Maddox glared.

“Oh! Did you—”

“No,” Devon cut in. “Just tell them, Madd. Or they’ll keep guessing stupid shit.”

Totally would. I wondered if cow drool was bad for healing tats. At least it was the Xavi hand.

“We’ve… there’s an option to…” Maddox scowled.

“Ohhhh,” Nate marvelled. “A nervous Maddox. Welcome back.”

“Back?” he scoffed. “Fuck you. Look, we’ve been given an opportunity that we never saw coming and definitely don’t deserve, and… we want to talk to you about it.”

They looked serious. And stressed. And maybe a little overwhelmed, so I pulled my fingers from the calf’s mouth, sat down next to Nate, and gave them my full attention. “We’re listening.”

“Pete is old,” Maddox started. “Doesn’t have any kids.”

“Rude.”

“Christ, boy,” Pete said, walking into the barn in dirty jeans and a flannel shirt. “Useless with words, this one.” He nodded at Maddox.

“Always has been,” I agreed, getting up to shake Pete’s hand. Nate did the same.

“Heard you don’t love your job,” Pete said to me. I wasn’t sure if it was a question or not, but I swallowed in nervousness.

“I don’t… it’s… yeah, I like it.”

“Liar.” Nate laughed at me, gripping my hand. I linked our fingers. “It’s okay, Xav. I know it wasn’t your dream.”

“But I like working with you,” I told him. I didn’t hate the shop. It was a job, same as every other job I’d had. It was fine. I never bitched about it, so how did they know?

“As this one said, I’m getting old,” Pete told me. “Need more help around here.”

I took the chicken from Nate’s lap and hugged it. My comfort chicken. “You’re offering me a job?” On a farm? Working with my brother? Why did that sound so perfect?

“You two are all the fuck over each other. All the time,” Devon cut in, pointing a finger between me and Nate. “You need some separation or you’re going to kill each other.”

I disagreed about the killing, but the rest…

“A job,” Pete cut in. “With the potential for more.”

“More?” I liked to think of myself as a pretty perceptive guy when it came to some things, but whatever they were trying to tell me wasn’t penetrating my thick skull. I hugged the chicken tighter, petting its head while it pecked at my t-shirt.

“I’m gonna die someday,” Pete said. “Want to leave this place to someone who cares about it. Someone who won’t rip it down and turn it into a winery or some lame petting zoo for city slickers.”

I looked at Maddox, waiting for him to fill in the gaps. Because…no. No fucking way. I hadn’t done shit in my life to earn a farm. Barely even knew anything about farms and how they ran, but… no! “You’re immortal,” I told Pete. “You won’t die.”

He barked out a gruff-sounding laugh. “Yeah, immortal. Wanna live on through this place. Which is why I want to leave it to someone who knows what it means to me.” He squeezed Maddox’s shoulder, and the two of them stood there looking awkward but comfortable in it. “Want a job here to decide if you and your brother can handle it when I’m eventually gone?”

Yes.“Don’t you want to sell it and live out your final years in luxury?”

“This is luxury,” he said. “I ain’t dying anytime soon if I have anything to say about it.”

“Accept the job, Xav,” Maddox said to me. “We can figure out the rest later.”

The rest.Meaning a contract in place, put into Pete’s final will and testament, stating that the farm belonged to us after his death. I was a trailer park boy with a shitty upbringing, money struggles, and a lack of hopes and dreams. But I was also a mentor to Karen, a guy with a fancy fridge, a door to knock on, and a lucky enough bastard to have found love with my best friend. Karma wasn’t often on my side, so I was skeptical of that bitch fooling me, but did I deserve all these things?

---