Page 19 of An Unfinished Memory

Guilt gnawed a hole in my gut. My appetite ebbed. Eliot counted on me. Barns had left a financial mess behind. Cody was repairing what he could, but his main focus was the actual moneymaker, Knight’s Oil Wells. He’d cut back on his role with the ranch since he’d moved, remarried, and had another kid on the way. Eliot was able to hire a trustworthy bookkeeper at basement rates. To afford him, I helped with the cattle side.

I went into the house, preparing to get hit with the cigar and whiskey smell left over from Barns. Old habits. The place didn’t smell the same, and it didn’t look the same. Eliot had brightened the paint on the walls, changed out the cattle skull and antler decorations for vivid landscape snapshots on aluminum, and replaced all the furniture with a neat bachelor style that saidsingle man with tasteinstead ofbachelor in the sticks.

The apple pie scent was new. I found the source on the island in the kitchen. A pie with two slices missing.

Albert Chambers shuffled out of the hallway where my brother Cody’s office used to be. The new bookkeeper.

“Hey, Chambers.” Chambers used to be our history teacher and football coach, and his wife, Roxie, had taught English. After high school, Mr. Chambers had become Chambers. I saw him around town and never imagined he’d be a fixture in thehouse I grew up in.

“Wilder,” he said, always sounding mildly surprised to see me. “Busy night?”

“You have no idea,” I said, poking around the fridge. “Roxie make the pie?”

“Yes, she’s determined to fatten that boy up.” He chuffed. “I keep telling her the Knight kids aren’t boys anymore.”

“Eliot could use some sweetness, though.” I set my sandwich supplies on the counter and slid the bread closer.

Chambers chuckled. “That attitude’s a family trait no pie can run off.” He leaned across the island. “I came to sneak a slice, thinking Eliot was back to work.”

I pushed the pie toward him. “He won’t mind.”

Eliot would insist. He was a cranky bastard some days, but he took care of everyone.

Chambers moved around the kitchen like it was his own, getting himself a plate and fork.

“How are the grandkids?” I asked. The Chamberses had two kids. Eliot and I had been good friends with their son. The daughter was younger than both of us, but Eliot had probably known her better since he was closer friends with the brother more than I was. Between the two kids, the Chamberses had three grandkids.

“Good, good. Meredith is bringing Kaden out for a week before school starts.” He chopped into the pie. “Unless that idiot husband of hers has something to say about it.”

I bit back a smile. Mr. Chambers was a mild-mannered man—unless he was talking about his son-in-law. I didn’t know the guy’s name. Every time Chambers talked about him he said “Big shot banker thinks his shitdon’t stink.”“I’ll give Kaden a ride in my squad car again if he wants.”

Chambers plopped a large hunk of pie on his plate, then grabbed a second plate. “You can give Mr. Hoity-Toity a ride,” he grumbled. The second piece of pie was slid in my direction. He scooped up his plate and held it at chest level while he sawed off a bite-sized piece. “So, how are you really doing?”

I skipped my sandwich and went right for the pie. My lack of truth could use some sugaring too. “Surprisingly well.” The entire drive back I fought to keep from pondering whether it was possible to repair my marriage. Then I’d remind myself the marriage was over. The emptiness would return, and then I’d remember we had plans to meet again.

Not only were we divorced, she had her own business in another town. A vet clinic she’d built from the ground up and was already thriving from what my sister and Cody had said. She wasn’t tied to Knight’s Arabians and Cattle Company like I was, and she’d likely never agree to work for the family ranch again. There was already a vet clinic in Buffalo Gully, and the town was too small to support another. The Cleavers, the owners of the other vet clinic, made sure of it. They were some of the ill will my father had caused, and Sutton’s dreams of running her own place had been stalled because of it.

“You look better,” he said, narrowing his eyes. “You seeing someone?”

I froze mid chew. “Uh…” I swallowed hard. “No. Why?” I’d stopped at home to change. Her underwear was in my laundry. Seeing her clothing mingled with mine had left me staring into my dirty hamper for far too damn long.

“Just have that look about you. You Knight boys were always shit at trying to hide something.”

“You can blame Barns. He was proud of everything he did—right or wrong, but especially if it was wrong. Me and my siblings didn’t learn how to handle guilt.”

“Well,” he said around another mouthful. “Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it. Roxie and I have been pretty worried about you.”

Seemed to be the theme of everyone around me. They were worried about me. Sutton was right to be concerned. What would they think of her for sleeping with me?

“Thanks.” I planned to keep doing who I was doing.

We ate our dessert in silence, and I considered Chambers. Roxie was Chambers’s first and only wife. They raised two kids and were half-assed retired and entertained their grandkids whenever possible.

In my line of work, I dealt with the ugliness in life—including the dark side of bad relationships. My personal life was pristine compared to many, but my youth hadn’t been happy and carefree. Barnaby and Birdie Knight’s drama was enough to keep me and my siblings out of the spotlight.

Eliot and Austen weren’t married. Aggie and Cody were finally each in the type of happy relationship we should’ve witnessed growing up. I’d seen enough shitty relationships, did the paperwork on them to know what they had wasn’t the standard. It was the dream.

Dreams evaporated when you opened your eyes. But some of them became real. How?

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