Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 69534 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69534 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
I got up and headed toward the bar that separated the diners from the back of the building.
Milena patted Searcy on the arm and walked toward me, a smile on her face.
I didn’t return that smile and moved past her while reaching for my wallet.
I pulled out a hundred and fifty bucks and handed it over. “I’m paying for everyone at the table. I don’t know how much it is, but this should cover it.”
Searcy took the money and said, “Was the food bad?”
“The food was fine,” I said. “Thanks.”
She frowned at me, but I didn’t stay to talk.
I headed out the door to my bike.
Taking off, I headed back to the ranch and did what I said I was going to do.
Got ready for a long ass day.
Hours later, when the night was so dark that I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face, I once again questioned my life decisions.
Cutter, Chevy and I had worked all day getting the cows finished up.
The women had helped with the vaccinating and the branding, but they hadn’t wanted to cut any testicles off.
My phone beeped, and I picked it up and glanced at the screen.
Scottie:
How’d today go?
Me:
Questioning my life choices. Are you sure you want this ranch?
It wasn’t a joke, either.
She must’ve realized it, too, because she replied seriously.
Scottie:
Not if you’re going to work yourself to death.
I sighed, wondering how to answer that.
Maybe the issue today was more hands on deck.
Yates had been there, as had Yates’s brother, Bridge.
But a lot of my hands had left for college or headed back to high school, leaving me a fuck of a lot shorthanded.
I had the money.
The ranch was doing good, other than needing a shit ton of work.
Maybe the choice here was to outsource the help.
Scottie:
You’ve already accomplished so much. Sell the cows, then put the place on the market.
She made it sound so damn easy.
Me:
I don’t think I’m going to ever be able to sell this place. I’d feel like I was letting Dad down.
Scottie:
Dad felt the same way. And where did that get him?
She had me there.
Me:
Go to bed. Don’t you have an eight o’clock class in the morning?
Scottie:
Yes, what was I thinking?
Grinning, I sent her a goodnight text, then sat up out of the hay that I’d collapsed in the moment my help went home.
I’d been lying there dozing for hours.
But my stomach reminded me that I seriously needed to get my shit together and grab something to eat, or I’d regret it in the morning.
But when I got into the kitchen to check out my fridge, I realized another problem.
Scottie wasn’t here to do the grocery shopping anymore, meaning my entire fridge was empty sans for a soured jug of milk.
Fuck.
Eleven
Ehhh, good enough.
—Mediocrates
SEARCY
I’d been thinking about him all day, and I was questioning life.
He’d left abruptly today, not even finishing his meal.
I’d watched him out of the corner of my eye as he started eating, loving that he’d enjoyed his food so much here.
Only, after the cute woman that belonged to the angry looking biker that’d come in last came up to order food, his entire demeanor had changed.
I’d loved the photo she’d shared with me of Doc and the woman’s—I couldn’t remember her name for the life of me—baby in his arms.
They’d both been asleep on the couch in what looked to be the middle of a party.
Both of them had been snoozing away, despite the chaos going around them.
Something had changed in me in that moment.
Seeing him with a baby on his chest had made me want that so badly that I couldn’t breathe for a few seconds.
I also realized that the distance that he kept from the woman that’d been on his bike screamed platonic, not relationship, making me breathe easier since I’d seen them on the back of his bike together.
But before I could say anything to the man in any way, he’d shoved a hundred and fifty bucks at me and walked out.
The men that’d been at the table with him had stayed long enough to finish their food and leave a generous tip, making it possible for me to be where I was now.
The beep-beep of the grocery checkout was a constant hum in my head as I moved up and down the aisles of Walmart.
I had less than an hour to get everything picked out and check out because they closed in forty-nine minutes.
I’d have been here earlier, but the grease guys stopped by an hour late, and we couldn’t work tomorrow if we didn’t get the old grease emptied.
Then, after they’d come and gone, I’d found a leak in a water pipe in the bathrooms when I was cleaning them. Which had then prompted me to make a trip to Lowe’s.
I’d gotten that fixed up by the old dad on YouTube that taught kids who didn’t have dads how to navigate life—I used his YouTube videos a lot.