Chapter Nineteen
Grant
“Good morning! You’re still up early even though you had such a late night,” my brother said as he saw me walking down the stairs.
I laughed. “I know. I wanted to sleep in, but my body seems programmed now to get up at this time.”
“Welcome to my world. Anyway, I’m glad you’re up. I need to ask you a favor.”
“You do? Ask away.”
“Well, any chance you can help at the ranch today? I need help bailing hay. One of the other guys that was supposed to help me called in sick. He never calls in sick, so I know it must be bad. I could use the help.”
“Of course, man. I don’t mind helping at all. I’ve got nothing else to do today, anyway.”
I was just glad it wasn’t the following weekend when I needed to help Emily out. This weekend I could do. And I wasn’t lying; I really had nothing else to do with my day. I’d hoped to sleep in, but that hadn’t happened, anyway. And the money was pretty good on the ranch when you worked weekends.
“Great, I’m on my way there now. Help yourself to food and meet me there?”
“Perfect. I won’t be long.”
After a quick bite to eat and two cups of coffee, I made my way over to meet up with Brady, and I started working immediately. While we worked, he asked me all about my date with Emily.
“You came home late,” he said.
“Uh, yeah. We went for dinner, and then I spent some time at Terra’s house with her.”
“Oh yeah? How’s Terra doing?”
“Oh, she’s fine. I mean, I only saw her before the date when I went to pick up Emily. She actually went to see her mom and spent the night there.”
Brady laughed. “So, let me get this straight. You spent the evening at Terra’s house without Terra?”
“Yep,” I said without saying anything else.
“Oh, come on. Something had to have happened then.”
“What do you mean? It was only our second date,” I said innocently.
But Brady was my brother and knew me too well. “Then why can’t you stop smiling? Go on, spill the beans. You know I’ll keep asking until you do.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, we got together.”
“You slept together? Stop beating around the bush. I want facts, man.”
“We slept together,” I said and laughed. “And it was amazing!”
“I’m sure it was. You haven’t been laid in a long time.”
“That’s true. But that wasn’t why it was amazing. Let me just say that Emily might be sweet to the rest of the world, but she’s a very different person in bed. Did you know she has two tattoos?”
“I didn’t know. Where?”
“On her ribs and on her back. Beautiful.”
“I guess she saves that for the men she sleeps with. Lucky you.”
I thought about Emily’s naked body and quickly tried to push the thought away. “Lucky me,” I said. “She’s incredible.”
“You seem to really like her.”
“I do. A lot. Look, the sex was amazing, and I’m dying to do it again. But it’s more than that. I get along so well with her. She’s the easiest person to talk to. And she’s very easy on the eyes.”
“So you’re going to see her again?”
“Of course I am. I’m actually helping her next Saturday when she moves into her new house.”
“I’m sure you’ll be doing more than just helping her move.”
“Let’s hope so,” I said and grinned.
For a while we worked in silence, working with the hay bales. I was so lost in thought about Emily that I didn’t mind the silence at all. It was Brady who broke it. He stopped and looked at me with a concerned look on his face.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked him.
“Just be careful, okay.”
“Careful? Of what?”
“I know you like Emily, and I’m sure she likes you. But just be careful. She’s a nice girl, but it’s obvious that someone is upset with her. I mean, come on dude, someone burned down her house. If there’s someone out there that would go to those lengths to get back at her, you know it’s got to be bad. And do you really think they’re going to do that and then just walk away? They’re probably watching her. They probably know that you are now sleeping with her. Just be careful. Don’t get involved in something like this. You’ve had to go through enough shit in your life. You don’t need this too.”
“You really think someone cares about me being with her? I don’t think we’re being watched. In fact, we’re not even a hundred percent sure that it really was arson. That’s just what we were told.”
“Your chief told you that. He’s not the sort of guy that bullshits people. If he told you that then it was because it was true. Anyway, just be careful. This is a small town. People talk.”
I sighed. “Sure, I’ll be careful. I promise.” But I wasn’t really that worried. Brady was just being paranoid. He’d been living in a small town by himself for far too long. I liked Emily, and she liked me. I didn’t see any reason why the two of us couldn’t be together. And how did we know that the arson wasn’t just some random act of violence by some madman? Maybe it had nothing to do with her. I wasn’t going to stop seeing her just because of that. And even if someone did do it on purpose, then I wanted to make sure that she had someone by her side to protect her. I was more than happy to be that man.
It was a particularly hot day, and working all day on the ranch had me exhausted. I was happy when Brady called it a day.
“Oh, I forgot to tell you. Harold called a little while ago. He’s coming over to do a few things on the ranch. He’s probably already here. He wanted to know if we were up for meeting him for a beer. Want to join?”
I wiped my forehead with my shirt and nodded. “I’d do anything for a cold beer right about now.”
Harold was waiting for us when we arrived and the moment we sat down, two beers were placed in front of us.
“I figured you’d want a cold one as you got here. Today is so hot.”
“Thank you,” I said and took a grateful sip while Brady did the same.
“I’ve got to hand it to you boys. It’s not easy working out on the ranch all day, but it’s even harder when the weather is like this. You boys did well. I’m very impressed.”
“Ah, it’s no problem at all. I love it,” Brady said.
Harold sighed. “I have to say. Sometimes I’m a little jealous of the two of you. I mean, you’re doing what you love. You’re out there on the field. I miss my ranch days.”
“You could still come out though,” I said.
Harold laughed. “Have you seen me walk around? Or should I say, have you seen me hobble around? Nah, my body is just not what it used to be. I battle now. But I sure do miss it. I miss having something to do all day. You know, I might have a lot of money, but sometimes it all seems a little pointless. I’m going to have to find a good hobby to get into. I can’t sit around at home all day.”
“No girlfriends running around your mansion?” Brady said and chuckled.
“I’m not exactly Hugh Hefner, you know. But no, no girlfriends. I’m not sure I could handle being with a woman again now that my wife has gone. It’s two years this week, you know. Two years. I can’t believe how quick it’s gone.”
I didn’t know much about Harold’s life. I figured he didn’t have a wife, but I didn’t know that she had passed away two years ago. “I’m so sorry,” I said to him. “I didn’t realize.”
“Sorry? For what?” Harold asked. He seemed genuinely confused by my statement.
“For your wife passing away. I’m so sorry to hear it. I didn’t realize. How long were the two of you married for?”
“Too damn long if you ask me,” he boomed and took me completely by surprise. That was not the answer that I had been expecting.
“Too long?” I said to him with raised eyebrows.
“You try and be married to a woman like that for thirty years. It was a nightmare. It was the longest thirty years of my life. And she was impossible to divorce. I knew it would’ve been more hassle than it was worth. The only thing that I had going for me was my ranch, which is probably why it’s done so well. I put everything I had into that place. I tell you what, between you and me, her passing away was the best thing that could’ve happened to me.”
I gulped. I wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that. Brady was chuckling away, and it was clear that he’d heard it all before. But what was I supposed to say? It wasn’t exactly like I could tell him that I was happy for him. I just took a sip of my beer and hoped he wasn’t expecting me to say anything.
“I’d rather have nobody than be with a woman like that.”
“I’m sure there are plenty other women around that you’d actually want to be with,” I said helpfully.
He laughed. “Have you looked around this town? Choices are slim pickings here. You obviously haven’t been here long enough to realize that. And anyway, some people are just better off on their own, don’t you think?”
I didn’t think that. I believed that everyone deserved to find true love. I believed that everyone was happier when they found someone to share that with. But I had a feeling he wouldn’t take too kindly to me saying that. So I just nodded.
“Sure,” I said. “To each their own, I always say.”
“I know it sounds horrible for me to say I was happy when she died. I’m making it sound worse than it was. I didn’t actually want her to die. But I was a miserable old man before. Ask Brady; he remembers me then. I used to come to the ranch all the time just to escape her nagging. This place was my saving grace. But for the past few years, I’ve never felt freer. Now, the next thing for me to do is to find a hobby that I enjoy. Beer drinking as a hobby is sounding good right about now,” he said and took a big swig of his beer.
“Yeah, I must say, you’re much happier now. And far more pleasant to be around,” Brady said and laughed. Harold laughed with him, and I wondered what was so funny about being happy to be alone. I drank my beer and kept my thoughts to myself.
“I think Brady here is very much like me,” Harold said confidently. “Very much like me. Sometimes he feels like my son.”
“He is?” I asked. I looked toward Brady, and he was nodding. It made me uncomfortable to think of Brady wanting to be like Harold. He was a nice man, but he was clearly not the happiest.
“Oh yeah. I never plan on getting married. I’m happy just to be left alone out on the ranch doing my own thing. Living my own life. That’s who I am, it’s who I’ve always been, and it’s who I will continue to be.”
Perhaps that was the Brady everyone knew today, but it wasn’t the Brady I knew from long ago. But I didn’t say anything. Instead, I ordered another beer and promptly changed the subject.