Chapter Four
Hollis
When Eddie left for the day, I couldn’t help but stew. My life had not turned out how I’d expected. Every day that I wasn’t in the military, I felt farther and farther adrift. I’d planned my whole life around being a soldier. Now it was as if I had nothing. Well, I had Jada. She kept me sane. She was my only connection to my former life, and the only part of my new life that made any sense.
The farming operation gave me purpose, but it also filled me with doubt. I’d saved all my military pay and sunk it into equipment and supplies. If my venture didn’t work out, I’d be broke, with no prospects for a job. I tried not to think about that too often. I told myself that success was my only option. How I’d gotten myself into my current situation, I did not know.
When I got out of Silver Valley, I swore that I would never come back. I’d left ten years ago when I got on a plane for training, and I thought I’d been looking at Silver Valley for the last time. Then, I’d had to hang my head in shame and come back. My parents’ house had been my only possible place to live after my discharge. I hadn’t had any job prospects because I still had a lot of recovering to do, and I couldn’t turn down a free house.
I never anticipated how much it would cost. I’d hoped that after serving my country honorably, the people of Silver Valley would overlook their reasons for hating my family. I’d been wrong. They’d done everything they could, aside from Fanny up the road, to make my life as miserable as possible.
At some point, I’d decided to dig in my heels and stay. Sure, I could have sold the house and land and started my farming operation somewhere else, but why should I?
With everything negative that I had going on in my life, the last thing I needed was to want Eddie. It wasn’t fair to him. He was young and had chances I no longer had, so it wouldn’t be right to drag him into my life beyond giving him a job.
The problem was that I suspected he wanted me too. The way I’d catch him stealing glances at me. The way he blushed when we spoke. I could read the signs. I should have fired him.
It wasn’t fair to keep him and it wasn’t fair to fire him either. Eddie wasn’t at fault for my problems, and he needed a job. I required the help. But being with him in any way beyond a work relationship would ruin Eddie. My problems were more than any Omega needed, and the people of Silver Valley would turn on him too.
As if on cue, I heard tires squeal and glass breaking. I ran outside to see a black pickup truck speeding away. I only got a partial license plate number before they were too far away for me to see.
Jada barked and tried to give chase, but I called her back. I didn’t want her getting hurt if they decided to wheel around and come back for a second pass.
The glass they’d broken was from one of my auxiliary green houses. My main warehouse was too far off the main road for anyone to damage it without driving onto my property, but several of my secondary green houses were close enough for vandals to drive by and throw bricks through the glass.
It happened so often that I kept a supply of plywood and plastic sheeting on hand. Once it appeared the truck wasn’t coming back for an encore, I set to work patching the damage as quickly as possible. I’d call the sheriff in the morning, but I already knew it wouldn’t do much good. The police would most likely take a report and then do nothing. That’s what they’d done the last few times.
Jada whined.
“Come on, girl,” I said. “Let’s go have some dinner and get those dishes done.”
I went back into the house and put a premade veggie lasagna in the oven. While it baked, I pulled out my laptop and dusted it off. The internet connection wasn’t great, but it was good enough for me to peruse video security equipment. I’d been contemplating installing cameras, but I wasn’t sure it would do any good. Even if I had video evidence of the vandals’ identity, would the police care?