Alex

SHE WAS BACK.

I saw the rental drive past at dinner time on the Monday and I felt happy to see it. It was a strange feeling as where there used to be dread was replaced with curiosity. Every time I saw Lacey I always wondered what she would do next, and she always managed to surprise me. I knew she was cooking something up with Mabel and she hadn’t mentioned what since I had kept my distance after our night together.

At breakfast, Tuesday, she turned up as usual in jeans and a floaty, black shirt. I watched her walk to the kitchen, but she didn’t even glance my way, “Boss is back.” Johnny said with a grin and I turned back to face him.

“Yup,” I nodded and looked back down to the oatmeal. She was in the kitchen a while, so I finished up and walked to the open back door. Most people has spilled outside, but she was sat at the kitchen table, Sara was next to her leaning over to look at something on her phone and Logan was stood by her side.

“Who’s that?” I heard him say.

“This little kid right here is Evie and the little boy is Monty,” she glanced up as I stood in the doorway and I smiled. She smiled back and looked down to the phone.

“So you guys went on a boat?” Logan asked. I walked to the coffee pot and poured myself another drink.

“You want one, Lacey?” I asked her, noticing her coffee had receded a little.

“I could get a top up,” she smiled. “Here look, this is the boat.” She showed them a picture.

“Wow, I love that. It’s like something a celebrity would own,” Sara said. “I love your dress, it’s so short. I couldn’t wear that with my huge legs.”

“Oh, you have tiny legs, shut up.” Lacey then glanced at me and I gave what I thought was a reassuring smile again. She probably felt awkward after the whole makeup and short skirt debacle.

I reached for her mug and tried to get a glance at the pictures. I didn’t see anything and certainly not a super short skirt. “Did you guys eat caviar?” Logan asked.

“What do you know about caviar?” Lacey teased with a smile and poked his stomach. 

“I know it's fish eggs and rich people eat it on boats,” he said with honesty.

“Gross, Logan, you goon,” Sara added with venom, “Lacey would not eat that.”

“I’ve tried it,” she told them both with a nod. I placed her mug back down and took a seat at the table opposite Lacey.

“Let’s see then,” I nodded towards the cell and Lacey looked up at me with narrowed eyes, surprise and apprehension on her face.

“Erm,” she twisted the phone and passed it to me. “The boat is the first picture I passed you then scroll right.”

I took the phone and saw a huge white yacht that looked like something out of a movie, “Wow.” I looked up to see all three of them watching me, then I scrolled the phone and saw more pictures and one of Lacey in a short red dress. She looked phenomenal. There were kids and lots of people, all smiling—her people.

“Looks like you had a great time.” Of course she did, she always did.

“We did. What did you guys do?” she asked, looking to the kids as I passed the phone back to her.

“Nothing,” Sara shrugged, “we don’t ever do much for holidays.”

“You don’t?” Lacey’s face dropped, “that’s no fun.” She stuck her bottom lip out and then looked at me, “we could have a late fourth barbeque?”

“Yessss,” Logan said.

“I bet I can whip some fun food up and we can make burgers and hot dogs,” she grinned and looked at me for agreement.

“Sure,” I nodded, “we can do that.”

“Can Taylor come?” Sara asked me, referring to her best friend who lived in town.

“Sure,” I nodded.

“Can she sleep over?” Sara rushed out, pushing the limits, as I was giving an inch she was taking a mile.

“Okay,” I nodded and shook my head at Lacey.

“I hope you know what you took on.”

She grinned and nodded, “Sure, it’s only a little barbeque, do you have a grill?”

“Somewhere out there. We can go into town later and get coals and meat and stuff.” I said.

“Great.” She looked so beautiful when she smiled. The weekend had refreshed her, she looked more polished again if that was possible. “Mabel?” She shouted across the kitchen, “can you and Eric come to dinner here tonight?” she asked.

“Oh,” Mabel turned away from the sink, “sure erm...” She looked to me and I nodded. “I’ll make some sweet treats.”

“Great.”

“Yessss,” Logan said again, running around the kitchen, “we’re having a party.”

“I’m riding out this morning if you feel like a ride?” I said, standing and giving her a curt nod.

“I do,” she said in the sweet voice she had, “and I can fill you in on my plans.” She gave a wry grin, and I nodded. I hated to admit that I’d missed having her around and although I was nothing like her fancy friends, I could show her a good time, or at least try.

An hour later we were riding out on Bullseye and Crystal. She seemed more at ease in the saddle than I had seen before and she was petting Crystal like she was her own horse. I guess she was now she owned the place... We took a different route this time. I wanted to check how the guys were getting on over Byron’s way. My grandpa explained the naming of the field clusters to me years ago; they were named after our ancestors and mapped out using the stars. I could never be sure as an adult that my grandpa had told me truth or stuff to excite me when I was a kid. I kept to his traditions regardless.

We changed to a walk with the horses when we neared where I wanted to be. I passed her a bottle of water, “So you had a good weekend?” I asked. It was a leading question I guess, but it had been so long since I’d actually cared about someone’s answer that I had forgotten how to ask a question without sounding desperate. It was best not to sleep with the boss, but I couldn’t help that the fact she’d taken my rejection so easy, left me intrigued.

“It was good,” she gave me a smile from where Crystal walked beside us. “Great to see my bestie and her family but I guess bittersweet as it makes me remember having a husband.” She didn’t look my way at that point.

“Really? You miss him? I can’t imagine you missing anyone, you’re so... tough,” I watched for a reaction.

She gave a quick laugh, “I am tough but when everyone has someone, you miss the last one even if it wasn’t right.”

“So... it really wasn’t right, huh?” I probed, wondering why I really cared.

“He wanted kids,” she laughed that hollow laugh again. “I guess now he’s having one, so that worked out.” She sighed.

“You don’t want kids?” I asked.

“Um...”                     

“You don’t have to answer,” I rushed out, realizing all too quickly how personal that was.

“No, it’s okay. I do, or I did when we got married, but we worked fifty-hour weeks and weekends and in order to have kids one career would have to go and it was assumed to be mine.”

“Right.” I got it, she didn’t want to give up everything she had to be a mom.

“If I was gonna be a mom, I wanted to be one like mine, always there: at the plays, sports events, dance recitals, and if we were doing that, then I wanted him to be home too.” She blew out a breath, “he didn’t want to move out of the city and regardless of my job, not having a partner to live that life with would have been too hard.”

“So you wanted him home for dinner?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she nodded and grinned at me, “I guess, but he wanted the money and the lifestyle and in the end I couldn’t give him what he wanted.”

“I always thought I’d have kids and a family when I was with Amber. That was our plan, but having these two...” I pulled my mouth up at one side, “it’s made me think twice.”

“Being a brother has to be different, right?” she added in a soft tone.

“It’s hard work,” I sighed, “like twenty-four-seven hard and they are grown.” I looked ahead as we walked. “Glad you had a good break, all looks a little more highbrow that this place.”

“Yeah,” she grinned, “but this place is growing on me.” She leaned forward to pat Crystal, “the lack of bullshit and who wore what better sure helps.”

I nodded and repositioned my hat as I wiped a little sweat away with my shirt sleeve, “This place is addictive, you may never want to leave.”

She threw her head back in a laugh, “I said growing on me, don’t be ridiculous.”

We checked on the guys I wanted to see and made sure everything was running smoothly. I didn’t ride out too much but what started as a distraction to keep her out of the office, had become a way to enjoy her company. Lacey was good fun. She kept the conversation flowing and seeing her riding a horse and relaxed as hell was also very appealing. On the way back, I asked if she wanted to stop for a snack and some water. She agreed, and we settled against a fence and I passed her a bottle of water. I’d avoided her after we’d had sex because I thought things would be weird, but I actually felt strangely relaxed.

“Were you serious about buying the farm back?” she asked before taking a glug of the water.

“Um...” I felt a little off guard at her comment. “If I could ever afford it,” I shrugged, “but all these changes you wanna make might push that price right up.” I repeated her words from before and leveled my eyes with hers and drank my own water.

“You have any other way to make money?” she asked bluntly.

“I have a little side business,” I looked at her from the corner of my eye to gauge her reaction.

“Oh yeah? You make six figures?”

“Nope,” she was making fun of me, so I decide not to take it any further.

“I could triple what you make,” she added fiercely, sitting up straighter and giving me a hard stare.

“You don’t even know what I do.” I shook my head.

“But I know what I do and whatever you make I could triple it in six months,” she added eagerly.

“Bullshit,” I swiped my mouth with the back of my hand.

“I shit you not. Listen, I might look like a prom queen but I’m a whiz with numbers and I have an eye for an investment. I made partner at my old firm within five years which is unheard of. I am the best asset manager they ever had, and I have a knack for making money... I could help you.”

“Why?” I asked in disbelief.

“I usually take fifteen percent, but I’ll take five and I get you love this place and quite frankly, you’ve suffered enough.” She nodded at her decision on the last part. “You do a fantastic job, Alex. The figures I’ve seen speak for themselves and the kids... God, you are pretty amazing.”

I felt awkward, embarrassed even at the praise. No one ever praised me. I guess it wasn’t something I chose, just something I lived with. “I just do my job and I wouldn’t send the kids anywhere else,” I added, almost offended that she would think otherwise. “So, you would invest my profit?” I asked.

“Uh huh,” she nodded. “If you’re interested, then we can go over your likely profit and stuff like that,” she swatted the air. “Or if you have any other capital I can help with that.”

I narrowed my eyes, “I’ll think about it.”

“I’m not a hustler, Alex. I think you can see I do alright,” she sipped her water again and kept her blue eyes trained on me.

“Sure,” I added my mind whirring at the thought of how much I could make.

 

We got back to the house after lunch and as I walked into the kitchen, she followed. “You want a sandwich?” I asked her.

“Nah,” she shook her head, “I’ll go into town and get the food for tonight, if we’re still barbequing?”

“Sure,” I nodded. “You want me to drive you?”

“Don’t you have a ton of stuff to do?” she asked, and I thought about the million and one things I needed to do. Just then Bear ran up to my side, closely followed by Logan cantering just behind. I had everything to do, but it was Lacey I wanted to go into town with.

“Hey,” Logan said out of breath as he came to a stop by the side of Bear, “you guys back?” he asked.

“Sure, I’m gonna head into town to get stuff for our fourth cook out, you have any preferences?” Lacey asked with a smile and I looked to Logan who jumped a little beside me.

“Marshmallows, chocolate cake and apple strudel.” He said, thinking about it as he dropped down to hug Bear, “that everything, boy?” he asked him.

“I think we may need some actual food, Logan,” I added, also dropping down to pet Bear, “I guess I should come to make sure you don’t buy junk.”

“You don’t trust I know good nutrition?” Lacey asked with her hand on her hip.

“I don’t see you eat a lot at all and we need quantity,” I added with a slight smile and she nodded.

“Right,” she walked forward and just then Johnny showed up behind me walking from the office. “Hey, Johnny,” she waved, “we’re gonna have a cook out tonight if you wanted to stop by?”

I narrowed my eyes at her and she shrugged in question, furrowing her brow.

“Yeah?” he asked, looking over at me. “Should I ask Vi?”

“Um,” Vi was his girlfriend, and she’d also gone to high school with me, “um yeah, we’ll start about six.”

“Cool,” he nodded on a grin. “You inviting everyone?”

“Um,” I looked at Lacey and the stress of his suggestion almost made my head explode.

“Not this time,” Lacey added with a sweet smile that would instantly relax a serial killer on bathsalts, “just you and Vi, Eric and Mabel, and us.” She added her authoritative nod at the end and Johnny grinned.

“Sounds great, we’ll bring beer, anything else?”

“I think we’ll be all set,” Lacey wiped her hands together in a gesture that meant business. “We better get started.” She widened her eyes and I couldn’t help but give her a tug of a grin at the enthusiasm.

“I’ll go tell Sara we’re going into town,” Logan shot off into the house.

“Looks like it’ll be a full truck,” I shrugged at her and she cocked her head to the side.

“Perfect,” Johnny looked between us both and then moved into the kitchen to get a coffee, or whatever treats may be lurking in there. We all took it in turns to walk down there throughout the day and take a trayful back. Johnny knew me better than anyone and his wary look that only I could see as he disappeared inside said it all. He wondered why I was being so pally with the owner and Johnny being Johnny, probably suspected that I had well and truly tapped that.