Moose was in the middle of pulling out a sickle bar when his cell phone vibrated against his hip, letting out two soft bell tones that indicated whoever was calling, they were on his contact list.

Shit. He was already in deep trouble with his father for being hours late to work that morning; as he’d pessimistically expected, his father hadn’t considered trying to save Georgia’s life as being a valid excuse for Moose’s tardiness. Moose had been keeping a low profile ever since, trying to stay out of the line of fire and out of sight of his father; all he needed now was to be caught standing around, jawing on the phone while he was supposed to be working.

But on the other hand, it was someone he knew; not just a telemarketer or salesman…

He snatched the phone out of the holder and swiped to answer before it could go to voicemail.

“This is Moose,” he said, ducking behind a combine as he did so. Maybe he’d luck out and could hide from his father’s eagle eyes.

“Hey, it’s Jaxson. I have a favor to ask of you – Georgia is down here, hoping to catch a ride out to her car. I’m the only one here, or I’d have someone else take her, and I can’t do it because I need to go home and check on Sugar. She keeps telling me that she’s okay, but I think she’d say that even if one of her limbs had been somehow chopped off, Monty-Python-and-the-Holy-Grail style. ‘It’s just a flesh wound,’” he said in an atrocious English accent, mimicking the famous fight scene from the cult classic.

Moose let out a snort of laughter at that. He knew Sugar real well – they’d graduated from Sawyer together – and he figured that Jaxson just about had her pegged.

He could also replace the name “Sugar” with the name “Georgia,” and be just as correct.

Women…

“Anyway,” Jaxson continued, “I know you were late to work this morning and all, but I figured your dad understood under the circumstances, so I’m hoping he’ll be okay with you taking some time off this afternoon. It should be a quick trip.”

There was a rustle and some whispering, as if Jaxson had covered up the mic on his phone and was now chatting with Georgia, and then he whispered back, “It’s fine, don’t worry about it.” His mouth moved back to the phone and he said to Moose, “You good to head over here?”

Moose wasn’t sure whether to laugh or curse or cry or scream or…or thank God above because he had an excuse to go spend more time with Georgia. Of course, if he did this, there was a very good chance that his father wouldn’t be talking to him by the end of the day.

Somehow, in that moment, he just couldn’t seem to make himself care.

“Sure, sure, I’ll be right over,” he said, and hung up before he could change his mind.

Just as his finger was hitting the red button to end the call, he heard Jaxson saying, “I told y—” and then he was gone.

Moose would’ve laughed if he wasn’t so damn nervous. Georgia knew better than to ask him to leave work early, especially after coming to work late, but Jaxson…he probably thought that with Moose working for his father and all, he could skip in and out of work any ol’ time he wanted to.

And Moose wasn’t about to inform him otherwise. It was embarrassing enough to have a father who worked him like a slave. He wasn’t about to go advertising that fact to others.

He paused for a minute, considering tracking his father down and telling him that he was headed out the door, but he just couldn’t.

It wasn’t okay to sneak out the door. It wasn’t okay to leave a job half-done. Mr. Hoffmeister wanted his combine back, like, yesterday.

But it also wasn’t okay to be worked into the ground for the past 16 years. He was a grown-ass adult who was forced to live at home – who could be making more money down at Betty’s flipping burgers – and the only thing that had kept him there all this time was the dangling of the dealership in front of him. That prize was always held up as the ultimate in life; what he should spend every waking hour striving for. The last time they’d talked about it, his dad had told him just five more years, and he could take over.

But he’d said that before, and somehow, the timeline had moved on him.

Would it be moved again? How long could he survive before he broke into a million little pieces?

Screw it. He headed for the shop door, his hands sweaty as he practically ran out of the shop.

Freedom. It had never tasted so good.

His heart racing, he drove through town like nothing was wrong – like he hadn’t just escaped the dealership like a convicted criminal would make a run for it. It was perfectly normal for him to drive a friend out to pick up her car. It was perfectly normal for him to have spent the night underneath the stars, huddling together and keeping from freezing to death.

Okay, maybe not normal, but he knew they’d done nothing he wouldn’t have done within full view of 5000 of his closest friends. He had nothing to be ashamed of, or worried about. And right now, he was doing nothing more than driving a girl out to pick up her car. He wasn’t asking her to marry him or something.

So why did it feel so illicit?

Georgia’s head snapped up when he came walking into the fire station and she smiled nervously at him. She jumped off the tailgate of the water truck and came hurrying over. “I’m really sorry,” she called out as she headed his way. “I tried to tell Jaxson that your dad would kill you if you left work early after getting to work late, but he has some really naïve idea about you and your dad’s relationship and wouldn’t listen to me.”

She arrived – breathless – in front of him. Her hair was curled, she had makeup on, and no dirt anywhere. She looked gorgeous, of course, which did absolutely nothing for his self-control. He smiled down at her, his heart racing with happiness even as the worry gnawed at the edges. He pushed back at it, fighting it down. Worry be damned. He was with Georgia again, even if only for a minute.

“It’ll be fine,” he lied, pretty convincingly he thought. “I’m not even sure if Dad will notice.”

Two lies in less than 20 seconds. Nice…

He pushed that thought away, too.

“I’m assuming Jaxson already left to go check on Sugar?” he asked as they headed for the door.

She nodded. “He said you’d lock up after us, and he’d come back later.”

Moose pulled the door shut, locking the handle and the deadbolt with his key he’d been given as deputy fire chief, and then they were off, headed for his truck.

“How was your dad when you got to work?” Georgia asked as she slid into the passenger seat. He shut the door behind her and took his sweet time rounding the front of the truck to his side, trying to think of what to say.

“He was…Dad,” he said dismissively as he opened the driver’s side door and slid inside. “Just like your farming customers who are stuck in their ways, so is my dad. He won’t change.” He shrugged, as if the browbeating he’d taken that morning hadn’t stung. Hadn’t bothered him a bit. “He is Rocky Garrett. If you expect him to ever soften up, you’re gonna be sorely disappointed. So I don’t expect it.”

Georgia nodded, her gaze far away as she mulled over his words. “Your dad reminds me of my uncle,” she said softly as they turned to head out of town and towards the trailhead. “I guess it’s not surprising that they’re two peas in a pod.”

“They’re so much alike, they’d either hate each other’s guts, or be best friends,” Moose said dryly. “I’m not sure if I’m happy or sad that they ended up as golfing buddies and hunting buddies and go-to-coffee-together buddies and wed-our-children-to-each-other buddies.”

He was trying to pass that last part off as a joke, truly he was, but her little hiss of breath told him that she’d read right through that.

“It’s gotta be hard to have a force-of-nature father like that,” she said, her voice still quiet as she gazed out the window. They’d begun winding their way up through the foothills, but something told Moose that she wasn’t watching the scenery as it passed. “Especially with him holding the dealership hostage until you marry Tenny.”

“He what?!” Moose yelled, slamming on the brakes and stuttering to a stop in the middle of the road. He didn’t even care. It was a country road that’d probably had ten people drive on it today. He would stop wherever he damn well pleased.

He threw his truck into park and just stared across the console at Georgia. She stared back, eyes wide. “You don’t get the dealership until you marry Tennessee?” she repeated, but this time it was a question, not a statement.

“When did you hear that?” he demanded, adrenaline pouring through his veins. I’m gonna kill that son-of-a-bitch with my bare hands, I swear I will. I’ll tie him to a—

“It’s always been that way?” Her voice ended in a squeak this time. “Moose, please tell me you knew that.”

“Of course I didn’t know that!” he hollered, his voice echoing in the cab of the truck as the anger throbbed through him. “I was supposed to get the dealership in another five years. Where did you hear this?”

“Sunday dinner. You know I eat with Tennessee’s family every Sunday, right? We switch back and forth between her parent’s house and my parent’s house. Just last week, this came up at dinner again. Moose, I cannot believe you didn’t know that. It’s the way it’s been since the beginning. For years.” She was sputtering now, just staring at him, her eyes huge and pitying.

Pity…he hated seeing that. He didn’t want pity. He wanted revenge. Rage was boiling through his veins. Bastard, bastard, bastard.

Since all he wanted in life was to punch his father in the face but couldn’t since the man wasn’t exactly in the truck with them, he settled instead on putting the truck into gear and starting back up the winding hill.

“He’d told me it would be five years for a long time now,” he growled, more to himself than to her. He was talking through it, trying to figure out how he’d ended up in such a shitastic place. “It’s so ironic – I was just thinking this morning that I didn’t know if I could trust Dad that it really would be mine in five years, because he’d moved the fencepost a couple of times on me. But I thought he was moving the date back on me because he didn’t want to give up the reins and the power of owning it all, not that he was secretly requiring that I sell my soul to the company store before I could inherit.”

He let out a long sigh, trying to bring the rage under control and failing desperately. It was too strong, too overwhelming. The betrayal was too damn deep.

He whispered, “He knew that telling me who I could marry was a bridge too far, so he didn’t dare say this to my face. I wonder what he would’ve done if I’d brought home someone else as a fiancée? Would he have told me the truth then? I’ve always known marrying Tennessee was expected; I didn’t realize it was required.”

“Do you want to marry her?” Georgia demanded, turning in her seat to face him. “Do you want to marry Tennessee?”

Moose sucked in a deep breath. He hadn’t expected her to be so blunt in her questioning, but then again, this was Georgia. She told it how it was. That was one of the many reasons why he lo—

Respected her.

And he’d show her that respect by telling her the truth. No matter how scary that was to him in that moment. He’d never told anyone the truth about this.

But it was about damn time to start.

“No. I don’t. For the longest time, I had myself convinced that I did. Or at least that I could. But these last couple of weeks…” He shook his head, driving at this point more by instinct and feel than by sight. Thankfully these weren’t busy roads, or he probably would’ve wrecked his truck by now. Staying in his own lane seemed like an awfully difficult concept at the moment.

He drew in a deep breath. “I don’t want to marry Tennessee Rowland. I don’t. I was going to because it was my duty as the oldest son and she’s pretty enough and smart enough and she’d make someone a real fine wife, but…she’s not for me.” He blew out a breath and then began laughing, letting the hysterical laughter that was bubbling up inside of him loose. “I can’t believe I’m saying this out loud. Look at this – my hands are shaking.” He held his right hand out towards her, the tremor obvious.

She laughed a little, but her eyes were serious as she said, “You need to talk to Tenny. Right away.”

He nodded, feeling a ball of dread grow in his stomach. He didn’t want to hurt Tennessee – he never wanted to do that – but breaking things off with her after all this time…he was going to break her heart. He just had to face that fact. And his mom’s heart. And his father’s—

No, he didn’t have one. It was impossible to break what does not exist.

“You’re right,” he said firmly, pushing the boiling anger back down again. “I do. And I need to confront my father. We’re gonna have a come-to-Jesus moment. This isn’t okay.”

He took a right and began bouncing down the washboard road towards the trailhead. “Someday, the county is going to fix these roads,” he yelled over the clatter. He kinda felt like half the noise was coming from just his teeth alone, chattering from the ruts on the awful road.

Georgia nodded and smiled, but didn’t try to shout anything over the noise. Moose held on tight to the steering wheel, all of his attention required just to keep his truck on the road. More than anything else, this calmed him down. Focusing on something other than the overwhelming anger and hurt and betrayal welling up inside of him helped his racing heart finally start to slow.

A little bit of the anger faded away, replaced by determination. A determination to finally take his life into his own hands.

Finally, they pulled to a stop into the parking lot next to her car, and the quiet in the truck was almost deafening.

“Well, I better—” Georgia said, reaching for the door handle just as Moose blurted out, “Will you go out with me?”

Time stood still as Georgia spun in her seat, staring up at him. “What?” she breathed.

“Will you go out with me?” he asked again, this time more confident. It’s what he wanted, and it’s what she wanted. He was sure of it.

And yet, she shook her head.

“I can’t,” she whispered, her eyes dark with pain. “You know that. Tenny is my cousin; the sister I never got to have. We’re really different in a lot of ways, but she’s still one of my closest friends.”

He drew in a deep breath. She was right. Of course. He couldn’t just skip from one cousin to the next. He should branch out of the Rowland Family Tree. Maybe try dating someone from Franklin. That’d be different.

Hell, considering he’d spent his whole life dating one girl, just about anything would be different.

“Then, once you’ve talked to Tennessee, come talk to me,” she finished. “We can discuss…things from there.” She reached out and stroked his cheek, her fingers sliding over the rough stubble he hadn’t taken the time to shave off that morning, and then she was gone, grabbing her purse and jumping from the truck, sliding into her car and slamming the door closed behind her. She took off out of the small dirt parking lot before Moose could even shake himself from the stupor her touch had cast over him.

Tennessee…Georgia was right. Of course. He had to take care of one disaster before even attempting to start another. But, Georgia wanted to talk to him after he told Tennessee the truth, and that gave him a little bit of hope. She wouldn’t say that if she was planning on telling him that she didn’t see a future with him, right?

Before he got to discover the answer to that question, though, he had to break Tennessee’s heart, a thought that made his own heart twist a little. It wasn’t what he wanted. It had never been what he wanted.

It was what he was going to do, though. Because marrying her when he didn’t love her would hurt her even more.

Maybe it was the selfishness of his own desire to be free of her and the obligation she represented that made him think that; maybe he just liked to pretend he was doing the noble thing here because facing the truth – that he wasn’t strong enough to do what duty called for, no matter what his heart wanted – was too damn painful.

But Tennessee, her father, his father…they all needed to know the truth. Then he’d be free for the first time in his life.

You’re going to lose the dealership.

The thought came out of nowhere, a lightning strike out of a bright blue sky. All the more jolting and painful because of that, and because…well, it was probably true.

He leaned back, banging his head against the headrest.

He was going to lose the dealership. Dammit to hell and back, his father would never put up with this rebellion.

But honestly, who would he give it to? Rhys? He was in Japan, after having run away from their father by joining the Navy as soon as he graduated from high school.

Zara? First off, she was a girl, and his father was too much of a male chauvinistic pig to let his daughter inherit the dealership. Second, she wanted to become a doctor. She’d told Moose more than once that she was going to run the Long Valley County Hospital someday. She didn’t want the Garrett Tractor & Implement Dealership any more than Rhys did.

Hell, his father would probably just decide that he’d live forever, and then he wouldn’t have to pass the dealership on to anyone at all. Not only would that seem reasonable to him, he’d probably make it happen out of sheer force of will.

Moose had a lot of thinking to do. He shifted into first gear and headed back down the washboard road, but instead of heading back towards town, he decided to take a right and head further into the hills. Maybe it was time to have a come-to-Jesus talk…with himself.