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“Well, your mistake just cost us the sale of this place! Do you know the statistics on how hard it is to sell a ranch like this, Sawyer? They’re not great, and because of your loud mouth spitting out garbage for no apparent reason, we might have lost our best shot at getting the asking price or even selling it at all. Sothanks, thank you so much for your help. Couldn’t have done it without you.”
“Someone else will come along.”
“That’s not the point. And even if someone does, it doesn’t erase this.”
Sawyer rolled his neck. He deserved to be hung, drawn, and quartered, he knew that, but he was getting a little bit sick of being entirely on the back foot, with Luke not even willing to listen, willing to believeMathersof all people over him.
“So, what?” Sawyer asked, some bite back in his words. “We’ll just add this to my lifelong list of screw-ups that can never be erased or forgiven? Just one more for the pile.”
“Well, it’s a pretty big pile, man.”
“Don’t act like you’re better than me, Luke. Just because you stayed behind to play the doting son doesn’t mean you get to lord it over me.”
A flush of red touched Luke’s cheeks once again, and Sawyer knew he had hit a nerve.
“You think I chose this?” Luke asked, oscillating between hot and cold so fast that it was hard to keep track. “You ran off first. What choice did I have but to stay here?”
Sawyer frowned. “What has me leaving got to do with anything?”
“Everything!”
“You stayed here. It was what you wanted,” Sawyer said. “I didn’t force you to stay.”
“Not directly, no, but you got up and left the first chance you got. So who else was going to take care of Dad, huh? Who else was going to take care of this place?”
Sawyer straightened, no longer worried about letting Luke say what he needed to in peace. He’d messed up with his harebrained attempts to have the ranch fail to sell. He knew that. He would wear that because it was the truth. But this… Luke’s hang-ups werenothis fault.
“Everyone has a choice with what they do, Luke,” he snarled, standing his ground. “And don’t even think about blaming Dad either. I knew him as well as you did, and if you had really wanted to leave, he wouldn’t have stopped you, he would have given you his blessing.”
“I had to stay. This ranch meant everything to him.”
“Yeah, tohim. You had just as much opportunity to leave and make something of yourself as I did.”
Luke scoffed, scornful. “You got a football scholarship and a full ride out of here to do whatever you wanted.”
“So?!” said Sawyer, not caring how loud his voice was getting. “Did youtryLuke? Did you try for anything that you might have wanted? If you’re so good at cooking, why didn’t you apply for culinary school? Why is it only just now you’re making food for the diner?”
“Dad needed me.”
“Did you make a blood oath? Was there some contract he had you sign, some deal with the devil? Or was it that you were just doing what you thought was right instead of what you actually wanted to?”
It was cruel to be cutting this close to the bone, to be laying the truth bare like he was, but Luke really wasn’t leaving him much of a choice. Sawyer was no angel — that had been well and truly established — but Luke didn’t get to escape this conversation thinking he was God’s gift to earth.
“At least my conscience is clear,” Luke said, the hurt showing on his face.
“And what’s that supposed to mean? Stop being cryptic and backhanded for once and actually say what you mean, Luke.”
“I mean, you should have done better by Dad,” he said, getting in Sawyer’s face till they were mere inches apart. “You should have been there more for him, for me.”
“What are you talking about? I sent money backall the time.”
“We didn’t want your money, we wanted you!” Luke stabbed a finger at Sawyer’s chest, but it was the words that pushed him back a step.
“When I said you should have been there, I meantliterally, Sawyer. You should have beenherein the flesh. Dad missed you.I missed you. The most we got to see you was on TV, tracing your number across the screen. But parties and money and women, it was all more important to you than us.”
“That’s not true.”
“No? Then why not come home, Sawyer? Why not just pick up the phoneonce a week, for God’s sake?”
