“Look, I don’t mind helping you get on your feet, but, Kevin, you have to work if you want to live the lifestyle we used to have together.” The wager wasn’t over yet, but she didn’t see any problem with living modestly. “I have to tell you, living on this much money isn’t half bad.” She smiled as she walked. “In fact, it’s pretty darn good. It’s going to be very hard to leave this place.”
“Seriously?” Kevin’s voice rose, the way it did when she said something he didn’t agree with.
“Yes. I really mean it.”
“You’re insane,” he sputtered.
Mom said, “Be nice, Kevin.” She reprimanded him as though he were one of her own kids, and probably it seemed that way, since he and Merry Anna had met in the first grade.
“Living on twelve hundred fifty dollars a month can be done.”And I’ve never been happier.She placed her hand against her heart.I really am.
“A deal is a deal, and it’s not over. I’m also not convinced, although you do sound different. Calmer. I don’t know, just different.”
“Ifeeldifferent, Kevin.” She waved to George, the owner of the hardware store. He’d been in just the other day to buy his wife a new apron for her birthday. Such a sweet man. “I’m trying new things. Listening. Discovering.”
“That doesn’t sound like you.” Kevin cleared his throat. “I’ve got to ask. Is there someone else?”
Did he really just ask that?Even if there were, at least she’d waited until after the divorce, unlike him, who’d broken the cardinal rule while married. But she wasn’t going to go there. What had needed to be said had already been said about a hundred times. Can’t change it. “No, just me, but that’s okay too.”
“I guess we’ll see how next month goes. You wouldn’t lie to me about your spending to make your point, would you?”
“No, I wouldn’t. Thanks for being the mediator, Mom.”
“Anything for you, my darling. Don’t be a stranger. I miss you, and the business needs you.”
“The business is fine, but I miss you too.” Merry Anna strolled down Main Street. Going home was so much easier since most of it was downhill. But the driveway to her house was a steep uphill climb. Too bad she hadn’t been able to rent the big old manor house at the foot of the hill. Someone had bought it just a few weeks ago. It needed some TLC, but it could be a stunning home again with some work.
I feel as though a little TLC could transform me too.But the thought of another man in her life left her a little numb.Maybe I should get a puppy.
The hike up the hill was a better workout than a run on the treadmill she’d so faithfully used every morning back at home. She was even a little winded. When she entered the bunkhouse, she noticed that the room air conditioner had kept the place comfortable despite the pounding sun today, but this evening it was nice enough to open a few windows. She flipped the switch, and the unit rumbled to a stop.
She opened a window on each side of the bunkhouse to geta cross breeze. When Krissy had said she owned a bunkhouse she could let her rent, Merry Anna had no idea that it was a real, cowboys-had-been-hanging-their-hats-there bunkhouse. Chaps with long leather fringes, some in bright colors, still hung across the wall about ten feet in the air. Rodeo numbers had been stapled to one wall. Lots of them, from all over—Texas, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Arizona, and the East Coast too. She wondered how many people had contributed them.
It was a man’s world, with the galvanized roofing panels as wainscoting and the big woodstove, but she’d girlied it up a little over the past few weeks. The feminine stuff in Krissy’s store was so hard to resist. Merry Anna had added soft pinks, yellows, and oranges, with flowers, throw pillows, towels, and an awesome barn quilt that Krissy had surprised her with just last week.
She grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and walked outside to sit on the porch swing. The patinaed chain creaked, but she didn’t mind. It was just one more item to add to her list of things she’d never done before. Who knew saying yes to new opportunities could bring so much unexpected joy?
I wish this could last forever.
2
Adam Locklear pushed a handtruck loaded with cattle feed out to the loading dock and dropped it with a thud. Every Thursday, like clockwork, Old Man Jones showed up to pick up feed. Adam owned Locklear Feed & Seed, yet he usually left the details to the manager he hired and the staff, but Jones had been a friend of his grandfather’s, and that meant he deserved special treatment. So whenever Adam was in town on a Thursday, he made sure he was there on the dock when Old Man Jones arrived.
The two-tone-brown 1984 Ford truck swung into the lot and backed up to the loading dock. Every time Adam saw that truck, it reminded him of Grandpa, only his had been the F250 XLT in tan and maroon. He missed that old truck…and Grandpa.
“How are you this morning?” Adam called out.
Jones slid out of the cab, his right leg dragging a bit as he walked around the side of the truck. He laid his arm against the bed rail. “Doing okay. Can’t complain. No one’ll listen.”
“I’ll listen. Got your order right here. Start talking while I load.” Adam stepped from the dock into the bed of the pickup, lofting the fifty-pound sacks into a stack.
“There was a day when I could sling those around like theywere a sack of burgers too,” Jones said, nudging his ball cap back as he watched.
“Well, you just keep selling me that good homegrown beef, and I’ll keep slinging these sacks for you.”
Jones tugged his hat back down and shrugged. “That I can still do. How’s it going around here?”
Adam shrugged. “Good. Keeping the lights on.”
