“You can stay as long as you like.”
“Yeah well, I’d like to stay not at all,” he shot back. “But since Brooks and his perfect little red-headed fiance don’t have room for me, I’m stuck here.”
I took another sip. So much for an amiable conversation. “He’s engaged to Rowan, right? The town vet?”
Cash’s expression darkened even further. “Yes. Town vet. Town golden boy. Brooks’s perfect little partner.”
I noted the bitterness in his voice. “You don’t like him much.”
“Don’t know him enough to like or dislike him,” Cash muttered, but his tone suggested otherwise. “Just seems like everyone in this town thinks the sun shines out of his ass.”
“He’s helped a lot of people,” I said carefully, not wanting to escalate the tension. “Especially since the tornado hit. Been working around the clock to help injured animals.”
Cash just grunted, staring into his coffee mug like it held the answers to questions he wasn’t asking.
“So how do you know Brooks?” I asked, trying a different approach.
“He’s my cousin,” Cash replied flatly. “On my father’s side.”
I nodded, piecing things together. “And your father was James Callahan?”
His knuckles whitened around his mug. “Yeah. The great James Callahan. Pillar of the community. Friend to all.” The sarcasm in his voice was thick enough to cut with a knife.
“I never met him,” I admitted. “I only arrived last week. But people seem to speak highly of him.”
Cash snorted. “Yeah, well, people in this town don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground.”
The pain in his voice was raw, even through his attempts to mask it with anger. I’d heard that tone enough times in my life to recognize it. It was the sound of old wounds that had never properly healed.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” I said quietly.
“Don’t be,” Cash replied, setting his empty mug in the sink with more force than necessary. “I hadn’t spoken to him in almost ten years. Only reason I’m here is because he left me that worthless ranch in his will. I’m glad he’s dead.”
I leaned against the counter, considering my next words carefully. “Family can be...complicated.”
Cash’s laugh was harsh. “That’s one word for it.”
For a moment, I thought he might say more, might open up a little. But then his walls came back up, almost visibly. He straightened, rolling his shoulders back.
“I need to make some calls,” he said abruptly. “Is there somewhere quiet I can go?”
“You’re welcome to use the study,” I offered, gesturing down the hall. “First door on the left. No one will bother you there.”
He nodded curtly and left without another word, his footsteps heavy on the hardwood floor. I sighed, finishing my coffee in the silence he left behind. Whatever had happened between Cash and his father ran deep. The kind of hurt that festers for years doesn’t heal overnight, and it certainly doesn’t heal because some new pastor in town offers a spare bed and platitudes.
I rinsed both our mugs and set them in the dish rack, thinking about the day ahead. There would be more coordination at the church, more families needing help, more decisions to make. But my mind kept circling back to Cash, to the pain he was trying so hard to hide behind anger, and to that handsome face of his that I couldn’t help admiring. And those green eyes of his… they were mesmerizing…
I shook my head, saying another quick prayer asking for guidance. And then another for my own sake. The last thing I needed was a handsome face to get hung up on. That wasn’t what this town needed right now anddefinitelynot what Cash wanted.
I grabbed my phone and keys, ready to head back to the church. As I passed the study, I could hear Cash’s voice, tense and frustrated as he spoke to someone about the property.
“No, I understand it’s a risk,” he was saying. “But the land itself is worth something, even without the buildings... Yes, I know the market is... Look, just tell me what you can do, alright? I don’t have any other options.”
I moved on, not wanting to eavesdrop. Whatever demons Cash was wrestling with, they were his to face. All I could do wasoffer a safe place to land while he figured things out. And maybe, if he’d let me, a friendly ear to listen when he was ready.
Possibly a shoulder to cry on.
Perhaps a friendly back rub?
