The morning was quiet, just the way he liked it. He did his chores like clockwork, without having to work around people he didn’t know who were messing with his fences, hay piles, and water troughs. When he had finished, he got into his truck and headed into town. Charlie Greene had a check to cash.
The bank, like most banks, was over-air-conditioned. He may as well have been walking into a polar vortex, as far as he was concerned. But none of that mattered. He marched up to the counter holding a check in his hand.
The amount of time he’d spent anticipating the receipt of this check was not insignificant. Of course, that had been because he’d expected Anna to hand it to him. When she hadn’t, he’d asked where she’d gone. His intention had been to set things straight somehow. He wasn’t going to apologize because, tohis mind, he hadn’t done anything wrong. But he did want to explain himself a little better.
In the moment, he’d been so angry, so betrayed, he hadn’t been able to form his thoughts into coherent sentences. Even after it became clear that she’d misunderstood what had set him off, he still couldn’t seem to clarify or correct her assumptions. This had always been a weakness of Charlie’s. When he was angry, he lost the ability to communicate what he was actually feeling.
The truth was, it hadn’t been the crew he distrusted. He wasn’t worried about any of them defacing the tree or the land around it. They’d been relatively respectful after the first talk Anna had given them about leaving no trace on the ranch itself. The problem wasn’t the crew at all. It was what Charlie knew might follow them—the tourists.
In his experience, tourists were rarely respectful of the places they visited. They just marched in, got their selfies, and then destroyed what they claimed to love. They only cared about their own experience, not the experiences of anyone who might follow them. On the whole, Charlie didn’t trust people, and he trusted crowds even less. He trusted individuals after he got to know them, but strangers? Never.
The teller took his check with a raised eyebrow. “Cash?” he asked.
“Yeah. Well, I’m about to give most of it back to you, so however you want to do this…”
“Paying off your property, eh?”
“Word gets around, I guess.” One of the major pitfalls of living in a small town was dealing with the gossip. People talked, and itwas every bit as irritating when they got the details right as it was when they got the details wrong.
“No shame in it,” the teller said. “The whole town’s benefiting from this movie. Have you even been to Shelly’s place yet? She’s leaning all the way in.”
“I bet.” Charlie pulled out all his identification for the teller to check, although it was only a formality. Everyone here already knew who he was.
He collected his money and went straight to the mortgage arm of the bank to pay off his father’s debts. It just so happened that Cal Weston himself was working that day. The very same man who had told him he had ninety days to pay off his debts or lose the ranch was the one taking his money now.
“Congratulations,” Cal said with an unenthusiastic smile. “The ranch is yours.”
“Thanks.”
To celebrate, Charlie headed over to the Jolly Ram. Now that the film crew was gone, he knew he wasn’t going to run into anyone he didn’t want to see. He had his town back, at least for now. It was only a matter of time before the horde of fans found the town and made it their own. Charlie would be sad to lose Denson Oaks, but there wasn’t a single thing on God’s green earth that went perfectly unchanged for the entirety of its existence, was there? Everything faded into something else. That was something he’d come to realize over the course of his life.
He sat at the bar and ordered a drink from John.
“What’s the occasion?” John asked. Oddly, he asked that same question every time Charlie came in. And every time, Charlie’sanswer was some version ofnothing. This time was probably the first time that there actuallywasa reason for Charlie to celebrate.
“I paid off my debt just now,” Charlie answered. “My property’s mine for real. Finally.”
“Hey!” John reached across the bar to offer Charlie a high five. “Congratulations, man.” He was already pouring Charlie’s drink before Charlie even had the chance to order it. Then he slid it down the bar, and Charlie caught it. “On the house,” John said. “Little treat for the occasion.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Charlie said, pulling out his wallet.
John reached over the counter and pushed the wallet away. “The last few weeks have set me up for the rest of the year. I’ve got half a mind to share the wealth a bit. You’re a regular. I’d say I consider you a friend if you didn’t take offense at it. So, let me offer you this one small thing. It won’t hurt either of us.”
“Well…” Charlie thought about it for a moment and accepted the drink. “Thanks, then.”
He finished the free drink and one more in relative silence. Most people might find the quiet depressing, but it was exactly what Charlie had been craving for weeks. The quiet was more pleasant to him than any kind of party ever could be.
After he’d finished his drinks, he took a stroll around town. Without really meaning to, he’d wandered over to Shelly’s bookshop. Charlie had never been much of a reader, but he stopped in anyway, just out of curiosity. Just to see what all the fuss was about. He’d been in a couple of times before, but it had been a while. Regardless, he couldn’t help but notice the place had been rearranged. Right out front was a table full of copiesof one book—Texas Sunrise.Leaning inwas an understatement, Charlie thought. The place may as well have been called The Texas Sunrise Bookshop at this point.
Despite himself, Charlie picked up a copy and took it to the counter to buy. While he was paying for it, Shelly came out from the back room. “Hey, Charlie! How’ve you been?” She glanced down and noticed what he was buying. “Finally gonna find out what all the fuss is about, huh?” She laughed. “It’s one of my favorites. May not be your favorite genre, but I think you’ll find it fun all the same.”
He nodded. “Thought I’d give it a look. Everyone’s been talking about it.”
“Of course they have.” Shelly gave him a friendly slap on the back. “This book’s going to put Denson Oaks on the map, you know?”
“You really think you’ll sell all these copies?” Charlie indicated the table full of paperbacks.
“If you build it, they will come,” Shelly said with a laugh. “But seriously, yeah, I do. You have no idea how popular this book is. And the movie… with that director and that cast? It’s going to be a box-office hit. There’s not a doubt in my mind.”
