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Exhaustion was setting in, but Jillian’s words kept haunting me and driving me. I saw her ghost everywhere I looked, felt her presence in every room and stall in which I’d touched her, and couldn’t get her scent out of my sheets no matter how many times I washed them. I was starting to lose my mind, but I couldn’t stop.
I needed to work. If I just worked a little bit harder, I could forget about her.
“Boss.” Ben stepped inside the office and cleared his throat. “The rest of the ranch hands have gone home for the weekend. I just wanted to remind you that Debra and I were taking off for the weekend as well. Is there anything you want me to do before I go?”
Jealousy reared its ugly head. Ben had asked for the weekend away so he could take Debra to the beach for a romantic getaway. Something about how it was time, and he wanted to make it as perfect as possible. At the time, I’d been happy for him.
Now, the darkest part of me wanted to make everyone as miserable as I was, but Ben hadn’t taken a damn vacation in two years. “No. Just go,” I growled.
“I already checked with the hotel. We can do it next weekend. I know the fence needs mending in the pasture bordering the Blackwell land. I’d be happy to—”
“For god’s sake, Ben, go fuck my horse trainer and quit bothering me about it,” I snapped.
“Brendan,” he said coldly. He’d never taken that tone with me, and I looked up warily. “You don’t address Debra that way, at least not in front of me, and I prefer it if you didn’t do it at all. Do you understand?”
Hot guilt seared through me, but I just straightened my spine. I owed him an apology, but it didn’t look like apologies did a whole hell of a lot of good around here. “Noted,” I said gruffly. “Go and enjoy your weekend. I’ve got Kim here to help me if I need it.”
“Actually, you don’t. Kim told Debra that she was spending the weekend away as well.” Without an explanation, he turned and walked out.
Kim was leaving this weekend without telling me? She was an adult, but she had responsibilities. This was her ranch too.
Pissed, I shut down the computer and left the office. Striding across the dirt road back up to the house, I let my anger swell. By the time I’d stomped into the kitchen, I was ready to tear my sister a new one.
“Ben just told me that you were leaving this weekend without telling me,” I said coldly. “Care to explain yourself?”
She calmly finished loading up the dishwasher and turned it on. “I’m an adult. I don’t really think that I need to tell you where I’m going.”
“I’m also your boss,” I hissed.
“The hell you are.” Her eyes blazed as she straightened. “Although you certainly seem to be acting it lately. Forgive me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you just tell me a few months ago that this was my ranch too?”
There was a storm brewing in the kitchen, but I didn’t let up. “Partners don’t just take off without warning either.”
“It’s a weekend, Brendan. I don’t work weekends unless you ask me to,” she pointed out.
She was right, but I didn’t care. I needed to lash out.
“Ben and Debra are going out of town, a fact which I’m sure you’re well aware of, and I’m telling you to stay.”
Clenching her fists, she narrowed her eyes. “I did know that Ben and Debra were going out of town. So did you. If you needed me, you should have said something before Friday night. I’ve made plans. I’ll be back Monday.”
“Cancel them.”
“No.” Her eyes flashed in anger. “You need to spend a couple of days by yourself. You’ve been an asshole ever since Jillian left, and I’m tired of it. I don’t want to be around you this weekend, and when I get back to work on Monday, we’re going to have a long talk before you run this ranch into the ground. The employees are exhausted. The horses are exhausted. They’re not used to working these new hours that you’re putting in, and you’re so focused on work that you wouldn’t even notice if the ranch went up in flames. You haven’t even noticed that Darling is pregnant or that Silva stopped eating. You sure as hell didn’t notice that you forgot to order feed for next month. So take this weekend, Brendan. Do what you need to do. Get drunk. Scream into the void but get your shit together. Get Silva eating again, and when I come back, you better be ready to talk.”
I felt like I’d been slapped. She’d used the same tone with me that I used with her when I was tired of dealing with her theatrics, and her news hit me hard. Darling was pregnant? Silva wasn’t eating? How had I missed these things? All I’d done was focus on work.
