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“Fuck!” I curse as the liquor burns my chest.
“That bad, huh?” my father asks before sipping his drink. Jonah is a man of few words, and we sit there for a few minutes, staring at each other. But I’m not gonna let him win, fuck no. This whole fuck-up is because of his dreams, and I’m not letting up.
Finally, Jonah stirs.
“So you like her, huh?” he drawls.
Fuck him! Fuck this fucker.
“Fuck you,” comes my harsh curse.
But Jonah just laughs.
“Oh, I know you, son. And I can read the look on your face from a mile away. That’s the look of a man that’s just lost the love of his life,” his eyebrows rise, gray and bushy. So you wanna tell me what happened over there?” He tilts his head while looking at me over silver framed glasses.
“No,” is my terse reply. Fuck him. Fuck them all.
But Jonah won’t be deterred.
“Fine, that’s fine,” he drawls. “Don’t tell me then. Your choice.”
I bow my head. Shit, my life is so fucked. I’ve screwed things up so bad, and there’s nothing left. So what can I lose by sharing? Slowly, the words come out.
“She’s amazing Dad,” is all I can manage at first. “Really amazing.”
Jonah leans back.
“And?”
I take a deep breath.
“We’ve never liked old Walter at the Double H. But his daughter’s different. She’s poor, sure, but works like a field hand, always busy. She’s never had a break in her life.”
Jonah’s eyebrows raise.
“Interesting. And how’s that farm being run?”
“That’s the thing,” I shake my head with wonder. “She’s been doing it single-handed. Maisie’s been running that place on her own. It’s incredible, an eighteen year-old girl working like a dog most days.”
My dad’s eyebrows quirk.
“Really? On her own? That place was in shambles last I saw, even before Walter Jones died. And his daughter’s been managing on her own?”
“Yeah,” I reply slowly. “I helped for sure. I built the place up, did a ton of repairs, ran that tractor a couple times. She needed it,” I add tightly. “I couldn’t watch her suffer.”
Of course, this was the exact opposite of what was supposed to happen. I wasn’t supposed to help Maisie. I was sent there to steal the place from her, to run her off the land and make her suffer.
But instead of being angry, Jonah’s eyes grow far away as he thinks back.
“Sounds like old times. You know, me and your mother come from nothing, Tyler,” he muses. “We started with one small plot of land that we ran all by ourselves. She would tend to the house and I’d work from sun up to sun down, sweating in those fields. There’s something about a beautiful young woman that will motivate you to become a better man. And it doesn’t hurt how they make you feel at night,” he reminisces, lost in dreamland.
Gross. Him and my mom getting it on? Fucking disgusting, where is this going?
But Jonah snaps back to earth then.
“Now, this house here,” he points to nowhere in particular. “It’s nothing like the little shack we started with. And while it’s great to have a chef on call, and a staff of twenty to do Lord knows what, nothing was better than those early days with your mother. I’d give anything to go back to that simple time, the two of us against the world.”
I look up in shock. It’s startling to think of my parents as anything other than Big Daddy and Big Momma, fat cats sitting on top of an industrial empire. But I guess a long time ago, they were young and in love, naïve and struggling to get by.
But Jonah’s not done with his reminiscing yet.
“Kathy’s gone now, bless her heart. But I miss her still. It’s those quiet moments together, you know? When she was all I cared about in this world. So yeah, I’m happy for you, son,” he lifts his glass in a toast before taking a sip.
But I’m fucking confused. What the hell? I just failed at my mission. I was supposed to take control of the Double H, and instead I’ve married the girl, chained for life. My dad should be reaming me out, not drinking to my happiness.
“So what? What do I do?” I ask dully. “Divorce? You afraid that Maisie is gonna steal our fortune?”
The idea is ludicrous. Maisie’s not interested in money, she’s never been motivated by cash. It’s always about the sun, sky, and wind, her land, animals, and me. So to be talking about dollars was fucking ridiculous, but Jonah didn’t know.
Jonah snaps a sharp look at me then.
“Fuck no! Hell son, I thought you were smarter than that,” he grunts, leaning back in his chair. “This was supposed to be a motivational speech. You’ve gotta go and get your woman! This shit,” he says, gesturing to the lavish office, “doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have the girl to go with it.”
