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Six
Laney
This had turned out to be a weirdly normal afternoon.
He didn’t mention saving the calf. He hadn’t once checked around his car to look for dings or chips. But he had taken it through a car wash. We both knew it’d get dusty as soon as he took me home, but the car wash was like the new clothes. Some things he had to do to keep the insecure kid from taking over.
We were on our way back to Coal Haven. He wanted to see the countryside, so I directed him through the back roads, taking county highways instead of the straight shot off the interstate.
Trees concealed the golf course on the edge of town. Houses spread out from there, mostly on one side, as the highway curved through. I was staring out the window. It was better than seeing Archer in the snug green T-shirt and the dark-wash jeans he’d gotten at the Boot Barn. He’d even bought a pair of boots. Not flashy ones. These were made for work.
I hadn’t asked what he planned to do with them. Maybe it was a treat for him to buy new western clothing, down to the boots, when he was leaving soon. Briony would faint if she saw him dressed like this. She’d probably ban him from the state until he changed clothes.
“It’s really beautiful here.” Archer’s wrist was propped over the steering wheel. His gaze swung over the rolling hills, touched on the pasture dotted with cattle on his side, and the field full of leafy corn on my side.
Pride swelled in my traitorous chest. His enthusiasm was genuine; he liked the place I called home. “It’s a dry year; otherwise, it’d be really green.”
“How are the cattle handling the drought?”
Anxiety burned in my gut. “It’s so dry. We’re cutting hay next week, and I think we’ll pull the cattle from the pastures early and feed them like it’s winter.” I leaned my elbow by the window. “I’ve heard that the dry weather has brought out the blister beetles. I’m going to go look, but we can’t feed the horses that hay. It could kill them. We can cut it with silage for the cattle and save us some extra cost buying clean hay.”
He whistled. “Blister beetles are nasty.”
I wasn’t surprised he’d heard of them and the damage they caused. Some parts of Texas had them bad, and Archer’s business was to know the good and the bad of the acres he sold. “Yep. And when hay’s short, the price per round bale can triple.” It was nice to vocalize my worries with someone who understood. Ma liked to pretend everything was fine until she was cussing out a potential hay source on the phone.Ninety goddamn dollars. Did you bale pure fucking gold?Instead of seeing the problem and working to solve it, she complained until it got worse.
“So, your brother’s done with ranching?”
I nodded. Another sensitive subject, but one long past due to discuss with my husband. All the things I’d wanted to talk to him about when we met welled up. It felt good to tell him about my life and my situation, even if we might not be married much longer. We’d end this marriage being transparent, and I wouldn’t live with the guilt of holding out on him.
“Ever since Ma was pregnant with him, he’s been assigned the task of taking over. There was no college money for either of us, but there was no talk of anything but taking over Diamond UU for Kane. ‘The doubleUis yours,’” I mimicked in Ma’s growl. Something I’d heard her say so many times. “All he had were expectations and obligations for a career he didn’t want on a ranch she couldn’t quit controlling.”
“Your dad isn’t part of the business?”
“He’s a mechanic in Mandan. He’ll fix what’s broken on the ranch and do some yard work, but that’s about it. The rest of the time, he’s fishing or hunting. It’s Ma’s show.” I sat up with a frown as he turned off the county highway. His motel was on the edge of town, but he needed to stay on the highway to take me home. “Where are you going?”
“I haven’t seen Coal Haven yet.”
“Archer.” What if we were seen together? He’d said he hadn’t told Cameron why he was here. His uncle would have all sorts of opinions about how quickly we should annul our marriage.
Archer wasn’t swayed. He drove past the gas station and curved around to the residential area between the highway and downtown. “Where’d you ride to earlier today?”
“Kennedy and Liam’s.” Would anyone recognize me in an Audi? A grass fire in this drought wouldn’t spread as fast as news of me with the new guy in town.
“Call them up. Ask them to meet us somewhere.”
I stared at him. “Why?”
“So I can get to know your friends, Delaney.”
“In public? What do we say when people start asking about you? ‘Oh, yes. We’re married, but he’s here to end it. Can I have an order of frickles?’ This is Coal Haven. The teller at the bank and the cashier at the grocery store are going to wanna know.”
His expression hardened for a second before he said, “What the hell is a frickle?”
I put my hand over my heart, grateful for a change in subject. “Only the best appetizer ever created. Fried pickles.”
“Fried? Pickles?”
I couldn’t tell if he was teasing or not. “Mm. Hardly the fine dining you’re used to.”
