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“Do the soups taste alike?”
“Not even close. Jocelyn, the waitress who’s been at the café forever, said Beverly adds leftover chicken from the week’s specials, and the soup is so thick you’re worried you’re going to break your spoon. It’s good, but it’s not Grandma Durant’s.”
Delaney wasn’t guarded when she talked about these people I didn’t know. What if…Shit. What if she hadn’t been shy when we’d gone out with Briony and Wilson? What if she’d been guarded?
The way she’d mimicked Briony. I’d heard my friend talk that way when ridiculing others, but when I called her on it, she managed to make it sound like I was the sensitive one. I had been sensitive, so I’d fallen back.
I cupped my bowl and reclined in my seat. I had a few things to think about. After spending much of the day with Delaney and talking, really talking, I had come to a conclusion, one I wasn’t sure she would like or that my boss would like. “So, about tomorrow.”
Her head popped up, and she quit chewing. She brushed her fingers off on the napkins Rattler’s packed for us. “Do I need to meet you somewhere before you leave?”
She thought I was still pressing for an annulment. If that was what she wanted, she would’ve signed the papers. When I’d told her we shouldn’t rush through destroying our marriage, I meant it. Nothing had sounded as true, and I’d thought she agreed.
“I’m not leaving tomorrow.”
She stared at me, confusion filling her expression. “What?”
“I’m not leaving. But I won’t take you away from work. Give me a job. I’ve still got skills.”
Never in my adult life did I think I’d be willing to jump back into the dirt and work someone else’s land. I’d built a life where I could afford quality, and I had the stability to keep it mine.
This was only temporary. I was asking for Delaney’s time. Our drive back had been nothing but miles of farms and ranches. Some were large operations that had hired help and stayed lucrative enough that drought years like this one were nothing but a blip on the radar. But several were like the Diamond UU. Small. Old buildings. Single-family operations that weren’t stable despite being in business for generations.
She hadn’t stayed away because she’d found some rich rancher to latch on to. She was struggling to save her family’s livelihood. A task that had taken its toll on her brother, but one she was thriving under.
She was still staring at me, as if she waited for me to say,Nah. I’ve seen what I needed to see, and I’m out.
“Are you going to cut hay if there’s blister beetles?” I pressed, willing her to accept my help instead of informing me she planned to agree to the annulment, just let her grab a pen.
“We’ll salvage what we can,” she answered carefully.
“Give me a hay mower and point me where you want me to go.”
She munched the rest of her pickle, still not answering.
“Got fencing to do?” All the tasks of a ranch clicked through my mind. Putting up hay. Fixing fence. Working cattle. Giving my brother hell until he tackled me. Mama getting after us for dragging dirt through the house.
The fondness behind those memories swelled until I itched to jump in and experience it all from the front seat again.
Delaney finished her mouthful. “There’s always fence to work on. Just once, I’d like to get to a weak sectionbeforethe cows get out. We’ve really needed to replace the posts on an entire quarter for years. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle.” She paused and picked up her soup, holding it like me. “What’s ol’ Norville going to say when you tell him you’re staying longer?”
I stirred my soup. The food tasted so good, I didn’t want my appetite to disappear. “I don’t know. But I’m not just an employee, I’m a family friend. I expect they’ll take that into consideration if I tell them I need more time.”
“What if he doesn’t?”
“He will.” The confidence I spoke with was higher than what I felt inside. I should have more faith in the Truitts. I did, but this was new territory. “I’ll explain us, and I’ll tell him about meeting my uncle for the first time.”
She considered me for a moment. “Why did your dad leave?”
The change in subject wasn’t jarring. I had brought up my uncle. But I wondered if she thought that somehow the two were related. Dad left for Texas, and Texas was now my home.
“Probably because of his pride.” I didn’t know specifics, but that would be my guess. After meeting Cameron and getting a sense of his unyielding authority, I was certain that had chafed Dad his entire life. Dad didn’t like being told what to do, no matter how much he needed to be guided. “And he stayed gone because of pride.” Regardless how much it would’ve helped our family to slink back to North Dakota where we might’ve had some support. It was hard to think things would’ve been worse if Dad had gone back to his hometown.
“Your grandparents tried buying out mine.”
My brows popped, more from the realization that our families had been intertwined somehow for so long. “Obviously, they said no.”
Her lips twisted in a wry smile. “I think there was a lot more said. Your family tends to be on the arrogant side. I can’t imagine what your grandparents were like rolling in all that oil money. My grandparents wouldn’t budge, insults were traded, and I think even the county got involved as claims were made about my grandpa rustling cattle or something. Ma has harbored a grudge ever since.”
