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“Oh.”
I glanced between them and tried to recall the state’s geography from when I’d planned my drive here. Coal Haven was past the sign outside Mandan that read, “Where the West Begins.” Fargo was a few hours away on the eastern border.
“Any hits?” Delaney asked. From her tone, I could tell the information had come as a shock, but she was supportive.
“Not yet. One more semester and I’ll have my two-year degree.” He must’ve busted ass in his online classes. “But I could work full-time.”
“Full-time work and a full load of classes?” she asked cautiously.
“I like being busy. Better than having too much time to think.” He gave her a knowing look. “Although now I know what to do with my thinking time and I don’t fear it. I like being challenged.”
I got that too. I had a feeling Kane and I would get along better than Delaney had assumed. But three years ago, she had been the one who hadn’t gotten along with her brother, more out of resentment.
She swung her legs. “Want me to be with you when you tell Ma?”
“No.” Kane sounded resigned. “I’ll do it when I have a job. No need to work her up until then.”
They didn’t have to tell me Cheryl wouldn’t like it. I had a feeling any change upset Cheryl.
“So what about you two?” Kane asked.
Like with Holden, I let my wife take the lead. How she’d answered Holden gave me hope. She had been curious about me before she’d even met me. It had to be proof there was a strong connection between us and that was why neither of us could let go.
Her legs quit swinging. “We’re talking.” An honest answer. One I was good with.
“Ma giving you shit?”
I knew Delaney’s answer before she said it. “Ma isn’t really talking to me.”
“Sounds ’bout right.” Kane gazed at the pastures, at the cows that didn’t care who was around. “You know I don’t want this place, but she’s not going to give it to a Barron, even if you’re that Barron.”
“She might come around.” Her tone said she didn’t think so.
“Is it that big of a deal?” I asked.
Kane and Delaney nodded in sync.
“Ma doesn’t want anything to do with the Barrons.” Kane’s soft chuckle was sad. “After we saw how Cameron treated his own kid? And the town still reveres him? Nah, she wants him far away from her land, and you’re too close.”
That kid was Liam. I hadn’t met him, but I couldn’t imagine disowning a kid as soon as he was born.
“Cameron doesn’t have that kind of power anymore,” Delaney offered. “With Liam back and married to Kennedy? The dynamics have shifted.”
“They might’ve shifted, but not for Ma. Keeping the Diamond UU out of the Barrons’ hands has been the only power she’s had.”
Shit. I’d gone from a place where my last name was laughed at to a place where it was feared, even hated.
Kane ran a hand through his blond hair. Briony would chide him about getting it trimmed or learning how to style it. She’d have words to say about his Hanes T-shirt and ripped jeans.
Good thing she wasn’t here.
I wasn’t protective of Kane because he was Delaney’s brother and she worried about him. My urge to keep people like my friends away from him stemmed from how I had felt when Wilson and Briony critiqued my appearance.
My scholarship had given me the opportunity to go to a university in Dallas, the same private university Wilson and Briony had attended. Mr. Truitt had set me up with Wilson, and when he’d met Briony, she’d gotten to know me. Then she’d taken to helping me, advising me on hairstyles, clothing styles, posture—anything that erased the kid I had been.
Your neighbors aren’t cattle anymore, Archer. You can quit dressing like it.
I’d lapped up their critiques like a dog that’d run for miles in the Texas heat. With Mama gone and Dad not invested in my well-being, I’d been starved for advice. And to get it from the Truitts? The man who’d awarded me a scholarship that had helped me get a degree? The father of the son I admired because he had everything I’d grown up without? It’d been refreshing.
So why was looking back on those times filling me with irritation rather than gratitude?
Nothing had been wrong with my clothing. It had covered my body well enough so I could spend my money on textbooks. But then Wilson had told me about the paid internship with his father, and there’d been nothing I wouldn’t do.
Buy brand-name jeans? Fine, I’d take out an extra loan. And it’d paid off—all of it had been paid off within the first few years at NT Land Agency. I didn’t have regrets. I shouldn’t have regrets. But I was glad Kane had someone like Delaney by his side. I wished I had realized how good that was before now.
