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“Yeah, I know.” Megan rocked back on the red vinyl booth that was the hallmark of Joe’s Diner. The fifties-style restaurant was known for meatloaf and milkshakes while Elvis played on repeat. She grabbed a French fry and shrugged. “Hank said he had driven from Kentucky.”
Ash, who completed their trio, had stopped by from the police department to join them for lunch. She hadn’t responded to the fire since a police presence wasn’t needed, but the others had filled her in on what had happened. She took a bite of her salad and frowned in thought. “He must not have the money if he didn’t fly.”
Laura shook her head. “I don’t know. But Hank has lived here all his life, and people want to help since he’s mostly alone.”
“How was the son? This must have been a shock.”
Megan took a drink from her iced tea and took a moment to think that over. Ash was an excellent read of people, and Laura had known her long enough to anticipate her thoughts. What she didn’t want to say was he was the most handsome man she had ever seen. She also didn’t want to say that he looked like he had been through hell and wasn’t interested in chitchat.
“He was wearing an army jacket, but Hank had said he was in the army, so that wasn’t a shock,” she finally said. “I didn’t hang around long enough to find out more.” Partly because his demeanor had been so intense, but mainly because she wanted to give him and his dad their privacy after over a year apart.
Laura nodded. “He may have had to get leave or was coming from somewhere. I guess if he didn’t know how long he’d be staying, he’d want a car.”
Megan nodded in agreement.
Ash chewed on her sandwich and what Megan had just said. She could almost see her friend’s violet eyes turning it over in her mind as she stared at the table with a slight line between her brows. “Maybe.”
“Well, either way, he’s finally where he should be.”
“About damn time,” Ash said.
“Mhmmm,” Laura agreed. “It was really nice of you to help him out.”
Megan could feel her cheeks go pink with the praise, which was always hard to take. She loved to help people but always felt so awkward about it. “I really enjoyed it. It was nice to hear his stories about his life and the family’s land.”
It had been more than nice. Having someone to care for and help shop for got her out of her routine. She enjoyed unpacking groceries for him while he told her about the history of the town. It had only been one day, but it was nice to run errands and have someone to visit with. She got the sense he needed it just as much as she did.
“Did you get the little house all set up?” Laura asked.
“For the most part. It’ll do. He has some basic clothes and groceries. Toiletries, linens, and a few lamps were what I was working on when his son showed up. I pretty much left right after that, but most of it was done. Honestly, I’m just checking in on him. He likes to go to McDonald’s.”
Laura grinned. “We should introduce him to Holden. He loves the Happy Meal.”
“Sounds like Carter’s doing.”
“Oh yeah. Big time.”
CHAPTER10
Troy stomped across the cold, hard-packed ground, braced against the wind that sliced through his jacket. He hadn’t preheated his truck, but being out of the wind felt as good as balmy, even if he could still see his breath. He cranked the engine over against its will and headed out toward town.
It was early, and the sun’s golden light was just starting to peek across the horizon. Dad wasn’t up yet, which was telling. The man had spent so much time as a rancher that it was his innate nature to be up at four thirty every day without fail, sometimes even earlier. His body was trained that way, so when Troy woke up to snoring yesterday and today, he knew how much his dad had slowed down.
It wasn’t a surprise. They had talked all day after his arrival, and he had insisted on seeing the medical paperwork for himself. From a healthcare standpoint, Dad was lucky. No major damage. Rest, exercise, reduce stress, take meds, improve diet, and all of that. He was lucky. The house, on the other hand, wasn’t.
When he had walked through, the initial shock had been overwhelming. Just as he had expected, seeing the smoke-scarred kitchen was a punch in the gut. The house was a shell of what it had been, with a gaping hole in the roof. The building inspector had come out and condemned the property, and while insurance was working on getting them an estimate and check, he and his dad were making do in the small house, talking about the future.
Country people like his dad mourned deeply, but in such a way that required action. It wasn’t long before they were talking about plans for the future and what that would look like. There was no way his dad wanted to sell, meaning Troy was next in line once he got out of the army.
They talked about hiring a salvage company to reclaim as much as they could from the original structure to carry those traditions and materials forward, but with updating the layout. A new, larger kitchen would make way for newer appliances which always seemed to be getting bigger, and would be an easier fit with electric and plumbing instead of shimmying a new oven into an old space.
They also had talked about finances, which was another sore subject Troy intended to get to the bottom of this morning.
From what he gathered when talking with his dad, everything was a shitshow. All of it had burned in the fire, so there were no paper records to verify until he got to the bank. His old man hadn’t believed in—or was too cheap for—hiring an accountant.
In the recent mail, which had been delivered since the fire, Troy found statements from nine different credit cards with rolling balances that thankfully had zero interest rates for the first year. Most of it didn’t make any sense. Three hundred dollars here, a couple of thousand there. All of it was low enough that it should’ve been able to be paid off easily. To make matters worse, his dad had taken out seven loans at various points.
It wasn’t uncommon or unheard of for a farmer to take out loans to get the crops in and the livestock fed before the sale of the product. The money would be earned back and the debts paid. All it did was add a little more cash to get the farm going, but it was a dangerous game to play. The banks always took their cut, leaving little to squirrel away for the next season, repeating the same dangerous cycle of dependency.
