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1
CASH
It’s the end of another hard day of doing things the old-fashioned way.
I fall into my chair, and start unlacing my boots. My entire body aches, but that’s all too typical. I’ll crack a beer, order a pizza, and just sort of veg out for a bit.
That’s my typical Friday night.
Boring ass shit.
Lonely ass shit.
Don’t get me wrong. I live with my family, so there are constantly people around. My brothers are awesome guys. Always there for me in every way you can imagine. My old man is there for me when he can be too.
But I still feel fucking lonely.
Every night, it’s the same old thing. We spend all day working together, so we tend to want a little time to ourselves after work. So we split off to our own corners of the house, and I often spend the night alone. The only difference is on Fridays I order pizza because that’s one of my favorite childhood memories. Friday has always been pizza day and it’s not a bad tradition to keep going forward.
There’s a rapping on the door. I groan, stretching out. I feel like an old man, but I’m not even thirty. Life on the ranch is tough, but it’s not that tough – I guess I’m just getting tired.
It can’t be the pizza. I haven’t even ordered it yet, and I’d be surprised if Rossi’s just decided to send me my weekly order automatically.
I open the door, and Rye Rough bursts on through like he owns the place.
“Good evening to you too, Rye.”
“Cash, I was in the area and I decided I’d pay my cousins a visit.”
“Uh huh,” I stroke my chin, feeling kinda scruffy. “Like you have every week for a while now. Have you been dodging your old woman or something?”
Rye’s been popping in a lot ever since Graham, one of his brothers, called the Rowdy boys in for some support in rescuing a girl from some weird prepper’s cult. He shakes his head at my accusation. “I value every moment I spend with Prairie, Cash. She’s my world.”
And I guess that’s part of my problem these days.
All the Rough boys, our cousins through our aunt, have been living pretty charmed lives lately. Over in Home, all of them have been busy falling in love and getting married. That cult rescue we did was for Mac’s girl. Each and every one of them has fallen madly in fucking love, and I have to say…
I’m a bit jealous.
It’s not that I’m not happy for them. They’re blood, and we’re close as cousins can be. Countless family get-togethers, Aunt Annie making every holiday dinner something to truly remember. But to see love strike each of my cousins and leave me so lonely?
Yeah. Jealousy. It’s natural. I want what Rye has, because what he has is pretty fuckin’ sweet.
“This is like, the fourth time you’ve been over just to check in on me. Is the pizza place in Home really that awful?”
He shakes his head. “Hardly. I think it’s better than the place you got here.”
“Leguizamo’s is good pizza, man.”
“It has nothing to do with pizza, Cash.” He sighs, and then sits down on the couch, and I collapse right next to him.
As much as I’m questioning his presence, it isn’t like I don’t welcome his company, and I have no suspicions that he has any sort of nefarious intent. “Then what is it, man?”
He sighs, running his fingers through his hair. “I’m worried about you guys.”
“Worried about us, how? The ranch is doing fine. We’ve been in business thirty years, and I doubt we’re suddenly going to go tits up.”
“It isn’t about your ranch. Or your financial situation. It’s about your mental health.”
