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“Afternoon,” Camden said as I walked into the shade of the barn. It was cold in there, and I thought about going back to grab my coat.
“Afternoon,” I said. “I thought I’d come and see if there was anything I could do for you. Any help you needed.”
“Well,” he said, “I’m never one to turn down free labor. But are you sure? You’re my guest. I don’t want you to feel like you have to earn your keep. I’m having you stay with me not out of obligation but because I want you here and to help you. It doesn’t bother me at all.”
“I know,” I said. “And I appreciate that. You just know I can’t let it go that I’m being a lazy mooch.”
“You’ve always been a hard worker,” he laughed. “You remember that summer the five of us worked at the pizza shop?”
I laughed at the memory and shook my head.
“God, yeah,” I said. “Vick hated that place. Said he always smelled like cheese.”
Camden laughed.
“Yeah, but we all got fed all the time, didn’t we? Every day, before we clocked out, the owner told us to make ourselves a pie. Who made them?”
“I did,” I admitted.
“And did you do that because we asked you to, or because it was expected of you?”
“No,” I said.
“Right. You did it because you liked doing it, and you were helping take care of your boys,” he said. “That’s how your stay with me should look like. I like having you around, and I like taking care of my boys. I got an extra room. You need a room. No need to feel obligated to do anything.”
“I appreciate that, Camden,” I said, feeling a lot better. “I really do.”
“Good,” he said. “Now, with that speech out of the way, if you feel like mucking out a stall or something, be my guest.”
I laughed and turned around to grab a shovel. As soon as I did, I stopped in my tracks. Someone was coming in the barn door, and my brain short-circuited.
It was Carmela, but she looked so different. I had just seen her in her business suit and looking all professional, but right now she was in tight blue jeans and a denim jacket over a T-shirt with the ranch logo over her full breasts. The shirt seemed like it was stretching pretty hard over them, and I had to divert my eyes from trying to make out the outline of her bra, which I assumed was holding on for dear life.
“Hey,” I said. “What’s up, Carmela?”
Now that I had gotten control of my wandering eyes, I had them pointed at her face. She looked upset about something, and I didn’t know what. Whatever it was, it seemed to have put her in a bad mood.
“I volunteered to come help with horseback riding lessons today,” she said. “I wish I had known who was on the schedule first.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Camden briefly look over his shoulder at her and then turn his attention immediately back to the horse he was tacking up.
“Oh?” I asked.
“My former best friend Jade is on the list today,” she said. There was venom in her voice, and I searched my memory to see if I could remember the name. When it hit me, I rocked my head back and closed my eyes, scrunching my face up in empathetic pain.
“Damn,” I said. “Damn, damn, damn. I’m sorry. That sucks.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” she said. “But I promised him I would come help out, so here I am. Isn’t that right, Camden?”
“Yup,” he said, keeping his back turned. I had a feeling that he hadn’t done it on purpose, but he also had no ability to look his sister in the eye without being certain she would wither him away with a glare.
“So, you’ll be out in the corral today?” I asked.
She nodded.
“Yup,” she said. “Feel free to watch. Maybe make sure I don’t commit murder or anything.”
“I’ll see if I can,” I said. “Look, I think it’s really cool that you’re willing to do this. It speaks a lot of your character that you would help your brother, even in this situation. It takes guts to be the bigger person.”
“Yeah, well, let’s not congratulate me yet,” she said. “I could still find a way to cripple her or something before the end of the day. Then you’ll have wasted all those compliments.”
“You go right to the dark place, don’t you?” I joked.
“She was born in the dark place,” Camden muttered. “Why do you think she became a lawyer?”
“Har har,” she said. “I’ll see you around, Mark.”
“See you around, Carmela,” I replied.
“Don’t feel too bad for her,” Camden said as she walked off into the distance. “I told her that if I scheduled her and Jade at the same time, I owed her a favor on top of the normal pay rate. She’s got me in for some kind of wackiness now, I’m sure.”
