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Gabe looked at me and shook his head. “Connor, Cadence has been out with our grandparents for the past five years. Did you forget?” he asked, a frown lining his face.
I looked at my best friend. Perhaps I had forgotten that his sister had left. After all, the last month had been a blur. I’d seen people at the wake I hadn’t seen in years, and now I couldn’t figure out who hadn’t been there. I was sure she’d been here. It wasn’t just things like that I’d forgotten. I was forgetting little things, like putting gas in the tractor the other day before driving halfway across the cattle field only to have it stall out.
I frowned. “It’s been a whirlwind this past month.” I shrugged, not wanting to let on that I still wasn’t coping very well. I wasn’t sure why I felt the need to hide it. I was certain he already knew it, but I felt ashamed.
“I’m sure it has. No need to worry. I’ll be back in a week. I have enough help at the house to make do, and you should be fine here now that I got three of my guys to help here.”
“Thanks,” I muttered, looking at my friend’s saddened face. I felt helpless. Gabe had always done what he could to help me, and under different circumstances, I knew he knew he could count on me. “Have a safe trip.”
“Thanks, man. Just get yourself some rest. I’ll be back before you know it.”
Connor
July 2023
I ran my dirt-covered hand through my messy hair. Sweat poured from my brow, and I wiped my forehead with the sleeve of my shirt. It was hot as hell out, and I couldn’t wait to be done today. Without wasting any more time, I picked up the sledgehammer and began pounding another fence post into the ground. Fixing fences had been the chore for today. It was one field we hadn’t used since the storm passed through shortly before Ella died. It was also the field closest to the house, and we’d need it for winter.
We needed it to be fixed and we also needed to repair the feed barn. I’d made do last winter, but this year, I feared the feed I’d begun storing would spoil if I didn’t get a new roof on it. Which only fixed my mind on other issues, like where I’d get the money.
“Okay, guys, you can bring the wire up to here now,” I called, moving to the next post.
Dropping the sledge on the ground in front of the next post, I made my way over to the back of my truck. Pulling my thermos from the back seat, I took a swig of the now warm water.
The days were already beginning to get shorter, and soon you’d be able to see a hint of colour in the leaves. Cold weather would be here before I knew it, as it always was. I looked off toward my driveway. A trail of dirt rose as a truck drove toward the house. It wasn’t often we had visitors, especially now that Ella was gone. In fact, unless it was Gabe, visitors were non-existent.
“Looks like someone is coming to see you, Connor,” Joey said as he fixed the wire on the post.
“Yeah, I guess.” I shrugged, hammering the next post into the ground.
“We can finish up here. Go on.”
“Are you sure you got this?” I asked, turning to Joey and the other two young guys I’d hired to work for me since I took the place over from my father. They’d been here when I’d purchased the cattle from Jenkins Ranch, right after Thomas’s dad died. Shortly after, Ella and I married and got pregnant. Then we moved into the old farmhouse where we’d laid out our plans, and then ‘life’ stepped in and changed everything.
“Yep, you can inspect it tomorrow.”
“No need. I’ll come back out once I deal with whatever it is,” I said, leaving the three of them to continue with the job at hand. Climbing into my truck, I took off toward the house.
As I pulled around beside the house, I noticed Gabe’s truck sitting in the driveway, and then I saw him wave. He was sitting on the porch looking a little distraught, which caused me to wonder what was wrong. As I climbed out of the truck and made my way over to where he sat, I could see the tension in his face, in his body. Something was wrong, and it immediately set off alarms inside of me.
“What is it?” I asked, climbing the steps of my front porch and leaning up against the rail. I wasn’t wasting time beating around the bush. I needed to know what was wrong.
“Jesus, Connor, look at yourself. Clean yourself up.” Gabe chuckled, a smile coming to his face as he looked me over.
I looked down at my dirt-covered jeans and shook my head. “How do you think a rancher should look? Definitely not like you.” Gabe’s family had owned a multi-generational dairy farm, and he had enough hands to look after his entire place if needed. I didn’t have the funds to even straighten up the place, never mind pay for any more help than what I already had. I could barely afford them. To be truthful, I was barely making ends meet. The bank had refused to lend me any more money until I paid what I was overdue on. I’d fallen behind on payments shortly after Ella had passed and hadn’t been able to get caught up.
“Why, so I can look like you?” I chuckled, scratching my sweaty back against a beam that supported the covered porch.
Gabe laughed. “What’s wrong with looking like me?”
“Nothing at all, pretty boy,” I kidded. “What are you doing here?” I questioned, positive that it had to only be about nine in the morning. He should be on the farm, not out here at my place.
“Well, I came to talk to you. Mallory called. She wants me to come into the city for a few weeks. I told her I’d only come out to complete our separation, but apparently, she now wants to talk things over,” Gabe said, using air quotes as he rolled his eyes.
“So, she changed her mind about the divorce?” I asked.
“I guess. I don’t know for sure. She was vague on the phone, along with a lot of tears.”
“I see. How long are you going to be gone for?”
