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“I know. I just feel like I’m abandoning you in your time of need. It’s just…”
“It’s just you have to do this for you. I get it, Gabe, I really do. Why do you think I do nothing but work? It’s my way of coping. This is yours.”
“I just wish your way of coping had changed.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked, emptying my beer.
“Oh, I don’t know, perhaps you could cope by, getting involved with a woman. A relationship may do you good.”
I looked off into the distance. “Nah, I don’t think so,” I muttered, getting up and returning with two more beers. The last thing I needed right now was to have a conversation about my personal life. Gabe should know better than to start on me about dating again.
“Sorry man, I just thought that it may help you cope with things.”
I passed him another beer and sat back down. “Now I’ll do what I can to help you out, but you say you are trying to figure something else out? Care to shed a little light on that subject?” I asked.
“I’m heading out to see Cadence, to see if I can convince her to return home. If she does, I know she’ll need help. Our farm is twice the size of our grandparents’.”
First, he started with my personal life and then he mentioned Cadence in the same sentence. He better not be thinking what I thought he was. I took another mouthful of beer and cleared my throat.
“You aren’t suggesting that Cadence and I…”
Gabe shrugged and sort of smirked as he tipped the bottle back.
There had been a time that I’d had a crush on her, but she gave no hints. Then Gabe made it very clear to me and some other guys at school she was off-limits. In fact, I remembered him muttering something about the bro code after he gave another kid in town a black eye for hitting on his sister. After that, I knew better than to think about touching his sister, as did every guy in town. I enjoyed having my balls intact. Since I hadn’t been willing to ruin our friendship, I pushed my feelings to the back of my mind and gotten involved with her friend Ella.
“Cadence, from what I remember, can look after herself,” I muttered. “She’s looked after your grandparents’ farm just fine with no help from anyone. She doesn’t need my help.”
“Yeah, but it’s different here. More moving parts, bigger operation, and I’d just feel better knowing that I can count on the only man I trust here to be there if she needs something,” Gabe said, looking at me.
I chuckled.
“Please, Connor.”
I hated seeing my friend beg, but at least he was begging me and not some woman who would only slap him across the face when he got close enough. I drank back the rest of my beer and nodded my head.
“Fine. Let me know once you figure it all out. I’ll help her for a bit, but once Cadence is all settled in and things are going well, I’m done.”
Cadence
Gabe stood on my front porch smiling back at me. “What are you doing here?” I asked as I looked at my brother.
“Can’t I come out and visit my sis?”
I crossed my arms over my chest and looked at my brother, who now stood there with his arms open, waiting for a hug. When I didn’t immediately step into his arms, he gave me a goofy smile instead. The one that told me he was here for different reasons other than just a friendly visit. “Can I at least come in out of the rain?”
I stepped to the side to let him in. It had been pouring hard most of the morning. So hard, in fact, that I cleaned up the kitchen and completed most of my housework before I even thought about going out to check on the cattle.
“I don’t have a ton of time, Gabe. I have to get out and get started on all the daily chores that need to be done. So, are you going to tell me what exactly I did to earn a visit?” I asked, while grabbing the mop and dunking it into the pail of water that sat in the middle of the kitchen floor.
“I just thought it would be nice to come and visit. Can’t a brother come and visit his sister?” Gabe asked as he leaned up against the counter. “Haven’t seen you for a bit.”
“Uh-huh. Although in the five years I’ve been here, you’ve never just come to visit me. Besides, since when has it mattered that you haven’t seen me for a bit?” I wrang out the mop and began washing the kitchen floor.
He grew quiet, then met my eyes as I dropped the mop back into the pail. “Cadence, have you given any thought to returning to Willow Valley?”
I stopped dead. Was he kidding? He had to be kidding. Were we really back on this topic again? “I see you’re not wasting time. At least you are getting right to the reason you are really here.”
“Come on, Cadence,” he said, leaning up against the counter.
