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“Aw, man!”
I chuckled. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Mac, silent and brooding as usual.
“What’s on your mind, bro?” I asked.
“Huh?” Mac shook his head a bit, coming back into the moment.
That got a laugh out of me. “It appears that something’s on your mind. I was asking what it was.”
“Uncle Mac was thinking,” Henry confirmed.
“That’s right, Hen. I could smell the rubber burning.”
“What makes you think I was thinking about something?”
“The look on your face. There’s brooding and then there’sbrooding.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You have a certain look when you’re pissed about something and another look entirely when you’re trying to puzzle something out. The one you have now is like you’re trying to puzzle something out.”
Mac said nothing. Instead, he shook his head and took off his hat, running a hand through his thick, dark hair.
“Maybe.”
“That means yes. So, what’s on your mind? Let me in so I can help.”
“I can help too!” Henry called out from on top of my shoulders.
Up ahead, I could see the truck we’d taken out to do the work we’d brought Henry along for, a 2021, night-black F-350. Once we reached that, we’d have a five-minute drive back to the house. Good thing the truck was there, the snow was starting to get bad. I was ready to be inside and sitting in front of the fireplace with a big glass of whiskey and a slice of pecan pie and ice cream.
Mac chuckled, as if realizing that there was no getting out of this conversation. He was right. Once I’d opened him up a bit, I rarely let him off the hook.
“Well, I was thinking about the nannies we’d interviewed for Henry and Hattie.”
“The ones we talked to last week? Why are you thinking about them?”
A few months ago, the boys and I had decided that, even with four of us, we needed a little help with the twins. Thousand Acres was, well, a thousand acres, which was a hell of a lot of work even for four men and a small crew. As much as we’d felt a bit odd outsourcing our childcare, we’d all come to the conclusion that it was the right call to make.
Not only that, but four men was a hell of a lot of testosterone for two kids to be exposed to. A little femininity around the joint could be good for them.
“No reason. Well, other than the fact that we still need to decide on one.” I could sense from the look on his face that there was more to it than that.
“And?”
“And what?”
I chuckled. “Might as well save us the trouble and get right to it.”
He shot me a side-eyed look, one that seemed to say that there was no sense in keeping his walls up.
“Uncle Mac hates talking,” Henry said from up above.
“Now, I don’t hate talking,” Mac replied. “Just… don’t see the use in it most of the time.”
“This case is different,” I said. “We’re talking about the twins. They, along with the business, are the two subjects we don’t keep secrets about, oh mute brother of mine.”
He tapped the brim of his hat, dusting off the snow that had accumulated there.
