Page 34 of Rancher's Return

Guilt was a comfort, really. It had been the thing that had ultimately pulled him out of the pit. Maybe that was a messed-up truth, but he had often felt that there were certain things some sorts of people had to be extra careful of. There was a reason he didn’t drink now. Not even in moderation. It was, in his opinion, a crutch he was prone to leaning on far too much.

Not everybody was so careful.

Maybe guilt was a crutch too. But he wasn’t going to wake up face down in a ditch because he had overindulged in guilt. So there was that.

But what had just happened in Marigold’s parents’ house was one of the more profound things he had ever experienced. So maybe there was value in being changed by it. In moving forward differently than he had been. Maybe.

Right now, they were starting something new. Something fresh.

For the first time, it really did feel like something good was growing from all that charred earth. And he had Marigold to thank for that.

Chapter Nine

She had been delivering meals to Buck once a week for the past two weeks. Every time she saw him, it got less jarring in one sense and more complicated in another. Because he was gorgeous. And it wasn’t a simple impersonal observation. It was something she felt. Every time she passed the bags of food from her hands to his, every time she was near him. He was becoming more and more himself to her.

Buck as he was now, and not the version of him she had yelled at in the streets, or even the version she had philosophically forgiven in his absence all those years earlier.

They also had conversations that filled in the gaps of the last twenty years.

Tonight, she was intent on dropping the food and leaving. Quickly.

But as soon as she showed up, so did her daughter’s car, which was carrying not only her and Colton, but Marcus and Reggie as well.

Marcus and Reggie tumbled out of the back seat while Lily rolled the window down.

“Can we go to the movies?” Reggie asked.

“All of you?” Buck asked.

“Yes. Colton and Lily said we could come.”

“Are they buying you a ticket for an R-rated movie?”

“Buck,” Reggie said. “My life is an R-rated movie, man.”

“That didn’t answer my question.”

“They’re going to a cartoon,” Colton shouted.

“We are not,” said Marcus.

“Whatever,” said Buck. “Fine. You can go to the movies.”

“Send me money on my phone,” Colton said.

“Fine.”

“We need popcorn and stuff,” he said.

“So, you need a hundred dollars, that’s what you’re telling me,” said Buck.

“I wouldn’t say no,” Colton said.

Lily, for her part, looked appropriately chagrined.

“You can buy your own ticket,” Marigold said.

“She doesn’t have to,” said Colton.