Page 23 of Baker (Bastian Brothers #1)
Chapter Eleven
I meandered over to the guys sweating it out under a warm spring sun, feeling like a turd on the bottom of a boot about how I’d been ragging on my siblings. They had really put their backs into this mess, and I was grateful beyond words.
“Doing good,” I stated as Granny opened the front door to announce that lunch was ready. “Thanks, guys. Really.”
They all nodded. I grabbed Dodge as he was removing his dirty leather work gloves. “Minute?”
“Sure.” The others ambled inside, casting curious looks back at us until the screen door slapped closed and Dodge and I stood alone amid heaps of sawdust and tiny sticks.
Raking for hours was in the near future.
My to-do list runneth over. He sat down on the remaining half of the old oak, removed his hat, and wiped his face with a limp bandana from his back pocket.
I joined him as my mind danced around how to be firm but polite.
“It is broken?” He gestured to my arm with his sodden bandana.
“Hairline.” The goats were out in their pasture, blatting softly as they enjoyed the sun on their backs. “Gotta wear this for a few weeks. Guess you all showed up at the right time.”
He smiled, and I could see why Ollie had been attracted to him. He was a good-looking man. Smart too. College degree in medicine and all that. I’d barely squeaked through high school, so I was impressed.
“I like to think that fate has plans for all of us if we just open ourselves up to the whimsy of kismet.”
“Right, well, I’m not well-versed in providence and all that, but I do know that I’d be in a fucking mess if you boys weren’t here to help.”
He chuckled. “You can look at it that way or you could say that if not for us being here and buying goats, you’d not have been out herding said goats and gotten struck by that limb.”
I shot him a look. “There is that angle, but I’m trying to be nice here.” That made him laugh harder. “Anyway, the thing is, I appreciate you stepping in to help the ranch. And investing in it as you are. I am capable of paying my own bills, though.”
“I figured you’d be twisted up about that, but you don’t have to be.
You being injured on this property falls under what we should have covered with the homeowners’ insurance if you weren’t part of the household.
” He shot me a glance with keen brown-green eyes.
“Since you don’t have health insurance, you’re not covered, and that expense comes to the ranch.
As part owner, it’s up to me, and the others, to chip in to cover any expense that the ranch incurs.
Which is why I asked Hanley to inform the billing department to send your bills here so they can be figured into the expenses due. ”
He’d lost me when he’d brought up homeowners, which thankfully we did have, but I wasn’t about to make a claim for tree cleanup when I could do it myself and save a rate increase.
“Still, it feels like charity. Ford and Bella don’t have the kind of cash required to cover my dumb ass anyway, so why not let me pay my own way? I do appreciate the kindness, though.”
He huffed out a sigh. “Okay, if you feel that strongly about it, then I’ll hand the bill to you when it comes. Speaking of Ford and Bella…”
I looked away from my brother to the big goat buck sunning on a mound of fresh hay. Not a care in the world. He’d done his duty last fall, and now all Willy had to do was chill. Must be nice to be a goat.
“What about them?”
Dodge shifted beside me. I moved my attention from the lazy buck to the ginger at my left.
“I did mention asking Ollie to run a background check on everyone so my ex would feel better about letting Dahn come here to live?”
“Yeah, you mentioned it. I reckon I had a few naughty marks on mine.”
He smiled stiffly. “A few, but nothing too detrimental. It was noted by the sheriff on your report that you had been sober for years now, and he considered you an upstanding resident of Bastian Grange.”
“Guess I owe him a cup of coffee for that praise.”
Dodge began fidgeting with the rim of his cowboy hat. Probably a real Stetson and not a cheap knockoff like the one sitting on my fat head. “What’s wrong? Is Linc a serial killer or something?”
“No, Linc came up clean as a whistle.” His sight darted to the goats, then over to me. “Ford and Bella have refused to voluntarily agree to a background check.”
“Oh. Huh.” I craned my head around to look at the house as if I could see through walls.
A fly buzzed past on his way to check out the nanny berries—what Bella had coined the goat pellets— piling up in the pasture.
I brought my attention back to Dodge. “They don’t have to if they don’t want to. I mean, it is voluntary.”
“It is, yes, and while I get that and appreciate the legality of it, them refusing makes me edgy. Why? What are they hiding? And will it, when it comes out, reflect badly on my getting sole custody of my son? Will their pasts give Chris a reason to be more of a dick?”
“But your ex doesn’t really want your son, right?”
“He does, and he doesn’t.” Dodge’s jaw tightened.
“He wants him when it’s fun for him to be a father, but when he has other things to do, things that he deems more important, he chafes at being a parent.
Which is total bullshit. When you bring that infant home, nothing comes before that child. Nothing.”
“And there is the sole legacy of Cashman Bastian talking.”
“Yeah, yeah, I guess so. Kids who are abandoned by their dads do carry some baggage.”
“Amen.”
He ran his fingers through his red hair.
“I don’t want to hound them, but I really do need them to agree.
It would make things go so much smoother, and Chris is demanding it.
I don’t want him to go to the judge and make a stink.
If he did, then they would be legally bound to it if the courts required it.
So can you talk to them? I’m too wound up in it all to be cool and rational. ”
“You think I’m rational? Have you met me?”
“I have, and while you’re touchy, you’re not prone to leaping into things based on emotion.” I cocked an eyebrow. “Emotions not dealing with our dickhead dad.”
“That’s fair.” I sighed. “Sure, yeah, I’ll talk to them, but I can’t force them to do it.”
“Thanks. I appreciate it.”
“Well, I appreciate your hard work and faith in this ranch.”
“We’re family. Hard work and faith are what keep us tight.”
He gave my thigh a tap with the side of his fist, rose, and motioned to the house.
I nodded and got to my feet, taking care to step carefully.
I didn’t want to get tangled up in brush and fall on my fucking arm.
Stupid thing was a nuisance enough without adding a wider crack.
I had no damn clue what I would say to Ford and Bella that wouldn’t sound like me being a prick, but I’d ponder on it and do my best.
Lunch was late. Seemed they were waiting for me to get back home.
It was touching and very much my grandmother.
Once the news about my casted arm was relayed over a meal of cold ham and cheese sandwiches, baked beans, some celery and carrots with dip, chips, and iced tea with lemon, Hanley asked to borrow an ATV to ride out to his camp.
“Sure, you want me to come with you?” I asked and got a funny look from the photographer. “I can ride.”
One side of his mouth twitched. I felt a warm rush color my cheeks. I had a thought to clarify but bit my tongue as that would only draw attention to the questionable comment.
“I’ll be fine. I can check on those line cabins while I’m out.”
Everyone seemed okay with that, so I nodded along, saddened that my arm, which hurt pretty badly now, was hampering me from riding both an ATV and a wildlife photojournalist. Maybe if things around here lightened up work-wise, I’d climb up on Prissy and go visit Hanley.
That was if his camp hadn’t been blown into the reservation.
Giving an ATV gas with my thumb might be bad for my fracture but using my legs to give a horse directions would be just fine.
“If your camp is trashed, come on back here. We’ll find somewhere for you to sleep,” I said and got nods from all.
My gaze touched on Bella and Ford. She was smiling at something Linc was saying about bread crusts.
Ford was shoveling food into his face like he’d not eaten in months.
I had noticed that about him. He seemed perpetually hungry and ate with gusto.
Not unlike most young men. I’d been a bit of a wolf when it came to food at his age.
Now I had to watch what I ate as it tended to settle around my middle.
Manual labor on the ranch helped keep me fit, but I wasn’t quite as energetic as I used to be, and those extra cupcakes showed up to rest on my belt without warning.
“Will do.” Hanley grabbed a quick cup of coffee and then set off for the storage shed.
I sat back in my chair, sipping my coffee, when my grandmother arrived at my side with the bag containing my pain pills.
I made a face. She doled one out and placed it in my hand.
Knowing she would stand there until I swallowed it, I was a good soldier and tossed it in and washed it down with some coffee.
“Good boy. Now go lie down and rest,” Granny said, but I had plans. I needed to help with the clean-up of the oak, make sure the cattle barn was ready for tomorrow and the new arrivals, and then see if I could get Ford and Bella alone to have that talk.
“I’m not taking a nap. I’m fine. I just need to finish this coffee and have another cookie, then I’ll be outside to help,” I announced as the others rose from their seats.