Page 21
CHAPTER 1
Cole Mercury answered the ringing phone in a gruff voice, wondering who was calling him at the ass crack of dawn. Hell, it wasn’t even dawn yet, and the phone was ringing off the hook. He waited to answer until he filled his coffee cup, then picked up the receiver.
“Double A,” he barked into the phone, then held it out from his face when there wasn’t an answer. “Hello? Is anyone there?” He was about to hang up when someone spoke.
“Cole?”
“Yeah, who’s this calling me at the ass crack of dawn.” He didn’t know whether he liked the laugh that came over the other end of the line or not.
“It’s Erin. Erin Riceman.”
“Oh, shit, sorry, Ma’am, I didn’t recognize your voice. How are you this morning?”
“Good, you?”
“Good, now enough of the pleasantries, what’s on your mind?”
Erin laughed, and he could picture her sitting in her office shaking her head at him. “That’s why I like you, Cole, gruff and to the point. I called this early because I’m inviting you, Clem, and Ducky to the cabins tonight. I have two people staying with me this week, and I want them to meet everyone.” When she paused, Cole only sipped his coffee, contemplating how to reject the offer of him attending. He didn’t have a choice after her next words. “It’s mandatory.”
“Why? No offense, Ma’am, but there should be no reason for me to attend the dinner for one of your clients. The Double A, excuse me, New Double has nothing to do with what you do over at The Broken Wheel.”
“I know that, and please call me Erin. These guests aren’t here as clients for Broken.”
“No?” Cole didn’t know what else to say, so he remained silent.
“No, there’s a woman and her grandmother. Lorissa is the woman I’m interviewing. I’ve showed her everything so far, and tonight is her last night here. I thought it would be nice to have a BBQ at the cabins to introduce her to everyone. Not that this matters, but Lorissa’s mother was here a few weeks back as a potential client for Broken. Lorissa came with her grandmother, because well, if I offer the job to the younger woman, her grandmother will be moving here too. I’m not one hundred percent certain yet, but I might have a job to offer Lois.”
“Who’s Lois? I thought you said her name was Lorissa.”
“Okay, I’ll break it down for you. If I hire Lorissa, then she comes with her mother, Laurie, who will be a client for Broken, and I don’t know at this time if I’ll have a job to offer her when she completes the program. Then there is Lois, Laurie’s mother, and Lorissa’s grandmother. I will be offering her a job.”
“Doing what?”
“Back home she apparently ran a nursery. The type that grew flowers and such, with greenhouses. If you don’t know the place yet, talk to Ducky about The Old Atherton Place, that’s where Lorissa, her mother, and her grandmother will be staying.”
Cole stood there sipping his coffee and scowling so hard his eyebrows actually hurt. “You’re not going to tell me what this Lorissa does, are you?”
“Only if you ask.” He heard Erin’s laugh on the other end of the phone and it was infectious enough to relax his facial features. Not a smile, but relaxed features.
“I’ll bite.” Cole grinned when Clem and Ducky walked into the kitchen and poured themselves a cup of coffee. He only held out his cup, and Clem filled it. He took a sip, then resumed his conversation. Since he was on the phone that was attached to the wall, he couldn’t move around much, he made a mental note to see if he couldn’t get a longer cord for the phone. Hell, he didn’t know if they even made parts for wall phones any longer, but he’d look into it the next time he went to town. It might have to be something to order on-line.
“Cole, are you still there?”
“Yeah, sorry, what does this Lorissa do, and why do you want the three of us to come over to the cabins for a BBQ tonight.” He spoke loud enough for the other two men to hear and he actually smiled when Ducky gave a fist bump in the air as he went to the freezer and started getting out packages of meat. Then he went to the cupboards to see what he could make as their dish to pass.
“She’s double certified.”
“Really, in what?” Cole had no clue what Erin was going to say, and when he learned he swore in excitement.
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Nope, see, that’s why I want you and Clem there tonight. I thought the two of you could pick her brain.”
“You run her past Manchester in the background check?”
“No, only because Duane is dating her mother, but I did contact Jake Cogburn over at Brotherhood Protectors. I trust Duane, but with him dating the mother, I want to make sure he’s not being partial toward Lorissa or Lois.”
“Ah, smart move. Okay, I’ll tell Clem and Ducky about tonight. Six?”
“Yes, and get a list of questions together for Lorissa. I haven’t offered her the position just yet. I want you, Naomi, and Clem to sort of interview her. That’s what’s this BBQ is for tonight.”
“Understood, just one question.”
“What’s that?”
“If you hire her, are you kicking Stolls to the curb?”
“No, I want Lorissa for her farrier business. However, if there’s a problem and she’s right here, then by all means reach out to her as a vet. I understand her last job had her work for them exclusively, and I’m not going to do that here. I want her for her AFA certification, and I’ll tell her she can work for others as long as Erin’s Way, Broken, and New Double come first.”
“Great, I can’t wait to meet her. Thanks, Erin, I’ll see you tonight.” He hung up the phone and turned to the other men with a grin. While Ducky was getting ingredients from the cupboards, Clem was cooking their breakfast.
“Ducky,” Cole said as he refilled his coffee cup and started a fresh pot.
“What?”
“What can you tell me about The Old Atherton Place?”
“What did that bastard do now?” Ducky demanded angrily, then shook his head as he sighed heavily. “Sorry, I had a feud going with him, I know he died, then he did what he did with his grandchildren, ornery bastard.”
Cole and Clem exchanged looks and while Ducky remained silent, Cole set the table and waited for the other man to speak.
“First, I had a feud going with him because he tried to ask my wife out on a date. This was decades ago. We had only been married for about three months when I had to go out of town for at least a month.”
“May I ask why?”
“When the chickens were at a certain age, and began to lay eggs, they were transferred to a different facility. I only raised them up to that point, then I would sell them. That place kept the chickens for the eggs for at least two years, then they would sell them to the soup companies.”
“Got it.”
“Well, I had just left with the mature birds, and though it was a lot of work, Sally, my wife, and our hired hands would clean out the barn and get it ready for the new chicks. I delivered the old, and went to pick up the new so that when I arrived home, they could be released in the clean and sanitized barns. That was the practice around here for years, and Sally automatically jumped in to help after we were married. I think the only time she didn’t was when she was pregnant because of the smells of the chicken shit, and I refused to allow her near the chemicals we used for sanitizing the barns.”
“Okay,” Cole didn’t know what else to say, so he encouraged him to continue. “What happened?”
“I left for my trip, like I said, it took about a month because after I dropped the chickens off, I cleaned out their crates and sanitized them, that took roughly two weeks. Then I had to go pick up the new chicks. Sometimes they weren’t quite ready. Anyway, one year, we had been married for three years by then, but one year the day after I left, Atherton saw her in the grocery store and asked her out on a date. Flat out asked her and he had his own wife at home about to give birth to their second child. Thankfully, my Sally knew who he was, and turned him down flat.” He shook his head and joined them at the table.
“Another good thing about my Sally is that she never kept any serious secrets from me.”
“What’s that mean? Serious secrets? A secret is a secret.” Cole didn’t know how he felt about what Ducky had just said, nor why it made him angry. Before he could continue, he stopped when Ducky lifted his hand toward him.
“The only secrets Sally kept from me, that I know of, is when she and the kids would buy me a birthday or Christmas present. She told the kids it was a secret until I opened it.”
“Ah, then that’s okay to keep secrets. I was thinking of the big ones, the ones that could ruin someone’s life.” He shook his head and looked at the other two men sadly as Clem put the food on the table. “The one where Benson lied about our Noomie not being able to walk.” He used his and Clem’s pet name for Naomi.
“Yeah, no, that wasn’t a secret,” Ducky said as he loaded up his plate. “That was an outright lie. Anyway, when Sally told me what Atherton had done I confronted him. I apologized to his wife, and told him to leave my wife alone. When his wife questioned me, I told her what had happened. He didn’t deny it. Anyway, I ignored him for decades after that. I would even leave a store if I saw him there.”
“What about his wife?” Clem asked. “Did you ignore her?”
“No, see, she and Sally were best friends, and they continued to be so. However, there was only one thing I put my foot down on and forbade Sally to do.”
“What?”
“Visit Nancy at her home. Nancy was welcome here whenever she wanted to stop by. Hell, our kids played together, but I wouldn’t allow Sally to go over to their place. Not without me. They seemed to be fine with it. I don’t know what exactly happened, because crap seemed to start all at once, but after the kids grew up and started their own families, I had heard Nancy left Atherton, but we heard later she had died. Sally got sick with cancer, and after my Sally passed, I lost my own kids, and the only surviving members I have of my family are three grandchildren. They don’t want anything to do with this place. When Erin came to me about what the Millers had done, I thought I was headed to an old folks home. In the end it worked out.” He ate more, then looked at Cole in confusion. “Why did you want to know about Old Man Atherton?”
“That was Erin on the phone, she invited us to a BBQ at the cabins over at Broken tonight at six. Apparently, there’s a couple of women over there that Erin wants to hire.” He held up his hand and shook his head. “I don’t know if they have any challenges, and it isn’t any of my business. When I asked why we had to be there, she told me something intriguing.”
“What’s that?” Clem asked as he settled back in his chair with his coffee mug.
“The younger woman, I think her name was Lorissa, she is a licensed veterinarian.”
“Erin’s not firing Tom Stolls, is she?” Ducky asked in concern.
“No, she says that she will keep Stolls on the payroll, but feels that if there’s a problem we can have this Lorissa person come over and check the horse out. The best thing is what else this woman is certified in.” He looked directly at Clem as he answered. “She’s AFA Certified.”
“Holy shit, when does she start?” Clem sat forward in his excitement.
“Wait, what’s that?” Ducky asked in confusion.
Both Clem and Cole turned to say with a grin. “American Farrier Association Certified.” Then Cole took over the explanation. “It means that Lorissa went down to Oklahoma to the farrier school there and went through all the training, and passed all the tests to become certified. Do you know what a farrier is?”
“I think so, isn’t that someone who works on horses feet, makes the shoes for them?”
“Yes, and to have a farrier this close will be a godsend.” Cole shook his head, his mood improving after the coffee finally kicked in, and his belly was full. “Oh, and this Lorissa is here with her grandmother who Erin is also thinking of hiring. Something about her owning several greenhouses where she lives. I asked you about Old Man Atherton, because Erin told me to. She said they will be living there.”
“Good,” Ducky said, then sighed heavily. “As much as I hated the bastard, and he was a royal bastard, I’m glad his property won’t go to seed.” He shook his head and stared at the other two men at the table. Due to his age, he felt like they were his own sons. “As I said, Old Man Atherton was a bastard. He lived in the main house, and he had animals, I believe it was cattle. At one point, when he got up in his years, he was ten years older than me, he put a doublewide trailer on the property for his hired hand. Later, when he needed some extensive work done on his house, he put another trailer, just like the first one on there and he lived in it. I can’t say what condition the place is in because I haven’t been over there for at least fifty years. After I confronted him about him asking my Sally out, I washed my hands of him.” He sipped his coffee and shook his head.
“Last I heard, he left the ranch to his grandchildren, but there were conditions.”
“Do you know what they were?” Cole asked.
“If the grandkids didn’t live on the farm and operate his farrier business for two years, he was going to hand over his five thousand acres to a housing development. By the time he died, there was only one grandchild left, the other two were killed in action while in the military. Last I heard Shelly Atherton, the old man’s last living relative talked to Erin before fulfilling the old man’s wishes.”
“Wow, I can’t see Erin agreeing to a housing development across the road from her.”
“Yeah, me either, so I’m glad she was able to purchase it. I think the sale happened a month ago, but don’t quote me on it. All I know is that the old man was a farrier, and it got to the point that ranchers around here would refuse to work with him because he was such a bastard. I was just grateful that I didn’t have to work with him because I only had chickens. I was able to shoe my own work horses over the years. I hope this woman has a better disposition than Atherton did.”
“Well, we’ll find out tonight,” Cole said as he rose to take his dishes to the sink. He turned back to the other two. “Steaks? And what else were you thinking of making?”
“How about my Sally’s mac and cheese recipe?”
“In the crockpot? The one you made a few weeks back?”
“Yes.”
“Perfect. I have to run to town today, so I’ll pick up some extra beer to take with us.”
“Sounds great.” They went their separate ways with Clem and Cole heading out to the barn and leaving Ducky to clean up their dishes and start the dish for that night.