my phone buzzed again. Have you told her yet?
Grams’s threat ran through my mind. Time was running out. Would she tell Bristol? Would Grams throw me onto the train tracks and think that would help? That if she screwed things up with Bristol for me, I’d shrug and marry some stranger just to keep the cash?
That was what my brothers had done, so yeah, that was what she thought. Ignoring her would only antagonize her.
Ignoring my protesting belly, I called her back.
“Dawson.” Warmth infused her voice as if the arranged-marriage date hadn’t happened. “How’s it going?”
“You tell me.”
She chuckled. “Did I catch you at a bad time?”
“No,” I sighed. “Can we skip the pretense? I know why you’re calling.”
“It’s an important issue.”
“I’m not talking about this with you, Grams.”
“But have you talked to her?”
“I will.”
“When?”
I rolled my neck, tiring of our back-and-forth already. It wouldn’t be for much longer. “I’m sorry, but it’s none of your business.”
“Be an adult about this, Dawson. Ignoring the problem isn’t going to make it go away. It’s almost like you want me to deal with it.”
Was that how she justified her meddling? “I’ve gotta go, Grams. Hundred million or not, this cow-calf operation doesn’t run itself.” I hung up without waiting for her response.
“Goddammit!” I took a wrench from the work bench and flung it across the shop. The clang soothed my frayed nerves and I spun around with my hands on my hips.
Bristol had just stepped through the door and hustled back out.
“Hey.” I jogged toward her. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”
She lingered outside the door, her arms crossed and her eyes tense. “No, it’s fine. Sorry I didn’t send a message first.”
“It’s fine. You can pop in anytime.”
She nodded. A sheepish expression crossed her face and she dropped her arms and crossed them again like she didn’t know what to do with her extremities. The moment when Marshall had yelled at her on my porch ran through my mind. She’d flinched. She’d done the same thing once when I’d raised my voice.
“I didn’t mean to scare you,” I said quietly.
She flattened her lips and scowled. “I’m not scared.”
“Brings back memories?”
She let out a long breath and wandered to an old pallet I hadn’t broken down for the fire pit yet. She sank onto a corner, bending her long legs and resting her arms over her knees. “Pop never hit me. No matter how drunk he was. But he’d rage. Rant and throw things, like people do when they’re pissed. But in true Pop fashion, it’d grow out of control. I’d find him working in the shop, ask him how his day was, and he’d spin on me, hollering about whoever had done him wrong.” She fell quiet and stared across the yard to the red shop at the end of the long loop through the property. “Then when he got so sick toward the end, I almost missed those outbursts. I think that’s half the reason why I jump.”
“You think you should hate them, that they should bring up bad memories.”
The corner of her mouth lifted. “They do that too. I used to dread his fits. I’d just stay out of the way and regret whatever question I had approached him about. And when he got so weak he couldn’t throw a wrench more than two feet, I realized that the end was near.”
I lowered myself next to her, careful to balance on the pallet to keep from tipping her off. “I don’t usually throw my tools, but I can whenever you want me to.”
She smirked and nudged me with her elbow. “Thanks for the offer, but I don’t miss cleaning up the mess and fixing whatever he broke during his tantrums.”
“Good. As a rule, I don’t like to make more work for myself.”
She rewarded me with a quick smile. “So how did that wrench do you wrong?”
“Oh, uh . . .” Now was the time. I could tell her everything. I could explain what Mama had done and the bind it’d put us all in. And how flat would that explanation land between us?
Oh, I’m sorry your family had so much money that they didn’t want me to have any.
Big ol’ chicken, right here. I couldn’t bring myself to ruin a beautiful June day in Montana. Goldilocks weather. Not too hot, not too cold. The bugs were out but hadn’t grown to obnoxious levels. Green pastures surrounded the buildings. Bursts of yellow sweet clover brightened the countryside.
Today was too