It was a super-awesome thing for him to do. Giving me time with my family. Giving me a break from the constant work.
When he got back, I thanked him.
His reply was, “Chile dip.”
I took this to mean badasses weren’t good with gratitude.
I’d noted that too.
“Things are good with the fams,” I assured him as he put Love Actually in its case and tossed it on the TV stand.
It was then he surprised me by asking another question, this one more personal than the first.
“Why aren’t you there?”
“My cabins are rented.”
He finished shoving Red in the player, turned, and leveled his eyes on me.
“Why aren’t you there?”
I sighed.
Then I explained. “I have an SUV to buy.”
His head cocked to the side. “What?”
“I have an SUV to buy,” I repeated. “And I’m saving to pay my dad back for giving me money to make a go of this place. I’m doing that with interest so it’s taking some time. And I’m buying my SUV with cash because I don’t want to finance it. The cabins are filling up and I almost always have several of them rented, but it’s not like it’s steady and I haven’t been here long enough, and the cabins haven’t been renting steadily enough to assess how the rentals are going in order to get a sense of what kind of the income I’ll have. So I’m being cautious. And I need the money.”
He moved to his chair, no longer looking at me, and folded his frame into it.
What he didn’t do was reply.
I reached to the remote.
That was when he spoke again.
“Why didn’t they come here?”
“Home is closer and Mom and Dad have a huge house.”
I felt his gaze so I looked to him.
“You got eleven cabins,” he pointed out.
“Home is home, Priest, and my sister just had their first grandchild. My mom and dad live on the ranch in Oklahoma where my dad grew up, his dad grew up, me and my brother and sister grew up. With Lacey having her first baby, the ranch was where this Christmas had to be.”
“Have you met her kid?” he asked.
I shook my head.
He looked to the blank TV.
I took that as a sign it was time to fire up the movie, so I did that.
We were ten minutes in before Priest said quietly, “Nothin’ more important than family.”
His words made me catch my breath, mostly because he was right. I should have taken the financial hit, closed Glacier Lily, and taken a few days to drive down and spend Christmas with my family, meet my nephew, get to know my soon-to-be sister-in-law better, commune with my beloved uncle.