Chapter 13
Clark was sitting at the “special”table he had set up for himself in Erin’s office when she walked in the next day. He had several files open and was reading them, and taking notes.
“What happened to you yesterday?” Erin asked as she walked over and sat behind her desk.
Clark held up his hand and sent a quick text. He waited for a response, and sighed in relief. He had just asked Naomi if he could tell Erin where he had been the day before about the doctor’s visit.
“I took Naomi to get some tests done.”
“Is everything okay?” Erin leaned forward and asked in concern.
“Yes, or at least we hope so.” He looked at his phone and nodded at the next text from her. He looked at his sister and gave her a small smile, and told her why she had to have the tests done. When he concluded, she stared at him in shock.
“Naomi has feeling in her legs?”
“We don’t know for sure,” Clark said to err on the side of caution. “It could be phantom pain.”
“I know what that shit is.” She shook her head and rubbed the end of her stump. “It fucking sucks at times.”
“You still have it after all these years?”
“Yes, so does Reid.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Wow, can I ask you another question? You can tell me to mind my own fucking business, but I’m wondering something.”
“Clark, I’m your sister, you can ask me anything except for my sex life. That’s between Reid and me.”
Clark gagged and shook his head. “Eew, I do not want to know about your sex life.”
“Good,” Erin laughed. “What would you like to know?”
“This might be stupid, but do you find dating someone with basically the same disability as you to be better or worse?”
“First, I don’t have a disability. I’m missing a hand, that’s all. To answer your question, yes, I do find it easier to date someone who is missing a limb. They understand what I’m going through, and we can work through our challenges together.”
“Had you ever dated anyone after you lost your hand?” Clark held up his hand. “I don’t want to offend anyone, but what is the politically correct term?”
“Stump, and yes. I did go out on one date, but he was an ass. After that one date, I threw myself into turning this ranch into what is it now. I didn’t need any closed-minded egotistical men in my life.”
“What happened?”
“A guy from the grocery store asked me out. I know it’s clichéd, but we met in the produce department. He saw me struggling to get one of those plastic bags open, and helped. We talked and he asked me out on a date.”
“Did he see your stump?”
“Yes, he even commented on it. He actually asked me what happened and I told him. I didn’t know him enough to tell him my story. He promptly asked me out. I accepted. The date occurred three days later. Thank god I met him there.”
“Why?”
“Because I walked out on him.”
“What happened?”
“I arrived dressed in a nice dress. It had been almost a year and a half since the accident. My stump was still pretty red or bright pink, not like it is now.” She held it up and he could see that the end was the same as the rest of her arm. “Anyway, I arrived five minutes ahead of time, he was waiting for me inside. I didn’t see it at first, but he turned his nose up when he saw my stump. The hostess told me when I went to leave. Anyway, he didn’t start in on me until after we ordered. He sat there gulping his whiskey, while I sipped mine. I know this isn’t relevant at this time, but I have one shot of whiskey every night. That’s it. I don’t drink beer or wine unless I absolutely have to. Just that one bit of whiskey. It averages to be about a shot to a shot and a half.”
“I noticed that.”
“Anyway, as he gulped his drink, which was a double, he ordered two more while he stared at me. After he downed the second one, it must have given him liquid courage.” She shook her head as she remembered. “He started telling me that on our next date I had to cover my stump. He didn’t use those words though. He said, and I quote, ‘Why in hell would you walk around causing normal people to puke just looking at you? It’s disgusting and disturbing.’ Then he had the nerve to grab his cloth napkin and toss it over my stump.”
“Holy shit, that was ballsy of him.”
“Yeah, I thought so. I sat there and sipped my drink, not saying a word. When the waitress came over to see if he needed another drink, I told her that I wanted my meal to go and a separate bill. She walked away, I looked at him, and told him that he was too closed-minded. I stood, then lied through my teeth to him before I walked away. I later found out he quit his job because he feared he’d run into me at the grocery store. I hadn’t realized he worked there. He had a jacket on over his uniform.”
“Wow, what did you say to him?” At her frown he chuckled. “What did you lie to him about?”
“Oh, I told him I lost it while keeping his sorry ass of a human being free.”
“You didn’t,” Clark laughed. “You told him you were hurt while in the military?”
“No, I might have implied it, but I didn’t mention the military in any way, shape, or form. If he got that impression, that’s on him.” She grinned as her brother broke down laughing.
“God, Rin, I missed you and your sense of humor. Have you had any other problems with going into public with your stump?”
“Not really, people look, but they don’t stare, or avoid me. The people that know the entire story don’t react, they know it’s a part of me just like my hair and eye color. I did have a problem with one person, but that was here on the ranch.”
“Did you fire them?”
“No, they weren’t an employee, they were a customer. It came from Mr. Royal Pain In My Ass.”
“Is that his real name?”
“His real last name is Royal.”
“Okay, what did he do?”
“Pissed me off.”
Clark shook his head as he chuckled. He settled back in his chair and crossed his fingers over his flat stomach and stretched his legs out. He nodded when she leaned back in her chair and put her feet on the desk, crossing them at the ankles. “What happened?”
“He had called and set up an appointment with Virgil to bring his mare over to be bred. I didn’t take the call, I think Virgil did. He wrote in on the schedule, and I like to go out and talk to all the customers. He’s close enough that he could bring his mare here, and we didn’t have to worry about using frozen sperm. Though, at that time, that idea was just a nugget in the back of my mind.”
“Like Mom and Dad did.”
“Correct. I was already out there talking to Tom when Mr. Royal Pain In My Ass arrived.” She shook her head and grabbed her water bottle. “The guy showed up, and began talking to Tom like he was the owner of the ranch. Tom told him several times to talk to me. He finally walked away, leaving Royal and myself alone. He took one look at me and started explaining to me the difference between a mare, a gelding, and a stallion.”
“Holy shit, didn’t you tell him who you were?”
“No, he wouldn’t let me speak. He kept calling me ‘Little Lady’.”
“Oh, shit.”
“Oh, shit is right. I waited until he was done spouting off, and told him what to look for in his mare if the pregnancy took. I got technical with him, and he stood there with a dumb look on his face. I took his check and had him sign the forms. The entire time, I told him all about the birds and the bees when it came to horses. He tried to tell me at the beginning, that he was rich and important because owned horses and a ranch. By this time, I had culled the herd down to three hundred stallions and mares.”
“How rich, and how big is his spread?”
“I don’t know how rich, but his check didn’t bounce, and he requested Titan to be his mare’s baby daddy.” She grinned as he sputtered a laugh. “That was a cool one hundred grand that I made. He did say he owned one hundred acres.”
“Isn’t that the size of Broken’s barn and the cabins?”
“Thereabouts.” They exchanged grins and shook their heads. “I did have one other problem with Royal Pain. I probably should tell you so you’ll be aware if he shows up again, though I kicked him off the ranch. He’s not allowed on Erin’s Way property ever again, and he sure as hell isn’t allowed to use our stallions. If he gets it off the website, I have no control over that. But he’s local and Tom’s in charge of using that sperm. He knows my feelings on the matter.”
“What did he do?”
“He called and wanted to breed his mare again.”
“Didn’t it take?”
“Yes, she even had the foal. However, the foal wasn’t even three months old and he wanted to breed her again.”
“She’s not ready. I bet she hadn’t even started her cycle again.”
“Exactly, that’s what I told him. I told him when he had her bred the first time, he had to wait at least a year after the birth to try again. I even highlighted that paragraph on the contract. He initialed it.”
“Okay, but that’s not all that happened, was it?”
“No.” Erin sighed heavily and rubbed her forehead, then the back of her neck. After releasing several deep sighs, she looked at her brother intently. “I refer to that particular day as the day from hell.” She sipped her water and shook her head. When she got her thoughts under control, she looked at her brother. “I was in town doing the quarterly taxes.” She shook her head at him. “It wasn’t Miller from the past. It was actually my professor’s wife. In case you didn’t see them, I do quarterly taxes. I found it’s better to keep on top of things than annually.”
“I would agree, and yes, I read the reports.”
“Okay, well, I was in town, which you know is over an hour away. Reid was the only man from your team that was here. The ladies were at the barn along with Reid. Katie had just come out of her shell and latched onto Reid.”
“I’ve started reading some of Broken’s files. Was Katie depressed after her ordeal with her previous owners?”
“That’s what Naomi, Tom, and I thought. We were thinking it was time to put her on anti-depressants, but then she picked up a ball and threw it at Reid’s back. When he picked it up and tossed it back to her, she started coming out of her shell. She picked up her head, her ears would twitch, as well as her tail. Now she and Reid play ball for at least two hours every day.”
“Is that why he goes over to Broken after working here all day?”
“Yes, we don’t want her to be getting depressed again. That day, Reid had just put Katie in her stall when she started rearing up and screaming.”
“At Reid?”
“No, someone was coming up the road from here honking their horn, and shouting out the window. Reid sent me a text and asked if I had any guns at Broken.”
“Holy shit, did you?”
“Yes, but they don’t take real bullets. It would be easy to convert to using them, though.”
“What type of ammo do they take?”
“Bean bags. I learned when I was culling the herd, they hurt like hell and stopped a charging horse, but they didn’t penetrate the skin and kill them.”
“Holy shit, I never thought of that, but I can see where that might come in handy.”
“Yeah, well, after I got that text from Reid, my phone blew up from the ladies telling me what was going on. Philip Firth, who the SPCA had taken to court for animal cruelty to Katie had gotten out of jail that day. He stopped and bought liquor and beer, and started drinking his breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He arrived drunk, the others called the cops, and I came about twenty minutes after the cops arrived. Between Naomi and I, we were able to tell the authorities that I owned Katie and I wasn’t the horse thief that Firth kept shouting at the top of his lungs. Once that was done, several hands came screaming over the hill to tell us someone was trying to steal Titan from Erin’s Way.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah, I grabbed a rifle, along with all the former military people. Naomi stayed there to try to calm Katie, and we beat feet to here. The cops were hot on our heels.”
“What happened?”
“Mr. Royal Pain In My Ass was running around trying to load Titan in a trailer he brought. He brought men with him, about five or six, I forget. It was mayhem because Titan was out of his stall.”
“What was his excuse?”
“He tried to tell the cops that because he paid me to breed his mare the previous fall, then he owned Titan and all his sperm.”
“Oh, fuck. That’s not how it’s done. It’s a one and done.”
“Exactly. I gave the police a copy of his contract, and Royal Pain wouldn’t shut the fuck up long enough for me to tell them what was happening. I’m so glad the cops didn’t arrest me for what I did.” She smirked as she blew on her knuckles and wiped them on her upper chest.
“Rin, what did you do?” Clark smirked back at her.
“I raised one of those bean bag guns and shot the asshole in the stomach. That shut him up, and one cop cuffed and stuffed him, then we could talk. I told the cops about the phone call I had earlier that morning, where he wanted to breed his mare again.”
“Which was way too early.”
“Yes, and I explained that. The men he brought kept saying that Royal Pain threatened to fire them if they didn’t help him get Titan. I pressed charges for attempted horse theft. He made bail, and I got a lifetime restraining order against both Royal Pain and Firth.”
“Yet they showed up here again?”
“Yes, I haven’t heard whether they made bail from that incident or not. That was Denver’s first day here. The day I was talking about was Lloyd’s first day. After everyone left, a truck pulled in very slowly, I mean less than five miles per hour. We couldn’t see who was driving because of the glare on the windshield. Reid approached the driver’s side with the bean bag gun, and after several minutes, the guy finally stepped out. Reid almost didn’t catch him before he passed out.”
“Why?”
“Apparently, he had gone weeks without sleep. Every time he closed his eyes, he relived what happened to him.”
“I do remember Reid calling me and cussing me out, wanting to know what happened to him. For the life of me, I never heard what happened. Not in any minute details until Sanchez and Gould were transferred from Echo and the team disbanded.”
“They can do that?”
“Yeah, the leader, the guy that had the same rank as me, went crazy. They didn’t know it at the time, but he had TBI and it went untreated.”
“How do you treat it?”
“Every case is different. Some have it so bad that they are in a vegetive state, some have to learn how to walk and talk again, others can function, but may have problems?”
“Like Pru?”
“What do you mean, like Pru. Our Pru?”
“Yes, she has TBI. She said at Thanksgiving that her neurons are firing too fast for her to stop talking, and that the filter between her brain and mouth is gone. I thought she was joking.”
“Probably not, that can happen. A TBI is when your brain is shaken so badly that it causes damage to it. Some things can be overcome, some can’t.”
“Does that mean we should do what Pru wants us to do?”
“What does she want you to do?”
“These are her words, but she wants someone to smack her in the head hard enough to get her neurons to fire on all cylinders again.” The siblings smirked at each other.
“That is the last thing you want to do. Now, if something happens and she is in an accident and hits her head, that’s a different story, but I wouldn’t tell her to go out and do it. Do you think she will?”
“No. But if you’re ever out at Broken, can you keep an eye on her. She has at least three, I wouldn’t call them personalities, because she is the same person, but she had three things that she does.”
“Which are?”
“One, she talks fast, especially if she’s nervous or scared. When we dealt with Firth and Royal Pain that day, she stood in front Naomi’s chair with one of the bean bag guns, protecting her, and talked rapidly beneath her breath. I don’t think she realized she was doing it. Second, if she’s not talking, she’ll stare off into space and have a blank look on her face, almost, but not quite like nobody’s home. When you rouse her, she says she forgot what she was supposed to be doing. Even with the shovel full of shit in her hands.”
“Oh, okay. What else, you said three things, you only gave two.”
“The other one is that she acts perfectly normal. Recall the conversation we had about her wanting to get some chickens. She talked normally, and the only thing she forgot was what a chicken coop was called. The other women are forever encouraging her to write things down. Oh, and for God’s sake, never, ever take her grocery shopping without a list. Opal’s good at helping her make one.”
“What happens if she shops without a list.”
“She will either forget half the things she needs, or purchases things she doesn’t like.”
“Got it. I know I shouldn’t ask, but how does Naomi get her groceries?”
“Like any other person.” Erin stared at her brother and frowned at him. “Clark, just because Naomi is in a wheelchair, that doesn’t make her helpless. Before she came here, she traded her full-size truck in for the one she drives now. She even had it fitted with hand controls. She gets herself in and out, and she gets in and out of the barn. With some planning, she even gets up on a horse to ride.”
“What type of planning, and isn’t that dangerous?”
“No, because she knows what she’s doing. It’s not like she’s breaking a horse. She’s only exercising them. The planning is to have one of my guys help her on the horse.” At his confused look she chuckled and shook her head at them. “My guys are Wendel, Floyd, and Virgil. Your men are Reid, Lloyd, Perry, Denver, and anyone else who wants to come here. That’s how I distinguish them. Guys, men.”
“Oh, I can do that.” He looked at his watch and sat up. “I’m meeting Naomi for supper, I know it’s only two in the afternoon, but I want to look around before it gets dark. I have to say, when I went over that hill yesterday, the layout took me back a couple hundred years to when Grandma Erin might have started this place. I really like the setup. You did good.”
“Thanks, go, I won’t plan on supper for you. If you get a chance, check out the two-story cabins.”
“Why? Are they special?”
“No, but they are the cabins the guys started staying in. After a few weeks, they hooked up with the loves of their lives and moved in with them. Both of them are empty of people, but each one has four bedrooms with an attached bath.”
“Maybe I will check them out. No offense to you and Reid, but I don’t really feel like this place is for me.” He looked around the office and shook his head before he looked at her. “This is your office, I don’t feel unwanted, but I don’t feel like it’s mine.”
“Okay, I think.”
“It’s all good, Rin.” Clark stood and walked toward her. He leaned over and kissed the center of her forehead. When he straightened, he laughed. “Don’t wait up for me.” He left the office, and she saw him drive by the office window ten minutes later. She wondered what he meant by his last comment. She hoped he wasn’t thinking of leaving Erin’s Way all together. On a sigh, she shook her head and grabbed the top envelope from the mail she had brought in with her and got to work.