10. Shep
10
SHEP
The moment the sprawling ranch came into view, a familiar feeling spread through me. A warm ache. Gratitude that this was where I’d ended up when it could’ve been so much worse.
The sprawling fields with grazing cattle and a dozen or so horses spread out around the white farmhouse with its wraparound porch. Mom had managed to keep it running with the help of an expert team of ranch hands, even after Dad had passed. But none of us kids had ever gotten the bug to take over the operation.
I pulled between Anson’s dark truck and Fallon’s car. Kye’s blacked-out truck with its intricate detailing sat on the other side of Fallon’s vehicle—always together, even in parking. Trace’s SUV sat closer to the barn, and I knew his daughter, Keely, had likely made him come over early so she could go riding.
Shutting off the engine, I grabbed Arden’s bag.
“I can get it,” she said.
“So can I,” I shot back .
She stuck her tongue out at me. “Always the white knight.”
I didn’t feel like one much these days. I felt like a murky gray one at best. As we walked up the steps, I could already hear the voices inside: Keely’s squeals of delight, Rhodes’ uninhibited laughter, Lolli yelling at someone.
I reached for the doorknob, testing it. Of course, it was open. I scowled down at it but opened the door.
The moment we walked inside, Keely jumped up. “Uncle Shep! Auntie Arden!” She raced toward us, leaping into the air with all her six-year-old strength. I caught her and hauled her into my arms. She immediately leaned toward Arden. “I rode Smoky, and we went so fast! I wanted to keep going all the way to the mountains, but Dad said we had to come back.”
Arden smiled, reaching out to ruffle Keely’s hair as Brutus sat dutifully at her side. “Maybe we can do a camping trip before you go back to school.”
Keely’s eyes went wide with delight, and she twisted in my arms, squirming to get down. She raced back to Trace. “Can we, Daddy? Can we?”
He grinned down at her. “Sure. Weekend after next?”
I knew it burned that Trace didn’t always have his girl. His divorce hadn’t been ugly, but it wasn’t easy either. And it killed him every time he lost Keely for a week.
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Keely shouted, dancing around the room.
Mom chuckled as she crossed to me and Arden. “So happy you made it.” She reached up onto her tiptoes to kiss my cheek. Nora Colson wasn’t a tall woman, but the fierceness in her tiny frame was unparalleled.
She pulled Arden into a hug, rocking her back and forth. “I’ve missed you.”
Arden was a bit awkward with the affection but hugged Mom back anyway. “Sorry, Nora. Been in the art haze.”
Everyone handled the name thing differently. I’d never known Nora as anything but Mom . But I’d also come into her care as an infant. While Trace had come to live with us at twelve, he had also quickly adopted the term. Rhodes, Arden, and Kye had all gone for Nora . Mom never minded. She loved all of us the same.
“Finally,” Lolli huffed from her spot by the massive picture window. “I’ve been waiting for you to get here so I can unveil my latest piece.”
She stood, billowy dress swaying, and the dozens of necklaces looped around her neck tinkling against one another. Everyone looked her way. Fallon and Kye peered from their spots on the couch. Rhodes glanced up from where she was curled in Anson’s lap in an armchair. Trace looked on in a worried way.
Lolli quickly crossed to something leaning against the far wall, a towel covering it. She tugged off the covering and held it up for all of us to see. The canvas was covered in countless glittering gemstones—Lolli’s latest hobby. But she couldn’t simply do the normal paint-by-numbers sort of deal. She had to do her own thing—her own always inappropriate thing.
Kye started coughing, trying to cover his laugh.
Fallon gaped at the artwork, cheeks flaming red. “Is that? Are they naked? On horseback?”
“Pretty sure they’re having sex on horseback, Fal,” Kye said, lips twitching.
I couldn’t look away from Lolli’s art . The two people on the horse appeared human but had massive wings and definitely looked…joined.
“Don’t say the s-word,” Keely said matter-of-factly. “It makes Dad’s face get red.”
“Jesus,” Trace muttered, scrubbing a hand over said face. “Let’s pray my kid doesn’t talk about this at horseback-riding camp.”
Lolli’s gaze snapped to him. “If any camp has something against talking openly and honestly about sex, send them to me.”
Rhodes choked on a laugh. “I can just imagine that conversation, Lolli.”
She let out a huff. “Repression will kill you. You’ll die of a stroke or a heart attack. Life is for the living.”
“Preach it,” Kye agreed .
Fallon sent him a look I couldn’t quite read. Concern or annoyance, maybe?
Kye definitely lived life to the fullest. After he’d come to live with us at sixteen, he’d gotten in more trouble than any other foster Nora had taken care of. There were late-night police station visits and countless meetings with the principal. But he’d settled, finding different ways to let out whatever haunted him.
Training in mixed martial arts. Racing bikes. And his art. It was probably thanks to Lolli that he’d found his love for drawing, but I was sure no one had expected him to ink that art on his skin and others’. And now, folks came from all over the world to have him work on them.
“So,” Lolli said, glancing around the room, “who wants it for their house?”
Silence reigned around us. I swore I could hear crickets chirping. But I already had a half-naked elf man behind my office door. I couldn’t do this, too.
“You prudes,” Lolli grumbled.
Kye grinned. “I’ll take it for the shop. My piercer’s into all that fairy shit. She’ll love it.”
Mom glared at Kye. “Language, please.”
Kye’s lips twitched. “Sorry, Nora.”
She just shook her head. “I should’ve grounded you more in high school.”
Rhodes slid from Anson’s lap and crossed to me. He watched her as she went, never taking his eyes off her. All careful watchfulness, making sure she was okay. Safe.
“Do you have a minute?” Rhodes asked.
My muscles wound tight, bracing, but I nodded. “Sure.”
She motioned me back toward the entryway. The fact that she felt the conversation needed privacy only sent more tension threading through me. But still, I followed.
Rhodes glanced toward the living room as if to make sure no one was listening.
“Are you okay?” I asked, a whole new set of worries taking root .
“Me? I’m fine,” she said quickly. “I wanted to talk to you about Thea.”
The tension was back but for an entirely different reason. Thea’s face had played in my mind all day at the jobsite. Her true terror at having me in her space. Her stubborn resolve to handle the problem on her own. I did everything I could to keep my voice even, almost disinterested. “What about her?”
“She said you helped her with a leak at her house.”
I nodded. “As much as she’d let me.”
Rhodes worried the corner of her lip. “She went to Castle Rock Construction yesterday.”
I couldn’t help the curse. The owner, Bob, was old school. Slightly sexist and definitely oblivious. But his son? Russ was a piece of work and always had been.
We’d been in the same year at school, and he treated everyone like dirt. But he’d hated me particularly. Loved calling me Box Baby in elementary and hadn’t much grown out of that.
“Tell me she didn’t hire them.” Castle Rock did shoddy work at best, and they’d overcharge for what they did manage to execute.
“Thankfully, no,” Rhodes said. “I might’ve convinced Thea to let you help her.”
A hum lit my muscles, phantom energy that buzzed. “You sure about that? She wouldn’t even let me inside her house to check out the issue.”
Pain flashed across Rhodes’ face, and I wanted to kick myself. Still, she pushed on. “I don’t know what happened to her, but I know she’s running from something. Dunc pays her in cash. And she doesn’t have a phone or an email address.”
Everything in me went on alert. “No phone or email?” I didn’t know a soul without both.
Rhodes shook her head. “I think she needs someone who will go at her pace. Do whatever it takes to make her feel comfortable.”
A million possibilities played in my mind, but none were good. All of them made a sick feeling take root in my gut.
“Shep?” Rhodes prodded .
“Sorry,” I mumbled, pulling myself out of my spiraling thoughts.
“Will you help her?”
I swallowed through the tightness in my throat. “Of course.”
But my offer of that assistance and Thea taking it were two different things. And I didn’t see her letting me in anytime soon. Something about that burned. Scalded in a way I was desperate to heal. But Thea would have to take the first step. And I wasn’t sure she ever would.