Chapter 7 #2
He pushed the brim of his ball cap up. She always teased him that his cowboy hat was just for show. When he ranched, he wore an old grungy ball cap. “I never understood what she had against him.”
Mom held Caleb’s allure against him. Brigit and Justin and Caleb had been close, but Justin hadn’t been the one to entertain skipping college to live with Caleb.
After the fight with Dad about letting Brigit go where she wanted for school and getting treated the same as the boys, for Brigit, Caleb was a huge threat.
But for Justin, Mom only held Caleb’s family against him.
“She was afraid her precious Justin would be corrupted by a student with less than a four-point-oh GPA.”
“Right? I almost wish I still had a reason to go to Denver for the holiday.” He clenched his jaw and looked away.
Brigit didn’t have to ask for specifics. That Justin had mentioned even this much meant the situation was gnawing at him. “She really did a number on you, huh?”
“How long can one guy try before he gives up?” A disgusted sound ripped out of him. “Until she gets engaged to someone else, I guess.”
She blinked and looked away. His question propelled her back to the scene in the bathroom.
Caleb was still trying to give up. She hadn’t encouraged him to.
Instead, she’d practically scaled his body, made herself his hood ornament.
But this moment wasn’t about her pain and insecurities. “She wasn’t the one, I guess.”
“Guess not.” He shrugged and kicked at a pile of straw. “At least Maisy doesn’t cross her signals.”
Cold shock washed down her spine. “Maisy May?” Justin’s expression turned sheepish. She couldn’t believe he’d be so stupid. “What were you thinking? She’s gonna be here one day boiling a bunny on our stove,” she hissed.
“She’s not that crazy. And have you ever seen that movie?”
She had. And she’d thought of Maisy at the time. “Guys have a blind spot forty-acres wide when it comes to crazy women. It’s like you get more attracted to them.” She shook her head. “She’s a mean one.”
“How would you know? You didn’t even hang out with her.”
“For good reason.”
“Whatever. That was years ago. And she never said anything bad about you.”
Her snort echoed through the barn. “As if she’d trash your twin to you and expect you to keep going out with her.”
“Well, it’s not serious and she knows that.”
Brigit wasn’t so sure. “Watch yourself. She’s got more than one personality and you only see the sane one.”
“Noted.” His back was to her as he stacked corral panels.
He was brushing her advice off that easily? Did it not bother him that Maisy was her own personal bully? “What’s noted is the door you just slammed closed.”
“Want to talk about doors?” He turned around and crossed his arms. “Why are you and Caleb acting like complete strangers?”
“I— What?” She looked around for something to do. Anything.
“Do you think I missed the whole drama between you and him? And how he always gets tense when you’re around but seems to look for you everywhere?
And how now that you’re both under the same roof, you aren’t talking to each other even though we all used to ride horse together, build forts in the shelter belts, and work cattle as a team? ”
“I helped him work cattle all last weekend. While you were doing business.” It might’ve been a touch coldhearted to point that out, since his business hadn’t gone so well, but she really didn’t want to talk about Caleb to Justin.
But he ignored the jab. “So you two should be laughing and joking around. Especially after field dressing a deer together.”
Brigit wanted to rub her forehead, but her hands were dirty. “Mom didn’t approve.”
“We covered that. So?”
“She lost her shit when she caught us together.”
Justin’s blue eyes went wide. “Like, together together?”
“I thought you said you didn’t miss the drama between us.”
“I didn’t miss that you two went from sneaking looks and whispering in dark corners to not talking—at all.”
Well, damn. She’d spilled stale beans that were best left covered. “So he never said anything?”
“About you? Never.”
Brigit looked down, inspecting the toe of her boot. “We thought you’d be mad.”
“Because my best friend wanted my sister? Why? He’s a good guy. One of the best.”
He spoke like it was such a given. And it was. But whether Caleb was a decent man or not had never been an issue in her mind. “We want different things.”
“But you want each other?”
“Right. So it’s easier to keep our distance.”
Justin shook his head and grabbed his worn sheepskin jacket from where it was hanging. He shrugged into it. “What’s your deal against Moore anyway?”
Like Caleb, Justin didn’t understand. “There’s nothing here for me.”
“Other than Caleb.”
She rolled her eyes. “Right. I stay here and make babies and get married and forget the whole career thing.”
“No one’s expecting you to do that. Staying in Moore doesn’t mean you’re condemned to maternal servitude.” He peered at her. “I didn’t realize you were so against the whole family thing.”
“I’m not.” She sounded sullen, but the truth was she wanted a family of her own more than anything.
But she wanted a career she could be proud of, too, and she wanted to do that first. The years were ticking away, and she was losing her chance at both of them.
Her brothers had been able to go school and come back and have a ranching career handed to them.
“I just want to have something of my own.”
Understanding flashed through his eyes. He wasn’t technically the youngest, but like her, he’d watched their older brother and the other firstborn cousins become the pride and joy of the Walker family.
She and Justin had been told to be relieved.
Dad claimed they should be grateful that the responsibility hadn’t fallen on them.
It’s a big operation. A lot of people depending on you and too many variables out of your control.
But no one understood the lingering feeling of What now?
Where was their place in the world if not their own home?
He nodded. “Yeah, I get that. Law school not working out really threw you for a loop.”
“Yeah.” She almost winced. Did she sound as taken off guard as she felt?
She almost never thought about law school.
That ship had sailed—after she’d untied the rope and pushed it out to sea.
But no one knew that. “I’m still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.
Oliver was a huge setback. I almost settled with a guy who would’ve glued my feet to the kitchen floor and blamed me for buying the glue. ”
“I’ve been meaning to ask you ‘what the hell’ about Oliver, but I thought it was too soon.”
“Maisy May Jorgenson,” she said flatly.
“Like I said—”
She barked out a laugh. “Talk to me again in a year and we’ll see how that turned out. Anyway, I have no land and no house, and the only job openings in town barely pay above minimum wage or need a specialized degree I don’t have.”
“I get that.” Justin started for the house. “So here’s the deal. You gotta help me clean the house so Mom doesn’t get here and run her finger over the mantel again.”
She chuckled and said in a prim tone, “‘Oh, I do hope this house holds up through your bachelor years.’”
Justin’s laugh sent her back to their childhood, when they’d do chores and get into deep discussions about life. “As if my future wife is going to clean up after my ass. And I dust at least once a month.”
“Mom used to dust daily. And she ironed our jeans.” They lobbed house-cleaning memories back and forth and Brigit had never been so grateful. It didn’t keep one particular question from cycling in her head.
Caleb would want to avoid her mom during the holidays. He wasn’t a guy who wanted to cause tension. But with no house and no family, where would he go on Thanksgiving?