2. Bailey
Bailey
“ I don’t mind helping with the barn, but I don’t want to piss her off, man,” I said to Reed after jumping off the tailgate of the truck to help him stack the bales.
Reed waved me off. “Don’t worry about her, she’ll get over it.”
Little did he know, I always worried about her.
When Lettie left without saying goodbye, it felt like a small piece of me left with her. I was hurt that after all the time we’d spent together, all the laughs and memories we shared, I didn’t so much as get a farewell. Not even a damn text.
I had to find out through her brother, Lennon, when I was picking up grain at the feed store in town.
He’d been talking about how Brandy was in the store just before me, moping around with nothing else to do.
I’d asked why she was upset, and that’s when it dawned on Lennon that I didn’t know.
It’d been a week since Lettie left town when I found out.
I didn’t even attempt to call or text her. I figured since she left without saying a word to me, she didn’t want to hear from me after, either. Hell, she disappeared without saying goodbye, why would she want to talk? Clearly I wasn’t important enough in her life to be privy to her plans.
I heard the ladder settle against the red barn when Reed and I both looked over to see Brandy climbing the rungs. He narrowed his eyes.
“I’m not taking your ass to the hospital if you fall, too,” Reed yelled over at her.
He’d had a problem with Brandy since the day Lettie brought her home from kindergarten.
They were always getting into trouble together, whether it was playing too close to the untouched horses, or sliding down into the creek bed on flimsy sheets of metal roofing.
Whatever plans Brandy had, Lettie followed right along with her, no matter how dangerous.
Reed was the most protective of the four brothers growing up, always asking where Lettie was when she wasn’t in sight.
She was diagnosed with anemia when she was nine after she almost passed out when she dismounted her horse.
Ever since, her brothers hounded her like hawks.
Reed may act like a hard-ass sometimes, but he had the biggest heart of all of them.
It was obvious that their love suffocated her at times, but I wouldn't act like it didn’t concern me either. One of my first thoughts when I found out she left was that I hoped she remembered to take her iron supplements.
After being hounded most of her life, I didn’t blame her if she wanted to move to the other side of Idaho to get away from her family. They worried about her because they loved her, but that didn’t stop the concern from becoming overwhelming at times.
“I wouldn’t get in the same car with you if you paid me,” Brandy shouted back from where she was perched at the top of the ladder, hammer in hand.
I shook my head, stacking another bale.
“Good thing I have a truck , then,” he yelled across the driveway before turning back to me. “Stubborn woman,” Reed muttered under his breath.
Their bickering was pretty comical, but more often than not, they took it too far, slinging insults that would hurt anyone’s feelings.
But it was Reed and Brandy. They’d battle all night if you let them.
Reed may say he hated her, but I knew he seeked out those battles.
One could think it was because he liked her attention, negative or not.
I wouldn’t be caught dead saying that to either of them, though.
“You can say that twice,” I mumbled in agreeance.
“If it makes you feel any better, she let Brandy know she was heading home before telling any of us.”
“Best friend privileges!” Brandy yelled over at us, clearly eavesdropping on our conversation.
Reed rolled his eyes as he stacked the last bale. I pulled my gloves off, my hands already clammy from the heat. I shoved the deerskin gloves in my back pocket before taking a piece of straw from one of the bales, sticking it in my mouth.
Reed sat on one of the bales, his elbows resting on his knees with his arms hanging in front of him. “She won’t tell us why she came back.”
“Sounds like Lettie.” Her obstinate ways hadn’t changed since she’d been gone. That much was clear.
I chewed on the piece of straw, watching the horses gather by the water trough under the shade of a pine tree.
Reed eyed the straw in between my teeth. “How is that shit enjoyable?”
I shrugged. “Cowboy’s gum.”
“Pretty sure you mean farmer's gum.”
I waved a hand at him. “Semantics.”
“Maybe she’ll tell you,” he said, getting back to the topic at hand.
I chuckled, shaking my head before kicking at the dirt with my boot. “Doubt that. She didn’t even tell me she was home. This is the first I’ve seen of her.”
“She damn sure loves her secrets. But it couldn’t hurt to ask.”
“She’d tell Brandy before she’d tell me, Reed. Why don’t you ask her?”
“You mean ask a favor of Brandy? Hard pass.”
I turned to find him watching Brandy where she hammered atop the ladder, her brunette hair tied in a high ponytail atop her head, swinging with the movement. “Why? It’s not like you guys don’t talk. You’ve been bickering back and forth since I pulled up.”
He drew his gaze away from her and stood, changing the subject. “Better go see what chaos Lettie created with Dad.”
He brushed past me as Rouge came out from around the side of the barn with feathers hanging out of his mouth. He ran up to me, panting as he sat next to my boot. I stroked his ears, shaking my head. “Always getting into trouble, you and your mom.”
I followed after Reed, Rouge at my heels as we made our way to the main house.