Chapter 26
Ash found his brothers walking Jack around the arena, Eli on foot and Boone atop Cirrus a few paces ahead of the new gelding.
He climbed and hopped the fence partly to show off and partly to prove that he still could, just like he had when he was a teen and this ranch was his life.
“You boys mind telling me why I’m dressed and out of bed this early on a Saturday?” he called to his brothers.
The two elder Murphys rounded the final corner of the arena and stopped where Ash stood at the gate leading to the barn.
Eli shrugged. “Maddie woke us at five, so I got up and fed her. An hour later, Beth comes into the living room where we are enjoying a riveting episode of Bluey and tells me all the women are surprising Willow within the hour and that we should think of something to do to keep you busy for the day.”
Ash barked out an incredulous laugh. “Glad to hear it’s not because my asshole brothers were itching to spend time with me.”
“Don’t get your panties in a twist,” Boone called down from Cirrus’s saddle. And so the good-natured ribbing began.
When Ash was younger, he often wished he could come up with some of the zingers his brothers tossed his way. But Boone and Eli were always quicker on the draw. But now Ash was the one who slung words for a living, and he found himself holding his own and sometimes even winning.
They started the morning by walking all five horses to the grazing field outside Eli’s place and then putting on gloves to muck out the stalls.
“You didn’t have any better ideas for how to keep me busy today?” Ash called from Holiday’s stall as sweat trickled down his neck and his shoulders began to ache.
“Honestly?” Boone replied from Cirrus’s gate. “No. We’ve never really done anything else together other than this.”
Eli poked his head out from Midnight’s stall as he shoveled droppings into his bucket. “We used to ride,” he added.
“Is anyone getting hot?” Boone asked. But before either of the other brothers could answer, he popped out of Cirrus’s stall with a hose in his hand, the sprayer aimed at Ash.
“Don’t you—” But Boone cut him off with a shot of icy water straight to the chest. Then he whirled on the already retreating Eli and got him right in the ass.
And now Ash knew why Boone had insisted they store the wheelbarrow of clean bedding outside the barn.
***
They were drenched, filthy, and sporting several bumps and bruises by the time the stalls were clean, because of course no water fight between brothers was complete without three grown men rolling on a barn floor trying to kick each other’s asses.
They sat in Eli’s Adirondack chairs facing the horses grazing in the field, nursing cold bottles of beer.
Eli snorted, “No, I don’t think the thirties are supposed to hurt this much.”
“Speak for yourselves, old coots,” Ash replied with a laugh. “My age still starts with the word ‘twenty.’”
Eli kicked Ash’s boot with his own. “Oh yea, twentysomething? Then why do you have a bag of ice on your knee?”
Ash winced and then nodded his head back toward Boone. “Because this asshole tackled me to bare, wet concrete in Holiday’s stall.”
Boone snorted. “You did go down pretty hard.”
“Oh yeah?” Ash retorted. “How’s that tailbone feeling?” Boone might have gotten him on the first tackle, but Ash took him down in round two. If there were actually rounds, which there weren’t.
Boone grumbled something under his breath and then readjusted his own ice pack where it rested just above his ass.
Eli laughed. “If this was twenty years ago, Dad would have ripped us a new one for almost flooding the stalls. It’ll be after dark before they’re dry enough to lay the bedding again.”
They were all silent for several moments as they watched the horses graze before Ash spoke again.
“I was always too young when you two would get into this kind of trouble. When I was old enough, Dad couldn’t work anymore. You were already in charge.” He toed Eli’s boot. “And this kind of trouble didn’t really happen.” He hadn’t meant it to sound so somber, but Ash didn’t realize until right that moment that he’d missed out on some of the prime brothering of his brothers.
“Because I would have been the one cleaning up the mess,” Eli replied. “And by the time you were old enough, you weren’t interested in anything other than that guitar.”
“Ouch,” Ash said, then took a long swig of his beer. “I mean…noted, but still… ouch .” Just because Eli was right didn’t ease the sting of the truth. “Because what used to be fun suddenly felt like barely keeping our heads above water. I needed something that made me feel like me .”
“Cut the kid some slack, Eli.” Boone stretched his arms up toward the sky and let out a long sigh. “The ranch was always work, but I think we all got a little lost when Dad’s legacy became our responsibility.”
All three of them nodded in unison and then quietly tended to their beers. Despite his bruised knee and overall sore everything —not that he’d admit that to his brothers—Ash was awash in contentment.
“So… Willow, huh?” Boone asked after several minutes of contented silence. “Is it for real this time?”
“This time?” Ash tilted his head back against his chair and let out a long exhale. “Shit. You waited a whole ten minutes before going there, huh?”
Boone laughed. “It’s noon. I waited five hours .”
“How about four years ?” Eli added. “You think it’s time to let us in on what really happened?”
Ash set his beer down on the ground and leaned forward, elbows on his knees as he hung his head. He’d sent Boone and Eli tickets to the show that night not only to see him play but so he could introduce them to the girl who had turned his whole world upside down, in the best possible way. They were the only ones who knew, when the marriage announcement hit the internet the next day, that it was total bullshit. And to protect Annabeth…and to hide his own shame…he’d pushed them away.
“Yeah,” Ash finally replied. “I think it is.”
Because more than the past twenty-nine years of his life, the past month had taught Ash the importance of trust when it came to the people he loved. He should have trusted his brothers to have his back even when he made the biggest mistake of his professional and personal life. He should have, and he didn’t. But that was all going to change now.
“So…” he continued. “Here’s the story…all of it. And if you realize I’m the world’s biggest asshole when it’s done, don’t worry. I’m right there with you.”
***
Willow sat in one of Casey’s salon chairs, a black cape snapped around her neck and her wet hair hanging at her shoulders.
“Are you sure?” Casey asked, wiggling the shears at Willow in the mirror.
Jenna spun back and forth in the chair beside her. “We should have kept Lucy with us to help you decide,” she mused.
She could see Beth and Delaney sitting behind her in the mirror’s reflection. They nodded sagely in agreement with Jenna.
“It’s just bangs ,” Willow insisted. “I don’t need a psychic hen to tell me whether or not it’s a good idea.”
“Ha!” Jenna cried. “So you do believe in Lucy’s talents!”
“That’s not what I…” Willow groaned and then tilted her head up at Casey. “I got that new dress at your friend Ivy’s shop, and we were looking at all of those fashion magazines at the bookshop. It just feels like it’s time to change something up, you know?”
Casey nodded. “The girl has a point. Remember when I singed my hair on my curling wand and had to cut bangs to fix it? That was the morning I ran into Boone in my brokedown car in the middle of the highway, and now look where we are. All thanks to my bangs.”
Willow gasped. “You hit Boone with your car?”
Casey burst out laughing. “ No! I hit a speed limit sign, and then Boone showed up on his motorcycle out of the blue and got me to my cosmetology school interview on time after we hadn’t spoken to each other since high school !”
Willow’s eyes widened. “Do all of you somehow have a chicken involved in your romantic relationships?”
Every single one of them nodded her head, even Jenna.
“She’s a wise old hen, Miss Willow. And the sooner you accept that, the better.”
Willow gripped the armrests of the chair beneath her cape and steadied her resolve. She didn’t need a supposed metaphor-squawking hen to tell her whether or not bangs were a good idea. She squeezed her eyes closed and forced away thoughts of every meme she’d ever seen declaring that cutting bangs was a cry for help because Willow didn’t need help! She was happy…really and truly happy for the first time in years. A new look was simply a stamp of approval on what she deemed a new start.
“Do it!” she declared, blinking her eyes open and meeting Casey’s gaze.
***
Casey set down the blow dryer, gave Willow’s waves one final shake with her fingers, and then unsnapped and removed the cape.
“What do you think?”
The rest of the group was silent, waiting for Willow’s reaction.
She stared at the woman in the mirror who didn’t look completely different but also not completely the same. The long fringe hung just below her eyebrows, and her brunette waves seemed to have a bounce and fullness they’d lacked an hour ago. She looked younger, somehow. Less world-weary. And seeing it made Willow believe it.
A smile slowly spread across her lips until she was utterly beaming.
“I love it,” she replied, and everyone else let out a collective sigh.
“You’re gorgeous, girl!” Casey declared. “You’re going to drive ’em wild when you get up on that stage in a few weeks.” She spun Willow so she was facing them.
“Thank you,” she told Casey. Then she surveyed everyone else in the room, a group of women she’d only known for a little over a month—save for Jenna—yet who all felt like family. “All of you, truly. This has been the best morning.”
Jenna climbed out of her chair. “So…now?” she asked the other women.
Willow’s brows furrowed, and her stomach instinctively tied itself in a knot. Something about Jenna’s tone wasn’t right.
Casey took a step back, allowing Jenna to pivot in front of Willow’s chair. Jenna pulled a phone out of her pocket and held it out toward Willow, and that was when Willow realized it was her phone she’d handed Jenna that morning before she got dressed.
Willow stood and let out a relieved laugh as she took her phone back. “Oh! Is that all this is about? You had me freaked out for a second there like you were about to dish out some really bad news.” She unlocked the phone and scanned the home screen. Nothing looked amiss. Then she glanced back up at her silent audience and laughed again, but this time it came out sounding a bit more nervous than she’d expected. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d have guessed you all were keeping me busy today so I would forget I even had a phone.”
Jenna barked out a laugh. “No! Of course not!”
Willow crossed her arms and raised her brows. “You are the worst liar, Jen.”
Her sister-in-law winced. “Okay, fine. I would have told you earlier, but after Lucy pecked your little toe, I realized you might not be ready.” She worried her bottom lip between her teeth. “We were going to pamper you either way… It was just a matter of when we told you.”
The knot in Willow’s stomach tightened and then twisted itself in a double knot. “Okay, now you’re freaking me out.” She looked at her phone again and noticed what she hadn’t a moment before. Willow was used to not being able to keep up with the notifications on her social media, but she prided herself on reading every comment and responding when she could. At most she’d have fifty to one hundred to read at the end of any given day unless she posted something like the bonfire post with Ash’s form obscured through the flame. But Willow hadn’t posted anything in over a week, yet the little red square on top of the Instagram thumbnail was now a rectangle indicating she had over five thousand notifications.
“What the…?” She looked up at Jenna. “You all saw whatever it was this morning, didn’t you? And you waited hours to tell me about it? Because of a hen pecking my toe?”
Beth pushed the hooded dryer up as she answered Willow with a nervous nod.
“Maddie woke up before the crack of dawn, and Eli was the best and took one for the team, letting me sleep off our late night. Except once I was even semiconscious, I had to pee. And once I got out of bed to pee, I felt like I should brush my teeth, and once I brushed my teeth, well… I was wide awake, you know?”
Delaney rolled her eyes. “I just aged five years, Bethie.”
“Sorry!” Beth exclaimed. “I just wanted to put it all in perspective. Okay. So, what do we all do when we should be sleeping but can’t sleep? We scroll social media. And because I just started following Ash, his profile keeps popping up at the top of my feed.”
“What did he post?” Willow asked, trying to keep her tone even. She trusted him, right? So whatever it was would be fine. They were fine.
“We waited because of Lucy pecking your toe and until we got confirmation on how what happened… happened .” Jenna grabbed her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “I guess you should take a look.”
Willow tried to hide her trembling thumb, but what was the point? She tapped the icon and opened the app.
“Haircut’s on the house, by the way,” Casey blurted out. “And not just because I feel partially responsible.”
Willow still didn’t follow Ash on social media, but it didn’t matter now because she’d been tagged in whatever the post was, which was why she was getting notified of all the reactions and comments.
Then there it was. Not only was it a photo of them from their impromptu performance the night before, but it was a photo of a moment Willow thought they’d shared only with the small crowd in the tavern…the kiss. And the caption of the photo simply said, “Together again. Just wait to see what we have in store for you next.”
The comments went from excitement and encouragement to posts that gave her déjà vu from years before.
wmstanfan: i knew it was an Easter egg!!! SOOOO stoked for this!
morgansminions: happy for wm if she’s happy but still don’t trust AM.
cntrylvr: YASSSSS
annabash4life: And…now we know the real reason behind the divorce. Why am I not surprised? Hope they call the duet “The Other Woman.”
Willow sniffed back the threat of tears and then gazed up at the other women who were all giving her pitying looks. She shook her head and squared her shoulders. “Ash had nothing to do with this. How could he have? I was clearly devouring the man for all to see when the photo was taken.” She turned her attention to Casey. “And you collected phones from all the patrons, right? So I don’t understand how this is even possible.” She knew they had no control over what patrons did after the show. But those would be personal posts from accounts that likely didn’t have a lot of reach. Plus, Meadow Valley takes care of its own . Casey had said those exact words. This wasn’t adding up.
Casey cleared her throat. “I did collect phones from the patrons and my line cooks …” she began. “Drew, Hank, and Isaac are great kids. They’re all seniors at Meadow Valley High School, and I’ve known them all their lives. But it gets so damn hot in that kitchen, so we usually prop open the back door on cooler nights to get some fresh air circulating for the line crew.” She blew out a breath. “The boys are huge fans, and they admitted to leaving the kitchen unattended for a few minutes while they popped up front to watch.
“I think someone snuck in through the back and then blended into the crowd. I’m so sorry, Willow. Whoever it was somehow knew about the pop-up and…” Casey’s eyes turned glassy and she ran a finger under her suddenly damp lashes. “Did you see the second image?”
Willow felt sick. She hadn’t even noticed the second dot beneath the post, an indication to swipe in order to see what came next.
She swiped.
Instead of an image, she saw only a black screen with a green, wavy shape moving across the screen. An audio track. It took another few seconds for her to register what she was hearing…the raw recording of their yet-unfinished duet.