Chapter 3 #2
I stand and push the chair in. “I wish I could talk, but I need to check on the animals in the barn.”
My father shakes his head. “Sit down, Tristan.”
Just like that, I’m fifteen again, not thirty-six and a grown-ass man. My father’s voice brooks no room for argument. He may not be running this farm, but he’s still head of the family, and I will always respect that.
Another thing my mother taught us.
“Yes, sir.”
I sit, wishing I never did in the first place.
“I think you should get your head out of your ass. Let her ride the damn horse, because I know that’s what she’s upset about, and while you’re at it, find a girlfriend and get laid. Maybe then you’d be a little nicer.”
I sit here stunned. Seriously. The last part really has me. I expected the opinion on horses—he’s never hidden that—but…what the hell?
Before I can say anything, there’s a loud banging on the door.
“Infinity Ridge Police. Open up, Tristan, I have a few questions.”
My father turns to me. “What the hell did you do this time?”
“And are you responsible for taking the horses or know who might have?” Officer Langston asks for the third time, tapping his pen on the kitchen table.
“No.”
This is absolutely ridiculous. For all we know, the Gatlins are doing this shit themselves and calling the cops to harass us.
Jimmy—whom I’ve known since we were six, who was my best man in my wedding, and who is Sadie’s godfather—sighs heavily. “Tristan, every week I’m out here because of this feud.”
“I’m aware.”
He pinches the bridge of his nose. “You act like I don’t know about the beef between your families. Who the hell else is doing this crap?”
“Ask them. Or better yet, you’re the investigator…investigate.”
Jimmy shakes his head and grabs his hat, which makes him look fucking ridiculous. “You know, if you just admit this, I’m sure they’d let it go.”
Fat chance of that. “If I were to admit to doing something I didn’t do”—I stress that part—“I would be an idiot, and they’d press charges, you’d arrest me, and then I’d have to kill you.”
“Considering I’ve seen you fight, I’ll take my chances.”
“You forget sixth grade,” I say, bringing up the one time I got a good one in on him. He had a black eye for a week.
“You forget high school.”
I don’t, but that wasn’t really my shining moment, so it’s not worth me mentioning.
He beat the shit out of me at football practice because I made some stupid comment about his mother.
It was a dick move, and I deserved everything I got.
Jimmy and I are equal in height, both over six feet, but he’s got a good fifty pounds on me. Even back then, he did.
“Anyway, my point is, we’re not doing any of these things to the Gatlins.
I have a ranch to run, a twelve-year-old who is driving me insane, and three sisters who are enough to drive a man to drink.
Honest to God, Jimmy, when do you think I have the time to go over and move horses to another field? ”
Both of his hands come up and drop as he paces in the kitchen. “Fuck if I know, but you can’t say the pieces don’t fit.”
“What do I have to gain from any of it?”
That’s the burning question I ask each time, which in the last six months has been damn near every week. I literally have nothing to win by fucking with them. Other than maybe the satisfaction of pissing them off, but honestly, I don’t care. I just don’t fucking care.
I have a million other things to worry about more than causing stupid issues for a family I would rather pretend doesn’t exist.
“I have no idea. Joy?”
“I have no joy.”
He laughs. “Do you mind if I talk to your sisters and father?”
“Have at it. In fact, detain them all. It would make my night peaceful.”
Jimmy has five sisters and two brothers. I’m pretty sure he can more than understand that statement.
“Are you coming to play cards tomorrow?” he asks as we walk outside to the barn closest to the house where Harper’s office is. When we get outside, he claps his hand on my shoulder, and I give him a look that clearly shows my disdain for him. “Sorry. I have to do my job.”
I know he does, but it doesn’t mean I like it. We enter the barn and head to the office where I really can’t wait to watch my sister’s reaction when she sees him. There is no love lost between those two.
“I’m a maybe for playing cards. I need to do some work here beforehand.”
“You can take a break, Tris.”
I wish that was the case, but each day, this farm racks up more things to do than I get done.
It’s a never-ending list that I can’t make a dent in.
We have over four hundred acres of land, fifteen pastures, four barns, the chicken coop, and the goats, not to mention the two hundred head of horses that fund the whole operation.
I shrug. “I’ll text you.”
My phone pings at that exact moment, and we both look down. Freaky.
I pull it out, expecting something from Sadie since that’s her typical reaction to when we fight. She sulks, then texts, and then we hug it out.
Not the healthiest way, but it’s working for us at this point.
Only it’s not Sadie.
Lark
I swear, I didn’t call the cops. I didn’t even know Ryan did this time. However, if you did do it…stop.
I didn’t.
Lark
This is out of control. Every week we find something else.
Well, I hope you find who’s doing it, because it isn’t us.
Lark
I hope so too. Still, I didn’t call, and I didn’t know that Ryan was going to.
Thanks for letting me know.
When I look up, Jimmy is staring at me.
“What?” I ask, twisting my unconscious smile back into my typical scowl.
“Oh, nothing.”
I glare at him. “Fuck off.”
He laughs once. “What’s her name?”
My pulse spikes, and then I remember he doesn’t know. “Who?” I play dumb—it’s worked for me in the past.
Besides, there is no way in the world I’m going to tell him a thing.
“The girl you’re texting.”
“Sadie,” I lie.
Jimmy’s eyes narrow slightly, but he shrugs, letting it go. “Tell her Uncle Jimmy said hello.”
“I will, when you’re Uncle Jimmy again and not the annoying cop who keeps showing up accusing her family of vandalism and thievery.”
“Fair point. Anyway, if her family would stop being annoying townspeople, I would be able to do actual police work.”
Oh, he left that door wide open for me. “Squirrels causing trouble again? Or maybe it was that they ran out of your favorite coffee at the Loop?”
The Loop is our very inconvenient convenience store. Nothing is ever in stock, and if you do get lucky, you need to check the expiration date. The coffee, if you can call it that, tastes like mud and ash, and the people they hire to work there are either drunk or…stupid.
No one goes there, except for the fact it’s the only store in a twenty-mile radius and sometimes you have no choice. Mostly, Jimmy doesn’t.
“You’re really funny. Keep it up and we’ll take a trip to the station to do a more thorough interrogation.”
He says that as if I’m scared. “By all means, let’s waste your time.”
“Just keep walking.”
As we enter the office, Harper looks up and groans. “You.”
“Hello, Sunshine.”
These two are more like siblings than anything. Although, I think Jimmy had a crush on her a few years ago, and Harper shot him down, hard. Which is comical because anyone brave enough to try to date Harper would need a weapon. Each of my sisters is unhinged, but in the best ways.
Fallon is the youngest and the “oops” baby.
My mother was completely shocked when she found out she was pregnant with her.
My father trotted around like a peacock, preening about how he still had it.
I try to erase that period from my memory.
However, Fallon perfectly rounds out our family.
She’s doing her best as a single mother after losing her fiancé in college.
He died suddenly, and she spent two years trying to find her way through the grief. Lord knows I can relate to that.
Veronica is the closest in age to me. She was supposed to be a boy named Ronny, so they improvised and named her Veronica but called her Roni instead. She hates it. I continue to call her that just to piss her off.
Then there’s Harper. Each family has one sibling who doesn’t quite seem to fit.
Harper is blond, where we all have brown hair, and I swear that girl spits fire.
She’s unapologetic, and I’m actually afraid of her, like everyone else is.
She works on the farm, doing the bookkeeping and mainly trying to keep my father out of trouble, which is a full-time job on its own.
Jimmy loves to piss Harper off, though. Since we were kids.
My sister leans back from her computer. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m here on an official investigation,” he explains.
I finish the rest of it off since he’s being evasive and I don’t have time to fuck around. “Seems someone did something to the Gatlins again, and we’re the first suspects.”
Jimmy laughs once, correcting the statement. “Only suspects.”
“Of course we are, because if we weren’t, Officer Idiot would have to actually do some police work.” She turns to him. “Don’t worry, I know you can do it, Jim.”
“You’re annoying.”
Harper shrugs. “And you’re ugly, but here we are. None of us did anything to them. None of us care about them. None of us talk about or to them. None of us worry about them. None of us even think about them, right, Tristan?”
“Right.”
Wrong. There’s one Gatlin I’ve been thinking about, talking to, and worrying about, but I’ll cut my tongue out of my mouth before I admit to that.
Jimmy hooks his thumbs into his belt. “All right. If you guys say so. If another thing happens, I’m going to have to dig in—you understand that, right? I can’t show favoritism just because we’re all like family.”
“No, but you’re not because none of us have done a damn thing to their farm,” I remind him. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t believe it, but it’s true. We’re all busy as hell running our own farm. There’s no freaking time to play childish games on theirs.
Jimmy nods once. “If you say so. Just know this is the final and only warning I’ll give. While the damage being done now is petty at best, it’s still causing them some issues.”
Harper rolls her eyes. “Where were these tough guy feelings when the Gatlin brothers spray-painted our barn?”
“There was no actual evidence they did it.”
“Just like there’s nothing saying we did anything to them,” I remind my longtime friend.
“Which is why no one is being arrested for vandalism—yet,” Jimmy says with a huff. “Look, the last thing I want to do is come here for this shit. Please, if you are doing it, I beg you, just stop.”
“If we were, we would,” Harper adds.
“Mind if I go talk to the others?” Jimmy asks.
“Have at it.”
None of my family has anything to hide. We’re all doing our best to just pretend they don’t exist.
Some are just doing it better than I am.