5. Duke
DUKE
Dallas
I can return the hat tomorrow, if that works for you. I’m sorry. I completely forgot I was wearing it.
Duke
Who is this?
Ismirk at the phone as I stand at the stove and flip bacon. I jump back as a grease bubble explodes, and a tiny burn sizzles on my bare abs.
My dad shuffles over to the coffee maker, the pot shaking as he tries to pour it. A little bit splashes on the counter, but it’s not much. He scoops a spoonful of white sugar to stir into it before taking a slow sip.
“Morning, Pops. How’d you sleep?”
He grunts as he moves to take a seat at the kitchen island. “I slept all right.”
“I slept pretty damn good. We gotta run up to the northern fence line today and make some repairs. You up for it?”
He grumbles something, and it appears we might be having a rough day today. My phone buzzes on the counter with a text.
Dallas
How many people have stolen a cowboy hat of yours recently?
Duke
You know what? Now that I think about it, it was just this one hot blond mom in Walmart.
I know that flirting with a married woman kind of makes me an asshole, but I already had my tongue down her throat and my finger inside her.
And her husband is an abusive prick, which makes it hard for me to feel any guilt over it. Another text comes through as I’m placing the bacon on a paper towel.
Dallas
I’ll be there at seven tomorrow.
Duke
See you then, darlin’.
By the way, when are you wanting to start roping lessons for the boys? Rosie said you wanted to change it to Tuesdays and Thursdays.
I crack four eggs into the hot grease to fry. I prefer to cook on cast iron. I didn’t realize how much I would enjoy cooking until Dolly moved in with Sam and I was forced to do it. Making me and Pops breakfast every morning has become an easy routine.
Dallas
I don’t think the lessons are a good idea.
I frown at her text. I wonder if it could be a financial issue, considering her card got declined in Walmart when her total was under one hundred dollars.
Maybe if her dickhead of a husband would actually support her, I wouldn’t feel so guilty for flirting with his wife. I debate how to tell her I won’t charge her at all for the lessons without making it sound like a handout, which I know she would refuse.
I could go to her bar every week and tip her the same amount as the lessons cost.
But she might need the money for other things, like shoes and food for her boys.
I finish making breakfast with toast in the toaster before serving it up to Pops. I take the seat beside him, and we both dig in. He only eats one of the eggs and two bites of toast.
“You not hungry?” I ask.
He nibbles on the bacon and shrugs. I can smell the whiskey he must have poured in his coffee when my back was turned.
“Not feeling well,” he says.
He’s clutching the front of his stomach. I narrow my gaze at his hand, wondering what could be wrong.
“Hey, hey, what’s wrong? What’s hurting?”
He moves to get off the stool, but his foot must get caught on something because he stumbles and falls to the ground. I jump up, immediately dropping down to the floor to help him stand.
“Whoa, all right, you need to slow down. I’m calling Rosie, all right? Come sit in your chair.”
I lead him over to his worn leather recliner in the living room.
“My coffee,” he says, reaching toward the kitchen.
“Yeah, I’ll get it.”
I know all he wants is the liquor in it, but we gave that battle up with him years ago.
He’s a grown man. I’m not going to tell him how much he can or can’t drink.
I hand him the remote before going back to get his coffee cup. I sniff it, and it smells like more whiskey than actual coffee.
I’m tapping on my sister-in-law’s number in my phone to call her as I take him his drink. I would pour it out and get him a new cup, but I already know that would only piss him off.
She answers on the third ring. “Hello?”
“Hey, Rosie. Can you come to the house and take a look at Pops? He’s saying he doesn’t feel good. He has a low appetite, and he’s grabbing his stomach. He just fell on the floor trying to stand up.”
“Oh wow. Um, yeah. Give me a few minutes.”
She hangs up. Holden and Rosie live a mile down the road on the ranch in a house they custom built. It’s nice, being so close to my nieces. Considering Holden and I are the only two left who work full-time on the ranch, we’ve had to hire more hands than ever.
I scratch the back of my neck, watching my dad surf through the channels for a few minutes before deciding I should put a shirt on before Rosie gets here.
We dated in high school. I thought she was my first love, so when she and my oldest brother started hooking up, I was royally pissed.
We were broken up by then, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a tiny shred of hope that maybe, one day, we’d get back together.
I’m over it now. I was nowhere near ready for a serious, long-term relationship at that point. And Rosie and Holden make a great couple. Without them, we wouldn’t have Birdie and Bonnie, the two best girls in the world.
I go back to my bedroom and grab a T-shirt. As I’m walking out, I hear the back door opening. Holden and Rosie are both there, but the twins aren’t with them.
“Where are the girls?” I ask.
“My mom is in town,” Rosie says.
Holden’s face is solemn as he walks up to me. “So, what happened?”
“I was just making him breakfast. He got his cup of usual whiskey and coffee, but he hardly ate anything. Then he clutched his stomach and stumbled out of the chair. Fell right on the floor before I could catch him.”
Rosie is checking on Pops. She’s not technically a nurse, but she was in school for a while, studying it, and she’s been our resident ranch nurse ever since. She’s stitched up more cuts and treated more injuries here than an ER sees in a year.
I start washing the frying pan I made breakfast in to busy myself.
My stomach is tight with concern. Holden disappears into the hallway before he comes back with Rosie’s bag of supplies she keeps here at the main house.
He sits back to observe his wife take Pops’s heart rate and blood pressure in the living room.
After a few minutes, she joins us in the kitchen.
“I think we should take him in to have him looked at.”
“What’s wrong with him?” Holden asks the question I can’t voice.
She’s gnawing on her bottom lip, glancing from my face to her husband’s. “I don’t know. I just think with the years of heavy drinking, it could be something serious.”
Holden and I both pause, letting her words settle over us.
After a beat, he finally clears his throat. “Can your mom stay with the girls today?”
She nods.
Holden faces me. “We really need that fence mended so more cows don’t get out on the road. The surveyor is coming this week for some state-mandated work from the county. Can you handle that today while we take Pops in?”
I feel my head bobbing in agreement, but my body feels numb and disconnected from the moment.
Holden squeezes my shoulder. “I’ll call you when we get an update.”
Cancer. Pancreatic. Stage four.
The words ricochet around in my head like a gong being smashed repeatedly in my ears.
I’m holding a pair of bolt cutters, standing on the northern fence line. I’ve been working on autopilot for hours, despite the steady drizzle of December rain.
My buddy Grady is next to me, cranking the barbed wire taut with the fence stretcher. A few of the other ranch hands are down the line, installing new posts.
“Duke? You all right?” I hear someone ask—probably Grady.
“All right,” I say into the phone pressed against my ear. “So, how long?”
“Three months at most.” Holden’s voice has a rough edge to it. “The dementia will only get worse from this.”
“Okay,” is all I can think to say.
“We’re bringing him home for now, but with the pain he’s experiencing, they said he’ll probably need to be admitted soon. I’m calling a family meeting with everyone for tonight.”
I nod before remembering he can’t see me. “Okay.”
The line goes dead. I look up at Grady, whose eyes have been on me the entire time. I can’t talk about this right now, so I don’t offer an explanation before getting right back to work.
The family meeting is just me and Holden, Rosie, Sam, and Dolly. Cash and Monroe are on a video call since they’re currently in Milan for a photo shoot with Vogue.
We weren’t able to contact Sterling. He was shipped out on another mission and out of range.
“Well, now’s the time where everyone has a chance to speak up on how we move forward,” Holden says.
His face has a shadow of facial hair covering his jaw.
“Pops won’t be with us much longer. And his care for the next few months is going to be a challenge, to say the least. Rosie thinks he’ll be needing full-time care, pretty much starting now. ”
The stone fireplace behind him is dark and empty. The sixteen-point buck mounted on the wall behind him was my first big kill on the ranch when I was twelve. Pops helped me skin and clean it.
“I want him here for as long as possible.” I say.
Rosie speaks up. “If we go that route, we need to get home hospice involved to help with bathing, medication, things like that.”
“Okay.”
“Are you sure about that, Duke? You’ll be stuck at the ranch twenty-four/seven,” Cash says.
“I’m sure.”
I can’t imagine sending him off to a cold, sterile hospital to die. He might’ve been emotionally checked out and dependent on alcohol for most of my life, but he’s still my father. And I want to honor his last few months on earth in whatever way I can.
Holden studies me for a few moments, his brows lowered with concern. Finally, he nods. “If that’s what you want, I support it. We’ll need more hands and maybe some help from Sam for the time being since you’ll be with Pops.”
Sam nods. “Whatever you need. I’ll talk to Billy about what guys we can spare.”
Billy is his ranch foreman at Moonlight Ranch, which is just down the road from us. Sam inherited it when his grandfather passed away.
“As far as the surveyors go, I don’t know how long they’ll be here, but we legally have to allow them access. We just need to keep an eye on where they are.” Holden’s gaze switches from mine to Sam to Cash.
Shit. Because of the bodies.