Chapter Seven – Colt #2
I let out a breath, then glanced around the area outside the barn. Everything looked exactly as it did the day I’d left. “I thought it would be painful to be back here, but it’s the opposite. Everything looks the same.”
“Your father isn’t much for change.”
A humorless laugh slipped free. “That’s for sure.”
“Is there anything I can do to help, Colt?”
I looked at her…and for the first time, noticed the circles under her eyes. “You look tired, Ensley. How late were you and Gatlin working here?”
“Until four this morning. Gatlin forced me to go home at that point. I slept for a couple of hours, then came back. I found Gatlin still here, working on the outstanding debts. It wasn’t much because your dad seems to pay people as soon as he gets an invoice.
It’s just those late ones and the new invoices he’s gotten since. Hay, feed, supplies, things like that.”
“I don’t know how I can repay you both for discovering this.”
“I love your parents, and there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for them. I hate that your dad was so worried it might have caused…” Her voice trailed off.
We stood there in silence for a few moments before I cleared my throat. “I should go check Dad’s stock on everything.”
“It’s good. I checked it all.”
Of course she had. “Thank you.”
“I have to get going. I have a client I need to get to this afternoon.”
She turned to walk away, and I reached for her hand. “Ensley, wait.”
Pausing, she glanced down at our hands.
“Are you free for dinner tonight?”
Her brows drew down. “Dinner?”
“Yes. I’d still like to talk to you.”
She sighed. “Colt, what happened is in the past, and there’s really nothing to talk about. I mean, there isn’t anything you can say or do to change the fact that you left. You’re home now, and the best we can do is try to be friends.”
“Friends?”
She studied me for a minute—then started to laugh. “Wait…do you honestly think I’d ever get back together with you?”
When I didn’t say anything, she jerked her hand out of mine. Turning to face me fully, she pointed at me.
“You had your chance, Colt. I was ready to make you my entire world, and you walked away. The sooner we both come to terms with that, the better. I want to move on, and you being home again doesn’t change that.”
“That’s fine, Pip, if you want to move on. And you’re right, I am the one who walked away, and I’ve paid the price for that every day for the last ten fucking years. But it doesn’t change the fact that you deserve the truth.”
She rolled her eyes. “The truth? I know the truth, Colt. You left. You stayed away for ten years. Ten years! There’s nothing else that I need to know. Nothing that will ever make that okay.”
Spinning away from me, she stomped off toward her truck.
I closed my eyes and whispered, “Fucking hell.”
Later that day, I found my father alone in the kitchen, his head stuck in the freezer.
“Looking for something?” I asked.
“Ice cream. Your mother hid it, and I have no idea where it is.”
I smiled. “I think she threw it out.”
My father shut the door and turned to look at me, a horrified expression on his face. “She threw it away?”
Nodding, I replied, “I believe so.”
“Well, shit.”
“Where’s Mom?” I asked, grabbing an apple from a bowl on the counter and holding it out to my father.
He rolled his eyes. “Can I get peanut butter with that?”
Laughing, I motioned for him to sit at the breakfast table. “Yes. Take a seat. I’ll cut it up for you.”
Dad sat down and started to speak, but I went first.
“Everything’s been taken care of. The checking account and all the bills.”
His eyes widened in shock. “What do you mean, it’s all been taken care of.”
“I paid all the bills and put back the money that was stolen from your savings account. I think tomorrow we need to go to the police department and file a report. Also, was Ryan the only one working on the ranch? Ensley mentioned he was.”
He nodded and rubbed at the back of his neck. “Tim and Jack, the ranch hands who have worked for me forever, retired this last year. I thought I could handle this place on my own, but I was wrong. I hired Ryan to help out. He’s a nice kid. Polite and all.”
I sighed. “Well, being polite doesn’t mean you’re honest.”
He frowned and looked confused.
“Does Mom know?”
He shook his head, looking at the table.
“Dad, when did you find out about the negative account?”
“The morning I had the heart attack.”
Nodding, I got to work on the apple while Dad got up and went to the pantry.
“What in the fuck is this?”
He walked out with a jar and showed it to me. “When in the hell did your mother change out my peanut butter?”
Dad was holding up a jar of all-natural peanut butter. I couldn’t help it; I laughed.
“Probably earlier today.”
He set the jar on the counter and returned to his seat. “I’ll pay you back every cent,” he said quietly.
“You will not, and I don’t want you worrying about it, Dad. I have money saved up. A lot of money. I’ve been living rent-free the last five years on the ranch, so it wasn’t a hardship for me to take care of it for you.”
His eyes filled with tears, but he blinked them away.
“I feel like this is my fault. You wouldn’t have hired that little punk in the first place if I’d just come home.”
“Son, it wasn’t your fault. Are you talking about Ryan?”
“Yes.”
“Ryan’s a good kid. Just talk to him, he’ll tell you he didn’t have anything to do with it. How in the world would he have even been able to get the money?”
I glanced up from where I was cutting the apple. My father didn’t know Ryan was missing. Fuck. I was going to have to be the one to break it to him.
“Dad…Ryan’s gone. He left.”
“What do you mean, he left?”
“He’s not here. I checked the cabin where he was staying and everything of his is gone. Turns out, he paid someone to come each day and check on the animals. Did you see him the day of your heart attack?”
Leaning back in the chair, Dad said, “He was on vacation. Your mom texted him, and he said he’d take care of everything and that we shouldn’t worry. I thought that meant he was coming back to the ranch.”
I shook my head. “He’d already taken off with your money, Dad.”
He slowly shook his head. “But how?”
“I called the bank, and they informed me that Ryan was on the account.”
Dad’s eyes went wide. “What?”
“They emailed me a form that you had signed, giving permission to add him to the account. I’m going to guess he somehow slipped it in with other papers for you to sign.”
His eyes closed. My father was pretty well known for just signing things and not reading them. My mother was forever getting on him about that.
“I treated him like a son. He ate dinner with us every night. I trusted him.”
I tried to ignore the pain building in my chest over that confession.
He glanced at me. “You’re sure he took the money?”
I nodded. “He transferred it from the account four days before your heart attack.”
“That’s when he left on vacation…but I’m guessing he packed up all of his things, stole my money, and took off.” Letting his head drop, my father took in a few deep breaths.
“Dad, don’t get worked up about this. I told you, everything’s taken care of. There’s money in the bank and all your bills have been paid. Not just the business bills, but all the household bills, too. You and Mom do not have to worry about anything except your healing and getting better.”
When he looked up, a tear was moving down his cheek. I hadn’t seen my father cry since Grady died.
I dropped the knife on the counter and made my way over to him. Dropping to my knees, I took his hands in mine. “Dad, please don’t be upset. Please.”
He squeezed my hands. “Thank you, Colt. Thank you for taking care of us.”
“Dad, it was nothing. It’s the least I could do. I’m so sorry I left you and Mom. I’ll never be able to make it up to you both.”
“That’s nonsense. You saved this farm, Colt. I have some stocks, of course, but I’d been trying to build up our savings. Now you’ve saved us from ruin.”
I shook my head. “I didn’t do any such thing.”
He sighed. “Let’s keep this between us, please. Your mother doesn’t have to know how stupid I was. She’ll never let me live it down.”
I grinned. “I have a feeling she’d let it slide. But I agree, she doesn’t need to know. We’re a clean slate now, Dad. I’ve got everything covered from this point on. You’re in full retirement mode.”
“Now, I don’t know about that. I don’t want to be sitting around getting old and fat.”
“I highly doubt Mom will let that happen. You can work on that garden you guys have talked about for years. Fiddle around with veggies instead of horses.”
He rolled his eyes. “Your mother already told me she’s going to be planting kale. What the hell is kale anyway?”
I laughed, leaned up, and kissed my father on the cheek. “Wait until you find out about the nice-cream she has planned for you.”
“Nice-cream?”
“Ice cream made from bananas and protein powder.”
Groaning, my father said, “For fuck’s sake. I don’t need to worry about another heart attack, I’m going to starve to death!”
I laughed as I made my way back to the apple and peanut butter.
We spent the next thirty minutes going over his client list to make sure there wasn’t anything specific I needed to know.
By the time we were done, my mother had returned, triumphantly declaring she’d convinced Vivianne to give her the recipe for her kale salad.