Page 86 of Midnight Surrounds Us

Athena came running from the big balsam poplar tree she’d been playing under with Figaro, my new German shepherd, and the cats I’d picked up from the local shelter to live in the barn and catch mice. She’d named them Factoid, Deltoid, and Altoid.

At nearly fourteen years old, she was so much like her aunt Abey, never afraid to get dirty or work hard. She’d helped me fence in the barn and pastures. The kid could handle an earth auger and a post-hole digger better than Bax, and she’d already driven my new skid steer. She’d been teaching me how to feed and care for the two orphaned lambs I’d picked up at a livestock auction, and I was teaching her how to rope calves on a roping dummy I’d pilfered from my dad.

“Daddy, are you okay?” she said, sliding down next to Bax in the mud.

“Careful!” he yelped. “I’m sorry, Road Trip. I didn’t mean to yell. I think my leg is broken. Just don’t touch me, okay?”

The nickname Road Trip had made me laugh, but Bax said Athena was so busy, could never sit still longer than a couple minutes. “There she goes again on another road trip,” he’d say when she ran off on one of her many adventures.

“I’m sorry, Daddy.”

“No, baby. I’m sorry. It hurts, that’s all. Just be careful.”

“Ambulance is on the way,” Brand said, shaking his phone in the air. He came to stand in front of his brother with his hands on his hips. “Well, this sucks a d—” He stopped himself before he said the word “dick” in front of Athena. “I’m gonna have to call Sweetie, ask her to come out here to keep an eye on things for me while I’m gone.”

“Sweetie?” Bax looked a little green. He lifted his not-broken leg, bent his knee, and leaned on it, trying to act normal in front of his kid, though, I was pretty sure he was a breath away from another scream. “Not that ball-buster foreman of yours?” He fluttered his hand around his head, like he was caressing imaginary hair. “With the long, dark?—”

“Forewoman,” Brand said. “You don’t like her ’cause she beat your ass at poker, but yeah. She’s the best, and it doesn’t look like you’ll be available anymore. We’ve got multiple builds goin’ up. I can’t just leave ’em unsupervised while I’m in Sheridan for that ridiculous court case. Where will Mama, Abey, and Devo live this winter if I don’t get these houses done?”

“Uh, did you forget somebody?” I asked.

Brand waved me away with a swipe of his hand. “You don’t count. We can just keep you in the barn with the horses.”

That made Athena giggle, which I hoped had been Brand’s intention.

Bax groaned. “Fuck, this hurts. Shit, sorry, Athena. I didn’t mean to cuss.”

She rolled her eyes. “Please, Daddy. Like I haven’t heard worse. Want me to call Granny?”

“God, no.”

Brand snorted. “Not unless you want her to pray the pain away. Besides, she’s at that retreat with her new church.”

Bax glared at his brother. He tried hard to keep Athena sheltered from curse words and her granny’s search for the trueword of God. Poor kid had been born to the wrong family if he wanted her to escape unscathed.

We heard the sound of tires on the dirt lane leading up to the barn, and we all breathed a little easier. I had just been about to say “that was fast,” but then Abey’s truck came tearing round the bend, lights flashing.

She parked and jumped out. “What happened? I heard the call on my radio that there was an accident. The ambulance is about five minutes out.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Baxaccidentallygot caught between a bull and a barn.”

“You idiot,” Abey said once she’d determined that everyone was alive. Even though she was the youngest of the Lee siblings, she looked down at her oldest brother, her eyes shaded by her brown sheriff’s hat, but her exasperation was plain to see. “You know better than that.”

Bax leaned his head back against the barn and closed his eyes, still trying to act like he wasn’t in a massive amount of pain, but I could see his pulse ticking quickly in the artery on the side of his neck. “That damn bull is sneaky. I swear he was across the pasture when I turned to get the wheelbarrow. I checked.”

“Mm-hm,” Brand said. “Sure you did.”

Bax scoffed. “He’s gonna taste good after I roast him on my grill.”

“Uh,” I said, jumping into their argument, “that bull is a prized breeder. You eat him, you owe me seven grand.”

Athena jumped up to hug her aunt. “Where’s Devo?”

“She’s at the community center today.”

Athena frowned. “Oh.”

“I’m on duty,” Abey said. “I was on this side of town when I heard the call. You’re lucky too, ’cause if I hadn’t come, it would’ve been Frank, and he would’ve thrown your dad over hisshoulder and stuffed him in the back of his truck to get him to the hospital.”

---