Page 54 of Midnight Surrounds Us

That was the real inspiration Aubrey had filled me with. She’d been at one of the hardest points in her life when she opened her bookshop, but it had been her dream for forever.

She took the leap and did it, even though she had no way to know if her business would soar or fail. And when times were hard, she doubled down. She immersed herself in furthering her education so her store would have its best shot. She told me she’d taken free online classes and had attended lectures given by business gurus when they were close and she could afford the travel. Maybe things hadn’t been so easy for her lately, but I knew she’d make her comeback.

I was impressed by her. And in awe of her.

Daybreak came as I sat on Bax’s land with my boots dangling above rich farm soil, thinking about Aubrey and what an apt nickname Spitfire was for her.

Western Wyoming slipped off her starlit nightdress, letting me see her sweet underbelly. New morning light washed itself over her mountain peaks in oranges, pinks, and purples while Ireallythought about what it would be like to have my own ranch. My own cattle. My own business.

I knew it would be hard. I’d excel at some things and struggle with others, but I was willing to go through it because I wanted itbad.

And it wasn’t because I needed to one-up my dad, or ’cause I was sore at him for not wanting to hand over the thing he’d spent his whole life building.

Yeah, sure, that hurt a little, mainly because I’d spent most of my life expecting him to pass down the reins of G&S. But now I thought I could understand it, because if somebody had asked me to give up the land I was currently deciding to buy, I’d put up a fight too. Especially if I’d spent forty years cultivating it, farming it, and making it mine.

I looked back over my shoulder, toward the only home I’d ever known, fifty miles in the distance. I’d build my house there, in the southeast corner of my property, with the back porch facing my past, and I’d put big, sweeping windows in the front room so we could look toward the future and see the Tetons when we sat in there, drinking our morning coffee, or when we sat on the front p?—

I laughed out loud, probably scaring the crows, when I realized I’d been picturing Aubrey living in my nonexistent house with me, relaxing after a long day with our feet up, rocking on a porch swing together, holding each other and watching the sun set.

Fuck,I was tired.

I couldn’t remember dragging ass this bad in a long time, but spending the night fucking my Spitfire six ways from Sunday was worth the fatigue.

When I finally got back to the ranch, I scrambled up six eggs and armed myself with about a gallon more coffee.

I sucked it down as I made my rounds, sent the cowboys out on twenty different tasks, and then I went in the barn to check on my injured heifer. Her ankle looked like it had a cow-colored pool floatie around it, so I called the vet and then finished up some chores while I waited for him to make the drive. His office was in Wisper, so travel time took him the same hour it took me.

Soon, when I bought Bax’s land and started my own ranch, I’d be much closer. That was a bonus I hadn’t thought of. When you lived out in the middle of nowhere, vets charged extra to cover their fuel, time, and the wear and tear on their vehicles. At least, our vets did. I understood, but man, it’d be nice to paynormal prices. Not that I was the one forking out the cash yet, but still.

When he finally showed up, Dr. van der Wouden X-rayed Miss Thang’s ankle and declared it a sprain. I’d figured that but wanted to be sure. And then in his weird accent while he lasered the swollen joint, he tried talking me into buying my own. It’d save him trips like this, when he couldn’t really do much for the animal. He wasn’t wrong. I doubted my dad would buy one though.

It occurred to me then thatIwould. When I was the guy calling the shots, I’d buy my own damn laser and plant whatever crops I wanted to. I could raise cattle the way I saw fit.

But what would that mean for my parents?

I needed to think on it a bit more before I made my announcement, but Bax and his family were ready to sell to me, and now, my own ranch had replaced the vision I’d had in my head for thirty years. My own business I could run however I wanted to.

Regenerative agriculture.

That’s where it’s at, and you know it. Do it.

Do it.

Just fuckin’ do it!

“What’s goin’ on with you?” Presley asked as we watched the doc’s tires kick up dust down my dad’s long drive on his way back to town.

He clapped me on the shoulder and handed me a grape-flavored soda pop. Presley brought one for me every year on my birthday because, twenty years ago, the day we’d met, he’d had one in his cooler in the bed of his busted-up old Ford on his first day at G&S. He was ten years older than me, and since neither of my brothers had ever had interest in cattle, I’d looked up to him.

Back then, I was a scrawny fifteen-year-old, lamenting the lack of celebration for my birthday because there were no lessthan twenty cows in different stages of labor that day, and every available pair of hands had been tending to them instead of carving up a cake for me. It seemed every birthday went that way since it came at the tail end of birthing season every year. Presley felt bad for me, so he gave me his grape soda and a tradition was born.

Luckily, this year all the calves and their mamas had decided to give me a break, and we had enough ranch hands now that, if one did decide to share my birthday, I’d still get to eat my cake.

“Thanks,” I said, popping the top with my thumb and taking a drink, but it burned my throat on its way down. “This shit gets sweeter every year.”

“Naw, man, you’re just gettin’ older, and you can’t handle the sugar you used to.”

Smirking, I wiggled my eyebrows. “I ate sugar all night long last night.”

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