Page 2 of Beehives and Broken Heroes

Andy nodded but said nothing else. He knew better. The man had grown up in Philadelphia—not a suburb, but the actual city. Until he’d joined the army, his idea of roughing it had been walking to the corner store and back. He’d visited Brandon several times on his family’s farm, but he’d never warmed to the lifestyle.

“I can see why you left your family farm for this.” He signaled to the hole and the snake head, his tone dripping with sarcasm. “It’s completely different than what you left behind.”

Brandon shook his head and stopped digging. He nudged the head into the hole and buried it. “I didn’t leave North Carolina to get away from the snakes, and you well know that.”

Andy nodded. “I do. I can’t blame you for wanting space from your crazy family.” He glanced around and rubbed a hand over his shaved head. “This place is beautiful. Not better than Carroll lands, but not bad. Not bad at all.”

Brandon grinned. As much as a ringing endorsement as he’d ever get from his friend. Not that he needed it. He’d wanted this ranch from the moment he’d laid eyes on the online ad. He’d loved the fifty acres of land, the river, the massive barn, and the house, though he’d have taken a smaller house if it’d come with the property. The house was so big, he didn’t rightly know what to do with all of it, beautiful though it was. And truth be known, he was a little embarrassed that there was a guest house.

He glanced at the corral to make sure Titan was still there. The horse pranced along the far fence line, no doubt plotting how he could increase the space between him and the dead snake. Thank goodness the fence was strong.

Brandon picked up the snake’s body again and made his way farther into the woods, over crunching leaves, barely keeping the limp out of his step and a grimace off his face. Bruised ribs were a pain in the butt. You couldn’t wrap them, and they hurt like the Dickens. Not even worth going to the doctor for, yet he’d be sore for at least a week.

Andy followed close behind, and if he noticed Brandon’s limp, he didn’t say so. Brandon found a spot about ten yards in, dropped the snake, and started digging.

“Is there a reason you’re burying the body separate from the head?” Andy asked.

Brandon glanced up. “My gram used to insist on it. Didn’t want the head and body anywhere near each other, just in case.” He grinned and continued the hole.

“In case of what? A snake zombie apocalypse?” Andy scoffed.

Brandon shrugged. That was the exact reason. His gram had never said it in so many words, but her insistence that heads and bodies be buried separately was so ingrained in his family that even now, with hundreds of miles between him and them—and his gram’s case, the grave—he was still doing it without thinking.

Andy huffed out a breath, a cloud of brisk fall air puffing around his face. “It’s freezing out here.”

It was cold, below fifty, and in the south with the high humidity levels, it felt more like twenty, but Brandon had worked up a sweat.

Andy reached for the shovel. “Here, hand that over. I’ll freeze waiting for you to finish this.”

Brandon stepped back and let Andy at it. Now that his hands weren’t busy, he had a chance to be curious. “Not that it’s not good to see you, but what are you doin’ here?”

“Two months ago, I get a message from my best friend that he’s moved to a small town in Virginia called Harvest Ranch.” Andy stepped back to let Brandon look at the hole.

“A little deeper.” He lifted his hat and scrubbed a gloved hand through his sweaty, light brown hair, then pulled it back on tight.

Andy kept digging. “Then I didn’t hear anything from him at all. But last week I got a call from his brother, telling me his wife is pregnant and his brother is MIA.”

“That’s deep enough.” Brandon kicked the snake body into the hole, and Andy covered it up. “Coffee?”

“Thick as mud?”

Brandon furrowed his brow. “Only way to drink it.”

“I’ll have a cup,” Andy said.

Brandon took the shovel from his friend and made his way back around the barn. He swung the gate to the round pen shut. Titan could work off his energy out there for a while.

Andy fell in stride beside him. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Nope. “Is that why you tracked me down?”

“I tracked you down because you’re not answering your phone and it’s your year for B.O.T.s. But I also know that Dick and—”

“It’s Rick. Stop calling him that.”

Andy continued, unfazed. “Dick and Maryanne being pregnant made you move to another state. So I showed up to make sure you’re not hiding in the closet in the fetal position.”

Brandon slowed his gait, his hip now aching something fierce, and turned his glare on his friend.

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