Page 82 of Roads Behind Us
“This is a lot for anybody, but you and Bax are new. Nobody would blame you if you wanted to wipe your hands of us.”
“I don’t. I don’t know what I want, but I can’t leave them.”
“You love them”—she tipped her head to the side, trying to read me—“don’t you? Both of them.”
I nodded, and tears filled my eyes, but I couldn’t say the words out loud.
I’d cry like Stu if I did.
Clay had texted that he’d sent everyone home early but promised a full day’s pay. I knew Brand would be fine with it as soon as I told him what was going on.
I passed Merv’s finished blue house as I drove back to my cabin. The back door was still open when I got there, but it didn’t look like anyone else had been inside, and still no bears.
I closed and locked the door, jacked up the thermostat, dropped my keys on the kitchen table, then fell onto the loveseat in the living room. And then I called Brand.
“A baby?” he said. “Whose baby?”
“Your brother’s.”
“Bax doesn’t have a baby.”
“It seems Dixon does.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah. That’s pretty much what Bax and Abey said too.”
“Fuck,” he said again, and a garbled static noise filled my ear. I could picture him falling into his desk chair and swiping his hand over his face. “I can’t believe Dixon did this. I’m comin’ home.”
“You can’t leave, Brand.”
“Fuck this goddamn court case.”
“Just stay in Sheridan for now. There’s nothin’ you can do here. Bax is hurtin’, but he’s handlin’ it. How’s the case goin’?”
He sighed. “It’s almost done. A couple more days I think, and I can come home. I should already be there. If I’d gotten off my ass and made the move, I probably would be. I wanna talk to you about that soon.”
“Okay,” I said, but panic began to build in my stomach. It worked its way up my throat until I thought it would choke me.
“You haven’t checked in about the builds lately,” Brand said. “Everything goin’ alright?”
“Y-yeah. We’re gettin’ down to the wire, but everything’s on track. The last two houses are done.”
“Good. Thanks again for doin’ this for my family.”
I didn’t respond because now I was imagining what would happen when my job was finished. I didn’t like the images I’d conjured up, flying around in my head like a swarm of angry bees.
Every single one had me leaving soon. Winter would hit. Snow would fall, and I’d leave for home. But where was that exactly? Because when I pictured rolling back into Sheridan alone in my truck, pain cracked through my chest like someone had punched it into me.
But if Brand was really planning to move headquarters… What would that mean for me?
“Sweetie?”
“Mm?”
“What aren’t you sayin’? I’ve known you two years and you’ve never failed to tell me exactly how you felt about a situation, but you’re awfully quiet now.”
“I—”
