Page 13 of Cowboy of Convenience
"Then maybe I should get here earlier tomorrow. See if she'll make me breakfast too." He glanced up as Charlene, his mother's live-in caretaker, came out onto the porch carrying two cups of coffee. "Well who do we have here this fine morning?"
Grady's mother reached over to pat his knee. "My brother came over to visit me." She took the coffee Charlene offered. "Wasn’t that nice of him?"
Charlene’s smile faltered a little as she passed Grady the other cup. "That is awfully nice of him." She refocused on his mother. "Can I get you a jacket, Darla? Are you chilly?"
His mother looked down at her favorite embroidered top, reaching to pull it away from her skin, repeating the action over and over again. "Is this my shirt?"
Charlene reached out to adjust the shoulder seam, the movement distracting his mother enough that she stopped picking at the fabric. "Well I don't see anyone coming to take it away from you, so it must be."
"That's okay then, I guess." His mother turned to him, reaching out to pat his knee once again. "What are you out and about doing today?"
"I thought I'd come by and see what needed done out back. Check in with everybody and make sure things were running smoothly." He'd been juggling both his job and running the ranch for the past three years. Without his father around, the full weight of keeping the place moving fell on his shoulders.
Along with the full weight of making sure his mother was taken care of.
“Well, that's awfully nice of you, but Grady will be home from school later and I'm sure he can take care of everything." His mother’s tone remained calm. Warm and familiar.
So he continued.
"He'll have homework to do and I have a little free time. I figured I might as well come help you out." He kept his words light. Easy. Hoping that was how things would remain.
Some days it worked. Some days it didn't.
His mother's smile faltered, which wasn't a good sign. "I said, Grady would handle it when he got home from school."
"Oh, Darla," Charlene swooped in, ready to do damage control, "I just noticed what time it is. You're about to miss your favorite show."
Charlene reached to take the coffee from his mother's hand then gently grasped her elbow, intending to help her up, but his mother shook her off.
"I don't need to watch a show." Her narrowed gaze swung back to Grady. "You get the hell off my land. This ismyranch. I know you're trying to take it away from me."
Grady tried to hide his disappointment. It never did any good and frequently made things worse. It'd been a few weeks since his mother had an outburst, so he figured they were due. They seemed to be coming less and less often, which was a good thing and a bad thing at the same time. Good, because her anger was unleashed less frequently, bad because it meant her condition was progressing.
"Okay." He held up his hands, hoping she would realize he was surrendering. "I'll go." He tipped his head to Charlene. "If you need me, call me."
"We won't be calling you, thief." His mother spat the words out as he went down the steps to his truck.
They'd learned a long time ago that Charlene was the best at calming her down when she was like this, so all he could do was leave.
There'd been a few months where he hadn't been able to visit her at all because his presence confused her to the point she would lash out the second she saw him, but thankfully that passed. Hopefully it wasn't coming back.
Grady backed out of the driveway, taking one last look at where his mother stood on the porch, glaring at him.
Losing her was a painful process and had been happening for longer than he initially knew. Watching such a warm, caring, loving woman slip farther away would've been difficult by itself, but having to do it while still running the ranch that paid for her care was about to kill him.
He followed the lane skirting the edge of the property, turning off on a path he'd hired a friend to cut for just this reason, finally reaching the backside of the barn housing the horses they used to work the cattle. Larry, the head ranch hand, came out of the barn to meet him and they spent the day working their asses off, tagging new calves and moving the herd to a fresh pasture.
By the end of the day he was filthy and tired and more than ready to get the fuck out of there.
And, for the first time in a long time, he had somewhere to go besides home.
CHAPTER FIVE
EVELYN
"IS HE STILL there?"
Evelyn lifted the blind slat she'd been peeking out all day, even though there was no need. "Of course he’s still there." She let it drop back into place, spinning away from the window as she flopped down onto the couch, keeping her cell pressed to one ear. "He's punishing me for rejecting him."
