Page 29 of The Baby
“Where is Cody? I thought he was coming over early to help withsetup.”
“He was here earlier setting up the buffet tables, but I sent him to into town to pick up somemorewine.”
“We have a case,” Jakeargued.
“You’ve seen Mr. Petty drink wine after you’ve seen him eat turkey. I’m not taking anychances.”
“He should have sent Rich into town for that,” Jakegrumbled.
“Rich is sick,” I said carefully. Not sure why I was being so careful. This was Jake after all. He wasn’t stupid. “That’s what Cody told me. He’s fighting a bad cold and he wasn’t sure he was going to feel up fordinner.”
“That’s whatCodysaid?”
Inodded.
“Shit.”
He was cursing because he suspected what I did. That Rich’s cold was more than likely a story to cover up the fact that he was drinking. I wasn’t sure when it happened exactly. When we started seeing less of him and more of Cody. The less we saw of Rich, the more excuses Cody seemed to have for him. It could be as innocent as a cold or it could besomethingelse.
Rich had always been a heavy drinker, but it had never seemed to impact his work. So it was never something we felt comfortable discussing with him. Rich was an employee, not family. In fact in the short amount of time he’d been here, Jake and I both felt closer to Cody than we ever hadtoRich.
If Rich’s drinking was going to start interfering in his ability to work, then ignoring it or pretending it wasn’t a problem wasn’t a solution any longer. Iknewthat.
“Jake, not today,” I said with my hand on his arm. “We need to confront this. I get that. If for no other reason than Cody can’t keep covering for him. It’s too much work. But it’s Thanksgiving and a big day for us. Let’s hold off until after theholiday.Okay?”
He huffed, but he knew I was right. “Okay. But eventually I’m having a talkwithRich.”
“Understood. Now help me start putting all the silverware out, and then all we have to do is wait for the guests to arrive.” I clapped excitedly because suddenly the idea of having all my friends gathered around a turkey I cooked made me ridiculouslyhappy.
I rested my hand on the bump and thought about how this was what we had wanted. When Jake and I decided to go down the scary path of parenthood. A family. If everything went according to plan, this time next year there would be a baby shoving turkey into his or hermouth.
It was almost surreal and yet it wasn’t. It was like I could almostseeit.
* * *
Cody
ThanksgivingDay
“Shit. Shit, shit, shit.”I stared at the broken-down car about five hundred feet up the side of the road and thought I had absolutely no time for this. I was late getting back to the ranch asitwas.
People were probably already there—heck, they might have started eating without me. Not that I cared about that, but I needed to make sure Rich didn’t decide to put in an appearance and jack everything up. Which would ruin Ellie’s day. Because if he did put in an appearance, I knew he would beplastered.
Plastered, drunk, buzzed, hung over. It’s all he ever was these days. Sobriety was a rarity. But nothing I said to him about it mattered. He was a grown man. That’s all he ever said about his drinking. He was a grown man and would do what he wantedtodo.
Except what he wanted to do was starting to incapacitate him like it never had before. Because he wasn’t younganymore.
Plus, I could see it was starting to not work. The lying. I could see the way Jake and Ellie glanced at each other any time I had to do it. Which was afuckinglot.
Damn the old bastard. Me being here was supposed to help him. He had reached out to me, but it had been a mutual thing. I needed to take a break from the rodeo circuit. My body needed a break too. The fall that had broken Snickers’s leg had broken both of mine as well when she rolled overonme.
They put two castsonme.
They shot her inthehead.
I couldn’t think about that. All I knew was that once I was back on my feet I needed work and a place to land. He said he’d been given the go-ahead to hire more permanent help to keep up with what was a growing cattle ranch. Might as wellbeme.
Rich and I weren’t exactly close. For one, I never called him Dad. I never got the sense he liked it. But we were cool. I didn’t see any problem working with him and without the money from the rodeo, I neededthework.
