Page 40 of Rough
“They sold it toyou!” Remy bites out.
Ignoring the hurt from his implication that I’m not family, I stare at Wilder to give him more of an answer. “Your uncle stopped workin’, stopped doin’ what he should’ve been doin’. He fought me constantly. Every day he’d ignore what I told him needed to get done, and he’d do his own thing. Ihadsome boys helpin’ me out when they could and when I’d task them, Murph would go behind my back and tell ‘em to do somethin’ else. He undermined me at every opportunity and thought I was just asilly girl tryin’ to do grownupmanthings. Once Donny passed, he didn’t show up again and filled your heads with nonsense. You think I should’ve kept him around?”
“He said—” I cut off Wilder.
“I know what he said. I was there when ya’ll confronted me. Helied.”
A snarl comes from deep inside Remy’s chest. “Oh yeah? What’d he lie about?”
“Biggest lie,” I snap out, pointing at him. “He told you I stole the farm from you.”
“You fuckin’ did!It’s your farm, ain’t it?” I force myself not to wince when he raises his voice, fury written all over his face. Back to square one, I suppose.
“No. I didn’t. Is it my farm right now? Yeah, it sure as fuck is. Did you even take a minute to read the purchase agreement?Talk with your momma about it?”
“How do you own a farm, but not own a farm?” Clyde asks, his voice more curious than anything.
Without taking my eyes from Remy, I answer him but direct it to Remy. “Your daddy knew that ya’ll were off in the world tryin’ to figure out how to be a big-time ranchers. Heknewthat none of you were ready to come home, but he wanted to make sure that the farm was taken care of until you decided to come back. He didn’t want you to feel obligated until you were ready. If he sold the farm to anyone else,anyoneelse, it’d be gone.”
“How’s it not gone now?” Remy hisses out, still glaring at me.
“Because,” I grit out. “I agreed to buy the farm, for averylow price I might add, and run it for up to ten years. At that point, if you were ready to come home, you’d only have to buy it back for what I paid for it. If you didn’t want to, at that point, it stays mine. But I had to buy you out for the full value. If I decided to sell at any point down the road after those ten years,youget first dibs.”
“I don’t…” Remy trails off, looking at both Clyde and Wilder, confused and probably too drunk to understand what I’m saying. “I don’t understand.”
With a loud sigh, I grab the bottle from Wilder and hand it to Rem. “I’m only holdin’ the farm for you, you jackass.”
“What’d you buy it for?” Wilder asks, and that question makes me laugh.
Shaking my head, I drop my forehead to my knees. “Five thousand dollars. It’s all I had in savings, but it was enough to make the lawyers happy.”
“Why’d you merge the farms?” Remy isn’t pissed any longer, but still trying to get all his answers, which he could have gotten from his momma if he’d take a moment and think.
Without lifting my head, I blow out a slow breath before answering. “When your daddy got sick, he needed help. Murph couldn’t handle everything on his own, and when Pap died, I was strugglin’, too. We came up with the idea that if we combined, Murph, me, and any other help we had would be able to stay on top of the work. It made sense. Especially considering we had planned to merge eventually. Your daddy knew that ‘cuz it’s what we all talked about for years before ya’ll took off.”
Finally, I look up at Remy, his jaw working as he finally absorbs what I’m telling him. “And the solar panels?”
“The mayor was lookin’ for a way to bring affordable energy to the town, and a few extra jobs. Plus, he knew your dad and knew what your parents were facin’. I had shit fallin’ apart on the farm, your parents were strugglin’ with your daddy’s medical bills. The USDA federal grant not only required little to no work on our part, but that grant washugefor the repairsandhelpin’ them out to cover costs. The panels are mostly on your land, but part of it is on mine. It was a field we weren’t usin’ for the cattle, so we figured, why the hell not? I only repaired my barn. The rest went to your parents. Now, your momma doesn’t payany electricity bills plus gets paid every month when the town buys back the excess energy produced. Got a couple of guys that come out every day to make sure everythin’ is in workin’ order. Youreallywanna bitch about your momma gettin’ a financial break?”
“Jesus,” Clyde murmurs.
Wilder is just staring at me like he’s never seen me before, and Remy just looks sad.
Standing up, I take one more swig from the bottle and hand it to him. “Look. We did the best we could with a shit situation, so you could still be the man you wanted to be, travelin’ the country and doin’ everythin’ you wanted. It was all foryou, Remington.” My parting shot goes without response, and I sigh. “I’m gonna head back home. You boys ought to sober up before ya’ll decide to drive anywhere. I’ll see ya Saturday mornin’.”
I didn’t get an apology for the way they came at me, but at least I said what I needed to say. Hopefully we can all move forward now.
Chapter Sixteen
Flashback
~ 12 years ago ~ Betsy
The loud crack of a rock hitting my bedroom window has me jerking up from where I’m lying on my bed. I wasn’t asleep, still fighting off my anger from the way my friends were telling me I wasn’t going to get to farm with them just because I was a stinking girl.
I hope they trip in a gofer hole.
And break their ankles.
