Page 32 of Cabins Cows Critics
“You’d be right there,” Perry replies. “Not to be looking for a bright side in death or anything, but this could bring us some relief on feed prices.”
“Won’t the heir just continue things on their farms?” Atlas asks.
“The heir was on the flight, too,” Nial replies.
“Wasn’t there another heir?” Sally-May asks, and I grab my glass of water, drinking it down, my mouth still impossibly dry. Please, no. Don’t take this away from me. I don’t want to leave this, leave them. Surely my cousin married, has a kid by now, they will be heir, and sure, even if they’re too young to take over the board, they can stay in control until they come of age. But what if there isn’t, and they start looking for me? This can’t be it for my time here; this place was supposed to be my forever.
Atlas taps his finger on his lips as he tries to recall the name that’s on repeat in my brain right now, the one I ran from all those years ago.
“It was a young-looking guy, used to be all the girls at the diner would talk about when he was splashed on the cover of all those magazines. What was his name?”
“Wasn’t he named after his father and grandfather?” Perry asks, and Atlas nods.
“Yes, you’re right. They called him Teddy,” he replies with a smile of satisfaction, while my heart is being ripped out.
“He was hot, that’s all that I remember about him, oh, and he was on television for a while there, some dating show, right?” Nial adds, and I grab the jug, refill my glass of water, and drink the whole thing down again, hoping it keeps the flush of my face in check. My whole body feels like it’s on fire, like I’m a struck match or the end of a fuse, burning brighter with each fact they recall until surely one of them brings up an old photo and recognizes me through my short beard and mess of hair that’s nowhere near enough of a shield to hide the truth, I’m sure. My whole world is about to implode.
“He went missing years ago, didn’t he?” Nial asks. “The missing millionaire, that’s what they called him,” he says, and I swear I haven’t taken a breath in minutes.
“Well then, they’ll have to restructure their operations, and if demand for feed goes down, so will the prices,” Perry says, and I nod, trying to remain calm on the outside, despite the tornado of emotions swirling through me.
“We’ll just have to wait and see,” I say, grabbing the tongs and handing them over to Sally-May. “I’m starving, are we good to eat?”
“Yes, sorry, you boys have all had a long day, here,” she says, taking the tongs and loading up Perry’s plate with a steak to kick us off, and thankfully, the growl of our stomachs wanting to be filled pushes the talk of the missing millionaire to the back of everyone’s minds. At least…for now.
***
I check my phone on the way back to my cabin. There is no mention of anyone looking for me just yet. If they start looking, though, I’ll need to run again. I love this place, but I can’t bring that world here. This place is too special. Too important.
“You okay?” Hayden asks, and I jolt. I’d completely forgotten about our plans.
“Umm, yeah.”
“You sure? Because you don’t look so great.”
I turn my hat in circles in my hands, and he steps closer, resting his warm palm over my forearm.
“How about a walk?” he asks. I nod, and he links his arm with mine, and we make our way down the low-lit path deeper into the property. We don’t talk, just walk together under the bright winter sky, cool night air filling our lungs as the sounds of the ranch surround me like a soothing melody. We’ve made it almost all the way round past the other cabins when I break the silence.
“Are you close to your family?” I ask, kicking the crushed quartz pathway, sending rocks skipping ahead of us.
“My parents passed a long time ago, so it’s just me now.”
“It’s just me, too,” I say, and he squeezes my arm a little.
“You seem to have found a family here on the ranch, though.”
“Yeah, actually, I’m probably closer to these guys than I ever was to my family.”
“I get that. My parents passed when I was nineteen, so it was just me for a really long time, and well, it took a while for me to find someone who could look past all my…eccentricities. Then I met Wen.”
“What kind of eccentricities are we talking about?” I ask, and even in the light of the moon, I can see his cheeks flush.
“I’d rather not shatter the almost normal impression you have of me just yet.” He laughs, but there is a nervousness behind it like he’s genuinely worried about me knowing more about him. It’s not like I am exactly forthcoming about my past. But it’s like there is this small part of me that wants to tell him, wants him to know everything about me, my past, the family and future I ran from that might be racing full speed toward me now.The truth. That I am the only surviving Richmont heir. I checked online if my cousin had married or had a kid, but he was single and had been for some time. What even happens to a company, fuck, an empire, if there is no one left to run it? Does it break apart? Do I care?
“Is that okay?” Hayden asks.
“It is. But just so you know, I have a few of those of my own.”
