Dahn was leaning on the car when I arrived, covered in sweat—dear Lord, would this humidity and ragweed ever let up—and feeling a little lightheaded from all the caffeine I’d ingested.

  “You’re late,” the lad said with a chilly glance at me. “You look funny. Were you off kissing the sheriff again?”

  “I was at Ollie’s, yes. We had lunch together. I look funny because I drank a monster-sized can of something called Jolt Your Sox Off or something and now feel like I could outrun Willy the goat buck.” That made him smile, just for a second, but I saw it. “Maybe we should go back to the ranch and have goat races?”

  “Nah, it’s too hot.”

  “True.” I belched for so long I thought I might pass out. That my son found hilarious. “Wow, that was a ten for sure. Let’s go home then and not race goats.”

  We bundled ourselves into the car and sat quietly for a moment, waiting for the air conditioning to get itself in gear and blow cold. Once it did, we both sighed.

  “Did you have a good livestock handling class?” I asked, backing out and heading through Bastian Grange at a slow twenty-five miles per hour.

  “Yeah, I think I’ll do good at the fair. Mr. Williams, the head of the junior livestock show, said they would be pushing the fair back two weeks to let the fields dry out. So that gives me more time to get my goat in shape. We need to call the vet to come out and give her an exam, then we need to shampoo and clip her. Do you think Uncle Baker can help?”

  “Maybe? I don’t know if clipping cows and clipping goats are the same or not. Do any of your friends know?”

  He shook his head. “They all show cattle or pigs. Phil does goats though…”

  “Then you should ask Phil.” I slowed to stop at the only red light on Main Street. I shot my boy a look as we waited for the green. “Did you apologize to him like I asked you to?”

  “Yeah, he said it was cool. He’s kind of okay, I guess.” He seemed unwilling to discuss it further, so I let it go. About five miles out of town, he looked at me. “Are you going to marry Sheriff Ahoka?”

  I nearly choked on my spit. That was not a question I’d been prepared for. “No, no, we’re not anywhere near marriage yet. That takes time. Rushing into marrying someone is pretty foolish.”

  “So like Dad marrying his twink is foolish,” he stated factually.

  Where he had heard the term twink I didn’t know, but if I had to guess, it was from me. I did tend to popoff about Topher being a twink. So yeah, I’ll take the hit for that one.

  “You should call him Topher, and yeah, I think jumping from one marriage into another is foolish. They’ve been together for close to a year now though, so maybe that’s long enough? I don’t know, buddy, romance and love are complicated.”

  He nodded sagely as if his ten-year-old life had granted him knowledge of such adult things. “But I do not want you to worry about that. Ollie and I are just getting to know each other. We’re going to go on some dates, and I will be spending time with him, but I’m not planning on anything serious yet. When I do, I will talk to you about it since that would impact you as well as Ollie and me. Does that make you feel less worried?”

  “Yeah, sort of,” he confessed as acres and acres of corn whipped past his window. “I’m mad at Dad.”

  I suspected as much. “I know, and it’s fine to have that emotion. I’m not happy with him either, but we’ll work through it. Do you want to call him tonight and talk to him?” He shook his head. “Okay, well, how about we call Grannie Helen and talk to her?”

  His expression lifted. “Cool, yeah, I have so much to tell her about the goats and fair, oh, and school starts the week after the fair, so I need stuff.”

  “Fine, yeah, we’ll go shopping. I hear there’s a mall about an hour from here. Why don’t we make a day of it, say in the middle of the week? Just you and me?”

  “Can I get new sneakers and a tablet?”

  “We’ll see.” The new shoes were a for sure as his were busting out the seams. The tablet was an iffy item. I had done my best to keep him away from social media as much as possible by owning one laptop, mine, that had strict parental controls for him when he was logged in. In the city, they were far ahead of the technology and were relying more and more on digital assignments. Out here, they’d just started to expect children to have a device of their own. Since a cell phone was a big nope yet, a tablet with controls was a possibility. This way, he could do his own research and any assignments that may come in, especially in the winter when the weather made attending school in person impossible and not be spilling soda all over my tech.

  “And some new jeans. And a jacket and boots. The guys say they get lots of snow.”

  I nodded along, happy as a lark in spring to have my boy chattering away with me once more while enjoying the afterglow of time spent with Ollie. I liked that man a lot. A whole lot. And while marriage was a distant and blurry thing I was not ready to think about, a deeper relationship with my sexy lawman was something I could easily envision.

  The rest of that day was an easy one, thank goodness. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits at the ranch. Granny had made meatloaf, and Bella had finally granted poor Linc one of her fey smiles over dinner, which made him glow like a firefly. That night, around ten, as Dahn snoozed in his bed and I lay in mine reading over some paperwork my lawyer in California had forwarded to me, a text rolled in. I saw it was from Ollie, so I quickly read it.

  I am SO damn sorry for crashing on you. That was so rude. Please forgive me. ~O

  Nothing to be sorry about. You were exhausted. ~D

  Still, shit, that was uncalled for. I just woke up. Guess I was more tired than I thought. ~O

  Bone-weary was more the term. Don’t worry over it. Did you see my note? ~D

  I did. It was very sweet. You’re a good man, Dodge. ~O

  Right back at you. I’m not going to be able to do lunch Wed. Taking Dahn shopping for school supplies. ~D

  That’s fine. Disappointing but fine. We still on for Friday? ~O

  I wouldn’t miss it. ~D

  Excellent. I’ll let you go. I’m very much infatuated with you, just so you know. Pleasant dreams. ~O

  I was rather sure my dreams would be beyond pleasant. With him on my mind, they’d be incredible.

  9

  Chapter Nine

  The following day, after the morning chores were completed and Granny had taken a few pot shots at the ever-moving cans, I slipped away from the chaos of the house to sit out behind the boutique where the meditation tree grew and dialed my mother. The bookkeeping was done already, and I’d helped with cleaning up after breakfast. I’d even pretended to be a goat show judge with Dahn as the tractor rumbled around the cow lot, cleaning up wet, poopy hay. I’d done all that I could do, so it was now or never. Foolish of me to be so wary of calling my own mother. She and my aunt Josephine—twins with mops of red hair—had raised me quite well after Cash had split to go hook up with Ford’s mother. That was after he had set up house with Linc’s mom and had grown bored of Chicago. No wonder I was so sickened with how Chris was behaving.

  The phone rang a few times before my mother answered, her voice tentative.

  “Hi, Mom.”

  “Dodge?” she asked as the waves in Oceanside could be heard rolling in.

  “Yeah, Mom, it’s me.”

  A long, painful, and pointed silence followed. “I thought it was Dahn calling.”

  “No, it’s me.” I shifted around on the old park bench that someone—Linc or Bella—had dug out of one of the barns to set up here. The setting was quite serene. Green leaves overhead, the tinkle of water from an underground spring flowing out the open window of the boutique. Birds, bees, blue skies, fresh air, the lowing of the cows and the whinnies of bored horses. I could see now why Linc came here to calm his soul. “I’ve been meaning to call for a long time, but…”

  I heard Bella in her boutique speaking to a customer. A few were dribbling in regularly now, most with their own boxes, but sales were sales, Bella liked to say.

  “It’s okay,” Mom said, as mothers are known to do.

  “No, Mom, no, it’s not.” I blew out a long breath. “You were right about him. About everything. I should have listened to you, but I was sure I was just so much smarter than you when it came to him. I was smarter than all my friends who were trying to warn me to prepare myself for heartbreak. I didn’t want to face the fact that someone else in my life, someone important, would leave me behind like a busted shoelace, but he did, and now I see the same pattern taking place with him and Dahn and…” I swiped my eyes. “I don’t want my son to live with the feeling of not being good enough for the people in his life.”

  “Oh, Dodge, honey. Let me get inside.” I heard the screen door open on the beachside home she shared with her twin, Aunt Joey, as she liked to be called. Both were single women, Mom having been dumped by the dickhead buried on Bastian land, and Aunt Joey never having been married. They’d always been side-by-side from the womb onward. “Okay, so I’m in now. The wind is bad today.”

  I took that small break to get myself under control. I’d not been this weepy since Chris had told me he wanted a divorce because I was boring. Probably the same reason my father had cut out, I’d thought, until I came to know my siblings. Seemed some men were just dicks.

  “Aunt Joey there?” I asked to try to deflect from my ramble.

  “She’s out with the ocean trash pickup squad. So, honey, I am so sorry that I got into your face like that, but someone had to tell you the truth, and if not your mother, then who?”

  “No, hey, no, I see that now. I think I saw it then but was too lost and pained to admit that what you were saying and what my friends were hinting at was true.” I let my head fall back to rest on the side of the boutique. My hat tipped, so I tugged it off and placed it on my knee. Up by the old gutter was a bird’s nest. Abandoned now that it was nearly September. The little ones had surely fledged, and their parents moved on with life. “He’s giving me sole custody of Dahn, Mom. He’s grown bored of being a father and wants to go play football in Spain while his new man breeds salamanders.”

  “Twinky Topher?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay, just wanted to check since that fucker changes life partners like most people change their socks.”

  I snorted so hard it rattled my sinuses. “Mom, you calling him a fucker is just so amazing.”

  “Well, he is, and so was Cash. Is Dahn okay?”

  “Meh, I think he’s acting out a bit, but that’s to be expected. I’ve uprooted his life to move out here, and now his other father is passing him over like a used baton and skipping off to Spain to return to playing football. It’s a lot for a kid to digest. Hell, it’s a lot for me.”

  “Should a man his age even be on the playing field?”

  “He seems to think so.” I lowered my sight from the bird’s nest to the green pastures filled with horses nipping at the grass. They’d not been ridden for days due to the flooding and were feeling their oats as one chased the other, hooves kicking, the sun warming their pelts.

  “Sounds like a midlife crisis to me. And salamanders?”

  I chuckled. “I know. Hey, whatever Topher wants to do, I say go for it. I hope he becomes the king of the salamander market. Maybe they’ll open up a salamander warehouse in Barcelona and call it Topher’s Twinky Salamander Emporium.”

  She giggled softly. “It’s so nice to hear your voice. I missed talking with you, honey.”

  “I’ve missed you too, Mom. I’m sorry I was such an ass.”

  “Water under the bridge. Now, tell me about my grandson! He talks about goats a lot when we chat.”

  And so I filled her in on everything and then some. I invited her and my aunt Joey out to see Dahn show his goats at the fair. She accepted on the spot. It wasn’t until after we hung up—so she could book some flights—that I realized I’d opened up a home that wasn’t mine to my mother and aunt. Sure, legally it was a quarter mine, but everyone who resided in the Sooner State knew that house was Granny’s.

  I heard the door of the boutique closing and assumed it was Bella’s customer, so I rose and started making my way to the house. I’d tell Granny about my mother and aunt and then try to find them a hotel nearby. Bella, dressed in a shimmery top and dark plum pants, ran to me, threw her arms around me, and kissed me on the cheek.

  “I’m so happy you made up with your mother,” she whispered and released me to run back inside her little shop. It felt odd that she had overheard, but I was also touched. Striding across the still spongy grass, I found Granny on the porch, rocking away, her now coral hair—she and Bella were having too much fun with the hair dyes—with a shawl around her shoulders.

  “I think I may have overstepped my bounds,” I said as I placed one booted foot on the top step and leaned in after removing my hat. She sipped from a cup of coffee and lowered it. “I may have invited my mother and aunt out for fair week. I’ll find them a motel close to town. I’m not sure what I was thinking. I was just so happy to be speaking to her…”

  “Don’t be silly, we have lots of room. You could give her the front parlor and go stay with Ollie while they’re here. Take Dahn with you. Him and Ollie should get to know each other better now you’re dating.”

  My mouth fell open. This woman was miles ahead of all of us younger people. “We’re not officially dating,” I managed to say. It was a very weak comeback.

  “Oh, are you two not going to the casino for a fancy dinner, some gambling, and a show this Friday, good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise again?” she asked so innocently, it was a wonder a halo didn’t pop to brilliant existence over her pink-orange hair.

  “We are yes, but—”

  “Then that’s a date, and you’re dating. For the life of me, I don’t know why you boys are always so resistant to admitting you’ve grown a fancy for someone. So, now that that’s settled, we can talk about what they like to eat. Oh! There’s Aiden coming to give the goat her pre-show exam. Best call Ford out of the house so the vet can check him out while he’s checking out that goat.” She tittered as she waved at Aiden Hennessee pulling up to the front of the house. “Aiden, come on up and have some coffee and crumb cake. Just took it out of the oven a bit ago!”

  She looked at me. “Right. Off to fetch coffee and crumb cake.”

  “You’re a good man, Dodge. Grab me a slice too, won’t you?”

  As if I could ever deny her a thing.

  ***

  The next few days sped by or dragged depending on what I was doing.

  The shopping trip with Dahn went far too fast. I’d spent the day with the boy I used to know, then, as expected, when I picked him up at the rec center on Thursday, he was once more snippy and insolent. To the point that I had to scold him about his tone with his uncle Baker. Baker, of course, waved off the snide comment about his dumb face, but I was furious. And sent him to bed that night with no TV, movies, or snacks. Needless to say, this morning, I got icy looks and the cold shoulder all the way to the rec center.

  “So this is your last class before the fair in a week,” I said as he struggled with his seat belt. “Mind if I stay and watch?”

  Ollie was taking the early shift today and had been called out for a raccoon holding up traffic out on Big Bend Road. We texted frequently now. Not always about important things either. For example, I had gotten a photo of said raccoon seated in the middle of a dirt road glutting himself on some corn that had fallen out of the back of a feed truck. He looked quite round and just as happy to sit there in the road forever. Ollie had to take a stick and poke the coon numerous times before it waddled off to the median and tumbled ass over ringed-tail into a diversion ditch. I enjoyed every message he sent my way. It was nice. It felt as if we were truly a couple.

  “Just go have lunch with the sheriff. That’s all you care about anyway!” he snapped and flung himself out of my SUV to hit the ground running. The pack, as I now called his friends, ran up to him, clapping him on the back, and as a whole, they tumbled into the rec center. I let my brow drop to the steering wheel. Man, it would be so nice to have someone to vent to about this behavior. It was actually worrisome, but no one at home had kids, nor did Ollie, and my ex was too concerned with packing up his house and his twink and jetting to Spain. Jesus wept. I took a moment to shake off the wellspring of emotions and went inside to watch.

  There were several parents there, all seated in folding chairs, sipping coffee from a table filled with plates of crispy rice treats, cookies, and little plastic bottles of fruit punch as well as a tall coffee urn with creamers and sugar packets.

  Not knowing any of them, I grabbed a cup, sweetened it, and sat down next to a woman in jeans with a green tee. She smiled at me. I smiled back.

  “Is that your son?” She pointed right at Dahn, who was standing in a line next to Phil. The other wild ones, the pack, were nowhere to be seen. Where they’d gone, I had no clue.

  “Yes, that’s my boy. I’m Dodge Bastian.” We shook hands. She thumbed a strand of brown hair from her face.

  “Oh, I know who you are. You’re Baker’s brother and the sheriff’s new boyfriend. My name is Lily Hannah. Well, Lily Kanati now. I went to school with Baker. Had a crush on him in seventh grade, but don’t ever tell him that!”