She put her hands on her hips and glared at me. “Reed Warner, I’m flat out ashamed of you right now. You don’t know that boy from Adam, and you’ve already judged him and found him lacking, based on what? Something that nasty old coot told you. I expect better of you, young man.”
Margo hadn’t looked at me that way since I was a kid—disappointment on her face and fire in her eyes. She’d always been tough. She was my mother’s best friend, and when my mom died when I was fifteen, she’d taken over raising me. Years later, when cancer had taken her husband, I brought her here. She was a good woman, and I hated that I’d let her down with my bad attitude. “You’re right. I don’t know him at all. I’ll try to be better.”
She smiled at me. “I know you will, precious. You’re a good man. This whole thing has been an unexpected mess, but you have to remember, things work out the way they’re supposed to. Just have a little faith.”
3
Ripley
I turned down the dirt road that led to the ranch, and my mind whirled. I had this bizarre mix of feelings like foreboding and familiarity all jumbled together; an amazing sense of rightness and home wrapped up in this extreme feeling of dread and wrongness. It was confusing and stressful, and I really wanted to just turn my Jeep around and go back to the city where I belonged. Where people wouldn’t hate me for simply being me.
I’d spent the first day after getting the letter convincing myself that I really did have to come here, and the second contemplating what to do about it. As a teenager, I'd done everything in my power to look straight, to act straight; hell, to be straight. I considered going to the store and buying what I needed to fit in. I knew how, but the thought of spending a year pretending to be someone else, someone not me, made me ill. Even after my father disowned me, I’d fought long and hard against his voice in my head telling me who I should be. I’d be damned if—dead or not—I’d let him push me back into that place. So instead, I pulled myself together and went and bought a new vehicle, because there was no way in hell my cute little car could survive a year on a ranch. And that was how I found myself, unapologetically me, about to turn into the gate of the Bluebird Ranch, a place I never expected to set foot on again, and fuck anyone who didn’t like it.
“Here we are, Jinji,” I said to my sweet girl sitting in the seat next to me. “It won’t be too bad, I promise.”
She gave a sharp bark and cocked her head to the side.
“Okay, you got me, I’m lying. It’s going to be horrible. But, precious, if I’m going to keep you in the style to which you’ve become accustomed, this is what we have to do.”
Pulling up in front of the main house, I looked around this place that used to be my home. It seemed completely different, yet exactly the same. The house anyway. It looked like it did years ago before my mother died. Flowers had been planted in beautiful beds in the front, and instead of the rickety old chairs that used to be on the porch, rocking chairs with colorful cushions sat waiting for someone to take a seat in the shade and enjoy a glass of iced tea. The house had a warm welcoming appearance it hadn’t had since I was a young boy, but other than that, it looked the same. The rest of the property was different, though. The barn had been remodeled, so it looked more like a stable than an equipment barn. Where the wooden fence had been, a metal corral stood, and in the fenced area between the barn and the road, numerous horses grazed. There'd been a few horses used to herd the cattle when I lived here, but that was it.
I needed to get out of the Jeep and go in the house, but I wasn’t ready yet. Years of wonderful loving memories tainted by my father’s hatefulness waited for me in there. I grabbed my phone and called Frankie to tell him I’d made it. The phone rang and rang until I thought he wasn’t going to answer, but finally I heard his familiar voice on the line.
“Hey, babe, you make it okay?”
I knew it was my imagination, but I swear he even sounded far away. I’d been eighteen when I’d arrived in the city, green and so stupid. I had no idea what to do. I’d looked online and found an apartment. At first, they’d wanted a parent to sign the lease with me because I had no credit history, no nothing, but when I’d offered to pay the first year’s rent upfront, they let me move in. The first person I met was Frankie. He was my neighbor, and he was flamboyant, loud, and often a little bitchy. It took no time at all for him to become the very best friend I’d ever had. He showed me the ropes. He didn’t push me to be like him, instead he encouraged me to find my own personality and style. The one I’d been hiding.
“Yeah, I’m here. I was just thinking about the day I left here,” I said.
“And met me, you lucky bitch.”
I laughed and smiled my first real smile all day. “I am lucky. You know that I know that, right? I was so young and naïve. It would’ve been so easy for someone to take advantage of me, but instead I found you.”
“Honey, we’re both lucky. Just because I’d been around the block a few more times than you didn’t mean I didn’t need someone to have my back, too. I can’t believe you’re going to be gone for a whole year. Who am I supposed to whine to about my shitty love life?”
“That’s what phones are for, and I can be there in a few hours. I only drove here because I didn’t want to be without a car and my stuff, but I can be in Dallas in a few hours if I fly, so if you need me, I’ll be there.”
“I just miss you already. Although, I am loving the apartment. Why on earth didn’t I move in ages ago?”
“Because we make terrible roommates, remember? I love you too much to hate you because you’re a slob.”
“Whatever,” he said with a sigh. “So if you’re there, why are you talking to me? Rip, are you still sitting in that monstrosity you bought?”
I was about to tell him not to call Cindy Lou a monstrosity—and yes, I’d named my Jeep— when the most beautiful man I’d ever seen came strolling out the front door. He stopped on the porch looking my direction. I wasn’t sure if the head shake and eye roll were because I wasn’t getting out or because of Cindy Lou, but either way, fuck him. I would get out when I was damn good and ready.
“Rip, you still there?” Frankie asked.
“Oh, yeah. Remember how I told you the real-life cowboys didn’t look like the ones that stripped at the club?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, apparently things have changed a bit since I left.”
4
Reed
I was nervous about Randy’s arrival. No, not Randy, Ripley. Randall had always referred to him as Randy, but apparently, he had been going by Ripley for years now. I needed to make that mental adjustment because the last thing I needed to do was start off with calling him by the wrong name. I’d talked to Bart about him. He was the only person left on the ranch who had known him, and he assured me everything would be fine. He said he had been a good boy who did the best he could, whatever that meant. He also said the boy reminded him of his mother much more than his father. So at least there was that, because heaven knows Randall Ellis hadn’t been an easy man to deal with.