Truce

Chapter 2

Chapter 2Theo

I was sweeping the front steps of our little office building for the third time, trying to will my headache away. Even the five dogs scattered around the edges of the yard were judging me as they kept an eye on me.

One of the barn cats, Mollie, wandered in from behind the office and plopped her butt in the middle of the hard-packed dirt road that led around what Ruth had called the human buildings to the stables.

Fuck, it still hurt to think about her.

“Put that broom away, you’ll wear it out,” Sierra, the rescue’s current head of operations in Ruth’s absence, told me through the cracked open window. “I’m trying to finish this email, and the constant sweep, sweep is scattering my brain.”

I grunted. Then I stood the broom against the wall and turned to survey the yard.

Everything was in top shape. We’d made sure of it. Hell, last night Cook had come by to make a few easy meals for the fridge and freezer, in case the new guy—his name was Lake, I reminded myself—wasn’t good in the kitchen.

When I’d found Ruth that morning, two months ago, I had changed. For a couple of days, I hadn’t thought of myself at all. My best friend was gone. I had shoes to fill until someone told me what would happen next.

Then Hudson McMillan had come by to do that and…yeah. Now there was this kid who’d visited the farm once and would decide the fate of the whole operation.

A horse whinnied in the distance, and I sighed. The horses. There would always be more to rehabilitate, to try to save. As much as I wanted to say we could save them all, we couldn’t. Some were too far gone either mentally or physically. But most—Ruth had liked to say—we’d be able to save most, given time.

My gaze caught on Hudson’s pretentious black SUV that slowed down on the road, the blinker bright against the shiny black.

The car slowed to a crawl, Hudson likely telling the guy about what he was seeing. It rolled past the pond and then turned to the parking lot next to the office.

“Here we go…” I murmured under my breath.

“Remember what you promised,” Sierra sang through the gap in the window.

I rubbed my jaw, then plastered what I hoped was a neutral expression on my face.

“Stay,” I said quietly, knowing the dogs heard me fine.

The doors to the SUV opened, and Hudson stepped out. He gave me a warning glance, which was a bit offensive. I could behave.

“Who’s Hottie McEyebrows?” a blond young man who had slid out of the back of the SUV asked.

Hudson guffawed. “Boys, this is Theo Fenton, he’s the foreman.”

The blond smirked a little but stayed quiet.

The other guy, around the same age it seemed, walked to me and stuck out his hand. “Hey, I’m Lake. The a-hole is River.”

Then, before I could make any sort of comment, the boys said, as one, “No relation.”

I huffed with amusement despite myself. “Lake and River, huh?”

The tinted windows of the SUV were cracked open, and my eyes caught movement. Scared looking eyes peered at me through the gap in the window, before whomever was still in the car hid again.

I raised a brow at the boys.

“That’s our friend Rey. He’s agoraphobic and this has been hard for him,” River said evenly, but with an edge that challenged me not to say anything negative about their friend.

The door to the office opened and Sierra peered out, a friendly smile on her face. She stepped outside, straightening the tunic she wore with her leggings, both accentuating her generous curves.

“Hello, everyone!” She held out a hand to Lake and River. “I’m Sierra Jenkins, I’m the current office manager s***h staff herder, I guess.”

The boys—I needed to stop thinking of them as that, they were clearly men in their mid-twenties or so—greeted her politely and exchanged a few words.

“What would make it easier for Rey?” Hudson asked.

“It’s all the open space, mostly.” Lake sighed, then glanced around. “Would it be okay to drive the car right to the front of the house?”

The path wasn’t wide enough all the way and some of the lawn would be trampled, but I knew Ruth wouldn’t mind. She’d always had a bleeding heart and would’ve done anything to help a kid like this Rey.

“Absolutely,” I said before Hudson or Sierra had time to reply. “Just get it right to the door. It’s unlocked, Cook came by last night to prepare some meals for you and he stayed overnight.”

“Isn’t he leaving for the yacht job soon?” Hudson asked as he moved back to the SUV.

“Tomorrow, yeah, so he left early this morning.”

The phone in the office rang, and Sierra sighed. “Well, that’s my cue. If you need me, I’ll be in here.” She retreated inside with a jaunty wave.

“She seems perky,” River commented when he and I followed the SUV to the house.

Lake had gone back to the car, probably to keep their friend calm.

“She’s efficient for sure,” I agreed. “So, your friend? Anything specific that helps or…?”

River sighed. “I mean, he’s only a kid. He’s a teenager with some serious trauma he hasn’t talked to us about. Just…treat him like one of your horses?” Then he winced. “You know what I mean.”

“Careful and calm.” I nodded. “Got it.”

There was probably a lot more to the story than that, but we were at the front door, and I went to open it. Then I backed away to the front of the SUV, so that the kid wouldn’t be spooked by me. I knew I could appear scary to some people. Ruth had often called me tall, dark, and intimidating, and then playfully she’d suggested that I should smile more.

The teen who slid out of the car was maybe five foot seven, if that. He was skinny and nervous looking, gaze flicking everywhere but the wide-open space on the other side of the SUV.

“Just go inside,” Hudson said gently. “It’s okay. I’ll move the car and come back.”

Rey nodded, then took River’s hand, and let himself be pulled to the safety of the old house.

Lake gestured at the back of the vehicle. “Can you help me with these?”

When I frowned, my brain blipping at what he meant, Lake took it the wrong way.

“I know you’re the foreman here, but I didn’t think asking you to lift some luggage would be that beneath you.” Lake snorted and opened the back door, then lifted down a couple of heavy-looking suitcases and an assortment of other bags, while I tried to catch up mentally.

“Yeah, Theo. Why don’t you help your boss out?” Hudson taunted, smirking.

I shot him a finger. “f**k off. Move this monstrosity before someone thinks it’s fine to park here.” Nobody would and we both knew that, but I got to snark at my friend.

Lake glanced at us, then shook his head and murmured something that sounded a lot like “straight men.”

Right, Lake and River both were quite clearly, if not gay, at least openly queer. It was hard to say anything about Rey, but then he was a kid so what did it matter. Not that anyone’s sexuality mattered to me anyways. I’d never gotten the hookup culture and while I’d tried to get it at Ruth’s insistence that I should, I hadn’t found anyone who would really make it all worthwhile, regardless of their equipment or self-expression.

Hudson, meanwhile, was straight. At least that’s what Ruth and I had always thought. He’d been married until about a year ago and hadn’t started dating yet as far as I could tell.

Sierra had had a crush on Hudson for years, but she never took it too seriously. Besides, she leaned more towards women and said that Hudson’s Daddy energy wasn’t for her, whatever that meant.

I grabbed the two closest pieces of luggage and stomped my feet on the door mat to get some of the dirt and dust off. Then I stepped inside, hoping that everything would go okay.

Hudson hadn’t told me what Lake wanted to do with the place, or any of the details other than for the time being, I had my job and home.

I knew whatever it was Hudson had read in Ruth’s will, he would’ve told it to Lake first. For one, Lake was actual blood family and the primary inheritor. But for two, despite Ruth having been my best friend, I was an employee.

Ruth had told me years ago that she wanted to leave her nephew the book rights. That seemed reasonable. Hudson, once he’d come back from New York from meeting with Lake, had actually told me that Lake worked at a bookstore but had had no idea who his aunt had been.

I put the luggage on the floor in the hall and went back to pick up more pieces. Lake was struggling with two of the largest ones, but he glared at me when he saw me looking, so I picked up the rest instead of trying to help him with his burden.

One of Lake’s suitcases had a squeaky wheel, and it made my headache worse. I grimaced.

When Lake noticed and raised a brow, I rumbled out, “That’s a bit loud.” And nodded at the offending piece of luggage.

Lake glanced at the thing, and his features darkened with anger. “Well, we’re all a bit loud, so you better get used to it.” Then he huffed and marched toward where they could hear his friends talking in the kitchen.

For a moment, I didn’t get it. Then I realized the other suitcase, the non-squeaky one, was violently pink. With all sorts of stickers on it, including unicorns and rainbows and pride flags.

I groaned. “For f**k’s sake…”

Hudson came back just as I had made sure nobody could trip on the numerous bags.

“All right, let’s get this show on the road,” Hudson said brightly, clutching his pretentious as f**k briefcase.

I grunted at the back of Hudson’s head as I followed my friend to the kitchen. Things were changing, fast, and there was no reason to be cheery about it.

* * * *

Twenty minutes later, Hudson, Lake, and I sat around one of the two little four person tables Ruth had loved. She’d never wanted a bigger dining table, insisting they didn’t fit the kitchen or the space allocated for such things. I missed her so much.

We had coffee, and Lake had sent River and Rey upstairs so Rey could pick himself a safe space out of the three guest rooms that were available. One of them was Cook’s, had been for years now, and I had told them so.

I sighed again. “So, what’s the situation?” I asked Hudson, at the last minute remembering it was probably mostly for Lake to decide. “Do I still have a job?”

“Wait, you haven’t told him anything?” Lake frowned at Hudson.

“He’s my friend, but you’re my primary client now, Lake.”

“Ah, okay.” Lake sipped his coffee, glance-glared at me, and said, “Well, this should be interesting.”

That didn’t sound ominous at all. I leveled a look at Hudson. “Spit it out.”

“Ruth’s will leaves all the book stuff to Lake—”

“Yeah, and I already knew that because she asked me for my thoughts on that when she was making sure her affairs were in order after she turned fifty.”

“Right, but there’s the rescue.” Hudson slid a few papers over the table to me. “Her wishes are as follows: If Lake decides to keep the rescue, then you have the cabin and your job for the rest of your life, if that is what you choose.”

I frowned. “What?”

“But if Lake decides to sell the farm, then two thirds of whatever it sells for will be yours, and Lake takes the last third.”

My head felt a bit swimmy, and I put my mug on the table. “I’m sorry, what?”

“If I sell, you get most of the money from the sale. If I don’t sell, you keep your job like you have thus far. It’s not really that complicated,” Lake snarked.

“There’s a caveat, though. Lake is not allowed to sell it yet, even if he wanted to.” Hudson glanced at me and then at Lake and back. “He needs to live here for three months, run the place with you and Sierra and whomever ends up helping. He can only decide after three months, Theo.”

I ran a palm over my face and ended up covering my mouth as I tried to understand. Ruth had…she’d done this so Lake couldn’t make rash decisions. She’d wanted him to see her passion, her life’s work.

“She wanted you to understand this place,” I said, the words coming out gruffly. “Before you sold it.”

“If I sell it. I think that’s what she wanted the most; for it to stay in the family. So she made it so that I at least have to think about it properly.” Lake sighed and looked out through the closest window. “My first instinct is to sell it, of course. What do I know about all of this.”

The dread that squeezed my heart at the words made me grind out the words, “Of course it is.”

Lake’s gaze snapped into mine, filled with fire. “I’m honoring her wishes. Even though I didn’t know her or if I didn’t want to, I have to. She didn’t leave me a choice.”

The dogs started to bark outside. The tone was so foreign, my instincts went on overdrive, and I was out of my chair and the door before I could register making the decision to move.